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Of old, humans and Faeries have dwelt side by side in parallel realms. Only the canniest mortals recognize the alluring creatures that often walk—and lie—among them.
The righteous Fae of the Seelie Court cherish an ancient quarrel with their Dark a curse born of anger and deceit. The Unseelie Court will perish unless one of its princes can win a woman's love—honestly, without coercion…and love her wholly in return.
To halt the slow demise of his people, Prince Thane—the embodiment of Lust—infiltrates the Georgian court to seduce his mortal inverse. Noblewoman Chastity Lennox is purity incarnate—a sensual prize well worth winning. But Thane's carnal quest proves more challenging than he ever dreamed.
No other has ever been able—or willing—to resist his erotic charms. Chastity's resolve is maddening…and intriguing. It makes him want her all the more. But how best to seduce one who truly seems above temptation? Discover her greatest weakness and become the intoxicating essence of her deepest, most forbidden desires….
The righteous Fae of the Seelie Court cherish an ancient quarrel with their Dark a curse born of anger and deceit. The Unseelie Court will perish unless one of its princes can win a woman's love—honestly, without coercion…and love her wholly in return.
To halt the slow demise of his people, Prince Thane—the embodiment of Lust—infiltrates the Georgian court to seduce his mortal inverse. Noblewoman Chastity Lennox is purity incarnate—a sensual prize well worth winning. But Thane's carnal quest proves more challenging than he ever dreamed.
No other has ever been able—or willing—to resist his erotic charms. Chastity's resolve is maddening…and intriguing. It makes him want her all the more. But how best to seduce one who truly seems above temptation? Discover her greatest weakness and become the intoxicating essence of her deepest, most forbidden desires….
239 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 17, 2011
18 people are currently reading
1187 people want to read
About the author
Charlotte Featherstone
58 books822 followersHi I write erotic historical romance for Harlequin Spice, as well as erotic paranormal romance under the name Sophie Renwick. In 2011, I'll be debuting my mainstream, Victorian set historicals through HQN.
I love talking about books, and have found some new friends, and really good book recommends here on Goodreads. I really love this community.
I love talking about books, and have found some new friends, and really good book recommends here on Goodreads. I really love this community.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 114 reviews
February 19, 2011
I don't judge books for their covers, but I have to want to start this review saying that I think the cover of this book is beau-ti-ful and fits the title perfectly. Having said that, I'm shallow enough to point out that the male model on the cover isn't exactly my type and I replaced him with someone else. Here's "my" Thane:
THE CURSE OF THE UNSEELIE COURT
It is said that the fey have always lived amongst mortals, their world lying parallel to ours. They live in two courts; the good faeries belong to the Seelie Court, where gaiety and light reign. Opposite to the Seelie Fey are the Dark Fey, those who live in the Unseelie Court, or the unholy court as it is known. These dark faeries are mysterious and sensual, well versed in pleasures of the flesh. It is said that to look upon them and their beauty is to be drawn into their erotic, voluptuous world, and once there, your fate is sealed, your body and will no longer your own.
And this is precisely what happened once, long, long ago, to a beautiful queen of the Seelie Court, who had the misfortune to catch the eye of the Dark Fey king.
Immediately, the king was besotted with the queen, driven to possess her at all costs. Queen Aine was all the king could think about, but Aine spurned him, forcing King Duir to steal her away from her golden court as she slept. Like Persephone taken to the underworld, Duir brought Aine to his dark court, plying her with his erotic skills. The Unseelie king was certain he could win Aine, but the queen despised Duir. Long had she plotted against her captor, vowing to leave the king and his court behind, but Duir kept her prisoner, a concubine for his dark pleasures.
The queen’s loathing of the king festered, until she could think of nothing but revenge. Fueled by hatred, Aine searched for a way to break free — all to no avail. Until one day, she was delivered of the king’s twin sons. Enraptured by his progeny, and grateful to the queen for giving him such a gift, Duir became less watchful, allowing the queen new freedoms, and it was then that Aine found a way to leave his court.
One night she stole away, taking with her one of her sons, the golden-haired child who was the image of her Seelie self, leaving behind his dark-haired brother who bore his father’s resemblance. As she fled, Aine placed a spell on the Unseelie Court, that it whither away, never to thrive again until the Dark Fey could make a woman give herself to him of her own free will. As well, she cursed the sons of Duir’s siblings — and any future male children of the king — with each cardinal sin, further destroying her own dark son’s chances of finding a virtuous woman who would give herself willingly.
To this day, the queen’s spell holds strong. The Unseelie Court is dying. There is but one hope for the court — to find the seven women who represent the virtuous aspects of humanity. Seven women who embody chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility. Women whose very being calls to the sins deeply buried in each prince, sins that are eager to corrupt, through erotic pleasure, their virtues.
If the court is to survive, the fey princes will have to find a way to make the virtues follow them willingly, while satisfying the basic needs of their sins. Sins, of which perhaps, each virtue is ready for a taste.
Unlike most mortal men, the Duke of Lennox is more than aware that faeries exist and knows how powerful they are. The birth of his four twin daughters (Mary, Prudence, Chastity and Mercy) was foretold by the faery queen, who infused within him the virtues to be passed on to each one of them. And so, each daughter was born possessing the moralities that would define her - humility, temperance, chastity and kindness. They've been raised to believe that their purpose in life lies in the fey world and know that they were created for some mystical, and maybe sinister, reason.
Thane is the Dark Fey prince cursed with the sin of Lust and his intended virtue is pure and righteous Chastity Lennox. When he meets her, the sin in him wants to pounce and take her, but Thane knows that he has to woo Chastity carefully before he can corrupt her and convince her to follow him to his dark court willingly. But how will Thane be able to keep his sin under control when everything about Chastity tempts him beyond reason?
Wow, this was a very hot read! As a man (or fey?) driven by lust, Thane oozed sex appeal and was as wicked as he could be. I really liked him and wouldn't mind following him to the Unseelie Court willingly, LOL. Chastity was likeable enough, but her self-righteousness bothered me. I know she was supposed to be a paragon of virtue and all that, but she still annoyed me a couple of times. The sexual chemistry between Thane and Chastity was off the charts and their interactions (in and outside the bedroom) were deliciously sinful, thanks to Ms. Featherstone's sensuous writing. I especially liked the scenes where Thane went to Chastity as mist, surrounding her with his scent.
Now, as much as I liked this book, I have to say that I finished it without being 100% sure that Chastity loved Thane. I have no doubt that she was in lust with him, but love? I don't know. He had the opportunity to spend time with her unnoticed - you have to read the book to understand that - and thus got to know her, making his falling in love with her believable. She never got to know him that well, because he hid his true self from her for the most part of the story. How can you fall in love with someone you don't really know?
All in all, this was a very enjoyable read. The beginning was a little slow and a bit confusing with the introduction of several characters all at once - I had a hard time remembering who was who and associating each character to his/her sin or virtue - but once the focus was directed to Thane and Chastity, the story picked up the pace. Being the first book in the series, Lust was a bit bogged down by the need to set up the background of the series, but that was more than worth it because I can't wait for the next book. Is it out yet? ;P
Note: I received this eARC from Harlequin via NetGalley. That had no influence on my review/rating.
THE CURSE OF THE UNSEELIE COURT
It is said that the fey have always lived amongst mortals, their world lying parallel to ours. They live in two courts; the good faeries belong to the Seelie Court, where gaiety and light reign. Opposite to the Seelie Fey are the Dark Fey, those who live in the Unseelie Court, or the unholy court as it is known. These dark faeries are mysterious and sensual, well versed in pleasures of the flesh. It is said that to look upon them and their beauty is to be drawn into their erotic, voluptuous world, and once there, your fate is sealed, your body and will no longer your own.
And this is precisely what happened once, long, long ago, to a beautiful queen of the Seelie Court, who had the misfortune to catch the eye of the Dark Fey king.
Immediately, the king was besotted with the queen, driven to possess her at all costs. Queen Aine was all the king could think about, but Aine spurned him, forcing King Duir to steal her away from her golden court as she slept. Like Persephone taken to the underworld, Duir brought Aine to his dark court, plying her with his erotic skills. The Unseelie king was certain he could win Aine, but the queen despised Duir. Long had she plotted against her captor, vowing to leave the king and his court behind, but Duir kept her prisoner, a concubine for his dark pleasures.
The queen’s loathing of the king festered, until she could think of nothing but revenge. Fueled by hatred, Aine searched for a way to break free — all to no avail. Until one day, she was delivered of the king’s twin sons. Enraptured by his progeny, and grateful to the queen for giving him such a gift, Duir became less watchful, allowing the queen new freedoms, and it was then that Aine found a way to leave his court.
One night she stole away, taking with her one of her sons, the golden-haired child who was the image of her Seelie self, leaving behind his dark-haired brother who bore his father’s resemblance. As she fled, Aine placed a spell on the Unseelie Court, that it whither away, never to thrive again until the Dark Fey could make a woman give herself to him of her own free will. As well, she cursed the sons of Duir’s siblings — and any future male children of the king — with each cardinal sin, further destroying her own dark son’s chances of finding a virtuous woman who would give herself willingly.
To this day, the queen’s spell holds strong. The Unseelie Court is dying. There is but one hope for the court — to find the seven women who represent the virtuous aspects of humanity. Seven women who embody chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility. Women whose very being calls to the sins deeply buried in each prince, sins that are eager to corrupt, through erotic pleasure, their virtues.
If the court is to survive, the fey princes will have to find a way to make the virtues follow them willingly, while satisfying the basic needs of their sins. Sins, of which perhaps, each virtue is ready for a taste.
Unlike most mortal men, the Duke of Lennox is more than aware that faeries exist and knows how powerful they are. The birth of his four twin daughters (Mary, Prudence, Chastity and Mercy) was foretold by the faery queen, who infused within him the virtues to be passed on to each one of them. And so, each daughter was born possessing the moralities that would define her - humility, temperance, chastity and kindness. They've been raised to believe that their purpose in life lies in the fey world and know that they were created for some mystical, and maybe sinister, reason.
Thane is the Dark Fey prince cursed with the sin of Lust and his intended virtue is pure and righteous Chastity Lennox. When he meets her, the sin in him wants to pounce and take her, but Thane knows that he has to woo Chastity carefully before he can corrupt her and convince her to follow him to his dark court willingly. But how will Thane be able to keep his sin under control when everything about Chastity tempts him beyond reason?
Wow, this was a very hot read! As a man (or fey?) driven by lust, Thane oozed sex appeal and was as wicked as he could be. I really liked him and wouldn't mind following him to the Unseelie Court willingly, LOL. Chastity was likeable enough, but her self-righteousness bothered me. I know she was supposed to be a paragon of virtue and all that, but she still annoyed me a couple of times. The sexual chemistry between Thane and Chastity was off the charts and their interactions (in and outside the bedroom) were deliciously sinful, thanks to Ms. Featherstone's sensuous writing. I especially liked the scenes where Thane went to Chastity as mist, surrounding her with his scent.
Now, as much as I liked this book, I have to say that I finished it without being 100% sure that Chastity loved Thane. I have no doubt that she was in lust with him, but love? I don't know. He had the opportunity to spend time with her unnoticed - you have to read the book to understand that - and thus got to know her, making his falling in love with her believable. She never got to know him that well, because he hid his true self from her for the most part of the story. How can you fall in love with someone you don't really know?
