*spoilers*I don’t like when authors start out having the main character be a child. It ruins them in my eyes. For example:She hated grandmamma. Hated her, hated her, hated her.Calling her grandma a dragon and repeating hate 3 times was just stupid. I get it; kids are prone to melodramatics and tantrums. But it’s just stupid, stupid, stupid.Jeremy Edmonson was immediately interesting.I liked Amy. She was a strong character with a sense of humor. She was mad at him and stuck to it, and she got some good insults in.I held out the hope that Northcliff was a virgin, as I always do. I especially thought that because he didn’t seem to be that king of man. When he spoke of women he talked about dancing with them, drinking lemonade and little frivolous, mundane things that I didn’t think a rake would dwell on. So when I found out he had kept mistresses I was disgusted and surprised. It didn’t go with his character because he didn’t seem that manly.I didn’t like how he was so attracted to her. Instant attraction is not ideal in a story. It’s just annoying. Authors think men have to be instantly attracted to her, and if it not it’s a betrayal. It’s ok to have him wait a while to like her, he doesn’t have to lust after her the instant he looks at her.I just loved the way the very minute he tried to guess her identity, he almost did. He thought of her homeland, realized the queen was being controlled by someone and then comes perilously close to identifying her as one of the missing children. I guess it couldn’t have helped the plot out or anything to drag the mystery of her identity past, what, the first quarter of the book? He knew she was of aristocratic blood.Amy turned out to be just like every single other women in every single romance book. They find themselves fascinated by the men, when they should be man. In the very beginning she finds herself captivated by the smell and weight of his jacket, his jacket for gods sake! Then after having a lovely discussion about his mistresses he says he’s imagining her as his mistress. She gets affected, of course, “because he’s a man and she’s a woman.” &apparently that’s all you need in a romance book. Random man + random woman = instant attraction and awareness.I just love a guy who says “I don’t take mistresses under the age of twenty. There’s a marvelous enthusiasm but no finesse. No skill.”How utterly charming. I don’t even want to know how many women under the age of twenty he had to try out before he came to that conclusion.I hate how the men always know the woman is a virgin. You’d think there was a big flashing neon sign over their heads proclaiming “I’m a virgin!” the way the men so easily hone in on it.And instead of playing it off, she blushes and looks away. Dead giveaway. It was Clarice everyone adored. Not Amy.But to hear Lord Northcliff inform her he would have moved any obstacle to have her as his mistress . . .He was jesting. Or a single day without indulging in debauchery had left him ready to be pleased by any female at hand.But if that was true, what kind of lustful beast would two days create?And why did she feel a warmth within her, a melting, a stretching of all that was instinctive and female?OMG! For once, just once, can there be a woman who doesn’t feel turned on by the fact that he had mistresses?! If someone said they wanted to add me to their string of floozies I’d cuss them out or smack them at the least, not feel all warm and fuzzy. Wth?She wasn’t soft and sweet and pretty, the way he liked his women to be. She was clever. She was sharp-tongued. She was too angular, with elbows that poked at her sleeves and thin collarbones instead of plump shoulders. Her face was handsome rather than pretty, and he would have said she never smiled, except that she did.Ok . . . so why does he like her again? You have him lusting after her and wanting to make her his mistress, and you say that. And what lovely taste he has, he picks musicians and things like that, so they can sing him to sleep or play music. Wow.This odd, shameful mood wasn’t something she liked to admit, nor was it something she understood, but it lived in her and she lived in it. In him.What the heck? Who feels that way about someone’s anger? He’s only been there a few days and she’s having thoughts like that. That’s ridiculous. Just say she enjoys sparring with him, anything else is just plain weird.It was so annoying how he kept stating that she wasn’t pretty and that he had had prettier and nicer women but he didn’t stop lusting after her. She’s imprisoning you, for god’s sake! Wth is wrong with you?! Jermyn stared after her, furious that she had goaded him into a loss of temper.Because he had nothing to do except read. Because he was bored. Because . . . because his hands itched to touch her.Omg, make me gag. I’m so sick of the mushy, run-of-the-mill, overused lines. Come up with some new material, for the love of