Review taken from my Blog back in September 2010:

The first in the Black Cobra Quartet, and what a read .... I thoroughly enjoyed it ~other than the about the first chapter which was a bit diffcult going.

Emily Enworth Niece of the Governor of Bombay has to unexpectedly ride for her life when one of her military escorts it seems is carrying vital information about the Black Cobra and his cult. Capital Macfarlane elects to stand and fight it out with the cultists and Emily does her duty and get the More...

3.5 STARS "Gareth Hamilton is stunned when he recognizes Emily Ensworth on his ship. The veil she wears is not enough to disguise her from him - or from the man hired to kill her. Whisking Emily to safety, Gareth realizes that the Black Cobra is on to them. In order to protect her, Gareth must let Emily in on the dangerous plot she is now intimately involved in. Emily Ensworth is no wilting flower. She knew the packet the dying soldier thrust upon her held vital information, and she has every in More...

Second in the series. At this point I couldn't wait to see how this pair met and eventually ended up together. It was the usual hormones and closeness and let's not forget the danger than drew them together.

In this story we read about the woman who was being escorted by the officer who was killed in the first book. She was the recipient of the proof the officers needed to incriminate the bad guy. Except that it was love at first sight with the man who would sweep her off her feet. And of course, More...

I tend to take Laurens randomly because many of her heroines are rather copy/pasted from previous characters but I really liked Emily in this. She was strong, but not dominant (which doesn't ring true in such a large universe but small social circle), yet trustworthy. She had her faults but wasn't overrun with confidence, either. The diary bit kind of bothered me, but it was great inspiration for a quick piece of fiction I wrote. Well, the style anyway. The diary would have been best used as a f More...

The Elusive Bride feature an adventureous journey rife with action, danger, intrigue, and where hearts and emotions are concerned, the perils of love.

The mission to capture the Black Cobra and lure out as many cultists as possible to eliminate is commandeered by Gareth Hamilton. Unbeknownst to him is Emily Ensworth, niece of the Governor of Bombay who has followed him on the hunch that he is her "one" and whose goal is to affirm that hunch. Unbeknownst to her is the danger she has just involved More...

I liked this one a little better than its predecessor; it didn't seem to get quite so bogged down, though again I ended up impatient for it to reach its conclusion. I find myself tempted to go back and actually attempt a calculation--Gareth is arriving just two days after Del, but it seems like the description of their travels spanned a much longer time period. I don't recall if the first book dated every chapter, but this one did.

Also, I hate to say it, but I think I may be developing a new pet More...

3rd September
Dear Diary,
Yesterday was the most frightening and the most wonderful day of my life! First we were pursued by Black Cobra cultists as Captain MacFarlane was escorting me to my uncle in Bombay. The captain sent me ahead with his men while he and his lieutenant stayed behind to delay the pursuers. His tactics worked, but the captain was murdered by the cultists. I kept my word and delivered his packet to Colonel Delborough and his men, and that’s when the wonderful thing happened. As More...

This is the second book in the Black Cobra Quartet and another one of the original four soldiers/spies is on a quest home to bring the scroll which will bring down the Black Cobra cult in India (which is of course run by evil Englishmen). I actually do not remember whether in the first book we realize there is more than one person at the top of the cult (I read so much, I cannot keep it all in my head).

Anyway, this time we follow our brave English aristocrate (of the warrior type - that's what t More...

This certainly isn't one of the best works of Ms. Laurens. I placed very high expectations on her works, particularly after reading The Devil's Love.

The book is about Major Gareth Hamilton and his three other comrades racing back to England to deliver a letter written by the Black Cobra to the Duke of Wolverton, which was fortunately intercepted by Captain McFarlane. Ms Emily Ensworth first met Major Hamilton when she delivered the letter entrusted to her by the Captain to the Colonel. Since th More...

This was the Second Book in the Quartet by Laurens focusing on the four gentlemen who are ferrying damning evidence against the Black Cobra, though I read it first of the set.

