To Taste Temptation (Legend of the Four Soldiers, #1) in Bloggers Unite™

Apr 30, 2008 Julie (jjmachshev) rated it really liked it

Shelves: queuemyreview, 2008-reads

I think we all enjoy reminiscing on fairy tales from our youth. The downtrodden heroine saved by what turns out to be a handsome prince. At least, those are the fairy tales of my youth before the era of political correctness. I even remember when either Cinderella or Snow White was re-released by Disney in the 80’s and women’s groups were encouraging mothers with daughters to boycott the film because it taught girls to “wait for a man to rescue them”. Uh… hello? IT’S A FAIRY TALE! Anyway, that’s I think we all enjoy reminiscing on fairy tales from our youth. The downtrodden heroine saved by what turns out to be a handsome prince. At least, those are the fairy tales of my youth before the era of political correctness. I even remember when either Cinderella or Snow White was re-released by Disney in the 80’s and women’s groups were encouraging mothers with daughters to boycott the film because it taught girls to “wait for a man to rescue them”. Uh… hello? IT’S A FAIRY TALE! Anyway, that’s part of what was enjoyable about Elizabeth Hoyt’s books is her inclusion of a fairy tale within the story and somewhat mirroring plot lines. She continues this tradition with her new series, The Legend of the Four Soldiers and this first novel, “To Taste Temptation.”

Our first fairy tale soldier is Iron Heart, mirrored by our book hero Samuel Hartley. He’s a wealthy, successful, rakish, and “uncivilized” businessman from the Colonies who isn’t ashamed of his humble beginnings. His backwoods background enabled him to act as a scout for the British in the French and Indian War, and it was there he served with our heroine’s brother. He’s come to England ostensibly on business, but in reality to identify the villain who betrayed their Regiment which resulted in a massacre that very few survived.

Samuel finagles an introduction to our heroine, Lady Emeline Gordon, whose brother was one of the officers killed in the massacre. She also serves as a chaperone for young ladies navigating the ton. Samuel has brought his sister, Rebecca with him and soon maneuvers Emeline into acting as her chaperone. He’s also soon maneuvering Emeline into a shockingly passionate affaire.

Emeline is the picture of titled British sophistication. She’s also been deeply affected by the death of her much-loved husband, brother, and father in short succession. This has left her with an ageing Aunt, a young son, and all the cares and burdens associated with acting as head of the family. She’s lost the ability to trust, is frightened to love, and is perfectly willing to settle for a secure marriage without passion…until Samuel. He’s wrong for her in every way, and she’s everything he is not. So why, oh why, is he the only one who sees her as she truly is? Who understands her? Who can pull these confusing, exasperating, exciting emotions from her so easily? Is she willing to give up her life in the ton?

Each chapter of the book begins with a snippet from the story of Iron Heart and the progress of the mystery and the relationship between our lead characters seems to in some way echo our fairy tale. It’s a story within a story within a story. There’s a truly American budding romance between two secondary characters and I think I caught a glimpse of one, if not two, of our future soldiers. I’ll be waiting for their stories too.

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Sep 02, 2008 Mia Marlowe rated it it was amazing

Elizabeth Hoyt's To Taste Temptation has caught me in her web. Her characters aren't the usual suspects. Her heroine is a titled English widow, her hero a colonial from Boston on the trail of the man who betrayed his regiment to the Wyandots and the French.

Ms. Hoyt has mastered the art of repressed passion. Her characters are so acutely aware of each other, even when they'd only shared one kiss, she had me squirming in my seat.
The love scenes are remarkable and her characters are so achingly hu ...more

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Jul 11, 2021 Julianna rated it really liked it

Shelves: read-2021, historical-romance

Reviewed for THC Reviews
To Taste Temptation is the first book in Elizabeth Hoyt’s Legend of the Four Soldiers series, the last of her historical romances I’ve yet to read. This opening volume tells the story of Samuel, a wealthy American businessman who grew up in the wilderness and fought with the British in the French and Indian War. Nearly his entire company was slaughtered by an Indian war party who couldn’t have known their location unless someone had betrayed them, and he believes it was o Reviewed for THC Reviews
To Taste Temptation is the first book in Elizabeth Hoyt’s Legend of the Four Soldiers series, the last of her historical romances I’ve yet to read. This opening volume tells the story of Samuel, a wealthy American businessman who grew up in the wilderness and fought with the British in the French and Indian War. Nearly his entire company was slaughtered by an Indian war party who couldn’t have known their location unless someone had betrayed them, and he believes it was one of their own officers. Determined to find out who and bring that person to justice, he travels to England and insinuates himself into the life of Emeline Gordon, an aristocratic lady who is also his new neighbor, asking her to chaperon his younger sister around London. He then uses these opportunities to get close to some of the people involved and investigate. Sam and Emeline share a deep attraction for one another, but they’re like oil and water at first, with him thinking her too high and mighty and her believing him to be too uncivilized. Soon their attraction explodes into passion, but Emeline is still set on marrying someone of her own class, while Sam’s investigation has brought danger to both Emeline and his sister, leaving him in a race against time to save them from the culprit. Overall, this was a pretty good story, but it didn’t end up being an Elizabeth Hoyt favorite for me, which I’ll explain as I go along.

