Jennifer

Delightfully humorous! I haven't laughed this much during reading a romance novel in a while. Tessa Dare is now one of my new favorite authors.

Currently only 99 cents! http://amzn.to/1LxHHti


As a lover of fairytales and a true romantic at heart, I was very excited to discover this book, a re-telling of Cinderella. But not just ANY retelling. An EROTIC retelling. ;-) Because as much as I love a romantic story, I love an erotic one even more. big grin

On both counts, “A Midnight Dance” did not disappoint.

The story had some elements of Cinderella, but didn't follow the traditional story exactly, but that's ok. It was a wonderful story, and kept me interested and entertained, and gave me a beautiful happily ever after ending. sigh

The sex was pretty awesome! Wonderfully descriptive, and the first scene happens right out of the starting gate. While sometimes this could ruin a story for me, as I generally prefer to get to know the characters a bit more and feel that sexual tension build, in this case it was an integral part of the storyline and wasn't gratuitous. It also didn't kill the tension either, at least in my humble opinion.

While this definitely isn't bdsm, there was a bondage scene that was pretty damn hot and a bit of dirty talking going on. (LOVE me a dirty talkin' man!)

Important- Do NOT overlook reading the very, very end!! But don't read it first, either, or you'll spoil the story, lol. ;-)

5 stars for this wonderful story, and I can't wait to read more of Lila's work!

The following refers to Seduced by Starlight by Charlotte Featherstone:

LOVED this little story about Matthew and Jane's daughter Blossom and Lindsay and Anais' son Jace! (From “Sinful” and “Addicted”)

It was so fun to see Matthew as the doting, over-protective father. Well, well, Wallingford, it seems some of the rakishness of your youth came back to bite you, LOL.

I found it quite hilarious when Matthew and Lindsay spoke of their own ravishment of virgins back in the day. Somehow it hadn't seemed quite as scandalous back when they were the ones doing the ravishing as it does now that they are older. I guess being the FATHER of a beautiful young virgin being ravished changes your perspective a bit, heehee. ;-)

Overall it was a beautiful story, I just wish it could've been longer and could've contained more sex, but hey, it's a story in a compilation, so that's probably no fault of the author.

Didn't read the other two stories, so have no idea if they are good or not.

ETA: I realize now that the reason the age thing struck me as so “off” is because I quite often read May/December romances, where the heroine is much, MUCH younger than the hero in a Historical setting. That sort of pairing seems quite common back then, so it was a bit startling to have so much emphasis put on a mere four years, lol. It appears we have a double standard. (what else is new?!) Anyway, I'll admit I don't often read about the woman being older, as I prefer the opposite, so I will defer to the author here. ;-D

Historical Erotic Romance is my favorite genre, so I was excited to start this one. I had read Ask For It by the same author, which is SUPER hot, so I expected this to be the same.

Have to say, I was a tiny bit disappointed. Yes, there is sex and it's quite explicit, there just wasn't as much of it as I'd expected. Perhaps the scenes there were just weren't long enough. Yeah, that could be it. I like me some long drawn-out lovin', now. ;-D And again, I did go into it with a certain mindset having already read Ask For It.

That aside, there was one minor annoyance that drove me a bit crazy. Throughout the book, there is constant mention of how Isabel is older than Gray. At one point she is shocked by her strong reaction to him physically, thinking herself past the point of such desire...there's several mentions of her possibly being too old to bear children...

Isabel is FOUR years older than Grayson. FOUR. For the majority of the book, he's 26 and she's 30. Sorry, but I thought that such a minor age difference as not to merit all the brouhaha. I know women got married really young back then, and in fact, if you weren't married by your early twenties you were considered an old maid. I get that. I guess I still think there should've been a slightly larger age gap between them for the big fuss. Like 7-10 years. That would have made it more believable, imo.

Isabel and Grayson were both very likable characters, and I did enjoy the rocky path they took from strangers to lovers, and finally to true companions who were desperately in love. They both had their reasons for keeping their distance at first, so it takes them awhile to get there. (Otherwise, there'd be no book, right?) ;-)

There was a side story with Isabel's brother Rhys and a charming girl named Abby that I REALLY loved. I adored this couple so much I wish they could've had their own story!

To sum it up, I enjoyed this book, but it's not one of my absolute favorites. Definitely worth a read, though!

5 amazing stars!! This book is now one of my favorites by Lisa Kleypas. Zachary is the perfect hero. Big and brawny, a fighter, a self-made man, but also one who has a genuine compassion for those less fortunate, a man who hasn't forgotten his roots. I adore him.