Gaelen Foley: Her Only Desire

Her Only Desire: B
Georgiana Knight & Ian Prescott

Ian Prescott, the Marquess of Griffith, had come to India to stop the Maratha Empire from going to war with Britain. Ian was counting on the help of Gabriel and Derek Knight, British cavalry officers serving in India, but Ian never expected that their sister, Georgiana, would also want to play a part in the diplomatic negotiations. Just like her aunt and namesake, the infamous "Hawkscliffe Harlot," Georgiana refuses to let any man tell her what to do. But when the diplomatic mission turns dangerous, Georgiana finds herself leaving India for England, where her life becomes even more entangled with the one man who just might be her match... (amazon)


A pseudo-continuation of Foley’s famous the “Knight Miscellany” series, this story takes place in exotic India. (I say pseudo-continuation because these Knights are the cousins of the Knights from the previous books: The Duke, Lord of Fire, Lord of Ice…)

When Ian meets Georgie, she’s causing ruckus because she prevents her friend, Lakshmi, from an old Indian custom where a widow commits suicide following the death of her husband. Ian is taken with the fiery, black-haired blue-eyed beauty, but prevents her from following him to meet with the King of India. Ian is a British diplomat, wanting to prevent war and from people to die, so his decision to meet with the King in order to get the King to sign a treaty of neutrality is a respectable one.

Georgie, who is famous for her humanitarian deeds and close relations with the Indian people is wary of Ian’s motive (the British who usally come to India are scumbags, looking to get rich) but when she finds out that he’s a good guy, she is determined to help him. After all, her close friend Meena is the current “favorite” from his thirty wives and hundreds of concubines.

Infuriatingly, Georgie escapes the house arrest Ian has ordered for her and travels to where the King is, wanting to see her friend and her older twin brothers, Derek and Grabriel Knight, whom she hasn’t seen in a year.

It’s there that drama and suspicion thickens…


I can’t help but to think that while Georgie comes off as a very strong and independent woman, she sounds a bit… spoiled. Bratty. And I don’t know if it’s Ms. Foley’s writing style/ characterization that leads me to believe this, but I do. And it’s a little annoying. She just sounds like a fiery, young, naïve, fiercely loyal but clueless girl – one who is unwilling to bend because of what she believes is right.

She improves, though, to the relief of this reader.

Ian is hunky and has a tortured, miserable past of his own – one that isn’t new (I feel like I read it somewhere else…) but enough to mark him as a tortured hero.

The chemistry between the characters is hot enough; the scene where Georgie chooses to give herself to Ian is unpleasant – in that it is …just… if I was a heroine of a romance novel, I wouldn’t want that to happen to me. (Hah.)

I’m not even trying to calculate the age difference between Georgie and Ian. I don’t even want to know. I think it would gross me out…

Overall, the story is nice. The “suspense” isn’t really a romance, so don’t be expecting one. It’s one of those stories where the suspense is used to keep the plot moving. Enjoyable and different (India seems exotic and wonderful, even though the activist in me cringes at the well-being of the British in India. …oh how the nations imperialized and took over back in the day…).

Gaelen Foley: Princess

Princess: C

Princess Serafina & Darius Santiago
Ascension Trilogy #2

Imperious and beautiful, Princess Serafina has loved Darius Santiago, the king's most trusted warrior, since she was a child. But Darius was plucked from the gutter by the king to be trained as a spy, and although he loves Serafina beyond reason, he conceals his heart for he believes his background forbids a union between them. When Serafina is betrothed to a ruthless Russian aristocrat in a bargain that gains her tiny island kingdom protection from Bonaparte's armies, Darius intervenes to save her. His actions set in motion a sequence of events that will challenge the strength of their love and threaten their lives as well as the survival of the kingdom.

This energetic plot has the hero and heroine poised on the razor's edge of physical danger at the same time they're struggling to trust each other with the deepest secrets of their hearts. The supporting cast of secondary characters is excellent, especially the members of the heroine's family. Their normalcy provides a stark contrast to the hero, whose childhood of neglect and abuse has left scars and built emotional walls that only the heroine's love may heal. (amazon)

Princess Serefina has known Darius Santiago all her life…and has been in love with him most of the time. She knew that she would always be his when he risked his life to save her father’s life. However, she is in despair because Darius sees her as the young, spoiled daughter of his boss.

Darius Santiago is Ascension’s top and most trusted spy. As a young child, the King Lazar and Queen Allegra took him in and raised him; going out and completing dangerous missions is the only way for him to redeem himself and to show everyone that he is doing something worthwhile with his life. To his horror, he falls in love with Serafina, putting him in an awful position – there is no way he is worthy enough to marry Serafina. Darius is a “fabulous” tortured hero and the demons he faces are more than trivialities.

When Serafina is betrothed to a Russian count, Darius is furious. The King has arranged the marriage because of the fear of Napoleon – if Napoleon attacks, the Russians are the only ones with enough man-power to protect the small island of Ascension. However, Darius discovers some unpleasant discoveries about the Russian and Darius is dead set Serafina marrying him.

So he comes up with a plan to rescue Serafina from the marriage.

But before he leaves, he and Serafina admit their feelings to each other and cause a bunch of ruckus.

With the classis male I’m-not-good-enough-for-her syndrome and the classic female I-don’t-care-about-anyone-but-you counter-attack, this tale is full of hot scenes, of fluttery, flowery dialog, and of love.

I love the ending where Darius finally realizes his self-worth, when he finally stands up to King Lazar and I especially love it when Serafina walks into the room and shows Darius that she will always love him, no matter what. It is very sigh-worthy.

But as it is with most books, there were some things that did not click with me.

I did think “jailbait” while reading most of the book because Serafina is twenty and Darius is thirty-four. Plus, he’s known her since she was four. He’s literally seen her grow up. That’s kind of like… him being there, like her father was there. Fatherly figure? Icck! I know it was normal for young young girls to marry old old men, but something about it still gives me the heebie-jeebies.

Second, Ms. Foley is very flowery with her dialog. Some of the things that Darius is to have said to Serafina had me snorting. Men don’t really say things like that, especially not while doing the hanky panky. (…do they??)

Third, Serafina grows in the story, but I still thought that she was a spoiled, pampered princess. She acted like she was a child for most of the book and when she commits the unthinkable (because she doesn’t want to lose Darius), I was grimacing. But! the internal struggles of both Serafina and Darius are believable and intricate – they deal with their problems separately, then finally deal with it together.

Fun read – A good sequel to The Pirate Prince, I would probably continue reading the last of the series, Prince Charming.

Note: I didn’t realize that we were introduced to Darius in the first of the trilogy. He is the boy that Lazar brought home, which means that the current King and Queen were the hero and heroine of the first book…

I read The Pirate Prince well over a year ago, so I don’t remember much of it. But those of you who like to read series in order, definitely read The Pirate Prince first!