She is an impoverished noblewoman who lives by her wits as a Tarot reader for the English nobility. He is London's most notorious cat burglar.
They met one dark, glittering night. Yet even Jessamine Maitland cannot foresee the destiny that will sweep her into the adventure of her life with the proud, arrogant thief who has no intention of ever being caught—by man or woman.
But Alastair MacAlpin has not reckoned on Jessamine—and a passion that will turn a game of cat-and-mouse into a matter of life and death. As the elusive aristocrat attempts the most daring coup of his checkered career, he is undone by this elegant beauty who sees the tenderness behind his mocking façade... and who will pursue him over rooftops and to the ends of the earth, if she must, for the love only he can give her.
Anne Stuart is a grandmaster of the genre, winner of Romance Writers of America's prestigious Lifetime Achievement Award, survivor of more than thirty-five years in the romance business, and still just keeps getting better.
Her first novel was Barrett's Hill, a gothic romance published by Ballantine in 1974 when Anne had just turned 25. Since then she's written more gothics, regencies, romantic suspense, romantic adventure, series romance, suspense, historical romance, paranormal and mainstream contemporary romance for publishers such as Doubleday, Harlequin, Silhouette, Avon, Zebra, St. Martins Press, Berkley, Dell, Pocket Books and Fawcett.
She’s won numerous awards, appeared on most bestseller lists, and speaks all over the country. Her general outrageousness has gotten her on Entertainment Tonight, as well as in Vogue, People, USA Today, Women’s Day and countless other national newspapers and magazines.
When she’s not traveling, she’s at home in Northern Vermont with her luscious husband of thirty-six years, an empty nest, three cats, four sewing machines, and one Springer Spaniel, and when she’s not working she’s watching movies, listening to rock and roll (preferably Japanese) and spending far too much time quilting.
For some reason this was taken off Kindle BUT JOKE'S ON YOU, ANNE STUART. I BOUGHT A USED PHYSICAL COPY AND NOW YOU DON'T GET MY MONEY, YOU FOOL. YOU FOOLISH FOOL. LOL.
This Georgian historical romance typifies Anne Stuart's best writing in many ways. There's the sparkling chemistry, witty dialogue, fast-paced plot, and a secondary yet equally compelling romance. And of course, the cynical alpha hero who only does women—not emotions—and the ordinary heroine whom he finds extraordinary.
One of the reasons I enjoyed this romance so much was due to the lighthearted tone. My favorite scene by far has to be Alistair and Jessamine's first solo scene together. Alistair thinks he's being all seductive and charming. But unassuming Jessamine cockblocks him without even trying, forcing him to plainly state what he wants from her:
Alistair: "I want your body." Jessamine: "What for?" (LOL)
Alistair's characterization is another reason this is Stuart lite. Alistair isn't as alphahole-y as some of the author's other heroes. In fact, I liked him a lot.
Jessamine, too, breaks the mold by being one of Stuart's stronger-willed heroines. Alistair had to work extra hard to seduce her. Needless to say these two fight their feelings and each other to varying degrees, but it's clear they belong together. Their HEA comes about abruptly in the author's typical fashion, but I found it surprisingly satisfying.
Now on to the story's big plot hole.
With that said, this weakness in the plot didn't diminish my enjoyment too much.
He glanced around him. “I’m afraid I’m fresh out of headmen’s axes, sweeting. You want to saw away at my neck with a butter knife?”
"Prince of Swords" is the story of Jessamine and Alistair.
Our heroine is the impoverished noblewoman who lives by her wits as a Tarot reader for the English nobility, our hero London's most notorious cat burglar. They meet when he is strutting after robbing a rich woman, and she arrives to predict their fortune. The hero is instantly enchanted, and thus begins a cat and mouse game between a smart heroine and a cunning hero. The secondary plot revolves around the lives of two bow street runners, one evil and the other good, as well as the heroine's sister, whom the heroine has been trying to protect, yet ends up falling for the good guy- making it the parallel storyline.
I think one of the most fascinating aspects of this book was the dark humor and shades of grey the hero portrayed- which reminded me a lot of Ms Stuart's heroes from the House of Rohan series. Shamelessly arrogant, he stole for amusement and seduced for fun. Utterly bored with his illicit exploits, he is intrigued by the seemingly virginal heroine, and decides to seduce and discard her. Alas fate has other plans.. The heroine is a sweet, sacrificing woman- who is as strong as she is vulnerable. I admired her loyalty for those she loved!
“I can give you the home,” he said. “In the hills of Scotland, miles away from any city. It’s huge and rambling and drafty, but the roof won’t fall down anytime soon, and there’s a loch with the best salmon in the world.
“And I can give you children. I can quite willingly see that you’re eternally pregnant if that’s what you want.” He paused, oddly frightened.