All in all, this was a very enjoyable read. The beginning was a little slow and a bit confusing with the introduction of several characters all at once - I had a hard time remembering who was who and associating each character to his/her sin or virtue - but once the focus was directed to Thane and Chastity, the story picked up the pace. Being the first book in the series, Lust was a bit bogged down by the need to set up the background of the series, but that was more than worth it because I can't wait for the next book. Is it out yet? ;P
Note: I received this eARC from Harlequin via NetGalley. That had no influence on my review/rating.
February 9, 2011
Two and a half stars for me.
This book is awful. There is no romance in it whatsoever.
Let's talk about Chastity. She is a cardboard cut-out with no spine and no interesting qualities. I don't believe I've ever read of a character who felt more fake. She is flat and simple and stupid and pathetic. She falls under Thane's spell every time he approaches her. Then, after one night of sex with him, she suddenly loves him for no reason. All she does in this book is go around thinking, Oh, woe is me! I'm losing my virtue!
Thane. Okay. I don't understand why people find him attractive. He thinks of Chastity like an object, and just wants to have sex with her. Yes, he's Lust, but that doesn't mean he couldn't express love, which he does not. He claims to love Chastity, yet they do not converse, do not know anything about each other. They participate in foreplay and sex and nothing else throughout the whole book. How is this a romance? I do not know. He plays with her mind, her emotions, and treats her, as I said, like a an object that he can bend to his will. He claims otherwise, but does he ever prove his words? No.
Let's talk about the fact that 90% of the scenes of from Chastity's POV, 3% from Kian or Mercy, 5% from Chastity's father, and 2% from Thane's POV. Also, the only scenes from Thane's POV with the expection of maybe one scene, also have Chastity in the scene, so basically we get no real idea of what he's like. He's just...lustful...he has no real qualities, nothing interesting about him.
This books is all about sex and nothing else. There's hardly any plot, and what plot there is is squished beneath the heavy weight of lust. One sex scene goes on for a good 20 pages.
On top of that, the book is just plain boring. AND, Chastity's idiot sister Prudence thinks the Seelies are the good ones simply because they have golden hair instead of dark hair. She's a real smarty-pants, that one. Plus, Featherstone's dialogue was annoyingly repetitive in this book. Her characters would say things like "Do you not? You own this house, do you not?" Not a big deal, but kind of jarring for me.
Summary of Lust:
Thane spies on Chastity.
Chastity hates Thane at first sight because he's a "man."
Thane stalks Chastity, then forces her to make-out with him.
Thane wipes away Chastity's memories.
Thane hides his essense in a perfume bottle and uses this essense to essentially rub himself all over her when she uses the perfume.
Evil baddies conspire against the Unseelie Court.
Chastity's bumbling idiot of a father realizes he's a bumbling idiot.
Thane tricks Chastity into meeting up with him so he can rub himself over her.
Chastity resists Thane's advances--barely.
Thane has dream sex with Chastity then erases her memory
Thane kidnaps Chastity and has sex with her while she suddenly falls in love with him, because he's oh-so-appealing and, as an added bonus, she has no idea who he really is.
Thane has invisible sex with Chastity while she's in a carriage with her sisters and the baddies.
Chastity really loves this creepy, perverted stalker! He's a hottie!
Chastity and Thane have sex for about 50 pages.
Chastity declares her love for her stalker for no reason.
Randomly, Thane decides she's too good for him and tries to throw her away.
Chastity whines and protests like the pathetic worm she is.
Chastity's brainless dad barges in to display his idiocy, hand-in-hand with the baddie.
Chastity suddenly realizes she doesn't love Thane and decides to go live forever with the baddies.
Thane kidnaps Chastity again, because he can't make up his mind.
Thane shows his demonic self dundundundun!!!!!!!
OH, THE HORROR!!!!!!!!! *swoons*
Chastity: Egads! I am horrified. *shrugs* Oh well, whatevs. I love you for no reason, so I'll stay with you forever. Let's get jiggy, even though that's all we've been doing for the past week or so.
Thane randomly realizes Chastity doesn't love him.
A lightbulb goes off in Chastity's head: GOLLY, I DO LOVE HIM! I have no idea why, since I know nothing about him, but, man, he makes me hot! I want to spend the rest of my life with him.
More sex.
Some more sex, with lots of moans and groans and, gee, true wub!!!
Chastity suddenly gains confidence for no reason and decides to become a different, yet still boring person.
Thane ruins everything for everyone because he's a selfish dumbass.
Fake words of love for no reason, since these characters have no chemistry.
More of the same. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. Fake love, sex.
Chastity becomes a new woman because she's had wild sex with a personality-less rock.
The end.
Was the sex hot? I didn't think so. Why? Because these characters have no chemistry, feel like one-dimensional nothings, and are unlikable.
This is Chastity:
This book is awful. There is no romance in it whatsoever.
Let's talk about Chastity. She is a cardboard cut-out with no spine and no interesting qualities. I don't believe I've ever read of a character who felt more fake. She is flat and simple and stupid and pathetic. She falls under Thane's spell every time he approaches her. Then, after one night of sex with him, she suddenly loves him for no reason. All she does in this book is go around thinking, Oh, woe is me! I'm losing my virtue!
Thane. Okay. I don't understand why people find him attractive. He thinks of Chastity like an object, and just wants to have sex with her. Yes, he's Lust, but that doesn't mean he couldn't express love, which he does not. He claims to love Chastity, yet they do not converse, do not know anything about each other. They participate in foreplay and sex and nothing else throughout the whole book. How is this a romance? I do not know. He plays with her mind, her emotions, and treats her, as I said, like a an object that he can bend to his will. He claims otherwise, but does he ever prove his words? No.
Let's talk about the fact that 90% of the scenes of from Chastity's POV, 3% from Kian or Mercy, 5% from Chastity's father, and 2% from Thane's POV. Also, the only scenes from Thane's POV with the expection of maybe one scene, also have Chastity in the scene, so basically we get no real idea of what he's like. He's just...lustful...he has no real qualities, nothing interesting about him.
This books is all about sex and nothing else. There's hardly any plot, and what plot there is is squished beneath the heavy weight of lust. One sex scene goes on for a good 20 pages.
On top of that, the book is just plain boring. AND, Chastity's idiot sister Prudence thinks the Seelies are the good ones simply because they have golden hair instead of dark hair. She's a real smarty-pants, that one. Plus, Featherstone's dialogue was annoyingly repetitive in this book. Her characters would say things like "Do you not? You own this house, do you not?" Not a big deal, but kind of jarring for me.
Summary of Lust:
Thane spies on Chastity.
Chastity hates Thane at first sight because he's a "man."
Thane stalks Chastity, then forces her to make-out with him.
Thane wipes away Chastity's memories.
Thane hides his essense in a perfume bottle and uses this essense to essentially rub himself all over her when she uses the perfume.
Evil baddies conspire against the Unseelie Court.
Chastity's bumbling idiot of a father realizes he's a bumbling idiot.
Thane tricks Chastity into meeting up with him so he can rub himself over her.
Chastity resists Thane's advances--barely.
Thane has dream sex with Chastity then erases her memory
Thane kidnaps Chastity and has sex with her while she suddenly falls in love with him, because he's oh-so-appealing and, as an added bonus, she has no idea who he really is.
Thane has invisible sex with Chastity while she's in a carriage with her sisters and the baddies.
Chastity really loves this creepy, perverted stalker! He's a hottie!
Chastity and Thane have sex for about 50 pages.
Chastity declares her love for her stalker for no reason.
Randomly, Thane decides she's too good for him and tries to throw her away.
Chastity whines and protests like the pathetic worm she is.
Chastity's brainless dad barges in to display his idiocy, hand-in-hand with the baddie.
Chastity suddenly realizes she doesn't love Thane and decides to go live forever with the baddies.
Thane kidnaps Chastity again, because he can't make up his mind.
Thane shows his demonic self dundundundun!!!!!!!
OH, THE HORROR!!!!!!!!! *swoons*
Chastity: Egads! I am horrified. *shrugs* Oh well, whatevs. I love you for no reason, so I'll stay with you forever. Let's get jiggy, even though that's all we've been doing for the past week or so.
Thane randomly realizes Chastity doesn't love him.
A lightbulb goes off in Chastity's head: GOLLY, I DO LOVE HIM! I have no idea why, since I know nothing about him, but, man, he makes me hot! I want to spend the rest of my life with him.
More sex.
Some more sex, with lots of moans and groans and, gee, true wub!!!
Chastity suddenly gains confidence for no reason and decides to become a different, yet still boring person.
Thane ruins everything for everyone because he's a selfish dumbass.
Fake words of love for no reason, since these characters have no chemistry.
More of the same. Sex, sex, sex, sex, sex. Fake love, sex.
Chastity becomes a new woman because she's had wild sex with a personality-less rock.
The end.
Was the sex hot? I didn't think so. Why? Because these characters have no chemistry, feel like one-dimensional nothings, and are unlikable.
This is Chastity:
June 8, 2014
I have always dreamed of writing a Faerie story, but I could never think up a storyline, so I was excited that Charlotte Featherstone came up with such an awesome idea involving the Faerie world.
Seven Dark Fey lords have all been cursed with the seven deadly sins and each must win over the heart of their virtues to save their dying kingdom. This story is about Lust trying to win over Chastity. The idea alone cracked me up. It's the perfect conflict. Thane (Lust) and Chastity are both drawn to each other inexplicably, and each of them changes the other as the book progresses.
Featherstone also added a lot of authentic, faerie lore to Lust, which was the best part.
This book was a little disappointing though. Chastity is a powerless character, and she pretty much stays that way all through the book, even at the end. She is pawn in the Faerie war, and pretty much has to be taken care of by Thane. I always feel something is incomplete if the hero and the heroine don’t stand toe to toe. I would have liked it better if Chastity had been Fey too, and had some magic of her own. She is tricked and played with all through the book and she never does get even.
Another problem I had was the unevenness of with the virtue and the sin. I get the feeling that Featherstone didn't really think that lust was that bad, and that chastity is kind of a waste of time. I’m not saying I disagree with her, but by doing this, she’s again striped away any power Chastity might have had. Her virtue is considered worthless, and Chastity even writes about it that way at the end of the book. I would have liked to see her virtue valued a little more. After all, being chaste is what keeps people from sleeping with everybody. At the end of the book, Thane is less of womanizer and no longer just looks at women as just sex objects, but he certainly didn’t bend as much to Chastity as she did to him.
All in all, I enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to book 2, Vanity. :D
Seven Dark Fey lords have all been cursed with the seven deadly sins and each must win over the heart of their virtues to save their dying kingdom. This story is about Lust trying to win over Chastity. The idea alone cracked me up. It's the perfect conflict. Thane (Lust) and Chastity are both drawn to each other inexplicably, and each of them changes the other as the book progresses.
Featherstone also added a lot of authentic, faerie lore to Lust, which was the best part.
This book was a little disappointing though. Chastity is a powerless character, and she pretty much stays that way all through the book, even at the end. She is pawn in the Faerie war, and pretty much has to be taken care of by Thane. I always feel something is incomplete if the hero and the heroine don’t stand toe to toe. I would have liked it better if Chastity had been Fey too, and had some magic of her own. She is tricked and played with all through the book and she never does get even.
Another problem I had was the unevenness of with the virtue and the sin. I get the feeling that Featherstone didn't really think that lust was that bad, and that chastity is kind of a waste of time. I’m not saying I disagree with her, but by doing this, she’s again striped away any power Chastity might have had. Her virtue is considered worthless, and Chastity even writes about it that way at the end of the book. I would have liked to see her virtue valued a little more. After all, being chaste is what keeps people from sleeping with everybody. At the end of the book, Thane is less of womanizer and no longer just looks at women as just sex objects, but he certainly didn’t bend as much to Chastity as she did to him.