god.When I found out his mother had left him, and that he believed she didn’t love him, and it forever ruined his opinion of women, I had a very strong premonition. One that comes from reading hundreds of romance books. I knew without a shadow of a doubt that his mother didn’t leave him willingly, and that before the book was over he would learn of the whole deception, likely that his uncle had a hand in.She’s bashing his character as always, and he notices her chest heaving because she’s angry. And the author decides to fall back on yet another aspect that hundreds of romance authors have recycled before her. She has Jermyn become affected more so than he has with any other woman. Yes, that’s right. He gets harder, and more erect, than he ever has with any other woman. And I just have to ask why? Why is he getting that way? He sees breasts heaving, or “erotically jiggling” as it was phrased in the book, on a bony body with a face that isn’t pretty and you suddenly find yourself more aroused than ever before. Makes sense.He lunges for her, grabs her and they fall onto the cot. He kisses her, and this is on the sixth day, after he’s been furious at his capture and boredom, and apparently his pent-up passion for this creature.He placed his feet on the floor. Slowly he stood, rising to his full height closely against her, allowing her to feel his heat. His ire.Her eyes widened.He lunged.She leaped away.Too late. He caught her around the waist. Triumph roared through him.The chain snapped to its full length. The manacle grabbed at his ankle. He fell. Twisted. Landed stop her on the cot. Beneath him, her breath whooshed out.They were sideways—she had one foot on the floor, one on the bed..I sat and puzzled over that for several minutes. How could they end up on the cot, much less sideways? He’s standing in front of the cot, she lunges away, he grabs her and twists. I could halfway understand if they’d landed on the cot with their legs hanging off, but not sideways. I just can’t wrap my head around that.He keeps kissing her, and she tries to fight him off. Amy should have been afraid that this caged beast, this being who at the same time bled and smiled, would rape her. Hurt her. She wasn’t afraid.She comprehended Northcliff’s rage.Oh ok. She thinks she’s about to be raped, but feels no fear. As long as you understand the feelings of the rapist, it’s ok. I got it!She pressed her hands hard against his windpipe, and then a second later her hands slide around his neck and she kisses him.She kisses him, the man she believes is so bad and has done the entire village wrong, and who she hated so much she kidnapped and ransomed him, and yet she’s kissing him. She even sucks the end of his tongue, something I don’t think someone who’s never kissed anyone before this would do.And he, the epitome of charm, says “you don’t know anything about kissing” and “you’re a virgin. I’ve been kidnapped by a nineteen-year-old who doesn’t even know how to kiss.”Wow, that’s so sweet! I hope my future husband says those words to me. It’s so romantic! And when you get kidnapped you really want your jailer to know how to kiss. That’s the first thing on your mind. It’s the height of stupidity and hypocrisy to have people who insult and hate each other one second to kiss the next.She lets him touch her, and doesn’t even fight it. She goes along with everything, even after those cruel lines about her inexperience.And one mad thought stuck in her mind--he was the only one who could give her fulfillment.Omg, r u serious?! She’s known him for 6 days, and she’s coming out with a line like that. There’s nothing like a romance author on an agenda. And that says a lot about her that she’d let a man, a stranger, she’s only known for six days touch her like that.Afterwards he smiles triumphantly like a complete jerk, showing her he was just proud of his victory. She flees, but I know she won’t hold onto those feelings for long.“I’ve never wanted a woman like I want you, but I promise—in all your life, I’m the only lover you’ll ever have. The only man you’ll ever want.”How can you promise that? Good god in heaven, I am so sick of hearing that.His little sex kit was just dandy. I tried not to think about how many times he’d used it, or how many women had touched it, (which I guess didn’t matter, because the box was completely forgotten. They didn’t even use either one, which displayed a huge amount of irresponsibility if you ask me) but the French glove to protect against pregnancy, and the bottle of oil was just a tad distasteful for my liking. “He preferred a combination of bayberry and spice.”A shooter comes into the basement, and when she sees Jermyn at the top of the stairs she realizes he’s been set free of the manacle. What she can’t possibly realize is that he had already been free. She says “The manacle was off. And he wasn’t gone. He was still here which meant that