Do you know what makes getting the flu acceptable? (And no, it wasn’t the swine flu…been there, coughed that, have the antibodies). It was the regular, uninteresting flu, and the only good thing about it was that I had five – FIVE – Elizabeth Hoyt novels waiting for me on my tbr shelf. So I read them. All of them. This is not acceptable behavior when you have a fever, because as mom always said, you’re supposed to sleep, not stay up at night reading. But I did it anyway.

Elizabeth Hoyt’s The Raven Prince is one of the most interesting, sexy historicals I’ve read in ages; it was definitely worth the feverish hours of sleeplessness. For one thing, the hero is not your average Prince of Darkness. The Earl of Swartingham is tough, big and ill-tempered, all good heroic attributes. But he’s also covered with smallpox scars, and morbidly self-conscious about them, a feeling exacerbated by survivor’s guilt (the rest of his family died of the small pox), and his dead wife’s disgust. But he has to get married. Not to beat a drum that every romance reader knows too well, but he needs an heir. Luckily, he thinks he’s nabbed a young lady who claims that her stomach is not turned by his disfigurement.

Meanwhile, he also needs a secretary, because he keeps throwing things and howling, and his secretaries fly right out the back door. He ends up with a young widow, Anna Wren, who has more than enough backbone to stand up to him. This is where the novel becomes truly interesting. Edward and Anna become friends. Real friends. She doesn’t even see his scars: she sees the man inside. He doesn’t see a drab widow, but a sensual, strong woman whose adulterous husband was an idiot. Edward is dying to sleep with her…but he can’t.

She’s a lady, so she would never be his mistress. But she’s from a different class, so he couldn’t marry her. Plus, he’s practically engaged. To cap it off, she was married for three years without a child…and he needs an heir. So he can’t even contemplate marrying beneath himself.

Dying of sexual frustration, he heads off to a brothel… and she follows him, in disguise. After that, things become even more complicated. They have a couple of truly hot nights—but when he finds out, he’s absolutely livid. Did she compromise him? Does he have to marry her now, because she’s a lady? If he marries her, what about the children he’ll never have? Will that stand between them?

This is a great novel, worth staying up all night for. If you haven’t read it – get it now. It’s that good.

~buy this book~