Knight Miscellany series by Gaelen Foley

Knights of Miscellany follows the loves of Knight family the children of the Duchess of Hawkscliffe also known as the Hawkscliffe Harlot…Georgiana the Duchess of Hawkscliffe is known for her infidelities…and this series follows the lives of her two legitimate children and four bastards…each of which is fighting a battle with themselves within their souls….

The series starts with….

The Duke that follows the life of the Duchess’s only legitimate son… the mysterious and coolly controlled head of the clan, Robert, the Duke of Hawkscliffe…

Find the review at The Romance Reader: The duke by Gaelan Foley

Next come the twins, the sons of the Duchess and the marquess of Carmarthen…the marquess who was may be the duchess’ true love and who loved the duchess so much that he never himself married…The next two books follow his sons…the twins…

Lord of Fire – follows the sly and sexy spy twin Lucien…
 Review at The Romance Reader: Lord of fire by Gaelan Foley

Lord of ice – follows the deadly and highly decorated war hero twin Damien…
 Review at  The Romance Reader: Lord of ice by Gaelen Foley

Lady of desire – follows the duchess second legitimate child and only daughter… The Knight brothers’ spunky sister Jacinda Knight who brings another bad boy into the family
 Review at The Romance Reader: Lady of desire by Gaelen Foley



Then follows Devil takes a bride where Jacinda’s best friend, lady’s companion, and honorary Knight “sister” Lizzie a bookish bluestocking is hotly pursued by a decadent, aristocratic adventurer.

 Review at The Romance Reader: Devil takes a bride by Gaelen Foley



The rakehell Alec…the son of the Duchess and a theater actor…lives on the edge in One night of sin.

Review at -The Romance Reader: One night of sin by Gaelen Foley

In His wicked kiss… wild Jack, the son of the duchess and an Irish prize fighter…the black sheep of the family, is running guns for South America freedom fighters..
Review at - The Romance Reader: His wicked kiss by Gaelen Foley

Reading the Knight series was such a wonderful experience…I liked Lucien’s story (Lord of Fire) best of all though I like Jack the best of all the knight brothers…out of the heroines I liked Alice (Lucien’s wife) and Lizzie the best.

His wicked kiss by Gaelen Foley

Dr. Victor Farraday, botantist, scientist, and a physician once upon a time resides in the jungle of the Amazon in self exile…banishing himself from civilization and imposing the same punishment on his daughter…Eden Farraday.

Eden Farraday stays in the jungles of Amazon with her grief stricken absent minded Papa, a small contingent of locals, and Connor their hunter and protector. In the middle of the Amazon jungles she dreams of London and the sparkle of society and balls and handsome town dandies that will court her and dance with her. And of all her dreams…she dreams the most of finding love…she was not made for the jungle…She was made for love…

So when Victor tells her that they're moving deeper into the jungles, toward certain death, Eden is desperate to make an escape…An escape that comes walking or rather sailing to her as Jack Knight…

Jack, pirate, privateer, terror of the West Indies…and the black sheep of the Knight family…is sailing down the river with a small crew to meet up with his ship, the Winds of Fortune, off the coast out of the Spaniards reach…when he spots a beguiling and gorgeous creature with red flaming hair sitting up in the trees snipping orchids. A girl with courage and spunk…sort of like his perfect other half…but when he realizes she wants him to take her to London…he leaves her behind and goes on….

However determined as Eden is she stows away on Jack’s ship and thus a romance begins…a romance where both the hero and heroine treat each other with so much respect and love …where Eden understands how difficult life’s been for Jack being the bastard of an Irish prize fighter…having a mother who was ashamed of him and a father who never wanted him…Jack who had to bear the ire, the insults of society for what he was…for no mistake of his own…a society that denied him even a little self-respect…Jack who was unwanted unloved…Jack who shut civilization out of him…Jack who thought the only way to show them all was to do what they with all their blue blood and legitimacy and stupid airs and even money couldn’t do…Jack who had to try twice as hard to become who he was..and yet he was so lonely…and Eden…who was ‘sheltered’ from civilization, Eden who all her life has just wanted someone of her own to love…someone who needed her…needed to be loved by her…who loved her...how could make her feel that after all her exile she had finally found her world…Someone like Jack ….A marriage based on equal terms equal needs and equal respect and admiration….

A story that was turning out to be one of my very favorites….and then….disaster stuck both literally and figuratively…Jack wants to leave Eden in Ireland and go finish his business in London and South America…however Eden is angry that Jack is being as unreasonable as her father and is keeping her caged and away from civilization, She fails to see Jack’s insecurity…Jack’s fear that society would treat her as they had treated him…she would be insulted because of him…She would be rejected and She would be hurt all because of him…He didn’t want to see her hurt…this is where I dislike what Eden becomes…whiny, unreasonable, stubborn, and always complaining….and the story just goes down the drain when they go to London….I hated the tantrum that Eden threw kicking Jack out of her bed…She really went unreasonably overboard and sort of ruined the image that she had built in my mind in the first half of the book.

