Product Description

Country bred Lucy Craddock-Hayes is content with her quiet life. Until the day she trips over an unconscious man - a naked unconscious man - and loses her innocence forever.
Viscount Simon Iddesleigh was nearly beaten to death by his enemies. Now he's hell-bent on vengeance. But as Lucy nurses him back to health, her honesty startles his jaded sensibilities - even as it ignites a desire that threatens to consume them both.
Charmed by Simon's sly wit, urbane manners, and even his red-heeled shoes, Lucy falls hard and fast for him. Yet as his honor keeps him from ravishing her, his revenge sends his attackers to her door. As Simon wages war on his foes, Lucy wages her own war for his soul using the only weapon she has - her love.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #7345 in Books
• Published on: 2007-09-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 384 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Incredibly vivid lead characters, earthy writing and an intense love story buoy the third entry in Hoyt's Georgian-set romance series (following The Leopard Prince), which kicks off with Lucy Craddock-Hayes's page-one discovery of Viscount Simon Iddesleigh in a ditch near her home, naked and beaten almost to death. Though her blustery father fears for Lucy's virtue, they take the battered man in, and the insightful, beautiful Lucy is soon as drawn to the handsome, witty gentleman as he is to her. But Simon's mission, to avenge the death of his brother, pulls him in two opposing directions: his soul-deep need for revenge and his desire to protect Lucy. The exquisite romance, flawed slightly by a dearth of historical details, is touched by Hoyt's mesmerizing storytelling; in a less talented writer, the love story could easily have been overwhelmed by the revenge subplot, but Hoyt skillfully uses Lucy and Simon's internal and external conflicts—including the threats against their lives—to enhance her love story. (Sept.)
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From Booklist
Lucy Craddock-Hayes thought the man lying in the ditch was dead, but he survived the assault. With the help of her servant, Lucy brings the gentleman home, and learns that he is Viscount Simon Iddesleigh. As Simon slowly recuperates, he finds himself falling in love with sharp-witted and surprisingly sharp-tongued Lucy, but he also knows that the longer he stays, the more likely it is that his quest for vengeance will endanger Lucy and her family. Delectably clever writing, deliciously complex characters, and a delightfully sexy romance between two perfectly matched protagonists are the key ingredients in the third book in Hoyt's superbly crafted, loosely connected Georgian-era Princes trilogy. Charles, John

About the Author
Elizabeth Hoyt lives in central Illinois with three untrained dogs, two angelic, but bickering children, and one long-suffering husband.

Customer Reviews

Disliked this story. Wanted it to be over.
The characters' actions did not make sense. For example, one day she leaves him and then returns to him the very next day. I was not drawn to the characters or to the story the way the author's first book drew me. I loved her first book, The Raven Prince. I do not recommend either buying or borrowing The Serpent Prince. Story brief: Simon is killing men out of revenge for their killing of his brother. They arrange for men to kill Simon, but he survives the beating, is found by Lucy and she nurses him back to health. They fall in love but he continues his revenge and she is against it. Sexual language: strong. Number of sex scenes: seven. Setting: 1760 Georgian England. Genre: historical romance.

I loved it...
Maybe it's because I haven't read the previous two books? I don't know, but I read the blurb on the back about Lucy's quiet country life being disturbed by her encountering a stabbed, beaten, naked man on the Lane to her home and I was immediately intrigued. There's a mystery here--and I LIKE mysteries!!! Perhaps that's it?

I thought Lucy was a strong character. She is mature and confident. She immediately feels compassion for a dead man dumped along the road--and when she learns he is still alive, she calmly insists on getting him the proper care, despite a quirky man servant and a cranky, blustering, but loving father.

Simon is the more difficult character... but one has to love his cool at finding himself waking, injured in a strange bed in an unknown place when he was last in London walking along the street, before being jumped by three men.

He falls in love with his "angel"--and I don't see why the love at first sight isn't reasonable, here. Lucy is a calm and loving anchor in Simon's troubled and chaotic world. Simon is the hope of love and passion that Lucy doesn't have in her ordered country life, where she has been slowly courted by the vicar who is so passionate he's taken three or four years and hasn't yet asked for her hand. That Lucy quickly realizes she can't settle for the vicar, even as she knows Simon's world isn't her own, is a mark of her sense and her sensibility. Simon, too, knows his world isn't her world--not because she's a simple country miss (as Lucy sometimes fears) but because the attack upon him is part of the current darkness of his life--one of revenge and death, leaving little room for love and goodness.

Convalescing, Simon gradually tells Lucy the tale of the Serpent Prince, ostensibly so Lucy, talented with her drawing and painting, can illustrate it as a gift for Simon's young niece. I think the tale fits their character and the story perfectly. He is revealing his thoughts of unworthiness and his road of sacrifice, even the sacrifice of his love. It's beautiful and moving, and rather than just imposing a superficial frame of reference for the romance, deepens it.

Now, perhaps Hoyt has handled this even better in her earlier two books, I don't know, but I do know I liked it all well enough here!

Historically--yes, the details were very light, but the elements of Georgian style Simon's life reveals is fine enough: his red-heeled shoes, his close-cropped hair under his wigs, his duels and fencing, the brothels and gaming hells and coffee houses...

But I am predisposed towards Georgian romances... and men whose witty tongue and sartorial excellence hide their inner, far more sensitive soul. I found it all profoundly romantic and I couldn't put the book down.

Now, perhaps I am in for an even better experience when I read the other books? What's so bad about that?

Fabulous.. Great Read!
Love this author! I picked up another one of her books out of curiosity and I am so glad I did!The character development is wonderful! I truly fell in love with the main characters, and the situations they were in.

Simon and Lucy have great duality, and believable thoughts and actions. I wished this book would have continued, as I did with The Raven Prince. It was fun to See De Raaf cameoed in this exciting romantic novel!