Scandalous Desires (Maiden Lane, #3) in Fans of Eloisa James & Julia Quinn

Oct 03, 2011 Kelly22 rated it it was amazing

Shelves: family-moments, cheating-elements, favorite-series, prim-proper-prudish-heroine, heartbreaking-powerful-romance, gorgeous-handsome-attractive-hero, bad-boy-rake-rogue-casanova, brooding-dangerous-hero, alpha-hero, historical-romance

5.00+ Stars - Georgian/Historical Romance!

Charming Mickey O’Connor is the ultimate blackguard who is the most notorious river pirate of London. Two years ago, now widowed Silence Hollingbrook, visited him in need of a solemn favor. The results left Silence thoroughly ruined and loose her honor from everything and everyone who was ever valuable to her. Now she lives as a widow in confinement, spending her time in taking care of the children of the orphanage alongside her brother. The only happine 5.00+ Stars - Georgian/Historical Romance!

Charming Mickey O’Connor is the ultimate blackguard who is the most notorious river pirate of London. Two years ago, now widowed Silence Hollingbrook, visited him in need of a solemn favor. The results left Silence thoroughly ruined and loose her honor from everything and everyone who was ever valuable to her. Now she lives as a widow in confinement, spending her time in taking care of the children of the orphanage alongside her brother. The only happiness that she is left with is one abandoned baby, Mary Darling, who was dropped off her doorstep two years ago. She has accepted her life full of loneliness and detention and wishes to focus on her work and Mary Darling alone.

But Mickey O’Connor has completely other plans in his mind. Two years ago, he watched Silence walk away from him, utterly ruined by him by his choice. He had absolutely no remorse for his actions and is contented in thinking that whatever he did to ruin her life was because of his amusement. But still he feels the scored haven’t been settled yet. Something was amiss. He decides to acquire her and held her in his ‘palace’ with her consent. He knows it was possible only if he used her soft heart against her. So he set for a trap.

Mary Darling is his illegitimate daughter and he intentionally dropped her off to Silence because he knew she would fall in love with her and will follow her anywhere she goes. So he picks Mary Darling up at this planned hour and finds his plan working when Silence once again faces him in his ‘palace’. He tells her he won’t let her take away his daughter from his protection, because one of his all-time enemy is at large and he fears of her safety. As predicted, Silence gives in and agrees to stay with him and Mary Darling in his ‘palace’...and hence begins the story!

This book was a delicious treat! I sooo loved it! There was no dull or gloom moment to point at. Charming Mickey stole the show with his super presence. He was devastatingly handsome, sinfully charming & outrageously rich and powerful. The book showed what happens, when a man like him, sets his eyes for someone. He trapped her, he seduced her, and he stole her heart with ease, confidence, and ‘grace’. He was really effortless in his journey of conquering a woman’s heart, who despised him for ruining her life in past. He was a pirate, and he was here to take. And he took everything.

The transition of Silence’s unforgiving hatred to unconditional love and worship towards Mickey was portrayed beautifully. There was no room left for second thoughts, confusions and mystifications.
Silence was one of those quiet, proper, sweet heroines who were shy yet strong in a lovable way. She is a person full of love and adoration for everyone and always decides to see the better in them. She is young and naïve and everything opposite to Mickey.

Mickey is one of those heroes whom every other historical ‘gamma-rake-heroes’ tries to portray. But Mickey was the real deal. He was a true gamma hero with all the whoring and murdering and pirating around his life. Love didn’t mean anything to him. He had a heart made of ice. He is used to having new woman/threesomes every other night. He kills people without any compassion. He robs ships without a shame. He is brutal and dangerous and prefers to be this way. But with the progress of the book, we see the real man hiding behind a ruthless pirate.

He had a gruesome childhood and he had his justifiable reasons for becoming the man he is today. His effortless charm and chaotic excuse of a childhood made Silence fall for him hard. But at the end of the day he was a devoted pirate swore to a life of violence and brutality where there was simply no room or intention for love and affection. Lust he could do, but love was out of question. His black-heart was under oath to death for not ever feel an ounce of love for anyone ever again. At that, he knows he could lose Silence forever, which he wasn't quite ready for. But as a child he learned a bitter lesson of living in a life of poverty previously. He never wishes to get back to that life. He doesn't even know whether he can love somebody other than himself. So the decision he needs to make is age old. What will it be? For love or for money?

After reading this masterpiece book I am sad. I feel no hero will be enough anymore now that I know the charismatic and frivolous Charming Mickey!

This book is definitely a keeper and is very highly recommended to all.

PS: I was right about the identity of the Ghost of St.Giles!!:P
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Feb 18, 2013 Caz rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: mount-tbr-2013, audiobook

I didn't expect to like this as much as I did. I'm not a fan of pirates and I didn't like Silence all that much based on her appearance in the earlier books.

Review to follow.

Anyone out there who read the series in order as each book was published - had you worked out who the ghost was before the reveal at the end? ...more

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Oct 19, 2011 Heidi rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 5-stars, elizabeth-hoyt, pirates, 2011-5-stars, favorites, kindle-edition, favorite-heros

Absolutely loved this book! Chapter 14....whew...fannin' m'self! This is my Charming Mickey...