sometime, somehow, he’d freed himself and ever since, he’d been playing her for a fool.How can your thoughts progress like that? No, he’s free and still there so that means he’s been free for some time? That doesn’t even go together. It doesn’t make sense at all.That isn’t a natural conclusion to come to. No, she should have had Amy comment on how he was free, because the manacle could’ve come off in the scuffle. That’s more likely than simply him “somehow freeing himself” like she said. Then he could have owned up to it, saying he had been free for days. The author just wanted to rush the whole betrayal and so didn’t try to make it believable. It’s so annoying how she felt humiliated and tricked, yet did nothing. She still talked to him; she wouldn’t leave; she just let herself be under his control. It was pathetic.“Seize life by the horns.” Yes, I’m sure that phrase was coined in the early 1800s.It was so aggravating, yet predictable, how she went along with everything—the captivity, the marriage, the voyage to the honeymoon cottage, and the honeymoon.No words were spoken of love, not one single time. There weren’t even feelings close to love. It was possession, plain and simple.How neatly he turned the tables on her!Turned the tables expression? In the 1800s?Idk how many times he called her Lady Disdain. Every time he referred to Amy, he called her Lady Disdain. While normally I like nicknames, repetition can kill a book.She finds a gun in the cottage, and he realizes someone stuffed the barrel, so if she tries to shoot him, the gun will explode and end up killing her instead. And then he realizes he loves her. Just like that. And I think it’s been like ten days since he met her, which is way too soon to be using the L word. But anyways, he realizes he loves her from that brief brush with death, and this is after he’s had sex with her, after he realizes he wanted her for the rest of his life and marries her. Gee, I think love was supposed to come way before this.They have sex for the 2nd time in the cottage, and suddenly she’s playing the shy virgin she should’ve been the 1st time. The first time there wasn’t an ounce of reservation in her. She took off her clothes the first thing, didn’t even wait to see what would happen. Then she controls mostly everything. But now the author has her be shy. Ok…The letter he penned to his uncle was so annoying.You must help me in my hour of need. My abductors are cruel men who whisper at night of their desire to murder me, and when I hear them my blood runs cold! They speak of torture, of cutting off my head—of putting me in a weighted bag and sinking me in the sea, there to die a most horrible death! If you don’t pay them soon, you’ll lose your only and beloved nephew, the one remaining Edmondson other than yourself! Only through the cleverest of ruses and the kindness of their downtrodden maid was I able to sneak this plea out to you! I beg of you, come to my aid with a swift infusion of cash! I know it must be difficult to raise the gold required, but please, uncle, for my continued good health, it must be done! That almost wore me out to read that. Every single sentence minus the 1st had an exclamation point at the end! How annoying! That’s too much emotion to use in so short a space!Amy talks about her sad-sack past, because everybody’s gotta have one, and it takes Jermyn to point out that it doesn’t make sense that her gma sent a letter that her &her sisters were marked for assassination instead of sending protection.The author decides to fall back on yet another overused plot aspect. In the last quarter of the book she has Jermyn find out she left her sister in Scotland, so of course he thinks she’s flighty like his mom. Even when she tells him she loves him he doesn’t believe her. Just what the book needed.The whole “outdoor drama” scene to expose Jermyn’s uncle’s true nature was absolutely ridiculous. It was over the top to the point of badly executed school play status, and would not have happened anywhere in history, much less in the 1800s. I could understand staging a scene where his uncle admits his wrongdoing, with hidden constables or something, but having Jermyn walk back and forth on the balcony railing like an acrobat pretending to be drunk was completely outrageous. Uncle Harrison was a pathetic villain that inspired no fear whatsoever. If you want a very mild, nonthreatening villain, give him the sagging appearance of a hound dog and have him cackle like the 1 in here. You’re guaranteed no reaction from the audience.Since Amy staged the whole thing with guests hiding in the bushes and kept telling them to be quiet, saying it was going to be a surprise, I expected the audience to clap afterwards, thinking it had been a show. Because that’s exactly what it looked like. It was just insane.I love how authors cram as much crap as humanly possible into the last 50 pages or so, and yes, that’s