The Serpent Prince (Princes Trilogy, #3) in Around the World in 80 Books

Apr 30, 2011 Juliana Philippa rated it liked it

Shelves: romance-historical, 2011-may-reads, hr-hero-aristocrat-lord-titled, romance-historical-georgian, 0-reviewed, library-book, hr-hero-rake-rogue, hr-class-difference, hr-hero-arrogant-autocratic, hr-hero-nobility

Least favorite in the trilogy - Simon was wonderful, but their "love" came far too quickly (3.5 stars)

Definitely my least favorite of the three Prince books, which is also the most disappointing, because after the first one, The Raven Prince , I was soooo looking forward to Simon's story.

I loved Simon and I also liked Lucy, but I found their relationship hard to believe: why this instant connection that causes them within minutes to see deep within one another's souls?? For me, the foundation ...more

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Dec 10, 2012 Sam rated it it was ok

Shelves: 4-historical-romance, read-2012, reviewed

Book 3 of the Princes trilogy was a bit weak, committing some of the worst sins for a romance novel: boring characterization and story. The story moves too slowly, especially during the time that Viscount Simon Iddesleigh is convalescing at the home of country maiden Lucy Craddock-Hayes after he was attacked by unknown bad guys. I think we are supposed to be entertained by the attraction at first sight between the two, but I found there wasn’t much chemistry. Why? Because Lucy is so vanilla, and Book 3 of the Princes trilogy was a bit weak, committing some of the worst sins for a romance novel: boring characterization and story. The story moves too slowly, especially during the time that Viscount Simon Iddesleigh is convalescing at the home of country maiden Lucy Craddock-Hayes after he was attacked by unknown bad guys. I think we are supposed to be entertained by the attraction at first sight between the two, but I found there wasn’t much chemistry. Why? Because Lucy is so vanilla, and the banter isn't witty, funny, or meaningful. The same can said of the tiresome scenes with Lucy’s curmudgeonly, yet supposedly lovable, father.

Luckily, we move away from the tedious country house pretty soon. After the breath of fresh air (Simon) that swept into her life, Lucy decides that she can’t be satisfied living a country mouse life as the wife of a vicar. So she takes up Simon’s offer of marriage and moves to London. The rest of the story is marginally more interesting as we see Simon, in his bloodthirsty quest to avenge his dead brother, seek out the responsible men and engages them in dangerous duels. He loses a bit of his soul every time he kills a man, but he can’t stop until he gets revenge. Here, I like how Hoyt doesn’t sugarcoat things, the hero actually kills and kills. Quite more violent than most romance novels I’ve encountered—and it certainly made things more interesting. Of course, Lucy’s encouraging him to end such dangerous pursuits.

While Simon was a pretty engaging character, Lucy never came into her own as a fleshed-out character. She didn’t have an inner life that wasn’t attached to Simon’s exploits, so it seemed that she had no personality. We’re made to believe that she’s this spunky, perceptive woman, in the mold of other romance heroines, but I didn’t really see any evidence of this in the story itself. If Hoyt had further developed that glimpse of Lucy’s independence that we saw near the start of the book, when she realized she couldn’t settle for a quite country life, Lucy as anything but a bland cardboard cutout might have been more convincing. Maybe it’s personal taste, but I find stories with the heroine having to face her own problems in addition to what the hero’s confronting makes both characters more alive. We are shown Simon’s trips to the coffee house meeting his two friends, but barely anything that Lucy does by herself except for maybe two scenes with the in-laws.
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