Wanted to give it 3.5 stars but don't know. I thought it'd be an interesting read... which it sadly was not. I didn't connect with the heroine at all (from the beginning TBH) though I tried. She was the typical immature and rash heroines who 'grace' Anne Stuart's novels now and then. Sometimes I like them, other times I just wish them gone. This one was neither here nor there. Didn't care for her at all. The hero was your typical a-hole rakish Anne Stuart hero who thought he's beyond redemption. He tried to be over-the-top but he won't really top our favorite Killoran from To Love a Dark Lord. And though you could see Killoran's vulnerability under the mask, and in turn him garnering a bit of your sympathy if nothing else, the hero of this story was just an entitled and presumptuous a-hole. Though it sounds like I hated him, I didn't cause he failed to leave any mark on me really. These two had some chemistry and if the heroine was mature and smart enough to be his equal, I think we'd have had the interesting story I had hoped to find in Prince of Magic.

Once again, I liked the secondary romance between the hero's half-sister and a servant of the house - who was more hero's friend than a servant - more than the original romance. I'm not going into the whys and the hows cause I have no intentions of doing a full review. Needless to say, even with all the paranormal happenings, didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. :/

Guess for now I'll take a break from Anne Stuart's books for a bit.

My reviews are honest & they contain spoilers. For more, follow me:

Lord of Danger was another Anne Stuart book that intrigued me when I read the blurb. I dived into it not really reading too many reviews, but I had heard of it before being one of her classic HRs. My first attempt at her big backlist wasn’t very successful. Didn’t like that book much but I was enough ensnared into the magic of her writing that I wanted to read more. And man was I struck surprised by this one! Lord of Danger, simply put, just worked for me. So marvelously that... ah!

I’m a big fan of well-written medieval romances doesn’t matter whether the hero is a big, grumpy oaf in need of some loving or a straight bad boy who likes to hide away his heart of gold because he feels vulnerable to expose that part of him to the world. Our H, Simon of Navarre falls under the latter category. And though I’m not always fond of bad boy rakes, sometimes even I have to give in and admit defeat to his mastery. I can only say that I don’t blame Alys for falling for Simon.

Alys and her younger sister, Claire, had been living with nuns since they were young. Both born on the wrong side of the blanket so their only eldest half-brother, the legit heir to everything Richard the Fair, send them to the convent. Alys was barely a few yrs old when she was tore away from her ill and dying mother’s arms, never to see her again. I don’t really know much about Claire, only that her mother was either a prostitute or a tavern maid who abandoned her after she was born. Well, yep, their father was a piece of work who couldn’t keep it in his pants. Who knows how many of his bastards roamed all over England! Richard has duly, and may I say proudly(?), followed his father’s tradition in that regard. -_- Both Alys and Claire were much younger than him so when his father cocked up his toes, he banished them ASAP not wanting brats underfoot.

3.5 stars. After reading and LOVING Lord of Danger, I was looking for another medieval romance by Anne Stuart and came across Hidden Honor. But this one didn't give me the same feeling as Lord of Danger, nowhere near it TBH. So there'll be no full review for this one.

Peter, our H, is a monk who went to Crusade. He was a normal knight before that, but now atoning for his sins done during Crusade. And for that reason he'd taken vows for the strictest order of monks he could find. It intrigued me to know that the H was a monk cause I don't think I read another book where the hero was one. Now Peter, alongside a coterie of King's men disguised as monks, were accompanying a bastard prince to a monastery to be cleaned off of his latest sins. Peter was disguised as the Prince himself, while the Prince was masquerading as one of the monks. This Prince really was quite a piece of work. A cruel, sadistic POS, his history with Peter during Crusade comes to life later in the story, which also explained why there was so much enmity between them which was palpable even to someone like our h, Elizabeth.

At any case, I liked Peter and thought he was a hot monk. He actually was a very sexually active man, but since his return from the Crusade he'd been celibate. On that one regard, I agreed with Elizabeth. But for the most part I could never connect with her. She was quite young and impulsive. But what frustrated me most about her was that, though I didn't think she was horribly dimwitted or something, most of the times her confidence was utterly misguided. Misplaced even. Which did make me facepalm a few times. It led to some contrived misunderstandings between her and Peter that could've been avoided otherwise IMO. It might have to do with the fact that she grew up largely sheltered and had no idea of the horrors that lay on the outside world. Whatever is the case, I had a difficult time with her and I thought she wasn't a good match for Peter. He needed someone more matured, even worldly. Maybe even someone like Dame Joanna.

With Joanna, comes the part of the story that I actually loved. It was the secondary romance between Joanna, who was a courtesan and Peter's cousin Adrian, who was a knight. He was one of the men accompanying the Prince and they met while staying at one of the castles where Joanna was the mistress to one of the lords. I really wished the author wrote more pages on them rather then Elizabeth's shenanigans. I still don't know why exactly Peter was so attracted to her. :/ I don't want to sound harsh but it must've been that aforementioned celibacy. -_-

Overall, though I liked the story because it kept me hooked, it wasn't a favorite of mine by Anne Stuart. But I'll continue to check through her backlist for my next favorite. :)

My review contains spoilers and they're mostly my thoughts...

I’ve read and heard many good things about Anne Stuart’s books over the years, which definitely made me wanna read her books. But hers is such a daunting backlist that I wasn’t sure where to freakin’ start! Until recently, I, kind of on a whim, bought one of her latest reissue of an oldie called The Spinster and the Rake. The straight-forward title intrigued me and I liked the blurb cause spinsters and wallflowers are my favorites (by now, I’d be called both if I was living in that era :P). Rakes aren’t my favorite by any stretch of the word BUT an author can make me fall unquestionably in love with one. It has happened so I still take chances on them.

I read Anne Stuart’s rakes are moody and broody… sometimes seriously bad. Something told me she knows what she’s doing, so I went with that instinct and wanted to find out what havoc this latest rake in is wrecking. ;) Our hero, Ronan Blakely, the newly minted Marquess of Herrington, used to be what you’d call the proverbial ‘blacksheep’ of his family. His womanizing was so bad, at one point, when he tried to be off with a married woman someone had to step in. He was made to leave the country at the age of 22. Since then he’s had his share of fun in various European countries including France and Italy (latter is my assumption but no doubt he’s visited many other places too). He was not in the line of any succession but fate worked his way, and he’s back to the bosom of le bon Ton with a new title, and more money than he could possibly know what to do with. After 20 yrs., even with more than a few gray hairs peeking, Ronan Blakely is still as dashing and as devastating as he used to be at 22. And he knows just what to do with all he’s got; open a gambling club with the money and use his suave charm to operate it. Oooh, did anyone say Derek Craven? *imagine heart-eyes here*

But I digress... Let’s talk about our h.