I read this first knowing that the young lady was the one who brought the evidence to the original set of four. This book was light on the actual physical intimacy, which took place over a long journey. I enjoyed the suspense and tension being drawn out. Gareth & Miss Ensworth traveled from India to England while travel More...

This novel initially seemed to be a strong over-arching plot about four men fighting to save their country from a foreign enemy, driven by their bond to one another and the death of a colleague, with the romance aspect woven into this. And for the first third I really enjoyed that premise, however, it didn't seem to last.
The romance aspect completely dominated after that and I eventually forgot about the whole mission with the letters. Emily was the favoured narrator, but on top of her chapters, More...

The second installment of the Black Cobra Quartet follows the journey of Major Gareth Hamilton (for the backstory, see the synopsis for Book 1) and his copy of the letter. After their brief meeting, both Major Hamilton and Emily Ensworth, niece of the Governor of Bombay, have an instant attraction. When Emily learns that Major Hamilton has left she does all in her power to discover his destination and beat him there. What she doesn’t know is that he is on a mission to destroy as many of the Blac More...

I've read a lot of Stephanie Laurens books. In fact, I don't think there's one I haven't read. So I'm really familiar with her writing style. And I can't remember ever reading one that was semi-epistolary before. Along with the complicated adventure narrative, we're treated to diary entries from our heroine, Emily, as she plots and schemes to advance her cause of gaining our hero, Gareth Hamilton, as her husband.

Laurens is infamous for having extremely strong male characters. Dictatorial alpha m More...

This is the third book that I have read of the Black Cobra Quartet series by Stephanie Laurens. This set of books follows five officers as they try to capture the Black Cobra and eliminate the threat posed by the cult. One officer is killed trying to get a letter to the others. The series follows the adventures and challenges of the other three. This book is about Major Gareth Hamilton and Miss Emily Ensworth as their paths cross and they end up traveling the same path in getting one of three co More...

Emily and her diary entries really annoyed me. She came across as insipid and vapid throughout all of those. Her regular interaction and thought process during the book, her contributions to the mission were strong. The action/adventure parts of the story were pretty good, but the pre-England part of the journey dragged out too long. The story gets much better once they reach England and their Bastion Club escorts.

But, what's with the title. Emily follows Gareth so she can discover if he's her " More...

The first novel in this series renewed my faith in Laurens as an author (the lengthy Cynster series and Bastion finale were beginning to make me doubt). This one was just as exciting as the first, with lots of action, adventure, mayhem and very interesting lead characters. The heroine is very analytical, so we get in her head alot. The hero does a lot of the usual Laurens dithering over whether he wants the heroine to know he loves her, and lots of alpha male posturing, but the adventure and esp More...

Emily Ensworth has come to India to determine whether she can find someone better suited to her requirements for a husband and ends up in the middle of a dangerous mission to uncover the Black Cobra. One of the quartet known as Hasting's own is Major Gareth Hamilton and little does he realize that Emily has decided that he is the one for her which complicates his mission to act as a decoy to draw out the Black Cobra's minions. The growing mutual attraction is juxtaposed with violent struggles ac More...

Too long - got really boring - hard to finish it.

A second battle-hardened, completely unstoppable, all-male hero, an ex-officer of the Crown, confronts the deadly enemy known only as the Black Cobra.

He's focused on his mission, then sees a lady he never dreamed he'd see again - with an assassin on her heels.

She secretly followed him, unaware her path is deadly - or that she'll join him to battle a treacherous foe.

Through ever-present peril, through passion, desire, and ecstasy, they race to r More...

This is the first book by SL that I didn’t really care for. It had great potential… I actually liked Emily and the Major. Unfortunately I found it rather tiresome by half way through. Not to mention a few pet peeves:
1. It is stated pretty early on that Emily has light brown hair. The girl on the cover is so blonde… there is no light brown about it. Not to mention that the characters in the book spend a good portion of the book in Arab costume, traveling in southern regions… why then is the cove More...

