A History Nut's Romantic State of Mind

This is the lowest rating I have ever given to a Elizabeth Hoyt book. And I gave it with a heavy heart.

First of all it took me 2 months to read the book. I read all the 3 previous books in the series and thought they were fine books. Nothing that blew me away but good stuff. This book, while written in the Hoyt style fluid proses, dragged on. The below comments are my personal opinions and the difficulties I experienced in reading this book may be exist for other people. Please read the review with a grain of salt.

I struggled with 2 problems in this book: lack of chemistry and lack of a good plot

Lack of Chemistry
Reynaud and Beatrice just have no chemistry together. They are both good characters. But their relationship came out of nowhere. Reynaud started his obsession over Beatrice without even knowing who she was. And Beatrice's youthful infatuation also seemed silly for her character. I think it is a huge waste of 2 perfectly good characters.

Lack of a Good Plot
The 4 soldiers looking for a traitor theme has to somehow come to an end in this final book. Reynaud's experience with the Indians also needed to be explained. Both themes, were not helpful for the romantic relationship. Beatrice ended up asking really dumb questions about Reynaud's experience in the Colonies. And this served as some kind of a mechanism for relationship development. I thought it did a poor job. And because the plots were not building the relationship, Reynaud's proclamation of love seemed really odd. What we end up with is just a couple in heat with quite a few sex scenes, which albeit well-written, quickly lost their usual allures. There is nothing romantic about a couple having sex who have not had some kind of relationship buildup.

I wanted to give the book 3 stars because I really think Elizabeth Hoyt is a talented writer. Even it is not as great s her other books, it is still better than a lot of romance novels out there. But in the end I must do her other books justice. This book, is not her best effort. She has much better offerings than this book.