OK, so you guys know I love angst in my romance, right? How in the world have I not read an Anne Stuart book before this? I have always heard about her love for dark and twisted, bordering on outright cruel heroes. Her books are reportedly some of the angstiest out there, and yet I've not picked one up. I changed that recently when I read all three of the books in her new House of Rohan trilogy in one week. The verdict? I enjoyed them. I sort of inhaled them actually.
Stuart definitely skews darker than most of the sugar sweet stuff I've been reading lately and I truly reveled in the slightly malevolent tone of her work. The new series follows various individuals in the Rohan family from Georgian times. The men in the family are all associated with the Heavenly Hosts, a secret society that supports the pursuit of sin and pleasure above all else. The premise is a little bit hokey, but these societies did exist and since Stuart's characters don't take the groups all that seriously, the reader is allowed the same point of view. The main thing their membership in the society does, is to allow Stuart to show how heartless and unfeeling her males are. Sex is just entertainment and love is non-existent in their world, until of course they meet their heroines and fall madly in love. Of the three, the third book, Breathless seemed the darkest to me. The hero in Breathless is truly seeking revenge and seems to have little compunction about destroying the heroine, if need be. The cool thing about Stuart is that she provides her dark heroes with a pretty good reason for being dark. The plot provides a rational justification for them to be jaded and cynical and she allows you to witness their progression and growth, as they begin to change. Her writing is tight, witty and crisp. Her characters are beautifully drawn and I loved how intelligent they all were. No TSTL heroines here. These women are smart, strong and willing to get down and dirty when the situation calls for it.
The first two books in the trilogy are available and the third is due out in October, so you can read them in order and close together and I think that adds to the enjoyment of the series. As I understand it, Stuart has not written many historicals in the last few years, preferring to work on contemporary romances. I hope this new trilogy is a signal that she is turning her talented hand back to historical romances. Goodness knows we angst lovers need something to counter all that sweetness and light.
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