Jack Faraday, the Marquis of Dansbury, is rich, titled, and handsome as sin. A scandalous rake who's charmed a long string of ladies, he finally meets his match in Miss Lilith Benton, known as the Ice Queen.
Intent on restoring her family's good name, Lilith wants only to make a respectable marriage. So when the tempting but notorious Jack begins to woo her, she is determined to ignore him. Then their accidental involvement in a duke's mysterious death forces Jack and Lilith to become conspirators to clear their names --- and suddenly cold disdain gives way to hot desire. Now Lilith may find his passionate stolen kisses too tempting to resist ...
Suzanne was born in Southern California sometime in the latter half of the 20th century. In the way that some people are born knowing they want to be astronauts or cellists, Suzanne always knew she wanted to be a writer. Early dreams of becoming a zoologist and writing true stories about her adventures in Africa were crushed, however, after she viewed a television special about the world’s most poisonous snakes; she did NOT want to write about how she’d been bitten and lost a limb to a cobra. Thankfully at the same time the movie “Star Wars” premiered, and she realized that she could make up adventures and write about them, and not be eaten by deadly predators while doing research.
She dabbled in romantic fantasy writing for a year or two after graduating with a degree in English from the University of California, Irvine, until her affection for traditional Regency romances led her to write one for fun. After several encouraging rejections from publishers, she snared the interest of the world’s best and most patient literary agent, who advised her to revise the manuscript. This ultimately led to the publication of her first book, The Black Duke’s Prize, from Avon Books in the Spring of 1995. A second Regency, Angel’s Devil, followed that Fall.
When Avon folded its traditional Regency line, Suzanne was encouraged to try her hand at historical romance. As she remained keenly interested in England’s Regency period, she decided to attempt another manuscript set in that time. Lady Rogue hit the shelves in March of 1997. She wrote a total of 29 books for Avon, including two anthologies and a five-part contemporary series which received a pair of starred reviews from Publishers Weekly. One of those books, Twice the Temptation, was named one of the five best romances of the year by PW in 2007.
In 2002 her well-known love of all things “Star Wars” led to an invitation to appear on the E! channel in the television special “Star Wars: The Force Is Back”, where she discussed the romance in the movie series and ended up with more air time than George Lucas.
In 2010 Suzanne left Avon Books for St. Martin’s Press, where she continues to pen historical romance novels. Her 31st book, Taming an Impossible Rogue, is set to arrive in March 2012.
Suzanne is known for her humorous characters, sexy bad boys, and whip-sharp, witty dialogue. She currently resides in Placentia, California with several hundred guppies and various other tropical fish, and handful of very loud, spinach-loving finches. And her collection of action figures and statues from “Star Wars”, “Lord of the Rings”, “X-Men”, and “Pirates of the Caribbean”. Everybody needs some inspiration, after all.
A thoroughly satisfying read with a bad boy rake who wants to punish/maybe ruin an uppity debutante who snubs him on his rare foray into Almack's. The h comes from a family, over zealous about propriety and social correctness, and anything or anyone even remotely scandalous is off limits. So, obviously, she takes one look (a very heated first look) at the irreverent interloper and pulls out her Ice Queen routine.
The H is a fraud though - an endearing, caring and lovable charmer under his disreputable, no good image. While determined to further his agenda of vengeance, he kinda loses focus and spends most of his time protecting her from villains and ruin. The h too melts under the heat of his 'stolen kisses' and this leads to more stolen somethings.
*spoilers* The h's frosty father is hell bent on her making an advantageous match and throws some well titled men at her, not caring how she feels about them. First an old duke, known to have buried 3-4 young wives; and then on his death, his even more villainous heir. Apart from the obvious ickiness of things, it also leads to a murder that needs sorting and the blame diverted. All this action lifts the book from the middling tedium and also brings the h/H even closer. I like the h's brother who aspires be the H's sidekick and shadow. He turns out to be not as dumb or as self absorbed as he seems initially.
Stolen Kisses is an older book with a brand new cover and despite its age, satisfied my craving for a trademark Enoch novel. In other words, this novel had a cynical, rakish hero, a beautiful, stubborn heroine, and a caper plot that requires some fun antics at the end.