All in all, I enjoyed this book, and I'm looking forward to book 2, Vanity. :D
February 3, 2011
I have always been intrigued and fascinated by stories about the fey, and I have to say this story and the possibility of the additional Sin & Virtues stories definitely has me anxiously wanting more!
The only hope the Unseelie Court (Dark Fey) have of survival is to have the mortal women who possess the seven virtues come willingly to the Dark Fey that possess the seven sins. I know that the Unseelie are suppose to be bad and the Seelie are supposed to be good, but I believe it is for each reader to decide....This book explores the fact that the good and bad do not necessarily coincide with light and dark. The Dark Fey are masters of seduction, sensuality and all things carnal pleasure, but is that actually all that bad?? This reader for one says HELL NO!! Where as the Seelie are all things good and proper, but things are not always as they appear.
Thane, who possesses the sin of Lust, and Chastity are the focus of this book, I enjoyed their story very much as Chastity was at war with herself as to the woman she was supposed to be and the sensual woman she actually was. I was drawn to Thane right away, not only for his seductive ways and dark gorgeousness but also because he was a bit of a dirty talker! I am anxiously awaiting the six other Sins & Virtues books, I will say again what a brilliant storyteller Charlotte Featherstone is and if you have not read her before now what exactly are you waiting for???
**This book was provided to me by netgalley.com
The only hope the Unseelie Court (Dark Fey) have of survival is to have the mortal women who possess the seven virtues come willingly to the Dark Fey that possess the seven sins. I know that the Unseelie are suppose to be bad and the Seelie are supposed to be good, but I believe it is for each reader to decide....This book explores the fact that the good and bad do not necessarily coincide with light and dark. The Dark Fey are masters of seduction, sensuality and all things carnal pleasure, but is that actually all that bad?? This reader for one says HELL NO!! Where as the Seelie are all things good and proper, but things are not always as they appear.
Thane, who possesses the sin of Lust, and Chastity are the focus of this book, I enjoyed their story very much as Chastity was at war with herself as to the woman she was supposed to be and the sensual woman she actually was. I was drawn to Thane right away, not only for his seductive ways and dark gorgeousness but also because he was a bit of a dirty talker! I am anxiously awaiting the six other Sins & Virtues books, I will say again what a brilliant storyteller Charlotte Featherstone is and if you have not read her before now what exactly are you waiting for???
**This book was provided to me by netgalley.com
January 30, 2011
WOW!!!! I LOVED THIS BOOK!
FAVORITE FAVORITE 'things' about Ms. Featherstone's books are her Dark Alpha Males... all I can say is THANE.
Love his character and his carnal sin Lust. His is at constant struggle with the Dark Fey, this Sin, and his desire to have a full relationship with Chastity (Chaste) His Virtue.
Chastity is everything her virtue is..but deep inside she wants more. Thane awakens in her the part of her that wants to be a women and not just a 'virtue'.. or rather someone who hides behind the virtue.
I loved the whole concept of the Seven Sins and Seven Virtues...Amazing!
I love reading stories about the Fae, the Folklore and their Courts the Seelie and Unseelie (light and dark), and Ms. Featherstone does an excellent job of writing about them in this story.
Thank you for this story Ms. Featherstone.. what a beautiful gift!
I am so looking forward to reading the next story in this series!
(I'm hoping it's Prudence and Gluttony....their story will be amazing!)
FAVORITE FAVORITE 'things' about Ms. Featherstone's books are her Dark Alpha Males... all I can say is THANE.
Love his character and his carnal sin Lust. His is at constant struggle with the Dark Fey, this Sin, and his desire to have a full relationship with Chastity (Chaste) His Virtue.
Chastity is everything her virtue is..but deep inside she wants more. Thane awakens in her the part of her that wants to be a women and not just a 'virtue'.. or rather someone who hides behind the virtue.
I loved the whole concept of the Seven Sins and Seven Virtues...Amazing!
I love reading stories about the Fae, the Folklore and their Courts the Seelie and Unseelie (light and dark), and Ms. Featherstone does an excellent job of writing about them in this story.
Thank you for this story Ms. Featherstone.. what a beautiful gift!
I am so looking forward to reading the next story in this series!
(I'm hoping it's Prudence and Gluttony....their story will be amazing!)
January 16, 2011
(Thought about it s'more, wrote the review, and realized I'm wanting to go with 3 stars. Which is still an "I liked it," mind you. ^_^)
Quick Take:
This ethereal, fairy-tale-like story is imbued with deft use of sensuality, which I rather enjoyed. There's plenty of character posturing and subtle insidiousness, so don't look for high-octane action here or you'll be disappointed.
Okay, so I've got to put my Forthright Cap on…because while I enjoyed this book overall, I also recognize that it's not your typical PnR and may not be everyone's cup of tea.
Though the details are complex, the overall story can be summarized quickly: seven Dark-Fae males are cursed with a cardinal sin apiece, and must non-forcibly secure their correlating human Virtue. Sounds like a fairy-tale premise, right? Well this book is very much like a fairy-tale in several respects, for better or worse (depending on your tastes). In many an old fairy tale or fable, many things (situational limitations, character abilities) just "are." You don't question or consider them too deeply, and they aren't explained. That is the case here; remember that when (to make something up) someone randomly turns into a tree or some such. ^_^
This book is primarily concerned with desires, internal struggles, and inner-character. One can expect a lot of description and mental-musing. The thrills and chills typically derived from high-octane action stories simply isn't here for the most part. And this is not innately a bad thing, either: the intriguing mind-game that plays out amongst the cast is quite dependent on the characters' machinations. It did however get tiresome at some points....the back and forth "did he, didn't he/will she, won't she/should I, shouldn't I" that at times seemed to hash out the. same. things.
One will note that this book doesn't contain very much sex, but has A LOT of sensuality. Ms. Featherstone seems able to take the most innocuous items and tame situations and make them incredibly sensual. Not an easy task, I'd think.
World-building is done through multiple perspective shifts amongst the Sins, the Virtues, and their relatives. While this was (in this case) a useful device for advancing the plot and exploring the depth of the curse's effect, it didn't do a while lot for me as far as connecting with the characters. Which is too bad, because such a narrative device is usually great for fostering attachments to characters. And personally, I'm a big-time character reader.
Reading this book was certainly an enjoyable experience, although (or perhaps because?) the story was executed in a fashion unlike what I'm used to. More than ever I'd like to check out Featherstone's non-paranormal offerings (Sinful or Addicted), to see what her writing style is like there. I can most definitely see this book being hit-or-miss for many.
(note: reviewed eARC copy; final version may have changes)
Quick Take:
This ethereal, fairy-tale-like story is imbued with deft use of sensuality, which I rather enjoyed. There's plenty of character posturing and subtle insidiousness, so don't look for high-octane action here or you'll be disappointed.
Okay, so I've got to put my Forthright Cap on…because while I enjoyed this book overall, I also recognize that it's not your typical PnR and may not be everyone's cup of tea.
Though the details are complex, the overall story can be summarized quickly: seven Dark-Fae males are cursed with a cardinal sin apiece, and must non-forcibly secure their correlating human Virtue. Sounds like a fairy-tale premise, right? Well this book is very much like a fairy-tale in several respects, for better or worse (depending on your tastes). In many an old fairy tale or fable, many things (situational limitations, character abilities) just "are." You don't question or consider them too deeply, and they aren't explained. That is the case here; remember that when (to make something up) someone randomly turns into a tree or some such. ^_^
This book is primarily concerned with desires, internal struggles, and inner-character. One can expect a lot of description and mental-musing. The thrills and chills typically derived from high-octane action stories simply isn't here for the most part. And this is not innately a bad thing, either: the intriguing mind-game that plays out amongst the cast is quite dependent on the characters' machinations. It did however get tiresome at some points....the back and forth "did he, didn't he/will she, won't she/should I, shouldn't I" that at times seemed to hash out the. same. things.
One will note that this book doesn't contain very much sex, but has A LOT of sensuality. Ms. Featherstone seems able to take the most innocuous items and tame situations and make them incredibly sensual. Not an easy task, I'd think.
World-building is done through multiple perspective shifts amongst the Sins, the Virtues, and their relatives. While this was (in this case) a useful device for advancing the plot and exploring the depth of the curse's effect, it didn't do a while lot for me as far as connecting with the characters. Which is too bad, because such a narrative device is usually great for fostering attachments to characters. And personally, I'm a big-time character reader.
Reading this book was certainly an enjoyable experience, although (or perhaps because?) the story was executed in a fashion unlike what I'm used to. More than ever I'd like to check out Featherstone's non-paranormal offerings (Sinful or Addicted), to see what her writing style is like there. I can most definitely see this book being hit-or-miss for many.
(note: reviewed eARC copy; final version may have changes)
December 28, 2010
This is my first Featherstone novel. I am happy to say, it probably will not be my last. I like my reviews simple even if my thoughts are a jumbled mess most of the time.
The players:
Unseelie-
• Thane- He’s been cursed with one of the seven cardinal sins. His sin- lust.
• Thane’s brothers- Yup, you got it. The other brothers are cursed with the six remaining sins- vanity, gluttony, envy, wrath, greed, and sloth.
• Thane’s dad- He did a major no-no. He decided he really wanted the Queen of the Seelie Court so he took it upon himself to steal her and make her his!
Seelie-
• Chasity- Oh, dear sweet and somewhat annoying Chasity. She is Thane’s opposite.
• Queen of the Seelie Court- Because daddy Unseelie decided to be a bad boy and steal the Queen, the Queen (once she escaped) cursed the Unseelie. (Why she did not use her powers when she was originally kidnapped was beyond me?).
• Chasity’s sisters-Like Thane and his brothers, Chasity has her sisters. They were quite entertaining too.
The story-
• Thane must win Chasity over. He believes that Chasity might be the key to breaking the curse. If the curse is broken, the Unseelie court might flourish again. However, here is the problem. She must come willingly. Chasity thinks she is all sweet and innocent, and hates the fact that she might actually be all hot and heavy for Thane. Of course, there are major roadblocks to Thane and Chasity’s potential romance. Without it, there would be no story!
What I liked-
• This is a great beginning to a new series. The sexual tension between the two main characters was explosive. Once I stopped being annoyed by Chasity, I really felt for both of them. I liked how the reader questioned which sin was bad and which was good as the story progressed. Not everything is, as it seems to be.
What I didn’t like-
• I am not sure why, but this book reminded me too much of the Lords of the Underworld series. I am guessing that might be only me, but I would be curious of other readers see any similarities.
• The entire story seemed to be too convenient. The problem when you give any character power that is supernatural is when that character doesn’t use its power.
Overall-
• Great start for a new series. I look forward to book #2. Overall 3.5 out of 5 stars!
The players:
Unseelie-
• Thane- He’s been cursed with one of the seven cardinal sins. His sin- lust.
• Thane’s brothers- Yup, you got it. The other brothers are cursed with the six remaining sins- vanity, gluttony, envy, wrath, greed, and sloth.
• Thane’s dad- He did a major no-no. He decided he really wanted the Queen of the Seelie Court so he took it upon himself to steal her and make her his!
Seelie-
• Chasity- Oh, dear sweet and somewhat annoying Chasity. She is Thane’s opposite.
