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The Forbidden Chamber

by Ella Drake (Goodreads Author)

3.41 of 5 stars 3.41 · rating details · 34 ratings · 4 reviews

“Your life is forfeit if you open that door.”All her life, Lady Isabel Colven has followed the path laid out for her, content to look neither left nor right for excitement. Her future holds a dutiful, passionless marriage to some nice young man, and she’s content…until the exotic and compelling Lord Rukh Hayle threatens her maidenly reserve. Rumor paints him as a wife-murd...more

Paperback, 200 pages

Published August 3rd 2010 by Samhain Publishing (first published October 1st 2009)

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Jun 19, 2012 Inge rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: dirty-smut, high-expectations-got-disappointed, incubus-and-succubus, villain-sucks-hairy-monkey-balls, crap-romance, fantasy

Oy oy oy..

The Forbidden Chamber had me interested for about the first fifty pages and then completely lost me. I struggled through this book, but I hate not being able to finish a book. So I kept reading, hoping it would get better. It didn’t.

Lord Hayle is looking for a new wife. He immediately has the hots for the eighteen-year-old Isabel, which I found very creepy and very Edward Cullen-esque, because he’s a couple centuries old. Lord Hayle is a Raven. Which means he can turn into a raven. And that’s about it. He practically forces Isabel to marry him, because he can’t keep his cock in his pants and must have her. Luckily for him, she falls in love with him despite his reputation of having murdered his two previous wives. But oh, there is danger! Not so much the fact that he can turn into a raven, because, let’s be honest, how much harm can that do? But no, there’s an incubus behind the red door in his bedroom! His name is Bluebeard. He has a blue beard. And he feeds on Hayle’s orgasms. Or something like that. Hayle needs to come once a week to keep the incubus satisfied. And every once in a while Bluebeard escapes from the Forbidden Chamber and shags a woman and sucks her dry, in Hayle’s bed. I would have burned my bed a long time ago, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue. But oh no! Now Bluebeard has the hots for Isabel! Well, Hayle can’t have that, now, can he? Because it turns out, Isabel is not just his wife, he is also her mate. For he is a Raven, and Ravens mate for life. And Isabel doesn’t want to live in a Manor that houses an incubus. So they must find a way to kill it! All the while shagging in between. Right.

To be honest, I don’t know what the purpose of this book was. Whether it was supposed to be sexy or scary or gripping, because frankly, it was none of the above. Turning into a big Raven is not scary, especially when you turn into a human just a couple seconds later, finding your new wife is not scared of you at all, and then you take her virginity. Telling us every 2 pages how hard your cock is every time you see her, is not sexy. It’s annoying how you can’t seem to think of anything else but taking her to your bed and owning her. Categorised as Erotica, this book had very few sex scenes, and those weren’t all that sexy. There was an excerpt of a different book at the end and that was a lot better.

Lord Hayle was not a very likeable man. He was arrogant, volatile, jealous, possessive, and dull. All he could think about was sex. Oh, there is my beautiful wife. I must have her! Speaking of said beautiful wife with her ample bosom, Isabel was such a teenager. She was jealous and very spiteful of her sisters and she always had to have her way. Maybe they should be together after all. They’re both annoying. Maybe it’s good that they jump each other’s bones all the time, that way they won’t talk and won’t get annoyed with each other. Because I sure as hell got annoyed.

I’m out.

(less)

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Nov 15, 2009 Lexie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: genre-romance-historical, genre-romance-paranormal, review-blog, book-type-e-book

I knew immediately I wanted to read this. Aside from the gorgeous cover, the synopsis really drew my attention. As did the Samhain warning. Then I went and read more about it over at the author's blog and saw that it involved Bluebeard...and I just sort of spazzed a little bit. The novel lived up to my expectations (and the warning XD).

Isabel is hands down one of my favorite romance heroines. When a girl's mindset has her thinking "She would dress herself, suitably impress her mother with her ne...more I knew immediately I wanted to read this. Aside from the gorgeous cover, the synopsis really drew my attention. As did the Samhain warning. Then I went and read more about it over at the author's blog and saw that it involved Bluebeard...and I just sort of spazzed a little bit. The novel lived up to my expectations (and the warning XD).

Isabel is hands down one of my favorite romance heroines. When a girl's mindset has her thinking "She would dress herself, suitably impress her mother with her new station and then rid the world of one incubus, named Bluebeard." (pg. 50, pdf) after learning her husband's family's deep dark secret (and being sex'ed up all night long) you have to love the girl. She doesn't spend time moping or bemoaning her fate. There are problems in her marriage, but she was determined to find some way to fix them. To put it succinctly--she puts her fear to good use by using it to galvanize her to fix things.

