Review: My Ruthless Prince by Gaelen Foley (Inferno Club #4)

Publisher - Piatkus
Publication Date - 16th February 2012
Paperback - 384 pages
Genre - Historical Romance

Source - Received from publisher for review

Rating - 4 out of 5: I really liked it.

Book Info - To London society, the Inferno Club is notorious for its scandalous pursuits. In private, these warriors would risk their lives for king and country.

His fellow warriors fear Drake Parry, the Earl of Westwood, has turned traitor. Emily Harper, who has loved him since childhood, knows this is impossible, as impossible as a marriage between them could ever be - she, the gamekeeper's daughter and he, a bold and adventurous nobleman.

Driven by hatred and revenge, Drake is playing a deadly game of deception, bent on destroying the enemy's dark conspiracy from the inside, and he's furious when Emily plunges herself into danger for his sake. Forced into close quarters, their long-suppressed desire explodes into all-consuming passion.

Emily knows her love can save him... but Drake is a man who doesn't want to be saved.

My Thoughts - This is my first ever historical romance and I have to admit that I was pleasantly surprised by it. Although it did take me a little while to get into the book, I was soon immersed in Drake and Emily's world and I fell in love with it.

I really liked Emily as a heroine. For some reason I expected the women in historical romances to be reclining on their fainting couches waiting to be rescued by the hero, but Emily firmly put me in my place with this assumption. She has followed Drake half-way across Europe to drag him home with her - this in a time when women were rarely allowed to travel anywhere alone. And once she is with Drake she never turns her back on him, despite the danger she often finds herself in. She displays a level of feistiness that wouldn't look out of place on the best of urban fantasy heroines - and I loved her for this.

Drake is a dark and complex hero, and given what has happened to him in the past it is easy for the reader to sympathise with him and to fall in love with him. He puts himself in a huge amount of danger by infiltrating an enemy group in an attempt to break them apart from the inside. He knows that this is a suicide mission yet he never backs down from doing what he believes is right.

The romance between these characters is a bit of a slow-burner. They have known each other, and been in love with each other, since childhood but they have been unable to do anything about it because of the fact that Emily is the daughter of a servant. This is probably the first romance book I have read where the characters already know each other and so I did miss that spark of attraction at the beginning that is so common in the other books I've read. Plus, I could count on one hand the number of times that Drake and Emily are actually in the same room in the first half of the book. Instead the focus is on their back story and the mission that Drake is on. Although this information did help me to understand their relationship, I still would have liked to see more interaction between them at the beginning of the book.

But once they do give into their feelings for each other, it just all feels so right. They know each other so well and there is no doubting their feelings for each other. Plus the forbidden nature of their relationship and the danger that they are in all add to a romance that is full of passion and tenderness. It is impossible not to feel how much they need each other.

Summary - My Ruthless Prince was good introduction into the world of historical romance. Full of danger, suspense, romance and well-drawn characters, this was an enjoyable read and I look forward to reading more about the Inferno Club in future.

Other books in this series:
1. My Wicked Marquess
2. My Dangerous Duke
3. My Irresistible Earl
4. My Ruthless Prince

Other reviews of this book:
Night Owl Reviews / The Romanceaholic / Unwrapping Romance

This book counts towards the following challenges:
Book #16 for 2012 Outdo Yourself Reading Challenge