• Queen of the Seelie Court- Because daddy Unseelie decided to be a bad boy and steal the Queen, the Queen (once she escaped) cursed the Unseelie. (Why she did not use her powers when she was originally kidnapped was beyond me?).
• Chasity’s sisters-Like Thane and his brothers, Chasity has her sisters. They were quite entertaining too.
The story-
• Thane must win Chasity over. He believes that Chasity might be the key to breaking the curse. If the curse is broken, the Unseelie court might flourish again. However, here is the problem. She must come willingly. Chasity thinks she is all sweet and innocent, and hates the fact that she might actually be all hot and heavy for Thane. Of course, there are major roadblocks to Thane and Chasity’s potential romance. Without it, there would be no story!
What I liked-
• This is a great beginning to a new series. The sexual tension between the two main characters was explosive. Once I stopped being annoyed by Chasity, I really felt for both of them. I liked how the reader questioned which sin was bad and which was good as the story progressed. Not everything is, as it seems to be.
What I didn’t like-
• I am not sure why, but this book reminded me too much of the Lords of the Underworld series. I am guessing that might be only me, but I would be curious of other readers see any similarities.
• The entire story seemed to be too convenient. The problem when you give any character power that is supernatural is when that character doesn’t use its power.
Overall-
• Great start for a new series. I look forward to book #2. Overall 3.5 out of 5 stars!
December 9, 2010
Make that a BIG 4 1/2 star from me. I wanted so badly to give it a 5 star and I'm sure many more will give it that. The reason I just could not give it a 5 star is because Charlotte had so much setting up to do for this series that it took a while to get going for me. I must say that I enjoyed all of this book and LOVED the last 70 pages or so. I have no doubt in my mind now that the series is all set up that the rest of it will be fantastic.
The sexual tension in the book was very good. It took a while for the H&H to finally make love. Once it did happen, oh my, it's was hot and done extremely well done.
The story line is very good also. I really liked the paranormal aspects of this book, they where very unique. The ending left it all set up for more to come and I WILL be reading it when they are released.
The sexual tension in the book was very good. It took a while for the H&H to finally make love. Once it did happen, oh my, it's was hot and done extremely well done.
The story line is very good also. I really liked the paranormal aspects of this book, they where very unique. The ending left it all set up for more to come and I WILL be reading it when they are released.
December 25, 2010
I truly have mixed feelings about this book. While reading it, I couldn't help but think that some of the things that Chastity was "enacting" with Thane... was wrong. Apparently, I let my morals get the best of me. Which is why I wasn't able to finish this book as fast as I thought I would have. But even with some issues concerning Chastity, the foreplay and the sexual tension between the two was hot-- as always from the one and only, Charlotte Featherstone. You have to admit that the description of the book and series itself is quite fascinating. Two faery courts, the Seelie and Unseelie. But in reality, which court is good and which court is the bad one? You'll just have to read it to find out! I'm truly looking forward to Mercy's story with Kian because with kindness, there is always jealousy lurking around the corner...
We all know that in most faery books, the Dark Fey is the bad guy right? But in this book, it actually questions the goodness inside of the Seelie. Even though they are described as pure beings basked in light and good, Lust explores the two courts, but sets the stage for the Unseelie instead. It's quite ironic, really, because the Unseelie is known for it's dark pleasures but readers will soon find themself questioning whether the Seelie is truly the bad guy and the Unseelie, the good. Anyway, even though the heroine urked me a little, I soon came to an understanding that it wasn't exactly easy for her to be the first one to stray. She had absolutely no one to talk to about the situations happening to her and Thane is just a very good seducer, lol! She did try desperately to make him go away but in the end, he always win... Yeah, a lot of head desking right there.
Now, we shall talking about the sexual tension between Thane and Chastity and the foreplay that goes along with it! Whoo, was it hot and steamy! A big applause for the author because she always seems to amaze me with her works. I loved Addicted so I often compared that with Lust but there really was no comparison at all. They were both unique in their own way; Addicted had more drama while Lust had more angst and sexual tension, haha. I also had many unanswered questions while reading this book... but that's understandable because this is afterall, the first book of the series. For example, who is Mary anyway? Where is the real virtue? I sure hope these questions will be answered as the series progresses. But I did question Chastity's love for Thane... To me, it happened too fast. There wasn't a lot of romantic development between the two, and it was more like a lot of groping and touching. *face palm* BUT, I did love, love, love this quote between them because I thought it was very emotional:
P.S. Aw, crap. Prudence, watch out for Mary and Crom!!! I sure hope her Dark Prince will come and save her. ;)
We all know that in most faery books, the Dark Fey is the bad guy right? But in this book, it actually questions the goodness inside of the Seelie. Even though they are described as pure beings basked in light and good, Lust explores the two courts, but sets the stage for the Unseelie instead. It's quite ironic, really, because the Unseelie is known for it's dark pleasures but readers will soon find themself questioning whether the Seelie is truly the bad guy and the Unseelie, the good. Anyway, even though the heroine urked me a little, I soon came to an understanding that it wasn't exactly easy for her to be the first one to stray. She had absolutely no one to talk to about the situations happening to her and Thane is just a very good seducer, lol! She did try desperately to make him go away but in the end, he always win... Yeah, a lot of head desking right there.
Now, we shall talking about the sexual tension between Thane and Chastity and the foreplay that goes along with it! Whoo, was it hot and steamy! A big applause for the author because she always seems to amaze me with her works. I loved Addicted so I often compared that with Lust but there really was no comparison at all. They were both unique in their own way; Addicted had more drama while Lust had more angst and sexual tension, haha. I also had many unanswered questions while reading this book... but that's understandable because this is afterall, the first book of the series. For example, who is Mary anyway? Where is the real virtue? I sure hope these questions will be answered as the series progresses. But I did question Chastity's love for Thane... To me, it happened too fast. There wasn't a lot of romantic development between the two, and it was more like a lot of groping and touching. *face palm* BUT, I did love, love, love this quote between them because I thought it was very emotional:
"Why?" She asked in a confused whisper. "Out of all the women in the world, why did you choose this mortal?"So for my final thoughts, I would have to say I did like this book. The writing, the characters, and the plot itself was amazing and very sensual. I'm truly looking forward to read more of Charlotte Featherstone's books so overall, I'll give this book a 4 ½ stars! I definitely recommend this book to anyone who loves paranormal, erotica, and historical romance. Even to those who just love to read books about faeries! Thank you to NetGalley for providing me this wonderful book.
"Because fate drove me to you."
P.S. Aw, crap. Prudence, watch out for Mary and Crom!!! I sure hope her Dark Prince will come and save her. ;)
January 2, 2011
I received this book as an ARC from NetGalley
Previous to reading this I had heard the name Charlotte Featherstone mentioned as an author I should check out and I even have one of her other books sitting in my TBR pile, but for some reason I just kept bypassing her - now I want to kick myself for doing that. I loved this first book in her new series that mixed Georgian England with the legend of the Seelie and Unseelie in a hot erotic romance.
The premise is simple 7 Unseelie, including the King, are possessed by the 7 Sins (Lust, Envy, Wrath etc), and in order to save their court, they must pursuade the Virtues (Chastity, Prudence) to come and join them of their own free will. The first book in the series is about Thane, who is possessed with the sin of Lust and his matching virtue, Chastity, who attempts to live up to her name, but finds herself falling under Thane's spell.
At the same time, the Virtures are being wooed by the Seelie court, who will spot nothing to prevent the Unseelie from matching with their virtures, because they want to see them ruined. Led by the Seelie Queen, Aline, who hates the Unseelie because of what their King once did to her.
I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series, but have a feeling it is going to be a painful wait for the rest of them to come out. This book will be available on Febuary 1, 2011 and I highly recommended for anyone who loves Paranormal romance, as well as Erotic Romance with Historical elements.
Previous to reading this I had heard the name Charlotte Featherstone mentioned as an author I should check out and I even have one of her other books sitting in my TBR pile, but for some reason I just kept bypassing her - now I want to kick myself for doing that. I loved this first book in her new series that mixed Georgian England with the legend of the Seelie and Unseelie in a hot erotic romance.
The premise is simple 7 Unseelie, including the King, are possessed by the 7 Sins (Lust, Envy, Wrath etc), and in order to save their court, they must pursuade the Virtues (Chastity, Prudence) to come and join them of their own free will. The first book in the series is about Thane, who is possessed with the sin of Lust and his matching virtue, Chastity, who attempts to live up to her name, but finds herself falling under Thane's spell.
At the same time, the Virtures are being wooed by the Seelie court, who will spot nothing to prevent the Unseelie from matching with their virtures, because they want to see them ruined. Led by the Seelie Queen, Aline, who hates the Unseelie because of what their King once did to her.
I can't wait to read the rest of the books in the series, but have a feeling it is going to be a painful wait for the rest of them to come out. This book will be available on Febuary 1, 2011 and I highly recommended for anyone who loves Paranormal romance, as well as Erotic Romance with Historical elements.
January 22, 2011
Excellent Writing! Boiling Hot Erotica!
Wow, the built up sexual tension in this book will blow your mind away and when the climax comes, Damn! All I can say is have your significant other nearby so you can pounce on them or get ready for a cold shower.
The story line between the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court fighting over the seven virtues was brilliant and the seven sins being blessed upon the Unseelie Feys is fitting. The Unseelie Fey’s in this story are wickedly erotic and darkly direct. Just the sound of their voice and their single touch will have you under their spell and surrendering in every way possible.
It took me a little bit to get into the story but after the first chapter I was totally hooked and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and now I can hardly wait for the next book in this series to come out. I liked how the author showed that even the supposedly good/light side of the Faeries have an evil side and are full of revenge and the bad/dark side of the Faeries has a good side.
I personally fell for the Unseelie Feys because of their passionate personalities and dark erotic sides. I found the Seelie Fey boring and too uptight with no personality which turned me off immediately regardless of how beautifully hansom they were. Great Read!
Wow, the built up sexual tension in this book will blow your mind away and when the climax comes, Damn! All I can say is have your significant other nearby so you can pounce on them or get ready for a cold shower.
The story line between the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court fighting over the seven virtues was brilliant and the seven sins being blessed upon the Unseelie Feys is fitting. The Unseelie Fey’s in this story are wickedly erotic and darkly direct. Just the sound of their voice and their single touch will have you under their spell and surrendering in every way possible.
It took me a little bit to get into the story but after the first chapter I was totally hooked and couldn’t turn the pages fast enough and now I can hardly wait for the next book in this series to come out. I liked how the author showed that even the supposedly good/light side of the Faeries have an evil side and are full of revenge and the bad/dark side of the Faeries has a good side.
I personally fell for the Unseelie Feys because of their passionate personalities and dark erotic sides. I found the Seelie Fey boring and too uptight with no personality which turned me off immediately regardless of how beautifully hansom they were. Great Read!
May 5, 2011
Boy if I am baffled about this one!! I really had a hard time trying to decide how to rate this novel and I am torn between 2 1/2 and 3 stars but I'm leaning towards 3 since I did enjoy the book despite its faults.
They are two Fey courts, the Seelie Court of light and gaiety and the Unseelie Court of dark sensuality and voluptuousness. Centuries ago King Duir of the Dark Court saw the beautiful Queen Aine of the light Court and was immediately besotted by her, but the queen spurned Duir and and forced him tto steal her away from her world and bring her to his realm like another Persephone. The Unseelie king was certain he could win Aine plying her with his erotic skills, but the queen despised Duir and ploted against him but with no avail until one day, she was delivered of the king’s twin sons. Enraptured by his progeny, and grateful to the queen for giving him such a gift, Duir became less watchful, allowing the queen new freedoms, and it was then that Aine found a way to leave his court.