Well for Jack…hard yet sensitive, driven yet uncomplicated someone whose logic or reason you could easily understand… and may be empathize with…and for Eden’s character in first half of the book this would be a 7/10 book but…Jack and Eden…I liked you better on the ship…than in London ;) A 6.5/10

One night of sin by Gaelen Foley

Becky Ward has run away from her home after witnessing a murder. The man responsible is her cousin, the half-English, half-Russian Prince Mikhail, recently come to England to claim the earldom of his English grandfather. He has brought with him his own private army of Cossacks who terrorize the local village. Becky does what she can, but is no match for the ruthless Mikhail, who has promised to bring the outspoken Becky to heel through ravishment. Becky has been four days on the run and on the road from her Yorkshire home to London to find the Duke of Westland, her county's magistrate, knowing that no one of lesser stature could bring Mikhail to justice.

In London, she takes refuge from the rain on a mansion's portico, falling asleep only to be found by Lord Alec Knight and his cohorts. They take her for a prostitute, and though she holds her own and escapes them…..

Alec….Alec has recently been reexamining his life. A gambler whose funds were cut off by his frustrated family, he turned to moneylenders with predictable results. In order to escape, he became a kept man, allowing Lady Campion to pay his debts in exchange for sex. His actions lost him the love of the only woman he could picture himself marrying and since her marriage to another he has been restless, edgy, bored with life and disgusted with himself. Till one night he comes across a whore on the portico of his friend’s mansion…a whore who exudes an air of courage and vulnerability, does not bore him…whom he takes home for a night.
Becky, tired, hungry, Cossacks on her heels, knowing that she will likely be caught and returned to a brutal rape at the hands of Mikhail, decides to spend the night in safety with Alec and lose her virginity to a man of her choosing. They spend a passionate night together where each surprised by the other’s tenderness, kindness and intensity of feelings is a little in love with the other…a ‘little’ love that both are scared of…Becky  that Mikhail will not hesitate to kill Alec, if he finds out that Alec means anything to her…and hence for Alec she leaves the next morning without a word…But Alec follows her and realizes what danger she is in….He fights the Cossacks…and asks her to tell him everything….

Becky entrusts Alec with all her knowledge…and on learning of Becky’s situation and courage she exudes….Alec feels the overwhelming need to protect her…Alec the gambler, Alec the fop, Alec the seducer, Alec the rake….becomes Alec the protector…Keeping Becky safe becomes the purpose of his life…..

But as all Knight brothers do…Alec too has a darkness inside him…the darkness of his tainted past…a past that he at times wants to keep from Becky lest he lose her respect or her love…and a past that at times makes him so guilty that he feels he will lose her if he doesn’t tell her…his compulsive gambling habits and the subsequent losing of his self respect too when he becomes a kept man to Lady Campion….or his trying to win back Lizzie from Strathmore…everything keeps on hounding it…and the only penance he thinks he can do is help Becky get her village back…and bring Mikhail to justice. For which he decides to do what he can do the best….Gamble….

Review  Sadly out of all the Knight brothers I liked Alec least of all. For one thing he never had a purpose in life....perhaps this was his biggest problem throughout the series but he just sounds the male equivalent of a ‘too stupid to live’ TSTL heroine…Becky comes across as a way better character than him and I feel a little sorry she had to settle from someone as indecisive, stupid and so full of himself as Alec….Alec’s transformation from the cynical hedonist to the knight protector in shining armour is hasty and kind of hard to believe…there is so much needless guilt wallowing involved in this story that it made me sick…and I did not sort of agree with the idea of winning back Becky’s village through gambling again…somehow Foley failed to convince me of Alec’s reformation.

On the other hand I so admired Becky…she was confident, practical, honest, realistic about her expectations from Alec, She didn't jump to conclusions, she faced things head on, and didn't let herself , or Alec, take the easy way out. She was just like I like my heroes to be. I liked the part where she confronts Lady Campion…what courage…and what confidence…Becky lifted up my spirits as Alec let me down…she sort of motivated me to finish the book….

So for Becky this book deserves a 5/10…..but skip it if you get bored somewhere in between….

Devil takes a bride by Gaelen Foley

In the quiet English countryside, far from the intrigues of London, Lizzie Carlisle slowly mends her broken heart, devoting herself to her new position as lady’s companion to the Dowager Viscountess Strathmore—until her peaceful life is turned upside down by a visit from “Devil” Strathmore, the old woman’s untamed nephew—a dangerously handsome man whose wicked reputation hides a tortured soul.


