blurb courtesy of Amazon:
WHEN STRANGERS IN THE NIGHT
He lives in the shadows. As the mysterious masked avenger known as the Ghost of St. Giles, Godric St. John's only goal is to protect the innocent of London. Until the night he confronts a fearless young lady pointing a pistol at his head-and realizes she is his wife . . .
BECOME LOVERS . . .
Lady Margaret Reading has vowed to kill the Ghost of St. Giles-the man who murdered her one true love. Returning to London, and to the man she hasn't seen since their wedding day, Margaret does not recognize the man behind the mask. Fierce, commanding, and dangerous, the notorious Ghost of St. Giles is everything she feared he would be-and so much more . . .
DESIRE IS THE ULTIMATE DANGER
When passion flares, these two intimate strangers can't keep from revealing more of themselves than they had ever planned. But when Margaret learns the truth-that the Ghost is her husband-the game is up and the players must surrender . . . to the temptation that could destroy them both.
He lives in the shadows. As the mysterious masked avenger known as the Ghost of St. Giles, Godric St. John's only goal is to protect the innocent of London. Until the night he confronts a fearless young lady pointing a pistol at his head-and realizes she is his wife . . .
BECOME LOVERS . . .
Lady Margaret Reading has vowed to kill the Ghost of St. Giles-the man who murdered her one true love. Returning to London, and to the man she hasn't seen since their wedding day, Margaret does not recognize the man behind the mask. Fierce, commanding, and dangerous, the notorious Ghost of St. Giles is everything she feared he would be-and so much more . . .
DESIRE IS THE ULTIMATE DANGER
When passion flares, these two intimate strangers can't keep from revealing more of themselves than they had ever planned. But when Margaret learns the truth-that the Ghost is her husband-the game is up and the players must surrender . . . to the temptation that could destroy them both.
At the end of Thief of Shadows, Godric St. John is attending a party where a lovely young miss by the name of Margaret Reading faints into his arms. Later that night Godric is coerced to marry Margaret as she is in an interesting way and her fiance has been murdered by the Ghost of St. Giles. They marry in haste then go on with their separate lives.
Opening Lord of Darkness in St. Giles with Margaret holding the Ghost at gunpoint all unknowing that he is her husband was a stroke of genius, and the genius just goes on and on. Lord of Darkness is at times funny, witty, sexy and intense. Godric and Megs simply come alive in ways that not many authors manage. They are both well written characters with strong motivations and clear voices. There is no TSTL heroines or Too Alpha heroes here these are real people with real flaws. Godric is funny, wry and amazingly sexy for an old man of 37 years. Megs is sweet, smart and amazingly resilient as only an Elizabeth Hoyt heroine can be. The story unfolds with delicious heat and tension and the suspense is well written and not too obvious. Secondary characters are vividly drawn and only add to the atmosphere of the book. This is not just another fluffy romance novel, there are serious issues at play here, child abuse, neglect, poverty and greed and they are gracefully dealt with.
The chapters open with a story "The Hellequin" and it really adds to each chapter. The story in a story idea is one that Ms. Hoyt has done in all her books and I really enjoy the chance to read fairy tales that I didn't learn as a child.
I really didn't think I could love a character or a book in this series more than I loved Winter Makepeace in Thief of Shadows but Godric St. John and Lord of Darkness outshone even that amazingly wonderful story.
If you haven't read all of Elizabeth's backlist, I encourage you to do so. Whenever I'm in a reading slump, I find myself reaching for any one of Ms. Hoyt's novels.
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