“Is that all you can give me?” she asked him, calm and clear-eyed.
He raised his eyes to look at her. “I can give you a man who loves you so much that he would likely die without you,” he said simply.
There is angst, mystery, romance, humor, bloodshed, evil villains, drama and ends in a HEA. Totally enjoyed the kickass slaying at the climax. Reminded me of "Catspaw" series- which is another gem by Ms Stuart.
Wow, the hero and heroine REALLY GOT ON MY NERVES!!
I know Anne Stuart always write about masterful, amoral and ruthless men, with "strong" but actually incredibly foolish and vulnerable females who just can't help but fall for 'em. I have read a number of her books, and enjoyed them, because she usually inter-cut the hero's apparent cruelty with realistic (above-par for the genre) and poignant inner dialogue of him slow coming to care /love the heroine. While I most certainly do not read Stuart to imagine myself into her heroines' shoes (yeech!), I can definitely appreciate well-written anti-heroic, handsome as angel /demon /whatever men.
Not so in this one. He is bored, and intends to use her, and uses her, and uses her, and uses her, with only rare consideration for her feelings, unto literally the last 5 pages. And of course, the whole time she's all "angry" but really pathetically turned on and grateful for his attentions. Even after the climax, where he literally throw her to the "enemy", she longs for his return.
Can we at least have some SEMBLANCE of equality in a romantic relationship?? This book made my blood boil, and I threw pillows at the wall in an attempt to divert violence away from my ebook reader.
Another winner from Anne Stuart! Alistair (or the Cat) is an impoverished Earl who has resorted to stealing jewels in order to rebuild his fortune. But even after he's filled his coffers, he can't seem to stop his night walks that keep him from being bored. And everything becomes way more interesting when he meets Jessamine, a respectable woman clearly fallen on hard times, who tries to support her family by reading the cards. She claims to be able to read the past and future in them and in truth she seems to look into the soul of people and read their secrets. Is she trully gifted or is she a clever impostor? In both cases, she is a threat to his identity, what with her working together with the Bow Street runner that's after the Cat. So the Cat decides to start playing an interesting game with the Mouse. But he still hasn't decided what to do when he'll get what he wants: kill her or eat her?
The book features the usual dangerous, bad boy AS hero, who can be cruel and passionate at the space of a single breath. The heroine is spunky, strong and clever and able to stand on her own and fight for her family. There is also a lovely secondary romance between the heroine's sister and a Bow Street runner. It had action, suspense, humor even and a quick plot but i would have liked the hero to realize his feelings for the heroine a tad earlier at last. Recommended for all Anne Stuart fans.
Anne Stuart can write Historical Romances as well. YAY I don't think I've ever cheered on a secondary romance this much. I loved the romance almost as much as the primary one.
I loved how the two love interests completely contradicted each other in so many ways yet you couldn't help fall in love with both of them.
Gahh so much sweetness in this book. MUST HAVE MORE.
Perhaps this might actually be one of the first books I've read that was both supernatural and historical, with romance thrown in as well. I had no idea this was actually any of those genres when I first read it. Frankly, most of Ms. Stuart's books haven't been up to par as A Rose at Midnight [my favourite book of hers] but this was ok. Apparently it wasn't memorable to me enough to remember that I've read this already hah. I might come back to this review eventually, but then again I might forget again. Anyway, the book starts off very interestingly, it definitely caught my attention as I was reading the demo version on Amazon, basically, it must've been one of Stuart's early works because it has hints of her previous books. The 'hero' is another anti-hero and is actually more of a caring villain if you can think of it that way [Stuart is the queen of villainous heroes], and immediately upon seeing the heroine, he already wants to 'rut' with her. OK..... but this is something that is repeatedly through the first few chapters of the book, so it's with both dread and anticipation that makes me want to read through Alistar's (the 'hero') point of view [*note, this book goes through various character's points of view] , anticipation because it's what's supposedly pulling the story through, and dread because we get these unimpressive and banal thoughts through the book. An example can be viewed here (context; the heroine is trying to escape his seductive clutches, because if she happens to have intercourse, she will lose her extraordinary card-reading abilities, which is what's keeping her family afloat, and as she does this, she breaks the glass door behind her with her back, thus getting her back all scratched up and Alistair (the 'hero') carries her away to get it bandaged up, here are his thoughts 'She was more rounded than he realized, a fact that pleased him. He had every intention of discovering just how rounded she was, and he was going to taste those curves, luxuriate in them- once he managed to wake her up and bandage the scrape along her back.'
WHAT THE....OK then....