Devlin Kimball, Lord Strathmore, has spent years adventuring on the high seas, struggling to make his peace with the tragedy that claimed the lives of his family. But now he has uncovered the dark truth behind the so-called accident and swears retribution.

He has no intention of taking a bride—until his eccentric aunt’s will forces him and Lizzie together, and Devlin finds his path to vengeance blocked by the stubborn but oh-so-tempting Miss Carlisle.

Her passionate nature rivals his own, but disillusioned once by love, Lizzie will accept nothing less than his true devotion....Can love overcome the thirst for revenge? Can it heal self inflicted wounds of guilt?

Review - I was expecting this to be Alec's and Lizzie's story, a happily ever after for a long time love, but I was pleasantly surprised. One has to just meet Dev to know why Alec is so wrong for Lizzie. The differences and similarities between the characters of Dev and Alec are so subtly potrayed, that at one time both seem too heroic and at the other both seem like morons :) The feuding between them and the constant competing for Lizzie's affection lends a humorous twist to a tragic and violent story.

A 7/10 for sketching so many wonderful characters.

Devil Takes a Bride

Lady of desire by Gaelen Foley

Lady of desire by Gaelen Foley
           Impetuous Lady Jacinda Knight is the daughter of a scandalous woman. Though society predicts she'll follow in her mother's footsteps, the spirited beauty stands unashamed of her passionate nature. Then one night, in flight from a safe but loveless marriage arranged by her strict older brother, Jacinda finds herself alone on a dark and dangerous street face-to-face with Billy Blade, the notorious leader of a band of thieves. His stolen kisses awaken in her a longing for a man she can never possess.
           A handsome scoundrel running from a secret past, Billy Blade has never met a woman like Jacinda-her fiery innocence and blossoming sensuality set his rebel's heart ablaze. Having turned his back on the privilege and power of his tyrannical father's house years before, he vows to return to his rightful place and reclaim his title, Earl of Rackford-to win the love of the ravishing beauty who has stolen his heart . . .

Review - The story has a change of scene from post-war trauma and ball rooms of london to the streets of london. The change of scene is refreshing. However the gravity that was there in books uptil now is lost in this one....the change of Billy from a street gangster to a polished lord is unbelievable, hasty and shabbily told. His insecurity, his feeling of being unloved by anyone that makes him needy and at times desperate for Jacinda's love. But at times in the story the neediness and desperation starts to look more like grovelling! The reconciliation between Billy and his father is also hasty and very unrealistic. Character of Jacinda ia strong but a bit flighty and proud. Highlight of this book for me however is not related to either Billy or Jacinda...it is the small sneak preview of Alec's and Lizzie's story which looks to be more promising. Looking forward to that. Meanwhile for this one....6/10

Lady of Desire

Lord of ice by Gaelen Foley

Damien, twin of Lucien, is a Peninsular war hero who is now the owner of a dilapidated estate. He is tormented by flashback dreams of battle scenes that make him somewhat violent and unaware of his surroundings. Terrified that he might injure a woman during one of these episodes, Damien has held himself apart from love. No sooner has Damien sequestered himself away in the country than he receives notice that a close friend has died and left him the guardianship of a young girl. Damien decides to pay a visit to his new ward before deciding what to do with her.

Miranda FitzHubert is an illegitimate orphan, residing in a bleak girls’ school run by a minister who likes fondling - and flogging - young girls. She sneaks out at night to join a local acting troupe on the stage, where she enthralls the audience with her singing. While stealing back to the school, she is approached by a handsome man who apparently thinks she’s a lightskirt. Miranda evades him but is set upon by thugs, whereupon the stranger comes to her rescue. Miranda runs, but looks back in time to see her rescuer kill several men with his bare hands.

Miranda, of course, is Damien’s new ward, much older than he anticipated. Damien decides to take Miranda to London and install her with his family, but she attempts to escape him and return to the school to save one of the younger girls. The truth comes out, and Damien dispatches the minister and headmistress with quick efficiency, earning himself Miranda’s undying devotion. She falls headlong in love with him and decides she’ll help him overcome his dark side. Damien, of course, is having none of it, no matter how attracted he is to the woman he first mistook for a whore.

The premise of this novel has been “borrowed” from Cathy Sova’s blog. For I felt no one could capture the story better than she has. So here I will just attach a small note of my own.

Note –
If you thought Lucien knight (the hero of the previous book in the series) had the most severe darkness inside him, created by the spying, the treachery that he was forced to do for his country, it will come as a surprise to you that how much darker is the soul of a man who fought directly on the battlefield….the soul of Damien. The way the post war trauma eating up Damien’s soul has been sketched is heart breaking. He’s sure his going insane…sure that he will end up like a mad animal, wild, dangerous to others and not in control of himself. The portrayal of struggle of Damien is the second best part of this book…How he needs Miranda’s love and yet how he fights against his own feelings…fearing he will injure Miranda in one of his fits of mad rage. The character of Miranda though comes across a bit weak and terrified in the beginning and her metamorphosis into the woman who makes Damien open up his soul and pour out the terrifying war experiences is a bit too unbelievable. Ms. Foley could have sketched this character better. The secondary character of Miranda’s cousin Crispin is also interestingly done.