While not quite as good to me as Something Sinful or England's Perfect Hero, this book was fun and I always looked forward to picking it up again. The novel opens with the heroine, Lilith, cutting the hero, Jack, because he was "bad ton" as it were and she was trying desperately to avoid scandal to please her family. The hero at first acts like an idiot and seeks revenge, but soon begins surprising himself and starts taking steps to clean up his life and be a better person. The transition was not complete, nor was it quick or easy, but that is what I liked. It was believable. Enoch is one of the rare authors who can sell me on a true badboy hero and make me root for him at the end. At first, the heroine comes across as a bit of a shallow snob, but very soon, Enoch reveals through Lilith's interactions with her family and friends and her inner thoughts that there is much more going on beneath the surface.
Lilith and Jack keep getting thrown together, especially after a Duke who had been pursuing Lilith dies under suspicious circumstances. Despite their tension, they soon grow to trust each other simply because each brings out the honesty in each other, be it good or bad. I had my suspicions about the bad guy in this story, but there was still tension of how everything would play out. In typical Enoch fashion, the book ended quickly and I wanted an epilogue, but overall I found this to be a well-paced, fun, enemies-to-lovers tale with a solid mystery thrown in. This is worth a read for all Enoch fans out there.
P.S. The new cover is a major improvement over the old one ;)
Another fun S.Enoch book, that I haven't even heard of before its reedition this year.. The story had a "Romeo and Juliet" feel, and Jack was just the sexiest thing.. Such a sweet reformed bad boy!:-) Lilith on the other hand was a little annoying sometimes, with her incessant desire to please her frigid and hateful father... 4.5*
Pretty standard rake and debutante, but fun, nevertheless.
The hero was charming, but the heroine could definitely hold her own with him. And the hero being cut by the heroine for having too scandalous of a reputation? Priceless.
I liked the heroine's transformation from only serving her family's interests to finally looking out for herself. Her father was a creep, and I was definitely cheering for her when she just abandoned him. All too often, romance characters are determined to reconcile with family members, no matter how awful and hopeless they are.
The hero transformed nicely, as well. He went from seemingly caring for nothing to being quite a nice guy, but in a believable fashion.
A problem, though, was that every time I came across the hero's name, Dansbury, I imagined Julia Quinn's Lady Danbury. (Needless to say, this led to rather silly imaginings.)
There seemed to be some time issues- I think that at least five or six years had passed since 1815, which would make it 1820 or 1821, but George III was still alive, when he actually died in January of 1820. (Of course, this could be me missing something, but I don't think I did.)
And the cover on my copy looks really creepy :I The reissue's cover definitely looks better, although that's really not saying much, since the original set the bar pretty darn low. (At least as far as facial expressions are concerned. I actually have a decided fondness for the old painted covers, and the flowers look quite nice.)
Sympa mais L'héroïne m'a moyennement plu. Trop désireuse de plaire à son père et sa tante (pas du tout sympathiques). J'ai aimé les interactions entre les héros.
Rarely do I pick up romance novels, but I'm glad that so far I've had the extraordinary luck to chance on rare gems on the occasions when I did. Unfortunately I forgot to write a review immediately after I'd finished this book months ago and can no longer provide any great detail, but suffice to say that Stolen Kisses is one of these aforementioned gems.
This is my first Enoch novel, but if this is how she crafts her characters, then I think I will like her other works, too. Lilith and Jack were allowed time to develop and grow both separately and together, so that by the time they fell in love, I felt like I knew these characters, rooted for how far they've come and could actually believe how deeply they felt for each other. Theirs was a romance built on thorough understanding and considerable communication; it wasn't mere attraction or insta-love but a relationship founded on a sense of partnership. That's not to say it wasn't swoony, of course - it was definitely swoony. I loved every moment Lilith and Jack spent together.
The murder mystery aspect was more of a catalyst than a central concern, but nevertheless I liked that it added another facet to the story. There is a reason why I generally prefer romance as a secondary element in a mystery novel (or fantasy, steampunk, etc.) - when written well, I can enjoy all the excitement of the primary genre with the addition of a romance and escape the many potential pitfalls when all the attention is placed upon romantic development. Here, mystery was the secondary element, but I appreciated how it spiced up the story with some good old suspense.
It appears that Stolen Kisses is one of Enoch's lesser known novels, but it doesn't make it any less a good read. An underrated, but highly recommended good read.
I generally enjoyed most of the books by Suzanne Enoch. However, I haven't read many of them. I also really liked Stolen Kisses.
One of the best things in Suzanne Enoch books are the characters. They are likeable and smart. Jack and Lilith are not an exception. I liked them and their relationship. There is a lot of passion and tension between them. Even though they fall for each other quickly, it seems believable. There are some really nice secondary characters, too.