sarcasm.The plan seems to have gone awry, because they see a body with auburn hair and a black cloak, and they assume it’s Jermyn, so everybody’s freaking out and they don’t hear the guy with the telescope say it’s the body of a woman, who’s been down there for a long time. I immediately know it’s his mother, and that Harrison pushed her there those many years ago. How quaint how the story comes full circle like that.The ending I barely care to talk about. Amy faints, he thinks she’s dead. She’s happy that he isn’t dead, she forgives him without a moment’s hesitation. &, surprise! She’s pregnant. On. Pg. 353 he makes the comment “explain that to our son” referring to their unborn child. &on pg. 356 says “for her christening.” Wait, what? I thought u just said it was a boy. Call it an it until u know the gender. Don’t keep bouncing around.I know back in those days it was acceptable to have a big gap in ages, but he turned 30, and she was still only 19 it seemed like a huge gap. That’s when it hit me that I’m 19, and picturing myself with a 30 yr old was more than unsettling.She started off so strong, and then she ended up like every other female character in every other romance book. They end up being towed around like a little rag doll.It’s almost comical how she said she wanted to kill him, that she would never forgive him for deceiving her, and then married him and chose to stay with him anyway. The characters changed so much towards the end they didn’t even resemble themselves at all. They might as well have been diff ppl. The Barefoot Princess was a cute name, I just wish it went with the book. It’s not like Amy was walking around barefoot all the time or anything. I was actually more interested in Rainger and Sorcha’s budding romance, and I’m interested in reading that book, even though he tried to get with her other sister Clarice.Once they had sex, the book just veered off course and the plot definitely fizzled out. Since the whole plot revolved around the kidnap, due to the fact that she believed he had stolen Miss Victorine's idea for a beading machine or w/e, I thought it would be addressed. But it was completely forgotten as if the author didn't even remember why she'd had Amy kidnap him in the first place. Why did she think he stole the beading idea? Who actually copied the beading machine? Did anyone actually do it? Why did Northcliff abandon the entire village? None of those questions were addressed. At the end he makes a speech about Amy making him see the error of his ways or some such nonsense, and he helps out with the village, but there is absolutely no mention of why he neglected it or why they believed he had stolen the bead thing. Wth?
I adored this book. I've always found the kidnapping then falling in love story rather trite and bizarre. Yet with the hero being kidnapped by the heroine, I found myself enjoying every moment. Maybe I'm just enjoying the man fulfilling a role that women traditionally take in this genre for once.Amy got on my nerves a bit. She seemed petulant and childish for someone of her age, especially given the historical period the story took place. Jermyn was a jerk and equally childish at the very beginning. But I think he evolved the most in terms of characters and I really enjoyed him as the book progressed.I am very tired of the misunderstanding trope (edit: whatever the heck its called). If I am in a relationship with you (and I am because I've slept with you and we're stuck together for long periods of time), then don't go running off with something I've said because you have _____ issues. Whatever those issues are, if you can't take two seconds to get your head out of your butt-hurt and actually listen, then I probably would not be in a relationship with you to begin with. But this is fiction, so I am a little more forgiving when it comes to fantasy escapism. Overall, I enjoyed the book very much. Book number one will be my favorite for a while.
What do You think about The Barefoot Princess (2006)?
Amy doesn't want to be a princess. She wants to explore the world, be unrefined, and have adventures. Fortunately for her, she's a princess in exile with assassins after her. She finds a temporary haven on the isle of Summerwind. The residents have been neglected by their lord, so they decide to kidnap him to teach him a lesson. Obviously, he and Amy end up falling in love. Amy is delightful: witty, defiant, spirited, and clever. Lord Northcliffe is rather highhanded, demanding, and alpha, but I've got a little more patience for that kind of thing in historical novels than contemporary ones. The plot is suspenseful and amusing; really kept me turning pages! The only complaint I have is the use of more modern euphemisms for parts of the male anatomy, specifically one that is a synonym for rooster. This really detracted from my enjoyment of the steamy parts. Other than that,the book was fantastic.