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Dec 02, 2011 Melissa rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2011-reads

This book was unconventional compared to the period romances I normally find myself reading. I normally read romances that have a fairly proper society girl eventually winning the heart of another society man. Some of these mens are labeled as "rakes" because of their inability to really form any sort of meaningful relationships. That makes them dangerous to the good women around them who are seeking husbands. But when you compare the actions of these so-called rakes with the actions of the hero This book was unconventional compared to the period romances I normally find myself reading. I normally read romances that have a fairly proper society girl eventually winning the heart of another society man. Some of these mens are labeled as "rakes" because of their inability to really form any sort of meaningful relationships. That makes them dangerous to the good women around them who are seeking husbands. But when you compare the actions of these so-called rakes with the actions of the hero in this story, the rakes end up looking like absolute saints. Mickey is a pirate, a real life pirate who makes his money by looting the ships which come to shore and collecting tithes on those ships in order to allow them safe passage. Shipping men who try to cheat him find that they are punished deeply, so it is worth their trouble to make Mickey happy. Mickey is a monster in many ways, a man who travels through life with little emotion, caring little for the collateral damage he may be causing to those around him. He does what guarantees his material gain, and that is that. He treats women as objects to serve him and nothing more.

But then our heroine, Silence, enters his life. I admit that I started this series with this book as part of a book club reading, so I missed some of the back story that led to this novel, but from what I can tell, Silence was previously married to a ship captain, but one day a year previous to this story she had to come to Mickey to plead for her husband for some reason. Mickey agreed to her demands, but in return he made her stay the night with him. Nothing happened. They just talked, and he basically tormented her by making her think that he had terrible plans for her. Then in the morning he made her mess up her clothing and hair so that those outside would think that he had ravished her. He explained that if her husband truly loved her then he would believe her when she explained that nothing had happened. Well, long story short, no one really believed her, her life was made extremely difficult, and her husband eventually died. Now a year later she finds herself back at Mickey's place. This time it is because she is after a baby who she loves. A baby had been left at the orphanage she runs with some family members, and Silence has basically adopted the girl. It turns out that this baby is an illegitimate child of Mickey's. Now Mickey has an enemy who has plans to harm this child, even though Mickey doesn't care one bit for it. But he wants to prevent his enemy from ever winning a point, so he kidnaps the child and brings her to his castle. Silence follows her there and says that she must stay with the child. So that is how Silence ends up living under the roof of the ruthless man who had harmed her so greatly a year earlier.

Lots of things happen in this story, but I won't say much about the details. The short story is that Mickey and Silence eventually fall in love. However, this is no conventional type of love story. Mickey really is a horrible criminal. He kills people, he steals from people, he intimidates people, he hurts people. And yet Silence is able to uncover the vulnerable man underneath all of these horrible actions. She is able to lead Mickey to open up to her about the horrible circumstances of his childhood. She is able to see that he is a man with emotions and an ability to love and care for others. She falls in love with him. He is not so quick to label his feelings as love. He believes that he is incapable of love, so he labels his feelings as something like lust, although his feelings do not really match any feelings that he has ever had before. Will he be able to overcome his horrible childhood and the actions of his adulthood to find love and compassion with another human being? That is the question.

Well, obviously this book has a happily ever after. It is a given that these books will end in such a way always. It was exciting, however, to see how that HEA occurs. I was left guessing a bit until the very end, and I was never quite sure that Mickey would pull through and be willing to give his whole heart to Silence. Some of these books tend to rise in anticipation until the couple finally come together three quarters of the way through and then decline a bit after this climax of action, easing into the ending of the book. But this book had enough action and mystery to keep me sucked into the story until the very end. The pacing was done very nicely, neither too quick nor too slow. It was a very nice read for me.

Why not five stars? Well, the reality is that the entire time I was reading this story I couldn't help putting myself into the situation and thinking what I would say if my daughter or my bff found themselves in the position that Silence was in. I kept thinking about what my reaction would be. Although I was rooting for Silence in this story I have to admit to myself, Mickey is a pirate. He kills people. They may be bad. They may not be so bad. It isn't totally clear. Obviously some of the people killed in this story are horrible, but we don't hear every story of every person killed by Mickey in his life. How many of those killings were of people who were just in his way as he attempted to grab another bounty of jewels for his collections? Mickey is a ruthless thief who steals from others without regrets. There is no sugarcoating this at all. I can agree that Mickey does have a valid reason for his cold feelings and his ruthless behavior. There is a good man underneath all of those layers of ice he has erected to shield himself from his past. But here is my problem (and I admit that I am overthinking this), no one with the kind of baggage that Mickey has is going to change overnight. They won't change in a month or in a year. It is going to take some serious time and effort to work through those issues. Mickey is a horribly ruthless man who takes what he wants when he wants it. That doesn't change right away, no matter how much Silence loves him or helps him. I thought that some of the love scenes between the two of them did not come across as romantic at all. They seemed too violent and feral in ways. That's fine, I guess, but it didn't give me any confidence that Mickey was a reformed pirate at all.

So as I read I kept getting pulled out of the story as I thought about what a bad mistake that would be if one of my friends made similar choices to Silence. But despite all of that I will say that this is a well-written romance novel. It surpasses many of the genre. I can't recommend that anyone take a similar path in life as that taken by Silence and Mickey (Michael), but I can say that this was a sweet little romantic tale of one man overcoming his past and finding someone who brought out all that was good in him. Read this story and enjoy it for what it is, but don't use it as a guide for any decisions you might be making in your life if you ever find yourself indebted to a criminal who is holding the child you love in order to protect her from his mortal enemy. If you do, here's my advice: You can do better. ...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Diane Peterson rated it really liked it

Shelves: historical-romance, rita-finalist

First, I want to say that I really liked this book. Interesting story, good conflict. However, it is surprising that so many readers listed this as their favorite HR of 2011. I guess I don't have a very strong pirate fantasy. Good book, just not outstanding. ...more

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