Rukh (pronounced 'rook') is very, very alpha male. He mentions, more than once, that he has trouble keeping his 'beast' under control as a rule and now with Isabel he seems to have almost no control whatsoever. As the reader we know why, but it takes him a little longer to catch on. I do kind of wonder at his way of showing Isabel affection, since he does more harm then good by being with her, but Isabel isn't entirely blameless. She pushes against the safety restrictions he places upon her and when he erects new ones she pushes even harder.

Rukh's family, with the exception of his nephew Christopher, are possibly the most selfish, egocentric people I've ever read about in anything and why he wants to help them at all was beyond me. I can only blame blood sings stronger then rational thinking. They also use underhanded means and like to keep secrets. Unfortunately Isabel's family isn't much better, so they are matched in that.

Passion and affection are evident in everything either of them do. Even when circumstances are so tense that I was worried for their sanity, they didn't give up. Isabel's strong will and practical nature was really what saved them in the end I think. Bluebeard, in here he is a wife-killing incubus, not a wife-killing pirate, was pretty much as depraved as they come. May he rot in whatever hell he deserves.

My only question was in regards to Christopher and Sheila. Without spoiling anything, I did not understand his need to protect her. Was it just plain old male chivalry? He was obviously a good fellow, he proved that half a dozen times, but he was bound and determined (to the point of suicide) to save Sheila and I didn't understand why.

In the end, Drake gave me a mighty fine re-imagining of the Bluebeard legend and more than that an enthralling romance as well.(less)

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Nov 11, 2010 Laura rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: adult-modern-folk-tales-fairy-tales, romance-novels, ebook, novellas, paranormal-romance

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. Two things attracted me to this book. 1) The gorgeous cover. 2) The fact that I was looking for fairy tale inspired romance novels.

First, I really loved the idea of the book. A gothic romance with raven shifters woven into the story of Bluebeard. Really loved the idea. Based on the cover and the blurb, I could just picture Lord Ruhk Hayle and his mysterious secret being related to being a raven shifter as opposed to being related to dead wives in the closet.

Unfortunately, what I was hoping for i...more Two things attracted me to this book. 1) The gorgeous cover. 2) The fact that I was looking for fairy tale inspired romance novels.

First, I really loved the idea of the book. A gothic romance with raven shifters woven into the story of Bluebeard. Really loved the idea. Based on the cover and the blurb, I could just picture Lord Ruhk Hayle and his mysterious secret being related to being a raven shifter as opposed to being related to dead wives in the closet.

Unfortunately, what I was hoping for isn't what this book turned out to be. The fact that he is a raven shifter is revealed to his bride on their wedding night, and there actually are dead wives in the closet. The story also lacked the creepy mood that a Bluebeard-inspired tale should have.

It was kind of short, more novella-length than novel-length, and despite the fact that Samhain has it labeled as Historical Romance and Paranormal Romance, the proportion of sex to story was far more than I was hoping or expecting would be there. The majority of the book was steamy as opposed to story-related. Had the story been labeled with Samhain's "Red Hots!" label, I would have expected that, but it wasn't. Granted, for the most part the author does not use crude language and uses more...historical appropriate descriptions, and maybe that's why it wasn't labeled in that way, but come on. When the major plot point is that Lord Hayle's family made a deal with a lusty demon named Bluebeard in order to be immortal and be able to shift into raven form, the price is that the Alpha of the family sacrifice his wife to the demon's lust (so he can basically fuck her to death) once she's conceived an heir, the demon lures the wife into his secret door through lust compulsions, and the only way to keep the demon contained behind his door is for the Alpha of the family to have regular sex in the same room with the door, I don't personally consider that a romance novel because it leaves no time for relationship development or, you know, romance.

Sadly, a disappointment for me, but others who are looking for a more erotic romance may enjoy it. There's a free short story on the author's website that is a follow-up to this story that anyone interested may want to try out first.

Technical notes: I bought the e-book from MyBookStoreAndMore and downloaded the .epub version. The formatting was just fine, and I didn't notice any typos or formatting issues.

(less)

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Oct 07, 2010 Rebecca Zimmerman rated it 2 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: not

The story was weak and predictable. The book was a stage for sexual tension. So much so, that it detracted from the story....what there was of a story.

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Oct 21, 2012 Kerry rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: books-i-have

Gorgeous cover.
A rather lame read all the way around though. It wasn't very exciting, and I suppose it was supposed to be all sexually exciting too--but I don't think it would really appeal to anyone.
The plot itself really could have gone somewhere. It was intriguing. There was a lot of promise to it, but it never delivered. It was a simple read, quick and relatively painless. It just wasn't gripping or exciting. There were a lot of missed opportunities. And for all the sex involved, this book w...more

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Shelves: own

Jan 27, 2013 Jen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: historical

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Shelves: erotic-romance

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About Ella Drake

As a child Ella read books under the covers with a flashlight. There she found a special love of elves, dragons, and knights. Now that she's found her own knight in shining armor and happily ever after, she loves to write tales of fantasy, hot enough to scorch the sheets. No flashlight needed.

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