—Emily
Note: This review, and all my reviews, comes from my blog - Romantic Rose's Bookshelf (http://romantic-rosesblog.blogspot.com)Book 2 in the Lost Princesses SeriesThis book started out great… and got progressively worse, which was terribly disappointing. In the beginning, when our princess-in-hiding, Amy Rosabel, kidnaps our hero, Lord Northcliff (Jermyn Edmondson), with the intention of making him take notice of the poor way his tenants are living, the scenes are sarcastic, humorous, and witty. Dodd subjects Jermyn to Amy’s tough love treatment, and it’s hysterically funny to watch him rage and rage to no avail. He’s kind of (okay, definitely) a jerk in the beginning, which makes it doubly fun.From there, the book goes downhill. Amy becomes too docile for my liking, and I missed her fire. Jermyn undergoes a radical change of character that isn’t well explained. The plot becomes silly, with too many small elements (that are even occasionally contradictory) thrown in to try and keep our interest in a story that’s less exciting by the page. The plot was downright boring by the end, and I struggled to continue reading as it was pretty predictable. After one explosive scene where Jermyn ties Amy up, and she fights to get free (which I loved), even the romantic plot goes downhill – especially with Jermyn’s TSTL tantrum. Jermyn has trust issues because his mother ‘left’ when he was a kid and has a TSTL temper tantrum when he discovers Amy left her sister because ‘no female can ever have loyalty when they leave their happily married sister to go off in search of their own destiny. Please. That would be too normal. Die, ye evil wench, and be vanquished from my life forever as my soul is ripped out of my chest by the terrible nature of your betrayal – which by the way was not even to me personally, but I shall take it that way so that I may forgive thee nevermore for thy non-sins.’Seriously. I hate those stupid temper tantrums. They don’t make sense – and who wants to be married to an unreasonable jerk who has stupid snits like that? ***** REALLY REALLY BIG SPOILER ALERT***** Who, by the way, is okay with you leaving him and has all his trust issues resolved when he discovers that his mother didn’t leave him when he was little to be with her lover, but was actually murdered by his ass of an uncle. Yes. That would make me trust people again, too. WTF? ***** END OF REALLY REALLY BIG SPOILER ALERT***** So, really our hero – despite some good scenes where I like him – is an unreasonable, reformed-for-no-apparent-reason good guy.One more thing – Jermyn’s attitude toward women started out as really superior and breathtakingly annoying, and it was hard for me to see definitive change in his thought process. It was clear it did change I was just left wondering as to why. In fact it was hard to see the reasons for Jermyn’s behavioral change at all, which was annoying. You could tell it occurred, but you weren’t quite sure when or what specifically triggered that change as Dodd never writes about any epiphanies that Jermyn has. There’s one time when he starts to have a revelation – but it’s really a rather insignificant moment. On the whole, he was not a good hero and Amy was only a great, unique heroine until she fell in love with Jermyn. That was perhaps the most disappointing part of the whole story for me – the loss of her fiery spirit.Some other problems - in the ton, being a Princess would be a huge deal, but when Amy is introduced as a princess it's like they meet princesses every other day. Also, why is she so blasé about everyone knowing she's a princess when she's kept it a secret all these years? You'd think with assassins purportedly after her, she'd be a bit more worried. Finally, there appears to be a gay earl towards the end of the book. Now, please don't think I'm discriminating against gays. I live in NY. We have legal gay marriages as of yesterday. Half of my best guy friends are gay. I support everyone being sexy in their own way, so don't take this as a homophobic I-hate-gays statement because I LOVE ALL PEOPLE EQUALLY REGARDLESS OF SEXUALITY. Okay? But truth be told, people in historical times did not love or respect gay people and there were very few open gays. And people certainly never joked about it. I mean, come on, it's barely acceptable in our times. It certainly wouldn't have been acceptable then. It was little nuisances like those mentioned above that really wrecked the ending for me and annoyed me. I'm not a stickler for historical facts, but when an author blatantly ignores the historical culture it pisses me off. I bought a historical, not a contemporary - and the characters should act accordingly.Finally, in the Kindle edition (which may not be true of other print editions) there were some grammar mistakes. There were also a few contradictory statements – for example, Miss Victorine (the adorable old lady who is an accomplice to Jermyn’s kidnapping) is described as bony when Jermyn holds her – and a few pages later, her face is described as plump. Hmmm…. But those mistakes were minor, and did not impede/influence my enjoyment (or lack thereof, towards the end) of the novel which went from breezy and fun to stilted and boring relatively quickly.“Sexy”ness rating: HotOverall Rating: CBottom Line: Starts out great but is pretty average and unexciting by the end. A unique principle for the beginning, what with the kidnapping of the heroine done by Amy. Hero is damn annoying in the beginning, just as a warning…
—Rose May
This is a quick flowing, amusing historical romance. Princess Amy has been in hiding since her father sent her 2 sisters and her out of the country before he was killed in a revolt. Amy has taken on the cause of the English villagers who have protected her. She decides to kidnap The Early of Northcliff and hold him for ransom so they can use the ransom money to pay for the repairs he has neglected to provide. It sounds like a fool proof plan except his uncle refuses to pay the ransom since he wants to inherit and hopes the kidnappers will murder the Earl. Meanwhile, Amy and the Earl have time to learn how well they suit each other.
—Donna
