Lydia Joyce

Algunos deseos sólo florecen en la oscuridad
Byron Stratford, Duque de Raeburn, pasa sus días recluido en su imponente mansión, en medio de la penumbra y el silencio, enterrado en vida en una soledad que él mismo ha elegido para que nadie sepa su terrible secreto.
Éste es el hombre al que tendrá que entregarse Lady Victoria Wakefield si quiere salvar a su familia y a sí misma de la ruina: si la dama consiente en pasar una semana en casa del misterioso duque, todas las deudas de su hermano quedarán saldadas.
La mujer que se presenta ante Raeburn lleva camino de convertirse en una solterona que ha ido dejando pasar la vida un año tras otro, apagándose poco a poco, pero que, sin embargo, da muestras de una rara inteligencia y de una experiencia de la vida poco común.
Poco a poco, la pasión que les irá uniendo se convertirá en la única luz que les defenderá de la oscuridad que amenaza con destruirles a ambos.… (mehr)

A complex, confused, dark, disturbing, and unsatisfying romance-noir.

Sebastian Grimsthorpe, Earl of Wortham, has to be one of the most unsympathetic male leads of any romance I've read. For most of the book he's plotting revenge on the rapist of his illegitimate daughter, and chooses Venice as the place to do it. Part of his scheme consists of seducing the rapist's courtesan, a woman he believes was involved in the rape, but he discovers far too late that his victim is no courtesan but the hired companion of the rapist's mother.

Feelings of remorse and attraction induce him to adopt his victim and install her as the housekeeper of the shabby Venetian mansion he is renting.

Meanwhile, he continues on his path of vengeance, culminating in a staged ball at which the real villain behind the rape and several attempts on Sebastian's life is unmasked.

Not only the characters but the geographical setting are revealed in what must be the least flattering light possible. Selfish, dissolute, amoral aristocrats and the gloomy, muddy and smelly city of Venice.

Most of this negativity seems gratuitous, as in this description of a well-known tourist spot:

Murano, where Sarah had gaped in horrified fascination at the intricate and hideous works of glass for which the island was famous.

Or a striking but unpleasant description of a cemetery, with its

...verdant lawn dotted with white markers of the dead that lay across the grass like a thousand spilled teeth.

So many plot holes litter the narrative as to make one doubt the author's commitment to the book. Some of the most glaring holes are covered but not filled during the true villain's improbable confession at the end of the book, but by then the damage has been done.

Perhaps the only saving grace in this gloomy book is the indomitable character of Sarah, who has risen from slum prostitute to lady's companion and has vague hopes of maintaining control of her future by serving the sexual needs of rich patrons as a high-class mistress.
… (mehr)

This is a historical novel, and basically, the story is about a former prostitute who gets caught up in a man's quest for revenge. I read a few reviews online that proclaimed this novel a winner and that it was a fantastic read, I have to beg to differ. It felt like it drug on forever, and Sarah Connolly, the heroine of the book is pretty much treated like crap through the entire book.

To be titled Music of the Night, there really was no music in the night. Maybe fifty pages before the end you find out that the hero plays the piano, but really there was no music. Go figure.

Sarah finally got her life on track somehow, she wound up going to some school for girls, she had began prostituting at age 13 after being raped in a back ally. At age 16 she starts attending some school for girls (the book never really explains this satisfactorily) and then she gets a pretty nifty job as a companion to an old lady who doesn't make any demands on her.

In walks our Hero. I use that term loosely, trust me. Apparently he had an illegitimate daughter who was living with him (again not explained satisfactorily) and Sebastian Grimsthorpe, the Earl, was a pretty wild guy. He had a party at his house and his 12 year old daughter is raped by a friend, he believes. The villain, Bertrand de Lint laughs it off and denies doing it, but Sebastian is sure he's the culprit and sets out to exact revenge.

And this where the entire story moves from England to Venice. And Sebastian becomes de Lint's pimp and we learn the different vices of the villain. The daughter's tutor said that a woman with a scared face helped the rapist and Sebastian sees Sarah with de Lint's party in Venice and assumes it's her. (Oh another oddity, Sarah has a pock marked face, which she thinks makes her extremely ugly). This is where you start seeing Sebastian play mind games with everyone in the book.

In the end Sarah winds up losing her cushy job with de Lint's mother, almost gets raped AGAIN by de Lint, and winds up Sebastian's mistress.

All in all, Sarah was boring, Sebastian was kinda nutty, and de Lint grossed me out. Not what I was expecting after reading all the reviews online.

You can tell that Lydia is a good writer, she was very descriptive and I could imagine everything happening exactly as she describes, but the characters just sucked!… (mehr)

I love LJ's voice and have enjoyed all her previous books. In this one the heroine, Alcyone Carter, has agreed to marry a nobleman in Hungary sight unseen. Her father is an extremely wealthy industrialist who wants his daughter to marry a titled peer. Since he is unable to find an English title, he settles on a foreign one, Baron Benedak. Alcy travels across Europe on horseback for days to her fiance's remote castle. No sooner does she set foot in the castle, then she is rushed to the chapel where the wedding ceremony is performed in a language she doesn't understand. We are told that Alcy is very strong willed and highly intelligent but I'm just shaking my head here. What woman (other than a doormat) would allow being rushed into a wedding ceremony in travel stained clothes smelling of horse? OK, it gets worse.

At their wedding dinner Alcy finally figures out that the "Baron" does not look like the miniature picture that was sent to her. The "hero" is actually Dumitru Constaninescu, a Rumanian count, a rival neighbor of the Baron. He has tricked Alcy and stolen (or kidnapped) her away from the Baron to wed her because he needs her huge dowry to restore his crumbling estate. At this point Dumitru's goal is to consummate the marriage, otherwise it can be annulled. Alcy feels betrayed and hurt, and tells him that if he forces her she will kill him, if it takes a month or twenty years. Dumitru is left in no doubt that she means it. More argument ensues. Eventually she says "You arrogant ass", then grabs him and kisses him! Then they have wild hot sex. Does that make sense to you?

Dumitru later figures out that part of her dowry from the marriage is tied up in her bridal portion which is hers alone. If he wants to use it he must ask for permission and that doesn't sit right with the male chauvanist Pig in him. Alcy overhears him plotting with his steward to steal the money thereby making her completely dependent upon him. The bastard. This is about where I wanted to strangle him.

Joyce's last book, The Music of the Night, also had an jerk of a hero, but he redeemed himself somewhat (although some of you disagreed). Kidnapping, lying, and now stealing from the heroine are not attractive personality traits. I love an anti-hero as much as the next person, but this guy just turned me off. (Grade: D)… (mehr)