I also enjoyed the suspense part. It was interesting, although not very innovative or really meaningful. I only wish it started earlier in the story, I didn't like waiting for it.
This was a very nice ready that grab my attention and keep me reading instead of doing something more important... Well... it wasn't my first time.
Stolen Kisses is one of Enoch's earlier works, and it certainly shows. The book lacked depth and structure. The characters were weak and weren't portrayed and developed properly, as well as the storyline. The writing was somewhat sloppy and the dialogues and reactions of the characters sometimes felt unnatural and forced. I thought about setting it aside many times, but I did manage to make it to the end -which wasn't that great honestly- without over-skimming, so that counts for something.
The older I get the worse an age gap romance gets. Lilith is 18. Jack is 28-31; it's never actually specified. So, I don't like that. She is labeled the Ice Queen because she's beautiful, but nobody can touch her. She has many suitors, but everyone knows she only cares about propriety and making a good match. Well, it turns out that's all her father and aunt care about as well. Her mother left the family for someone who she loved, but it turned out he didn't love her, he loved the money he thought she had and he dropped her, and then her husband wouldn't take her back and she died. So it's been up to Lilith to restore the family honor. Her father and aunt do not care about her, they only care about marrying her off to the highest bidder; and that was going to be a Duke. Her father left her home alone so he could come and and compromise her so she would have to marry him, despite the fact that she had said numerous times that she didn't want to marry him. Then he died while trying to rape her. Jack, who was originally only interested in her because she cut him, showed up and helped her get rid of the dead Duke. The her father betrothed her to the new Duke, and he was ever worse. All the while she developed a friendship with Jack, and then fell in love with him. Meanwhile, he was becoming friends with her older brother, William. They were all working together to prove that the new Duke killed the old Duke, and they succeeded. Then, when it came out her father was mad at her for bringing shame on the family because she helped bring down a murdered. He didn't care that he was going to wed her to a literal murdered, who by the way hit her, he just cared about the scandal. She, with the help of her brother, moves out and goes to live with her best friend Penelope, and they go to the last ball of the season. Jack is there and she seduces him in the library, and that's where the story ends.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Known as the Ice Queen, our heroine Lilith gains the hero's attention but cutting him dead at a dance. I really liked Lilith as a heroine, she's witty and pretty strong. Jack, our Marquis hero is Enoch's trademark scoundrel - black, largely deserved reputation, but develops genuine feelings for the heroine and thus begins his redemption. Lilith's family are pushing her to marry well and initiate a match with a villainous old Duke. He dies whilst trying to rape her (in order to force her into marriage) and our hero arrives just in time to help out and dispose of the body. Only thing is, he becomes framed for the Duke's murder when it turns out that the old man was in fact poisoned. With Lilith then passed on to the Duke's heir, an even worse character than his uncle, and Jack about to hang will true love ever triumph?
My biggest criticism of this is how similar it is to many of Enoch's other stories - The heroine being forced into matches with clearly villainous men by uncaring and ungrateful relatives, the hero being a rake and a scoundrel with a terrible reputation who suddenly finds he needs to clean up his act if he wants to get the girl... Tropes Enoch uses frequently and yet.... do I really care? I've been swept away by all her books to date. I am rather fond of her bad boy heroes. I Love Lilith and Jack together, and liked the rather exciting plot.
This was an entertaining read. The chemistry between the two leads, Jack and Lilith, was great: there was a lot of fun sparring and banter undercut by sexual tension and moments of sweetness and sensuality. Jack starts the novel as a hard, unlikeable character, but how he softens towards Lilith is done really well. Lilith, too, is quite a stiff character at the beginning, and it was nice to see how she changed herself over the course of the book.
It started really well, in that sense; I was excited to see how the characters would develop deeper feelings as the book progressed. However, it lost some of its oomph as the book went on. I thought the major external plot involving her other suitors became quite annoying; her family felt quite cartoonishly unpleasant, as did the main antagonist, and it all led to quite a convoluted and melodramatic ending that I personally didn’t feel suited the rest of the book.
Still, the romance itself worked very well for me, and it had two main characters I found very likable. This is definitely an entertaining book, for the most part - it’s funny and full of action - but I thought the external plot could have been tightened up.
