Royal Passion

De: Jennifer Blake

Narrado por: Melissa Reizian Frank

Mara Delacroix, a beautiful Louisiana belle,is blackmailed into seducing Roderic, the gypsy prince of Ruthenia. Eventually she will be called on to betray him in some unnamed way. She pretends to fall in love with Roderic after stumbling into a gypsy camp where Roderic is staying. He in turn falls for her and takes her to Paris, where he installs her as his mistress. Together they entertain such luminaries as George Sand, Alexandre Dumas and Honore Balzac. By the time the blackmailer arrives to tell Mara how to betray the prince, however, she has fallen deeply in love with him!

©1985 Patricia Maxwell (P)2012 Audible, Inc.

Hated the narrator

What did you love best about Royal Passion?

This is one of my favorite books so I was thrilled to see it out on audible. The book is non stop, meaning there is no slow places in it. I like that. I just like the entire book.

What other book might you compare Royal Passion to and why?

Royal seduction. It's the first in this duo of books and tells the Hero/heroine's parents story.
I will be checking back in the reviews to see what other people put as their answer. I have been looking for a long time another book comparable to this one.

How did the narrator detract from the book?

I hated the narrator. I was so upset when I first started listening I wanted to beat my head against the wall. This is one of my all time favorite books and For so long I was hoping it would come out in audio. To say I was thrilled when I saw it out is an understatement. I grabbed it instantly, I was so excited. Then it started and THAT voice.....I wanted to cry. I really thought of sending the book back for a refund. But I have decided to work though my issues and grit my teeth.
But this is one narrator I will avoid.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

I liked where the three girls took on a mob with epee's and grit.

Any additional comments?

I read a lot and I will say that I have about 50 to 100 favorites. this book is one of my favorites. I like that there is something constantly going on and the book just flows seamlessly into each event. I would recommend reading Royal Seduction first. I will warn you that the writer has a strange way with words in that book.
I wish she would write a third book in this series but since she wrote these books in the 80's I am not holding my breath.

A sweet romance steeped in meaningless details....

There are so many things I loved about this book and especially the love story between Roderic, Prince of Ruthenia, and Mara Delacroix. This book was great because it is about the second generation of the marvelous characters of the first book. Roderic is the son of Angline and Rolfe, who is now the king of Ruthenia. Now, Roderic is just irresistible, gorgeous and why shouldn't he be?--He is the son of Rolfe, and beautiful Angline, at that!

Roderic is handsome and strong-willed like his father, with an intellectual appetite for debate and wit. He is cultured, well-learned, and very much the people's prince as he can comfortably interact with gypsies and nobility alike. But, he is also like his sweet mother Angline. Roderic is gentle and kind to women in a way that his father wasn't (Rolfe has always been too rough around the edges...LOL). Roderic is a gifted musician and he's just very sweet! I was happy about the love development between Roderic and Mara. Mara is a brave young lady who loves her family and tries her best to protect them. She's lovely and a perfect match for Roderic...just because :-)

One of the aspects of the first book that I felt was disconcerting was Andre's story (Mara's father). Therefore, with the love between Mara & Roderic, I felt as though he had somewhat of a second chance for happiness (at least in the next generation). Some aspects of the last part indicate that Andre seemed pretty content & happy. I hope he found a HEA.

Annoying parts of the book:
If I wanted to go back and read or listen to this book again, I would be pressed to find the best and most applicable parts because there was so much nonsense and density of details that were meaningless in the end. Seriously!!!! I wish the editor would have noticed that & the author!-What were they thinking???? There were so many parts that I had to forward and skip over because it was either boring or just not applicable to the main characters or main storyline.

In addition, there were many parts of the love story that were just disjointed. There are weeks that pass in which, as a reader you kind of forget that this book is about the love development between Roderic and Mara. You wonder if Roderic forgot about Mara and vise versa. However, then the author throws you a bone, and provides a great scene between the leads.

Even though there are many confusing aspects of the love development, at the end of the book Roderic explains it all....then it all makes sense. But, ugh....the author could have done a better job with such an important love story.

4 stars just because I love Roderic and Mara....and not because this book was well executed.

It was ok

SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

After the first book in the series, which had a lot of violence toward women, I was kind of leery about this book. The first part of the book seemed to be almost a cookie cutter copy of the first book (a prince with a name starting with "R," five people in his guard (including a set of twins), and a woman in danger (although not as violently as the first book). However, it was revealed that his guard were the children of his father's guard. I do have a few complaints about the book: first, there are so many French words that it is hard to understand sometimes (Melissa Reizian Frank does a good job narrating and, to my untrained ear, seems to be fluent in French); and second, the romance between the prince and Mara seems rushed at the end and leaves us hanging a bit (they get a HEA but no marriage). I wish there were a third book that showed them later (perhaps as a cameo appearance to the romance of the new couple) and at least confirmed they were married later.

Useless details Bob this down.

Awful, slow, stupid and annoying heroine. Details that don*t matter are. repeated. Sex is boring.