One night she stole away, taking with her one of her sons, the golden-haired child who was the image of her Seelie self, leaving behind his dark-haired brother who bore his father’s resemblance. As she fled, Aine placed a spell on the Unseelie Court, that it whither away, never to thrive again until the Dark Fey could make a woman give herself to him of her own free will. As well, she cursed the sons of Duir’s siblings — and any future male children of the king — with each cardinal sin, further destroying her own dark son’s chances of finding a virtuous woman who would give herself willingly.
To this day, the queen’s spell holds strong. The Unseelie Court is dying. There is but one hope for the court — to find the seven women who represent the virtuous aspects of humanity. Seven women who embody chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility. Women whose very being calls to the sins deeply buried in each prince, sins that are eager to corrupt, through erotic pleasure, their virtues. If the court is to survive, the fey princes will have to find a way to make the virtues follow them willingly, while satisfying the basic needs of their sins.
They are two Fey courts, the Seelie Court of light and gaiety and the Unseelie Court of dark sensuality and voluptuousness. Centuries ago King Duir of the Dark Court saw the beautiful Queen Aine of the light Court and was immediately besotted by her, but the queen spurned Duir and and forced him tto steal her away from her world and bring her to his realm like another Persephone. The Unseelie king was certain he could win Aine plying her with his erotic skills, but the queen despised Duir and ploted against him but with no avail until one day, she was delivered of the king’s twin sons. Enraptured by his progeny, and grateful to the queen for giving him such a gift, Duir became less watchful, allowing the queen new freedoms, and it was then that Aine found a way to leave his court.
One night she stole away, taking with her one of her sons, the golden-haired child who was the image of her Seelie self, leaving behind his dark-haired brother who bore his father’s resemblance. As she fled, Aine placed a spell on the Unseelie Court, that it whither away, never to thrive again until the Dark Fey could make a woman give herself to him of her own free will. As well, she cursed the sons of Duir’s siblings — and any future male children of the king — with each cardinal sin, further destroying her own dark son’s chances of finding a virtuous woman who would give herself willingly.
To this day, the queen’s spell holds strong. The Unseelie Court is dying. There is but one hope for the court — to find the seven women who represent the virtuous aspects of humanity. Seven women who embody chastity, temperance, charity, diligence, patience, kindness and humility. Women whose very being calls to the sins deeply buried in each prince, sins that are eager to corrupt, through erotic pleasure, their virtues. If the court is to survive, the fey princes will have to find a way to make the virtues follow them willingly, while satisfying the basic needs of their sins.
I really found the blurb original, seven sins and their counterparts, seven vitrtues and a curse -a very unfair one- that in order to break, the women who are the paragons of these virtues must willingly and out of love mate with the seven dark fey who are possessed by the cardinal sins. Yummy right? Well...not quite!! What went wrong? A lot of things. We have four twin sisters born within minutes from each other, Mary, Prudence, Chastity and Mercy, each representing a virtue. Their birth was the result of a deal their father, Duke of Lennox made with queen Aine (well that should teach you for making deals with the devil) and all four girls are well aware of the peculiar circumstances of their birth and were raised to believe that they were created for a higher purpose that lies in the fey world.
Thane, the dark fey prince ppossessed by the sin of Lust (ok...that doesn't sound so bad to me) must seduce, woo and corrupt Chastity Lennox, the virtue of chastity (mmmm... a gorgeus dark fey prince wants to corrupt you using...lust, yeah that really must suck) in order to help his king, Niall to break the course cast upon their court that slowly dies. But Thane soon discovers that Chastity makes him feel like no other woman.
I swear there were times that I really could't stand Chastity and her stiff self-righteousness!! On second level that goes also for her sister Pruedence that she also happend to be stupid but more on that later. I really get it that she was conflicted with what she thought she knew, that she is the paragon of chastity and that desire and lust are sins that she will never feel even if she wanted to since her virtue makes her unaible and immune to them and her meeting with Thane is an awakening to all these "dark" feelings and pleasures. But this girl couldn't make up her mind untill the very end and really made me wary of her and her constant inner babbling about how she is the embodiment of virtue and all these are SIN!!!!!!!!!! Of course the next moment she was writhing in the hands of Thane like a wanton all thoughts of sin be damned. These were the only moments I found her likeable actually, since stiff, uptight heroines with no real personality
aren't very appealing to me.
Thane on the other hand... all I can say is that the man really was the embodiment of Lust, he was what made the book interesting and hot, well that and the steamy and beautifully erotic scenes Charlotte Featherstone is more than capable of writing. And although I liked him a lot more that Chastity and found him enjoyably cunning at times if not manipulative, being inside his head and listening his POV made me bored at times, the guy really thinks TOO MUCH and there's a limit to how much brooding a girl (that would be me) can take! Our boy wants this to be the big L and I really feel for him`but how many times must I read it!! I got it the first time, I am not stupid!
And speaking of stupid: Prudence, the virtue of temperance and sister of Chastity, thinks that the Fey of the Seelie court are good because they represent the light and and the Unseelie bad because they repsesent the dark...yes the girl is pure genius, I was mighty impressed by her logic!
Still I enjoyed reading it despite the fact that Chastity and Thane didn't really warmed my heart or convinced me that they fell in love (more like in lust) though the seeds are there for a love to blossom in the future IMHO (god that sounds sooo CHEESY) and despite the plot being somewhat thin I would like to go back to this world and see if the rest of the dark princes will succed in seducing their virtues and break the curse.
January 26, 2011
I found this book to be a pleasant surprise. It is difficult to find good fantasy romance centered around the fey. Ms. Featherstone builds an erotic tension amongst her characters that is tangible. You feel the anxiety and longing as Chastity, one of the Virtues, struggles with her desire to remain chaste or give in to her desire for Thane, her Dark Fey prince.
This love story is about breaking a curse placed on the Dark Fey court by the Queen of the Light Fey court after she was abducted and held hostage by the Dark King. He wanted her and took her in more ways than one. She bore him twin sons, one looking of the light and the other with dark hair and eyes, like the Dark Fey. She eventually escaped and took her Light Fey son Crom with her. Her curse was that the Dark Fey would never be able to bring another woman to their realm against her will. As a result, the Dark Fey are dying as they are unable to mate successfully with human women willing to live in their realm. In addition, they are forced to host their greatest sins such as wraith, envy, covertness, and for Thane -- lust. This part kind of reminded me of Lords of the Underworld but in a good way because I like that series very much.
This is a full length novel and at times, you may find yourself getting impatient as Thane seduces Chasity painstakingly slow. His thoughts and words are so sexually charged that you don't miss the fact that they are not having sex through most of the book, you just want to see what happens when they finally do. Along with waiting for Thane to break through Chastity’s shields, we get to know the other sisters or Virtues. Chastity was born in a litter of four…Mercy, Prudence, and Mary. Yeah, Mary…she is a mystery as she is nothing like them and she ain’t so nice. This is a period piece, not sure if 1700s or 1800s but it was set in London during the time wealth and social graces where necessary ingredients of power and influence. The father of the girls had made two deals, one with the Light Fey Queen to restore health to his infant son in return for a favor to be paid at a later date. His second deal was with the Dark Fey years later for wealth as he now had a healthy son and four daughters. Now the girls are of age and both courts show up for payment, which is the same – they want the girls who are now young women. The Dark Fey need the Virtues because it is the only way to break the curse. The Light Fey want them to ensure that does not happen. There is so much more to this than it appears on the surface such as how did these virtues become flesh in the first place? This is revealed in the book but you must read it to find out.
What we end up with is a cast of interesting characters running in and out of each other's lives with dangerous plot twist, secrets and agendas. It’s all oh so good. I loved this book and will continue the series without a doubt.
This love story is about breaking a curse placed on the Dark Fey court by the Queen of the Light Fey court after she was abducted and held hostage by the Dark King. He wanted her and took her in more ways than one. She bore him twin sons, one looking of the light and the other with dark hair and eyes, like the Dark Fey. She eventually escaped and took her Light Fey son Crom with her. Her curse was that the Dark Fey would never be able to bring another woman to their realm against her will. As a result, the Dark Fey are dying as they are unable to mate successfully with human women willing to live in their realm. In addition, they are forced to host their greatest sins such as wraith, envy, covertness, and for Thane -- lust. This part kind of reminded me of Lords of the Underworld but in a good way because I like that series very much.
This is a full length novel and at times, you may find yourself getting impatient as Thane seduces Chasity painstakingly slow. His thoughts and words are so sexually charged that you don't miss the fact that they are not having sex through most of the book, you just want to see what happens when they finally do. Along with waiting for Thane to break through Chastity’s shields, we get to know the other sisters or Virtues. Chastity was born in a litter of four…Mercy, Prudence, and Mary. Yeah, Mary…she is a mystery as she is nothing like them and she ain’t so nice. This is a period piece, not sure if 1700s or 1800s but it was set in London during the time wealth and social graces where necessary ingredients of power and influence. The father of the girls had made two deals, one with the Light Fey Queen to restore health to his infant son in return for a favor to be paid at a later date. His second deal was with the Dark Fey years later for wealth as he now had a healthy son and four daughters. Now the girls are of age and both courts show up for payment, which is the same – they want the girls who are now young women. The Dark Fey need the Virtues because it is the only way to break the curse. The Light Fey want them to ensure that does not happen. There is so much more to this than it appears on the surface such as how did these virtues become flesh in the first place? This is revealed in the book but you must read it to find out.
What we end up with is a cast of interesting characters running in and out of each other's lives with dangerous plot twist, secrets and agendas. It’s all oh so good. I loved this book and will continue the series without a doubt.
December 5, 2010
Heat Level: 5 out of 5
Kink: voyeurism, public sex, anal, questionable consent
Charlotte Featherstone is a pretty new author for me. I have read Sinful and thought it was one of the best romance/erotica reads I have read this year or ever. So I was looking forward to reading this book and I read it in one sitting! While Sinful was primarily historical this book is more Paranormal historical due to the Fey aspect of the story. However this aspect to me was not the focal point of the story. Charlotte focuses on the development of the characters and the Fey element is in the background and comes up periodically.
Overall a great beginning to a new series. The world building was believable to me and I could buy into the idea about the Fey. The villians were in the grey area to me. They each were likable or you could understand why they did what they did. I didn't think of anyone as truly evil. Both of the parents acted poorly but I think that Queen Aine I looked on as more evil because she basically acted like the sons were not hers and were monsters. While I understand she went through a lot I just couldn't like that she loved one son and not the other. I don't think this is a bad thing but made me think more about the story. The "Golden" son I didn't think of as truly evil either. Maybe Charlotte is going to give us a book about him?
The sisters each had their own personality and I wanted to know more about their stories and Charlotte gives us lots of hints about who their matches will be. I didn't catch on until it came out and said that Mary was not one of the virtues. I kept thinking and thinking what virtue is she? Duh LOL.
I liked the Dark Fey relatives alot and will definitely be reading more to see how everything works out.
So you might be wondering why I didn't give it a 5. The main reason was that there was too much going on with all the different characters being introduced. I even thought at first that the story was going to be about Niall because the first part is in his perspective. And while I liked Chastity and Thane I felt I was pulled out of the story to tell more about the other relatives and sisters too much.