Once again, I am surprised. In a nice way, not a I-just-wasted-eight-dollars-and-I'll-never-get-those-hours-back way. This was quite good. I liked both main characters... one has to suspend historical knowledge and cultural mores to properly enjoy most, if not all, squishy history books. My one favorite thing: the bunnyness. If you have read my reviews before, you might know that "bunnyness" is my term for f@%&ing like bunnies. Laurens is one of the worst about having the characters bunny ev More...

This is the second book in the Black Cobra Quartet and the excitement kept right on rollin'. This book follows Major Gareth Hamilton as he makes his way back to England and encounters cultist after cultist. On the way to England, he comes cross the pretty young thang who delivered the evidence that they needed to bring the Black Cobra down and because she did this, she's in danger as well.

So off they travel together with Gareth guarding Emily with his life (literally). Gareth sets off back to En More...

Major Hamilton is one of a group of men working to decipher the identity of the Black Cobra, a nasty piece of work fighting against the English in Bombay. By the time they finally determine who the traitor is, Miss Emily Ensworth has become involved in the crisis. After a single encounter with Hamilton, Emily finds herself in love and follows him when he returns to England. Unfortunately, the Black Cobras follow also. The entire return trip is fraught with danger and romance since Hamilton is as More...

Five military officers have been charged with taking down the Black Cobra, a particularly vicious cult that has taken a stranglehold over most of India.
Emily Ensworth has also been drawn into the conflict. She was being escorted to her uncle's fort when the Black Cobra attacked and one of the military officers was forced to fend them off. He died in the attack but was able to pass on crucial evidence to Emily who took it back to his brothers-in-arms.
When she sees Major Gareth Hamilton, she is i More...

I want to state for the record: When I purchase a book from the grocery store, I don't expect Anna Karenina. I want a good story, some good dialogue, some smutty sex and writing that doesn't make me actively cringe. That is all.

That being said, I don't know how this book got published. Clearly Ms. Laurens's previous titles and selling power were enough to release this tripe into the universe. To call this book stupid would be an understatement. Editors were asleep at the wheel and deserve a pay More...

The Elusive Bride is the second in Laurens' The Black Cobra Quartet.. I've been looking forward to sinking my teeth into these as Laurens always delivers, plus this series had the added temptation of seeing Bastion club members and Cynsters again - one wonders how the pages can contain so much testosterone and not explode! ;-)

This had all the romance you would expect from a Laurens book, plus enough swashbuckling adventure for Boys Own! Our hero, Gareth must make his way from India back to Engla More...

A villain and cult-leader named Black Cobra is terrorizing early 19th century India. Five English officers are appointed to finding out who the man is and bring his reign of terror to an end. It turns out he’s also English, a member of the East India Company, but the five have no way of proving it.

Months later, one of them is killed, providing irrefutable proof of the Englishman’s wrongdoing and the four remaining are tasked with getting the proof, a letter, back to homeland. Three copies are ma More...

This is the second book in the Cobra Quartet series and while I am a fan of Stephanie Laurens I found this book to be disappointing. In this story we follow Major Gareth Hamilton on his perilous journey back to England with the Black Cobra dogging his every step. Emily, the woman who first brought crucial evidence to Hamilton and his friends, decides after one meeting that Hamilton might just be “the one”. So she determines that she needs to spend more time with him and comes up with a scheme th More...

This is definitely not one of Stephanie Laurens' best works. I'm a big fan of her other series, and the first in the Black Cobra Quartet was a really great start to this new series, but this one, Garreth and Emily's story, felt more like filler than a novel.

Emily was the girl, who in the first book brought the evidence of the Black Cobra's identity to our heroes. She sees Garreth and, when she learns he's left India, follows him to discover if he's "the one" for her. Garreth sees her life in dan More...

I was thinking when I read The Untamed Bride that it couldn't be the last we'd see of Emily Ensworth. She's a strong female protagonist who isn't afraid to speak her mind, get into danger or rough it for the man she loves. The danger element changes the story completely from other Regency romances I've read and made me want to keep reading and re-reading over and over again.