Honestly, this book was rather vulgar, not something I was expecting at all, but I went on regardless because I knew that my brain would eventually filter out the bad stuff and make the best of this book. After all, I've been craving a book where the hero was 'charming', sly, aloof and a Cat burglar. [Ok.... I've been obsessing over Miraculous Ladybug, I'll admit :')
And yes, this is exactly what I got. It's definitely a story out of the norm, and very original, in comparison to newer historical romance. Having also that added sense of paranormal stuff, it made it even better... once you get past the bad fillers (because, let's be honest, this was a ploy to make the story longer.....) I'm re-reading it again and hopefully I can remember having read it this time around :D I would recommend it if you want something new, are tired of this 'new adult' stuff that's passing off as romance [really, though, this 'vulgarity' isn't something that strange to read, knowing how it's what everybody who's reading new adult books are used to it], if you want some anti-hero and of course to pass the time and be entertained, because it held my attention [long enough that it made me want to check and see if I read it before... and have a bit of time to write this weird review. Read it!
EDIT: I finished the book for the second time (I believe...) and realised why I didn't remember the storyline: it was because it was rushed! What...There was no character development, no context to actions performed by the characters. Most of the things that happened in the book were definitley unbelievable in a very cringy way, and that ending was not worth all the reading I did on the first half of the book. The characters were all flatly expressed and not memorable at all, we were told what they did, what they thought and briefly, what they looked like, but other than that they were just there. I'll just leave this edit/review here in case my future self decides to re-read this again without knowing. OKthanxbye
OK insta-lust is most definitely not my thing. I closed the book as soon as I read the hero telling the heroine "I want your body" the first time they ever had a conversation.
Jessamine is a tarot card fortuneteller gentlewoman down on her luck, living with her beautiful younger sister and mother in poverty. Alister is a foppish gentleman jewelry thief, bored with life. I liked Jessamine and Alister together, they hated but lusted after each other and their conversations made me smile. However, when they were apart all the other plot points bored me. There is a lot going on here: the evil Bowstreet runner using Jessamine's talent, secondary roamance of her sister and another Bowstreet runner, Alister's continued thievery. I just wanted to read Jessamine and Alister together. He kept her guessing until the last page, when would he confess his love and what was his future plan, I wanted to see them happy for a few pages.
I thought this was awesome. Anne Stuart's heroes are often really evil people, like murderers and stuff, so it was a nice break that this one was only a thief. I was really into both romances, it's one of the only times where I am equally into the primary & secondary romance. Full of adventure, and romance, and sex, it was a pretty great book.
Jessamyn and Alasdair are as opposite as night and day. she is a genteel woman who is on hard times and makes her living by reading Tarot cards for the wealthy. Alasdair is an Earl, also on hard times, who fills the empty family coffers by stealing the rich people's jewels. Both are delightful characters, and of course when the meet, sparks fly. This was a good read and recommended.
I disliked this enough that I'm trying to track down how I even found it. Entirely too rape-y and poorly researched, which is saying something. I'm even a bit irritated that I bothered finishing it.
Di quest'autrice avevo letto solo un romanzo contemporaneo e anche se sapevo di una petizione organizzata per la pubblicazione dei suoi romanzi storici non mi sono lasciata influenzare. Se pensavo di trovarmi il solito protagonista maschile costretto a rubare per motivi nobili mi sono dovuta ricredere sin dalle prime pagine del romanzo. Alistair ruba a quei ricchi boriosi e antipatici che possono permetterselo così da poter sistemare i debiti causati dalla vita dissoluta del fratello maggiore poi morto. Tornato in auge decide di continuare la sua attività di ladro per non morire di noia. Caratterialmente è cattivo, non che sia violento o ama far del male alle persone, ma è un uomo sarcastico e insensibile (ciò traspare chiaramente nei suoi gesti e nelle sue parole) ma che riesce a mascherare bene. A volte ho pensato di volerlo uccidere tanto era insopportabile, altre volte l'ho apprezzato ma pensare che sia il genere di uomo che preferisco nei romance è da escludere. Sempre per noia decide di sedurre Jessamine una ragazza finita in disgrazia e costretta a vivere in una parte di Londra poco raccomandabile. L'unica sua fonte di reddito è il particolare dono lasciatole da una zingara: saper prevedere il futuro attraverso i tarocchi. Una donna decisamente ingenua e molto malleabile per niente all'altezza di un ladro come il Gatto (incredibile come venga trattata e come reagisce con poca convinzione). Per compensare questa storia alquanto sui generis l'autrice decide di contrapporre una storia classica: la sorella di Jessamine che dovrà salvare le sorti della famiglia sposando un ricco possidente, s'innamorerà di un semplice poliziotto di Bow Street coraggioso e con il senso dell'onore. Una trama molto particolare, uno stile scorrevole e dei personaggi secondari che non fanno solo da cornice. Un romanzo diverso sotto molti aspetti ma che non mi fa rimpiangere i romance a cui sono abituata.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I normally like Anne Stuart for really well developed characters. This just fell flat for me. Jessamine's abilities seemed really interesting and Alastair was a great anti-hero. I really liked the idea of them together, but their romance seemed forced. Jessamine seemed unwilling to be seduced and that sounded rapey to me. She eventually goes along with it, even though she knows she will lose her mystical abilities. Which I couldn't understand why. And then the ending was resolved too quickly.