Kink: voyeurism, public sex, anal, questionable consent
Charlotte Featherstone is a pretty new author for me. I have read Sinful and thought it was one of the best romance/erotica reads I have read this year or ever. So I was looking forward to reading this book and I read it in one sitting! While Sinful was primarily historical this book is more Paranormal historical due to the Fey aspect of the story. However this aspect to me was not the focal point of the story. Charlotte focuses on the development of the characters and the Fey element is in the background and comes up periodically.
Overall a great beginning to a new series. The world building was believable to me and I could buy into the idea about the Fey. The villians were in the grey area to me. They each were likable or you could understand why they did what they did. I didn't think of anyone as truly evil. Both of the parents acted poorly but I think that Queen Aine I looked on as more evil because she basically acted like the sons were not hers and were monsters. While I understand she went through a lot I just couldn't like that she loved one son and not the other. I don't think this is a bad thing but made me think more about the story. The "Golden" son I didn't think of as truly evil either. Maybe Charlotte is going to give us a book about him?
The sisters each had their own personality and I wanted to know more about their stories and Charlotte gives us lots of hints about who their matches will be. I didn't catch on until it came out and said that Mary was not one of the virtues. I kept thinking and thinking what virtue is she? Duh LOL.
I liked the Dark Fey relatives alot and will definitely be reading more to see how everything works out.
So you might be wondering why I didn't give it a 5. The main reason was that there was too much going on with all the different characters being introduced. I even thought at first that the story was going to be about Niall because the first part is in his perspective. And while I liked Chastity and Thane I felt I was pulled out of the story to tell more about the other relatives and sisters too much.
March 28, 2011
3.1/2 stars
Well, let me start by saying, I'm not a prude, but I must be a true romantic at heart, I like when a relationships develops, I'm crazy addicted to sexual tension, I loved it when an Author makes me want the hero in the story just as much as the heroine does, but that only happens when I get to know the men I'm going to get involve with, I want to know him, really know him .. and I felt this wasn't the story for that., but just like the title implied, it was about lust, don't get me wrong, there is sexual tension, let me say it again SEXUAL tension in this book and is great, just in a different way, and is hot, very, very hot, how can I put it.. Oh yes! I know, a hot one night stand, but not a keeper.
Well, let me start by saying, I'm not a prude, but I must be a true romantic at heart, I like when a relationships develops, I'm crazy addicted to sexual tension, I loved it when an Author makes me want the hero in the story just as much as the heroine does, but that only happens when I get to know the men I'm going to get involve with, I want to know him, really know him .. and I felt this wasn't the story for that., but just like the title implied, it was about lust, don't get me wrong, there is sexual tension, let me say it again SEXUAL tension in this book and is great, just in a different way, and is hot, very, very hot, how can I put it.. Oh yes! I know, a hot one night stand, but not a keeper.
June 10, 2011
For me this is a 3.5/5 but I rated it up one star as I love this author. I liked this book but not as much as Sinful & Epilogue or Addicted. I think this is due to the fact that the characters were less tortured than the other books. I love that you get just as much viewpoint from the man's perspective as the woman's. I look forward to reading Wedding of the Century soon! Keep writing Charlotte!
October 13, 2019
Surprisingly, I enjoyed this. It was quite different, and I liked the Fae world. While this is erotica, there is also some romance, even though it is unconventional in the telling of it. I would definitely read book two.
January 8, 2011
Reviwed by Cynthia for bittenbyparanormalromance
Cynthia's review
The Unseelie King (Dark Fae) falls in love/lust with the Seelie Queen (Good Fae), but she doesn’t love him - - so, he kidnaps her. Fast forward. . . She bears him twin sons and then takes off with one, Crom, but leaves the other one, Niall. Oh yeah, she also leaves one nasty curse behind too. Each of the Unseelie King’s sons will be cursed with a Cardinal Sin. In order for the Unseelie Court to thrive, the Sons will have to find their virtue/mate. That said mate will have to come to them of their own free will.
George Buckman, Duke of Lennox, has made a deal with the devil(s). Trouble is, he doesn’t know which one is worse. And when it comes time to pay his dues, both parties are looking to collect the same piece of booty bounty. This part of the story and the basic storyline, I really enjoyed. Watching the two battling Courts: Seelie and Unseelie. Wanting the best Fae to win, but not always knowing who the best Fae will be. Niall and Rinion are Dark Fae that will not be denied.
Chastity (a way of life that does not include any sexual activity): One entity. She cannot separate herself from her virtue. Thane and Lust: Two entities yet one, and both must be satisfied. A deliberate and, at times, tedious seduction of Chastity begins. For that to occur, Thane taps into Chastity’s darkest desire (aha moment). He surrounds, envelopes, and overwhelms her with his physical essence by way of fog, cloud, mist and perfume. Until she finally caves. Yet, he wasn’t supposed to use any Fae magic. There were two scenes in particular that were troublesome for me; more so what happens to Chastity immediately afterward. Although, it has more to do with my distaste of love making by spectral means. Oh, but the pointy ear scene was vera, vera nice.
What had possessed her? She had not been able to resist the lure. And yet, it had been a dream. No. She had been awake, but in some altered state. A fantasy. Yes. That is what it had been.
It will be quite a while before I look at a glass perfume bottle without cynicism.
Oh wait…a dream, a horrible dream…Bobby?!?
Cynthia's review
The Unseelie King (Dark Fae) falls in love/lust with the Seelie Queen (Good Fae), but she doesn’t love him - - so, he kidnaps her. Fast forward. . . She bears him twin sons and then takes off with one, Crom, but leaves the other one, Niall. Oh yeah, she also leaves one nasty curse behind too. Each of the Unseelie King’s sons will be cursed with a Cardinal Sin. In order for the Unseelie Court to thrive, the Sons will have to find their virtue/mate. That said mate will have to come to them of their own free will.
George Buckman, Duke of Lennox, has made a deal with the devil(s). Trouble is, he doesn’t know which one is worse. And when it comes time to pay his dues, both parties are looking to collect the same piece of booty bounty. This part of the story and the basic storyline, I really enjoyed. Watching the two battling Courts: Seelie and Unseelie. Wanting the best Fae to win, but not always knowing who the best Fae will be. Niall and Rinion are Dark Fae that will not be denied.
Chastity (a way of life that does not include any sexual activity): One entity. She cannot separate herself from her virtue. Thane and Lust: Two entities yet one, and both must be satisfied. A deliberate and, at times, tedious seduction of Chastity begins. For that to occur, Thane taps into Chastity’s darkest desire (aha moment). He surrounds, envelopes, and overwhelms her with his physical essence by way of fog, cloud, mist and perfume. Until she finally caves. Yet, he wasn’t supposed to use any Fae magic. There were two scenes in particular that were troublesome for me; more so what happens to Chastity immediately afterward. Although, it has more to do with my distaste of love making by spectral means. Oh, but the pointy ear scene was vera, vera nice.
What had possessed her? She had not been able to resist the lure. And yet, it had been a dream. No. She had been awake, but in some altered state. A fantasy. Yes. That is what it had been.
It will be quite a while before I look at a glass perfume bottle without cynicism.
Oh wait…a dream, a horrible dream…Bobby?!?
January 4, 2011
I received this book free from the publisher
If I had to sum up Charlotte Featherstone' newest novel, Lust, in a single word, it would be "lush".
What worked for me:
*The worldbuilding is simply breathtaking; it's so beautifully descriptive without making the story feel bogged down. There's a certain earthiness to her writing that engages all of your senses while reading.
*The sensuality was amazing. It was incredibly sensual, sexy, and erotic, without being vulgar. At one point in reading, I thought to myself that this novel is the high-priced courtesan to the common street prostitutes that so many other erotic novels seem to be these days.
What didn't work for me:
*I admit that I occasionally got confused on the character names. There were, I think, slightly too many characters to keep things flowing properly in my mind. I have a feeling, however, that this was more a failing on my end than on the author's.
*I think, if anything, it was almost too rich. Rather like eating a decadent piece of gourmet chocolate, the incredible earthiness and richness of the writing was better savored in small doses, and as such it took me much longer to finish this book than it normally does for this length of novel.
Overall, however, the writing was amazing, the characters drew me in, and I am left breathlessly awaiting the next installment to the series. This is my first Charlotte Featherstone novel, but it absolutely will not be my last. 4.5 Stars
If I had to sum up Charlotte Featherstone' newest novel, Lust, in a single word, it would be "lush".
What worked for me:
*The worldbuilding is simply breathtaking; it's so beautifully descriptive without making the story feel bogged down. There's a certain earthiness to her writing that engages all of your senses while reading.
*The sensuality was amazing. It was incredibly sensual, sexy, and erotic, without being vulgar. At one point in reading, I thought to myself that this novel is the high-priced courtesan to the common street prostitutes that so many other erotic novels seem to be these days.
What didn't work for me:
*I admit that I occasionally got confused on the character names. There were, I think, slightly too many characters to keep things flowing properly in my mind. I have a feeling, however, that this was more a failing on my end than on the author's.
*I think, if anything, it was almost too rich. Rather like eating a decadent piece of gourmet chocolate, the incredible earthiness and richness of the writing was better savored in small doses, and as such it took me much longer to finish this book than it normally does for this length of novel.
Overall, however, the writing was amazing, the characters drew me in, and I am left breathlessly awaiting the next installment to the series. This is my first Charlotte Featherstone novel, but it absolutely will not be my last. 4.5 Stars
February 16, 2011
Although there were some parts that I didn't care for and that bothered me I really liked this book and look forward to the rest of the series. I'm not a fan of stereotypes although they do have their place. That's what struck me about this book the Feys and the People were defined a certain way because they had been given a label but as you get to know the characters the stereotype doesn't exactly fit and if you ignore the label it might be hard to tell who is good and who is bad. Another thing that appeals to me is the desire of the Dark Fey to fix what is wrong and prove that they are not as bad as people think they are (I'm not referring to the sin but the fey). It seems they have been doing what people expect them to do for years and have decided they're tired of it and tired of living a certain way because of something that was not their fault in addition to the fact that their court is dying so they don't have much choice.
One of the characters I don't particularly care for is Mary although I think her story is next and it'll be interesting to see how things work out for her. It was interesting in this book and will be in those that remain to see how the Virtues seem to balance the Sins.
One of the characters I don't particularly care for is Mary although I think her story is next and it'll be interesting to see how things work out for her. It was interesting in this book and will be in those that remain to see how the Virtues seem to balance the Sins.
October 14, 2011
Lust by Charlotte Featherstone is a very sensual and decent read.
However, I felt the story relied too heavily on the narrative, which at times became repetitive. There should have been more dialogue between the characters, as this would have created the emotional intimacy that I felt was lacking in the story.
Also, the paranormal world the author created confused me at times. I had a hard time keeping track of all the different characters and how they related to the plot. In the end, this issue diminished the overall effect of the story for me.
Overall, I liked the story and will recommend it; however, I'm not sure I liked it enough to continue the series.
However, I felt the story relied too heavily on the narrative, which at times became repetitive. There should have been more dialogue between the characters, as this would have created the emotional intimacy that I felt was lacking in the story.
Also, the paranormal world the author created confused me at times. I had a hard time keeping track of all the different characters and how they related to the plot. In the end, this issue diminished the overall effect of the story for me.
Overall, I liked the story and will recommend it; however, I'm not sure I liked it enough to continue the series.
December 7, 2023
This book is garbage but as a series this could've been so good if it had been allowed to continue
Hear me out!!
(also this is full of spoilers because the series appears to have been dropped and Charlotte Featherstone disappeared into thin air and because I do not recommend that you read this book!)