Sam was raised in a cabin in the Pennsylvania wilderness. I can’t recall if his exact age when his sister, Rebecca, was born was given, but I got the impression that he was probably around 12-14 years older than her. His mother died in childbirth and his father shortly thereafter. Rebecca then went to live with their uncle in Boston while Sam was sent to a boy’s school. After school he joined the British military, fighting in the French and Indian War. Then his uncle passed on, leaving his business and considerable fortune to Sam, who has become a well-respected businessman. However, he still feels responsible for somehow not doing more to save the men who were taken captive after their company was massacred. Partially under the guise of spending more time with the sister he doesn’t know very well, he travels with her to London, where he asks Emeline to chaperon Rebecca to balls and parties, so that he can gain access to some of the men he wants to investigate as the possible betrayer. The more time he spends with Emeline, the more the lady amuses him and inflames his passion, but she keeps stubbornly pushing him away. However, it doesn’t stop him from falling in love with her and doing everything in his power to get her back when she and Rebecca are kidnapped by their enemy. Sam was maybe a little too alpha for my taste. He has an arrogant streak that could be rather annoying, and he pushed the envelope on forced seduction a couple of times, too, which made me a tad uncomfortable. In spite of that, he did draw my sympathy for a couple of reasons. First is that he suffers from PTSD (although that’s of course not what it was called back then), having flashback triggers and nightmares. Also, by the end, I felt rather sorry for him because of Emeline’s obstinate insistence upon wanting to marry someone of her own class even though she cares for him, too. He’s also good with Emeline’s son, which I thought showed that he’d be a good father.

Emeline is a proper, aristocratic, English lady who lives with her aging aunt and eight-year-old son, Daniel. She’s a widow, who lost her husband some time ago. In fact, she’s lost most of her family, including a beloved brother who was killed in the massacre. Little does she know, though, that Sam targeted her as a chaperon for Rebecca for that very reason, because she has access to the people he needs to interview. Finding the Americans a bit too uncouth for her taste, she reluctantly agrees to help. However, the more time she spends with Sam, the more he draws both her sympathy and her ire, and she also finds herself attracted to the uncivilized brute, much to her chagrin. Emeline hasn’t chosen the path of the merry widow, instead living a chaste, disciplined life since her husband’s passing, so the passion that Sam exudes is new and exciting for her. But despite her growing feelings for him, she still can’t quite give up on the notion of marrying an old, lifelong friend who is of her own social standing. Emeline had her good points. She’s a loving mother to Daniel, much more hands-on than most women of her class would be. She can also empathize with Sam when he’s having his flashback spells. But on the down side, she’s pretty snobbish toward him on more than one occasion and she frustrated me with her stubbornness regarding the idea of possibly marrying him. She’s also very controlling, and although by the end, we kind learn a little bit of why this is the case, it just didn’t resonate with me in the way I would have liked, making me question, to some extent, the depth of her feelings for Sam.

In the end, I liked To Taste Temptation, but it didn’t quite make it to keeper status, like most of Elizabeth Hoyt’s other books have. Aside from the character flaws I’ve already cited, I had a few other qualms as well. Sam and Emeline’s relationship wasn’t as deep as I wanted it to be. Sam initially plays things close to the vest, because he’s essentially using Emeline to gain access to society for his investigation. He also doesn’t want to reveal too much of what happened to her brother out of concern for her feelings. Emeline, for her part, holds back from Sam out of fear of losing control. I kind of felt like they didn’t spend quite enough time getting to know one another. Also their first couple of love scenes are anger turned to passion moments, which just aren’t my cup of tea. However, once they calm down and settle into their relationship better, these scenes exude all the steamy passion I’ve come to expect from this author. My only other small complaint is that the characters engage in an extreme over-abundance of eyebrow raising, a repetition which the editor should have caught and which is something that I don’t believe I’ve ever seen from this author before. I was also a bit disappointed that there wasn’t a resolution to the budding attraction between Rebecca and the young footman she’d taken a fancy to. The mystery was well-done, keeping me guessing until the actual reveal, and even then, Ms. Hoyt leaves a small thread hanging, which left me wondering if she’ll reveal more in a future book of the series. I also enjoyed the original fairy tale that’s told in snippets at the beginning of each chapter—an Elizabeth Hoyt hallmark—and it also ties into a book of fairy tales that Emeline searches for within the story. Overall, To Taste Temptation was likable enough to make me look forward to the next one, To Seduce a Sinner, which will feature Emeline’s friend and jilted fiance, Jasper, a man who also served with Sam, and her best friend, Melisande. I generally liked these two and think they have a lot of potential together, so I’m going to try to get to their book soon. ...more

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Aug 19, 2008 Bobbie Crawford rated it really liked it

Shelves: books-that-i-own, all-reviews, romance-reviews

To Taste Temptation
Book 1 in the Legend of the Four Soldiers
Written By: Elizabeth Hoyt
Published By: Forever Hachette Book Group USA, Inc., New York, 2008, First Edition, 362 pages, soft cover, ISBN 0-446-40691-0

“To Taste Temptation is a seductively-luscious Historical Romance that fires the blood and leaves you deliciously sated”BCM

Lady Emeline Gordon is the model of a cultured and refined English widow.
Everything in her life is predictable and rather dull, that is until the extremely wealthy Sa ...more

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Oct 10, 2008 Gail rated it liked it

This book is set in the pre-American Revolutionary period, just after the war known in America as the French and Indian War (I forget what its European name was.) The hero is an American war veteran, a scout who has been accused of running away from a massacre by French-allied Indians. He believes the troops were betrayed by someone among them, and has come to England to find the man. The heroine is the sister of one of the men who died in that massacre, someone the hero plans to use to get clos ...more

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Jan 28, 2010 Bekah rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2010-reads, read-own

I really liked this book more than I had thought I would. Samuel was a different and great hero. And the book was steam-o-riffic. I didn't mind Emmeline at all. I think she was perfect for Sam. Yummy read. ...more

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