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Hayle Ravens
The Forbidden Chamber
“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-murderer; desire tempts her to look past his aura of danger.
Rukh refuses to let his family’s curse kill a third bride, but Isabel awakens the Raven within him, compels him to take her to wife—and to bed—despite the secrets that live under his skin. That lie is locked in the darkest corners of the manor, waiting to be unleashed. Their lusty union arouses the curse, entangling Isabel in an erotic tug of war that can only end in her destruction. There is no escape for either of them. Not from his family’s shadowy history. Not from demons imagined and real. And not from the choice Rukh faces to save his bride from a fate worse than death…
Warning: This gothic contains heady kisses that lead to ruin, passionate sex on a desk chair, a mysterious husband who may be a murderer, a cursed family of raven shifters, and an unspeakable evil hidden in the closet.
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-murderer; desire tempts her to look past his aura of danger.
Rukh refuses to let his family’s curse kill a third bride, but Isabel awakens the Raven within him, compels him to take her to wife—and to bed—despite the secrets that live under his skin. That lie is locked in the darkest corners of the manor, waiting to be unleashed. Their lusty union arouses the curse, entangling Isabel in an erotic tug of war that can only end in her destruction. There is no escape for either of them. Not from his family’s shadowy history. Not from demons imagined and real. And not from the choice Rukh faces to save his bride from a fate worse than death…
Warning: This gothic contains heady kisses that lead to ruin, passionate sex on a desk chair, a mysterious husband who may be a murderer, a cursed family of raven shifters, and an unspeakable evil hidden in the closet.
ebook
First published October 1, 2009
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About the author
Ella Drake
44 books105 followersAs 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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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 11, 2010
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.
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.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 13, 2016
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.
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.
April 17, 2017
Gothic, seeimingly-doomed love meets a curse that one one lady won't let stand in the way of her happily ever after. *swoon*
I really did enjoy this one. Dark and moody with plenty of hints of danger and despair. Well, the despair wasn't really hinted at. It was pretty much hanging out for everyone to see. If they knew where to look.
Annnnnyway. Isabel and Rukh don't have it easy. Between the rumors circulating about his previous wives and the meddling of his family, it looks like Isabel is the next to be offered up as a sacrifice to the dark secret the Hayle family is hiding in the manor. Except it turns out Isabel isn't one to sit idly by and let bad things happen to her. She fights back. WITH KNOWLEDGE.
I appreciate that in a lady.
Highly enjoyable with just the right amount of Gothic intrigue to keep me excited to turn the page and see what was going to happen next. *thumbs up*
-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal
I really did enjoy this one. Dark and moody with plenty of hints of danger and despair. Well, the despair wasn't really hinted at. It was pretty much hanging out for everyone to see. If they knew where to look.
Annnnnyway. Isabel and Rukh don't have it easy. Between the rumors circulating about his previous wives and the meddling of his family, it looks like Isabel is the next to be offered up as a sacrifice to the dark secret the Hayle family is hiding in the manor. Except it turns out Isabel isn't one to sit idly by and let bad things happen to her. She fights back. WITH KNOWLEDGE.
I appreciate that in a lady.
Highly enjoyable with just the right amount of Gothic intrigue to keep me excited to turn the page and see what was going to happen next. *thumbs up*
-Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal
November 10, 2013
I liked the idea of a re-telling of the Bluebeard fairytale. But the result was disappointing.
The characters skip through developements, the relationship develops in jumps and twists losing me again and again. And honestly, the sex scenes were too many and, quite frankly, boring.
The description of the story climax was sloppy (among other things, you just don't 'forget' to mention to a guy racing back into a fire that the girl he wants to save is already dead), the solution crude. In the end I even couldn't care less that the author forgot to mention how the breaking of the curse affected the family (were the patriarchs still alive and about? whjat about the raven-aspects?). I lost interest in this hotpot.
I really wanted to like the story but, sorry, I cannot recommend it.
The characters skip through developements, the relationship develops in jumps and twists losing me again and again. And honestly, the sex scenes were too many and, quite frankly, boring.
The description of the story climax was sloppy (among other things, you just don't 'forget' to mention to a guy racing back into a fire that the girl he wants to save is already dead), the solution crude. In the end I even couldn't care less that the author forgot to mention how the breaking of the curse affected the family (were the patriarchs still alive and about? whjat about the raven-aspects?). I lost interest in this hotpot.
I really wanted to like the story but, sorry, I cannot recommend it.
October 21, 2012
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 was really prudish.
I wouldn't recommend it, but it wasn't the worst book.
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 was really prudish.
I wouldn't recommend it, but it wasn't the worst book.
October 7, 2010
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.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews