Alana Farmer enjoys a privileged life in London. She spends her time either in fencing lessons with her uncle, or helping out at an orphanage. Everything changes on her eighteenth birthday, Alana discovers that her uncle is not a relative, but the assassin hired to kill her. She is also the princess of Lubinia and must return to reveal herself to her father, the king, and help stop a rebellion.
I finished reading this book two days ago but have been procrastinating in actually writing the review. I have mixed feelings about this book. There are aspects of this book I really enjoyed and felt like the old Johanna Lindsey is finally coming back. But on the other hand, there are things that pop up that are not quite Lindsey and make me question if there are ghost writers. I question this because there seems to be such a disparity in the way Lindsey's newest books are written. Some seem to have depth, feeling, and actual stories (A Loving Scoundrel) while others feel rushed, are amateurish, and boring (That Perfect Someone). Also, in When Passion Rules, the way the love scenes were written just didn't feel like an authentic Lindsey work. Looking around at other reviews, I see that other people have the same opinion.
I had a couple of issues with this book. The big one for me was the timeline. I tried to keep track, and I think once Alana is in the castle to the end of the book happens over one week. Within this time, she willingly becomes Christoph's lover and they go from mistrusting each other to falling in love. It felt too rushed for me, and I would have preferred if it was spread out over a month or two instead. Also there were a couple of WTF moments. First, while Alana is Christoph's prisoner, he takes her outside of the castle to a fair in the countryside. The main reason really was for Alana's former guardian to get a message to her but it still seemed highly unlikely that a guard of Christoph's standing would take an imposter to a country fair. The other one was Christoph's wannabe mistress, Nadia. What is it with the need to write in nasty, bitchy, always older than the heroine, mistresses? When we first meet Christoph, she wouldn't take no for an answer, to the point of being pathetic. Not sure why she had to be written this way, other than to show the reader how irresistible Christoph is.
Having said that, I did enjoy this book. At one point I was reading this before bed and was getting really tired. I kept telling myself that I would just read to the end of this chapter and go to sleep. But every time I got to the end of the chapter, I had to go on and read the next one. I did this for about three chapters. Alana started out a bit too much of a Mary Sue/Pollyana with her sweet disposition, love of children, and excelling at everything she does. But she eventually grew on me once she left England and started her journey to Lubinia. The hero, Christoph, has some flaws, but over all even as an alpha male, he does show humour, tenderness, and he's hot! I was a little worried that Alana would have it really easy convincing the king that she is his daughter and be immediately welcomed into the castle. So I was happy when the story turned instead to her being imprisoned for being an imposter with Christoph in charge of her. Although I don't think When Passion Rules is comparable to Lindsey's best novels, it is getting pretty close and is a vast improvement over her latest books. If you loved Once A Princess, you will like When Passion Rules as it does have some similarities.
Do you ever read a couple of books by an author and then they seem to suddenly disappear? For myself, I can think of two authors I am wondering about. First up is Rebecca Brandewyne. I read her book, Upon a Moon Dark Moor, for the first time when I was about 13. I loved the gothic feel to it, and how Brandewyne did not rush the story, but let it unfold as Draco and Maggie grew up. There was also a sequel involving their sons, Across a Starlit Sea. The way the sequel ended left it pretty wide open for a third book involving the grandchildren. According to her website the third book will be called Beneath a Sun-Washed Sky, and it should have been finished in 2007 or 2008. I have not come across it in my searches.
The second author is Tamara Leigh. A couple of years ago I read her book, Blackheart. It was a Medieval where a man, Lord Bernart Kinthorpe, orders his wife Juliana to sleep with his enemy, Lord Gabriel de Vere. Lord Kinthorpe is impotent but wants to put an end to the rumours that he is by producing an heir. I can't remember the reason why he chose his enemy, but the rest of the story is about Gabriel finding out about the plot and falling in love with Juliana. Again, there was a subplot with Juliana's sister that made it obvious that there would be a sequel. If I remember correctly, the sister had suffered an injury to her head that left her somewhat mentally incapacitated. During the time that Juliana was taken by Gabriel, the sister left Kinthorpe's castle. At the end of the novel, Gabriel's friend (naturally) was looking for the sister to bring her back. This book was written in 2001 and the book about the sister has not been written yet. The information I can find is that Tamara Leigh is now writing inspirational romances. Which is a shame because I really enjoyed her medieval romances and wanted to read the story of the sister. I can understand that authors' style changes. Some move from historical to contemporary or erotic to mainstream. But I do wonder if authors sometimes owe it to their fans to at least finish what they started.