Now to my favorite part of the book…It comes after where most stories end…a happily ever after, after the happily ever after. After Miranda and Damien are married and settle down in their country house reveling in the joy life has offered to them, basking in the glory of the future that they are building for themselves…when Napoleon escapes Elba, and a war breaks out again. A war to which Damien should go. A war to which Miranda doesn’t want to send him, fearing he will lose Damien to the war again. A choice that both of them should make, whether to stay content watching a war that needs him or overcoming the fear of it all and going back to the Battle of Waterloo. This last part and Damien’s superb character makes this book an interesting read. I still feel character of Miranda could have been done better. The highlight of the book for me is how Damien not only conquers his fears but also soundly defeats it forever creating that happily ever after, after the happily ever after.
7/10…Just for you Damien

Lord of fire by Gaelan Foley

Lord of fire by Gaelan Foley

Lord Lucien Knight…a man who lives in a fortress of sin, whose parties lure the most notorious members of the ton, where he carefully lays the trap for his enemies, a cunning spy out to get his enemy to settle old scores and avenge the death of an old friend.

Alice Montague, beautiful, innocent country girl, all she wants is to keep her promise to her dead brother to look out for his wife and son. For this reason alone she goes in search of her sister-in-law. A search that leads her to the Lord Lucien….

Under the pretense of all the sin, Lucien is just a lonely boy, the boy who was always “the other one” when his twin Damien was everyone’s favorite. The boy grew up into a man, who still needed to prove to himself and to the world that he was as good as his twin. The man who sacrificed not only his reputation but also his soul for his country. A man who is so engulfed by the darkness of it all, that he wants to grab one ray of light that he sees. One ray, that his soul tells him, is capable of drawing him out of all his shadows. Alice. One ray of light which can wash out all the darkness inside him and lead him to a bright future. To that happy forever.

When Alice first meets Lord Lucien she is disgusted by his lack of morals. His blackmailing that forces her to stay for a week with him. But as she gets to know him better she starts seeing through his pretenses. She sees a man tormented by his own choices. A man starved of love. A man longing to be held in someone’s affection. A man she falls in love with. But a man refusing to give her one thing she wants….trust.

Thus Gaelan Foley weaves this tale of darkness and light. Of how everyone, even the most hardened by life, needs love. Love that touches the soul. A beautiful tale. A definite 9/10.

The duke by Gaelan Foley

The duke by Gaelan Foley

Premise
Robert Knight, the duke of Hawksville is a paragon, above reproach and of impeccable morals. When his lady love dies Hawk is prepared to go to any lengths to avenge her death. Even if it means engaging in a scandalous affair with London’s most provocative courtesan, La Belle Hamilton.

La Belle Hamilton,the self assured demirep, an enchantress out to charm the city’s titled gentleman in reality is nothing but a lonely woman Belinda struggling to put together the pieces of her life. She needs a protector, so she accepts Hawk’s invitation to become his mistress in name only. He asks nothing of her body, but seeks her help in snaring the same man who shattered her virtue.

Together they tempt the unforgiving wrath of society — Hawk with his diplomacy and influence in Parliament and Bel with her sparkling wit and zeal for reform.

But alls not well as it looks, their risky charade turns into a dangerous attraction, an attraction that cannot be denied, and yet cannot be forged into a relationship.

Hawk must choose between desire, love, duty and responsibility. What should he do? Bow down to the dictates of society and let go of the only woman who makes him happy? Or give her the second place to his ambition and social standing?

Bel too must make a devastating decision that could ruin her….A Last chance to hold onto her self respect, a Last chance to seek love or last chance to gain the respect of the man that she loves. . . .or settle for a small piece of himself that he offers..and give up her last semblance of self respect in return?

My Comments
This is the first book of this author that I have read. What I like most about her style of writing is the way that she handles the rolling out of the story. She slowly peels away the layers of boring looking characters to reveal the most enthralling characters. Characters that you slowly fall in love with, as you begin to understand their pain, their anguish, then you begin sympathizing with them and later empathizing with them. The emotional anguish of characters is so well potrayed that I could almost feel their moods.

The downside of it, the tale drags a bit in places and somehow the character of Hawk seems a bit prudish in the beginning and too liberal in the end. The transformation though has been beautifully sketched, seems a bit unreal to be true. But a charming story nonetheless. I would give it a 8/10