So this novel was pure ~bad~ trash, because
a) the premise of a heroine that is ~chaste~ just because that's her life mission is pathetic and embarassing and worse yet, BORING
b) even ignoring the premise, the way Chastity (yup that's her name) is written is BORING. she is a BORING BORE. I want to throw her out of a window just to see something happen inside her brain! She had no personality.
c) the Pearl-Clutching: Chastity did not have actual pearls, but she sure clutched her chasteness hard enough to leave marks on her hands. Girl, your virginity ain't worth SHIT to anyone except your father
d) LUST, the main guy, is a monogamic heterosexual yearner. The fact that this entire novel never showed him even LOOKING at another woman or mention past encounters with men just tells you everything about how bad his "curse" really is. Bruh if you ain't salivating over your hot enemies you obviously aren't "lust"
e) MOST, but not all (I'll get back to that) of Chastity's sisters are as boring and dull as her. They aren't characters, they are gimmicks. But their gimmicks suck!
f) the sex isn't sexy. These two have the most pathetic, vanilla sexytimes of all time. Obviously Chastity was calling the shots and changed the self-proclaimed "deviant" Lust into a pathetic bore as well. The most interesting scene in the novel was when fog Lust was secretly getting Chastity off while she was in the carriage with the evil (probably) Seelie fae who wants to steal her. That was great! Unfortunately, it's not how the entire book works.
Anyway, I digress. The novel had some seriously good aspects that might have made this a readable or even iconic paranormal series if it had gone on!
a) The splitting of the two children that resulted from the rape of Light Queen Aine into one "light" and one "dark" prince, Crom and Niall. The fact that Crom, the "light" twin was a villain who wanted to stop the sins from getting the virtues, not because that's the Queen's wish but because HE wants the virtues for himself so he can overthrow his unhinged mother? GOLD
b) one of Chastity's sisters was not like the others: Mary, who isn't named after a virtue, actually ISN'T one. And she has her own plans that involve getting her horny, grabby hands on the holder of VANITY (who of course is meant for the virtue humility). DRAMA! Also, Mary, who is not a virgin, has no compulsion against fucking Crom. GOOD FOR HER
c) It seemed that some of the virtues (we've met 3/7 in this novel) were not well matched with their respective Sins. In fact, Prudence immediately falls in love with Crom's underling from the Seelie court, who wants her to overthrow the Seelie Queen. I wanted to see Prudence being spirited away to the Seelie Court, only to be stolen by Crom from her "true love" and seeing how bad these "good guys" really are. Gosh, her taking those tomatoes off her eyes could have been legendary!
d) I really enjoyed the Sins of Envy and Gluttony. Envy was envious but also a total dom to his Virtue, which was lit. Gluttony was constantly gorging himself on either food or drink or women and that was what I actually wanted from Lust, so I really liked that. The idea of being married to "just one" woman seriously scared him and that was interesting. If you paired someone like that with Prudence, who is a stuck-up, bony little prude btw, after Prudence made some bad experiences at the Seelie Court? Damn
e) Envy with the Virtue of Kindness: I liked the dynamic between Mercy (why call her Mercy when her virtue is Kindness?? Seems dumb) and Envy was very much fire. First because Envy materialized in front of her and told her point blank that he would pursue her relentlessly, mercilessly, and nothing could stop him from making her HIS, and second because she LIKED that. Marcy is special because while she is kind, she is also very curious, well-read and slightly horny. So ... a personality!!! Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. Next to Chastity and Prudence, she was a beacon of light.
Anyway all these musings are futile because there are no sequels and it looks as though there never will be. But while Chastity X this "Lust" was a pathetic pairing and painful to read, I think this series could've been good.
As usual, Charlotte Featherstone writes well. If she had written Thane - the Lust Dark Fey - in a way that was actually debauched, horny, desperate, and disgustingly lusty (much like she wrote a damn good, debauched and pathetic addict in Addicted, which was way darker than this novel) this could have been a good novel in spite of the lackluster heroine. But really both of these characters needed a lot more personality to work out as main characters.
I want more Charlotte Featherstone today. The Dark Historical Romances she could publish today? Dayum
Hear me out!!
(also this is full of spoilers because the series appears to have been dropped and Charlotte Featherstone disappeared into thin air and because I do not recommend that you read this book!)
So this novel was pure ~bad~ trash, because
a) the premise of a heroine that is ~chaste~ just because that's her life mission is pathetic and embarassing and worse yet, BORING
b) even ignoring the premise, the way Chastity (yup that's her name) is written is BORING. she is a BORING BORE. I want to throw her out of a window just to see something happen inside her brain! She had no personality.
c) the Pearl-Clutching: Chastity did not have actual pearls, but she sure clutched her chasteness hard enough to leave marks on her hands. Girl, your virginity ain't worth SHIT to anyone except your father
d) LUST, the main guy, is a monogamic heterosexual yearner. The fact that this entire novel never showed him even LOOKING at another woman or mention past encounters with men just tells you everything about how bad his "curse" really is. Bruh if you ain't salivating over your hot enemies you obviously aren't "lust"
e) MOST, but not all (I'll get back to that) of Chastity's sisters are as boring and dull as her. They aren't characters, they are gimmicks. But their gimmicks suck!
f) the sex isn't sexy. These two have the most pathetic, vanilla sexytimes of all time. Obviously Chastity was calling the shots and changed the self-proclaimed "deviant" Lust into a pathetic bore as well. The most interesting scene in the novel was when fog Lust was secretly getting Chastity off while she was in the carriage with the evil (probably) Seelie fae who wants to steal her. That was great! Unfortunately, it's not how the entire book works.
Anyway, I digress. The novel had some seriously good aspects that might have made this a readable or even iconic paranormal series if it had gone on!
a) The splitting of the two children that resulted from the rape of Light Queen Aine into one "light" and one "dark" prince, Crom and Niall. The fact that Crom, the "light" twin was a villain who wanted to stop the sins from getting the virtues, not because that's the Queen's wish but because HE wants the virtues for himself so he can overthrow his unhinged mother? GOLD
b) one of Chastity's sisters was not like the others: Mary, who isn't named after a virtue, actually ISN'T one. And she has her own plans that involve getting her horny, grabby hands on the holder of VANITY (who of course is meant for the virtue humility). DRAMA! Also, Mary, who is not a virgin, has no compulsion against fucking Crom. GOOD FOR HER
c) It seemed that some of the virtues (we've met 3/7 in this novel) were not well matched with their respective Sins. In fact, Prudence immediately falls in love with Crom's underling from the Seelie court, who wants her to overthrow the Seelie Queen. I wanted to see Prudence being spirited away to the Seelie Court, only to be stolen by Crom from her "true love" and seeing how bad these "good guys" really are. Gosh, her taking those tomatoes off her eyes could have been legendary!
d) I really enjoyed the Sins of Envy and Gluttony. Envy was envious but also a total dom to his Virtue, which was lit. Gluttony was constantly gorging himself on either food or drink or women and that was what I actually wanted from Lust, so I really liked that. The idea of being married to "just one" woman seriously scared him and that was interesting. If you paired someone like that with Prudence, who is a stuck-up, bony little prude btw, after Prudence made some bad experiences at the Seelie Court? Damn
e) Envy with the Virtue of Kindness: I liked the dynamic between Mercy (why call her Mercy when her virtue is Kindness?? Seems dumb) and Envy was very much fire. First because Envy materialized in front of her and told her point blank that he would pursue her relentlessly, mercilessly, and nothing could stop him from making her HIS, and second because she LIKED that. Marcy is special because while she is kind, she is also very curious, well-read and slightly horny. So ... a personality!!! Yeah, I couldn't believe it either. Next to Chastity and Prudence, she was a beacon of light.
Anyway all these musings are futile because there are no sequels and it looks as though there never will be. But while Chastity X this "Lust" was a pathetic pairing and painful to read, I think this series could've been good.
As usual, Charlotte Featherstone writes well. If she had written Thane - the Lust Dark Fey - in a way that was actually debauched, horny, desperate, and disgustingly lusty (much like she wrote a damn good, debauched and pathetic addict in Addicted, which was way darker than this novel) this could have been a good novel in spite of the lackluster heroine. But really both of these characters needed a lot more personality to work out as main characters.
I want more Charlotte Featherstone today. The Dark Historical Romances she could publish today? Dayum
wishlist
January 22, 2011I should read this....but I am simply sick and tired of PNR and just want some good old fashioned human loving between real men and women. I've loved many books from this author.....but I think I'll pass for now and find something else to read.
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October 12, 2011
My review contains spoilers and they're mostly my thoughts as I went with the book...
Lust is the book #1 in Charlotte Featherstone’s “The Sins and The Virtues” series. Have to say I found the premise of this series really really interesting. The back story or the basis of the series is given in the opening of the book, where the clash between the Fey and their darker brethren and why it happened is mentioned. The Dark Fey are supposed to be the opposite of the Fey who are all goodness and sunshine. The Dark Fey are creatures of the night and feeds on moonlight. They can move as rain, mist, fog and shadow (ooh, intriguing!). Their place, the Unseelie court, is full of all kinds of debauchery and darkness, all lies and temptations in opposite to the Seelie court. It all started when the king of the Unseelie court, Duir, kidnapped the Seelie queen Aine while she was asleep and forced her to submit to him. The Dark Fey can make you want things bodily even though your mind doesn’t want it, which is what happened to Aine. Even after she bore Duir's twins, she kept on plotting for escape. In the end, she did and took Crom, the son who resembles her, with blonde hair and so on while leaving the one with dark hair and the looks of an Unseelie, Niall. She cast a spell on the Unseelie court, for which the court is now dying slowly. Now, the Unseelie must find out a way to save their court and their race and in order to do that, they need to find out the seven virtues in the mortal realm and mate them with seven sins that plague Niall, the current king of the Unseelie and 6 other Dark Fey princes. Yes, I am interested!!!! :D
So, the story starts, talking about the Lennox sisters, daughters of the Duke of Lennox. Lennox made a pact with the Seelie queen 20 yrs ago, which is to give her his 4 daughters (yet to be born, with the magic of the Fey queen) and in return she’ll transform his heir’s crippled body into a healthy, handsome boy. Four daughters are born, quadruplets, at least 3 of them showing signs of 3 distinct different virtues. They are named Mary, Chastity, Prudence and Mercy. It is said that the 7 virtues are born every 100 yrs and the Seelie take them to mate with their princes to keep all the ‘goodness and sunshine’ intact. Hence, the Seelie need these sisters too. But, the Unseelie need them as well, for the revival of their court. So starts the competition. We meet the sisters, 3 of them shows their virtues, except Mary. No one knows what her virtue is but they all are aware of their duties to the Seelie court. Even though not many believe that the Fey exist, the sisters do. Mary is rather bold and outspoken, doesn’t fit with other virtues of humility, diligence and charity. Chastity is the paragon of chasteness, so she’s not really attracted to any man. Though she doesn’t like it she knows this is how she’s supposed to be. So goes with Prudence. Mercy seems quite happy and kind, as she’s supposed to be but inside, she’s interested in the Dark Fey.