4.5 stars Lilith's mother ran away with another man 6 years ago and she has been doing her best to make up for that indignity ever since, her goal is to marry a respectable title to please her family, so when the disreputable Marquis of Dansbury approaches her at a ball she immediately gives him the cut direct, setting Jack on the path of revenge by ruining the little ice queen and amusing himself in the meantime by dragging her brother into his lifestyle. Everyone's plans take a bit of a turn when one of Lilith's suitors drops dead in the midst of trying to rape her and Jack walks in on it, instead of leaving her to her fate he helps move the body elsewhere to protect her reputation. The 2 Mc's and her brother were a lot of fun, but all of her other suitors where super boring or horrible people and her father I think was the worst person of all, I wanted to at the very least slap him for most of the story. I think this is one of my top faves from this author.
I really liked the main characters, and elements of the story, but the book really dragged at the beginning and I put it down and forgot about it about 75 pages in. When I picked it up again I still wasn't engaged. Then I hit the midpoint and really started enjoying the book. I left with a good feeling about the book as a whole, I just wish we had jumped in to the heart of the story a little faster.
Slow and boring. It took me forever to read. The writing was ok but the plot was not logical and not realistic like into a historical novel ,the characters names were all American and the behaviour as such. Everything was disappointing and I hate it . The extra star was for the author as it was one of her earlier books I can brush it off . But I won’t go there again.
So I read this book awhile ago, but never ended up updating it in goodreads. But I was glad to reread it again. I love Jack and Lilith. They story is funny, witty and their romance it written beautifully.
I enjoyed this book so much! The story's description painted vivid imagery in my mind that was almost like a film. Well done! I've read it a couple times since the first time I read it because it was such a great read for me!
I love this book time and again I always read it . I twice read it as a teenager and it got stolen . I never forgot the title . With technology era , I searched for it , and how I fell in love again OMG!
I do appreciate heroines with backbone! I enjoyed this a lot, with the more than a little annoying and arrogant hero being firmly put in his place, and then finding himself questioning everything about himself... not to mention a few pretty bad guys, with a bit of suspense... I realize I would have appreciated knowing what happened with Lil's family afterwards, but I don't think this has a sequel.
this story was a little bit different than the newer stories of Mrs. Enoch - maybe because it is one of her earlier works. It is a bit slow at the beginning but after 1/3 it really has a good pace which the story holds till the end.
the story is a little bit darker than other works I read from Suzanne Enoch and it has not the witty comebacks and panters. but it has a very well developed relationship between the main characters and an interesting evolution of the characters.
there is on one hand Lilith, who feels that she is responsible for regaining the good name of the family. she is very selfless and proud but lacks at the beginning emotions because she thinks she has no right to have them. during the book her character expands and she starts wondering what she would need to be happy and especially what she would be willing to risk for that. this development is really well done and I liked her very much.
on the other side you have Jack, who appears to be a very selfish and self-centered man in the beginning. during the story the reader - like Lilith - starts to see the real Jack and to understand why he rarely shows this side of him. his character also develop a little bit, but not as much as Lilith - in this case it is more like a discovery.
the side characters are quite nice and very well developed as well. I really enjoyed hearing from them. and as mentioned above the mystery part in this book is rather dark
overall I loved this book and finished it rather quickly because I could not wait to get to know the characters better and to understand how they can have a HEA.
Jack was such a hard nut to crack. He lives a life of debauchery after killing his mistress (she was also trying to kill him) when no one takes the time to ask him why. He feels that since people expect the worse, he should show them the worst side of him. He starts of wanting to ruin Lilith for some slight but as he started to see the real her, his protective instincts kicked in and he begins to fall for her.
Lilith is known as the "ice queen", she lives for selflessly for her family due a scandal caused by her mother. She begins to fall for Jack when he saves her from scandal and in her own way she tries to protect him too.
Lilith's father was an annoying controlling hardheaded ass that I wanted to see punched in the face. He was in a way but didn't understand. Her brother was naïve ans stupid but had his own redeeming qualities.
This book was unique in its own right even if the plot was a little predictable. Enoch delivers another winner!
I found this regency romance enchanting, endearing, and just downright enjoyable. A wonderful weekend respite. The hero, Jack Faraday, is well, I think you tell he's probably not as bad as he seems with a name like that. A rake waiting to be reformed by the love of a good woman. In this case the name choice of Lilith is humorous, after all she tossed Adam aside 'cause he was a bore. Their relationship is a delightful evolution and the hero really does get sideswiped a bit. So adorable really, especially when they're so capable and the fall is ooh so much sweeter.
The mystery and intrigue that embroils our protagonists is well down and the the supporting cast is fabulous. I must say if there is one complaint it is that two characters are rather one dimensional to the point of unbelievable. But, the rest is done well enough that is a highly recommended read.