Super slow for me. The description of the book was really appealing but it turned out to be such a let down. Didn’t get attached to any of the character. I found Alistair to be quite selfish and led by his own needs. Between the characters, slow pace, and predictability I was soooooo over it by the end.
DNF too dark with bad bow street runner Clegg and his threats, and sadist major domo, impoverished Jess, glorious Fleur, obvious good bow street runner romance, and hero's banality all in first chapters. too much overtone, maybe will read the last five pages. did like that Clegg was axed from reading reviews.
Anne Stuart writes stories that are so enjoyable that I can't stop reading. I know when i start one of her stories that it will be a good book filled with twists and turns and end on a high note. Good writing and cha r caters make her stories stand out .
Sotto l'ombrellone cercavo un romance puro, di quelli alla harmony, senza troppe pretese. Una storia coinvolgente ma non troppo perché non avevo modo di tirare tutta la notte come mio solito per divorare un libro fino all'ultima pagina. Beh, diciamo che in un certo senso ha rispettato le aspettative ma speravo in un intreccio un po' più strutturato e personaggi un filino più complessi. Basic.
I pochi romanzi della Stuart che devo ancora leggere li sto centellinando. Li lascio per i momenti "di bisogno", quando ho voglia di farmi una coccola. Questo non è il migliore e non è nemmeno memorabile, ma...ce ne fossero!
Stuart likes to write bad guy heroes and this one felt the most natural from what I’ve read of her HR, there’s still that annoying tendency for them to talk about how bad they are but in this case he was just being frank about his attraction to the heroine and his intention to ruin her, I appreciate the directness.
Dopo aver tentato a più riprese di proseguire la lettura, desisto. La trama mi interessava, ma non riesco proprio a farmi piacere lo stile lento e lezioso con il quale presenta i fatti. Poi si concentra troppo sull’investigazione ai danni del ladro seriale denominato “Il Gatto” e quasi nulla sull’aspetto romance. Delusa.
Ah, me. I know I’ve said it before (like…yesterday), but I love me some Anne Stuart. I’m so glad I grabbed this book. Nothing like filling a paper grocery bag with paperback romance books for $2. Library book sale FOR THE WIN!
Jessamine Maitland is the eldest of two, and she’s taken it upon herself to shoulder the burden of her small family. Her mother is useless. Her sister is young, beautiful, and chocked full of potential to catch a wealthy husband. Jess herself, however…she’s too old (so she thinks), and she supports her family by doing Tarot card readings for the nobility. The thing is, Jess truly does have a gift with the cards, a “sight,” if you will. The catch, though, is that she must remain a virgin in order for her connection to the cards to remain true. She decided as a little girl that she would put her gift ahead of love. So, you see, she counts herself out as any hope in rescuing her family from poverty. During one of her readings, she meets the man who’s about to put all of that in jeopardy.
Enter Alastair MacAlpin. He’s rich. He’s titled. He’s incredibly, insufferably BORED. So what’s he do to keep himself amused? He steals things. From his peers. His rule is to only steal from those who can afford it. While most of the time he reaps the benefits for himself, from time to time he’ll pass on the winnings to those less fortunate. Regardless, Alastair is bitter and harsh. Life has not been good to his family, and he sees his little “hobby” as a way of getting his revenge. Life is predictably boring until he sees Jessamine doing a reading at the party he is attending, and she accurately predicts that someone has just stolen something of value. This is his big “WTF” moment of the book, and mind you, it’s only the 1st chapter. It only gets better from here.
Alastair is intrigued, to say the least. Yeah, he’s somewhat concerned about Jess’s bizarrely accurate prediction. But he’s more enthralled then anything else. He has to know who this woman is, how she does what she does, and, more importantly, he has to have her. Using his connections (and his mad skills as a stealth prowler), he manages to track her down.
Now, you can imagine where things go from here. The thing that really keeps the plot from falling into a predictable rhythm is the strong will of Jessamine Maitland. She’s not stupid and she’s not shy. She may be poor and fallen on hard times, but she’s streetwise and damn determined to better life for her sister. It also makes a difference that, at times, Alastair is downright hard to like. The things he says…they’re harsh. Any other woman than Jessamine would crumble beneath his almighty assholity. Yes, I made that word up. Bite me. What makes it work, though, is that these two manage to bring out the best in each other.
Can a thief and a gypsy have a happy ending? I ain’t gonna ruin it for you.