Then we see how the Unseelie are doing nowadays. Niall, the king, is very worried to find a cure for this curse. Prince Irian, the one cursed with sloth has just lost his human mate, who died while giving birth to his son. Niall, whose curse is wrath, goes to his deceased father’s chamber and asks the spirits to help him. And, he learns about the solution; look for the 7 virtues but you can’t force them to the court and force yourselves upon them. They must come to the Unseelie court on their own will and love these princes who’ll mate with them. It is then and only then the curse would be lifted. So, Niall sends Princes Thane (lust), Kian (Thane’s twin, envy), Avery (gluttony) and Rinion (vanity) to find the Lennox sisters. They know they have to find the other virtues too. Anyway, Rinion informs them that the oldest-born Lennox sister is already promised to him since the duke made a pact with him too, for more money. Now, Thane knows that he has to woo and seduce Chastity and bring her to the Unseelie court. So, they wait for the sisters, who are now in Glastonbury, just returning from a fair held for the ‘Eve of Beltane’ (the history of which I rather enjoyed reading). It is said that the Fey roam amongst the mortal on this eve. The sisters’ conversation kinda gives us a view of their relationship. Mary is rude and straightforward, always reminding her sisters that they’re boring. Chastity, Prudence and Mercy are true to their own virtues. Here, Thane introduces himself to have a look at Chastity.
Meanwhile, Crom, the Seelie prince is under his mother’s instruction to remind the Duke that he pay his tithe. Crom does that. He wants Chastity for himself. But, Crom has other plans, which is to throw his mother out and rule the Seelie court himself, with the help of these virtues. But, on the surface, he takes one of his men and embarks on meeting their virtues. But when he realizes that the Unseelie are also in pursuit, he commands Lennox to remove his daughters to their London townhouse. Lennox, who is now in a fix and a huge mess, for his bargains with the both court, is scared and takes the sisters to the townhouse, where his son and the new daughter-in-law resides. At that moment, Robert was holding a ball and the sisters are also attending. Chastity goes out to take fresh air (but it wasn’t that, Thane was already there, talking to her through her mind, beckoning her outside) and meets Thane, who wore a gilded mask on his face. Chastity, of course doesn’t know who he is. Thane starts working his magic and his sin, on her. I really loved the way he came as a mist in the moonlight and touched her. And, I loved the way he did that in their other meetings as well. They had a hot interlude and Chastity gets a little scared. She understands he must be a Dark Fey but still confused. Crom wards the townhouse with magic so that the Unseelie do not get in but Thane finds ways to meet Chastity, ie: when she’s out and then buying her a perfume. She asks Thane to leave her alone. Thane lies to her that he will, only if she takes the perfume. And yes, he can read minds... scary that! As Chastity is trying the perfume on, he becomes mist and puts his essence into the perfume so that he can come to her dreams and talk to her in her thoughts.
Though it was a bit disturbing for my peace of mind but I liked it Thane can see her and know what she’s doing, even when she’s taking a bath and so on. Thane’s sin, Lust, rears head and wants the mindless f*cking. So far, he has given in, taking countless other conquests, both human and fey. But, as he sees and knows more of Chastity, Thane realizes he wants her differently. And, he keeps on talking to her through her thought and one day, lures her to a garden on the back of the townhouse. He created this garden with his magic and toned down his ‘fey glamour’ so that Chastity thinks he’s a human. They have another interlude here but as Chastity began to understand that he’s a Dark Fey (you can guess how he knew!), he makes her forget this incident. In a garden party, where Crom and his man Arawn, who’s courting Prudence (she’s already taken with him), meet the sisters. Chastity is already in Thane’s spell, already wanting his presence wherever she goes. Crom doesn’t interest her but she tries to keep a face with him. This time, Kian accompanies Thane and meets his virtue, Mercy. I really liked this meeting, very beautiful. Anyway, Thane keeps on meeting her and come in her dreams, luring her with his dark fey magic and his sin. They were supposed to meet in a masquerade ball when their carriage containing Mercy, Chastity, Prudence and Lennox was abducted by Niall. They’re taken to a whorehouse, of which Lennox is a silent partner. Niall informs Lennox of his wishes and casts magic to make Lennox tell him about his bargain with the Seelie. In the meantime, Prudence meets her match and instantly in disgust! The gluttonous Avery makes her sick. Oh, I loved this scene! Avery is tall, broad and good looking, just as any dark fey but of course, he wants more and more of everything, including women. When Prudence realizes the women serving food to him are whores ... oh man, I could imagine her face! It was so funny!! I can’t wait for their book. Kian meets Mercy again and tells her that he’s her destiny; that she must wait for him. Mercy, as I mentioned earlier, is already more than interested in her fey prince, which made me interested in their book as well. Rinion wasn’t here since in Glastonbury he met Lennox and asked him to give him his bride and then Lennox came to London. I’m not sure where Rinion was at that moment. Thane meets Chastity, who was asleep because of the magic spell and speaks to her through her dreams. Then she wakes up and after some incidents, they make love. Gotta tell you, I didn’t like the way their love scenes happened, all of them. I couldn’t shrug off Thane’s sin, the fact that he’s deliberately manipulating Chastity and Chastity wasn’t always in accord with her body and mind while they made love. Just the feeling that any measure of manipulation was involved took the fun away from me. Even Thane knew what he was doing was wrong still... Also, the way Chastity behaved ... ermm, I don’t know how this was her virtue. Anyway, those maybe just me. So, for Thane and Chastity’s romance, not very convinced.
When Crom goes to the masquerade ball, he only finds Mary there. And then I saw that Mary might not be a virtue at all. She was not only bold but makes a bargain with Crom; she’d secure Chastity for him and in return, she wants her prince. She also agrees to sleep with him. The next day, Lennox meets the Fey queen as commanded. This meeting and also seeing the way the queen and Crom’s heads work, I’m not sure why Seelie are called the good ones. Some information I read about them told me they’re the true barbarians in the lot! Anyway, the queen asks Lennox to present the sisters to her in two days. She also convinces him that the Dark Fey are bad and lying to him about taking care of the sisters. Lennox now wants his daughters to go to the Seelie court. But, that wasn’t about to happen. Chastity has already decided that she wants to be with Thane, though about love, she was confused *rolls eyes*. After they meet in the back garden and make love, Thane tells her he loves her but then, as guilt assails him, he confesses why he pursued her and the truth about the situation at Unseelie court. Chastity is hurt and just that moment Crom and her father comes to the garden and asks her to come away with them. Crom was putting spell on her to believe in him, telling her that Thane’s lying about loving her and so on. Thane could feel it, he could also feel Chastity’s confusion and in a rage, he takes her away to the Unseelie court and then, to his room. He tells her here he’s not always in check of his sin or his dark fey side, also gives her the glimpse of what he wants; complete submission from her. Chastity gives in because now that she’s not under Crom’s spell, she realizes she loves him too.
In the epilogue, the diary which Chastity was writing throughout the book, continues. We get to learn more of her POVs. Thane has made her a fey princess and taken her as his eternal bride. She’s now soulless like any Fey, which means she’s dead to the mortal world. Many other things are revealed in this entry. Chastity tells us that Dark Fey are always misunderstood and that she hopes that her sisters would also follow her path and to their destiny to save the Unseelie court. She visits them and her parents in their dreams through Thane’s magic and keeps them updated about her existence ... But, the twist about Mary and one possible illegitimate Lennox sister was what had me really surprised. She keeps her bargain with Crom, even though Chastity is lost, its Prudence he wants now. A jealous Mary decides to betray her sisters to get what she wants.
Well, if I talk about Thane and Chastity’s romance, it was lacking a lot of things. I already mentioned what bothered me the most. I also didn’t quite feel the yearning, longing that would convince me of their love for each-other. I’m also not convinced that Thane will ever be true to Chastity since the court knows of his sin and accepts him as he is ... There was one scene in the court, where a pixie handmaiden asks him if she could do anything to ‘appease’ his sin. Though Thane said no, thinking of Chastity, I found it rather ... ermm disturbing. As you can guess, he’s always ‘hard and ready’; Lust is always rearing its head (no double entendre intended ;p). So, I believed that they were certainly in ‘lust’ with each-other but love? I don’t know. But, I really found other things about the book interesting and going quite insane because I have to wait for the other books. I loved knowing about the Fey and their courts. Reminded me much of Kinley MacGregor's “Lords of Avalon” series. I give this book a 4 star and eagerly await the next installment, “Vanity”, which will be out sometimes next year... Oh, the misery! *sigh*
To keep the record right, here’s my scribble on “The Sins and the Virtues”:
Seven Virtues, quadruplet sisters; so far 3 of them are known as virtues...
Mary Lennox - purpose?
Temperance - Prudence Lennox, possible mate Prince Avery. It’s not that silly, ermm Seelie Arawn.
Chastity - Chastity Lennox, mate Prince Thane ... Book Lust
Kindness - Mercy Lennox, possible mate Prince Kian, Thane's twin.
Diligence - ?
Charity - ?
Humility - Is it the illegitimate Lennox sister? Would she be Prince Rinion’s mate?
Seven Sins, all princes of the Unseelie court...
Lust - Prince Thane, mate Chastity ... Book Lust
Pride/Vanity - Prince Rinion, possible mate??
Gluttony - Prince Avery, possible mate Prudence.
Envy - Prince Kian, possible mate Mercy.
Wrath - King of the Unseelie Court, Niall, possible mate??
Greed - ?
Sloth - Prince Irian, Niall's cousin and half-Elvin, possible mate?? The guy just endured a tragedy when his human mate died because of the curse while giving birth to his son.
# What about Crom, Niall's twin, the half-Unseelie?
*Update*
With a lot of frustration and sadness, I have to add that the next book “Vanity” won’t be out early next year, as CF’s latest (on Oct, 2011) blog post tells us. It’d be sometimes around Dec 2012 or Jan 2013. This is my worst nightmare!!
Lust is the book #1 in Charlotte Featherstone’s “The Sins and The Virtues” series. Have to say I found the premise of this series really really interesting. The back story or the basis of the series is given in the opening of the book, where the clash between the Fey and their darker brethren and why it happened is mentioned. The Dark Fey are supposed to be the opposite of the Fey who are all goodness and sunshine. The Dark Fey are creatures of the night and feeds on moonlight. They can move as rain, mist, fog and shadow (ooh, intriguing!). Their place, the Unseelie court, is full of all kinds of debauchery and darkness, all lies and temptations in opposite to the Seelie court. It all started when the king of the Unseelie court, Duir, kidnapped the Seelie queen Aine while she was asleep and forced her to submit to him. The Dark Fey can make you want things bodily even though your mind doesn’t want it, which is what happened to Aine. Even after she bore Duir's twins, she kept on plotting for escape. In the end, she did and took Crom, the son who resembles her, with blonde hair and so on while leaving the one with dark hair and the looks of an Unseelie, Niall. She cast a spell on the Unseelie court, for which the court is now dying slowly. Now, the Unseelie must find out a way to save their court and their race and in order to do that, they need to find out the seven virtues in the mortal realm and mate them with seven sins that plague Niall, the current king of the Unseelie and 6 other Dark Fey princes. Yes, I am interested!!!! :D
So, the story starts, talking about the Lennox sisters, daughters of the Duke of Lennox. Lennox made a pact with the Seelie queen 20 yrs ago, which is to give her his 4 daughters (yet to be born, with the magic of the Fey queen) and in return she’ll transform his heir’s crippled body into a healthy, handsome boy. Four daughters are born, quadruplets, at least 3 of them showing signs of 3 distinct different virtues. They are named Mary, Chastity, Prudence and Mercy. It is said that the 7 virtues are born every 100 yrs and the Seelie take them to mate with their princes to keep all the ‘goodness and sunshine’ intact. Hence, the Seelie need these sisters too. But, the Unseelie need them as well, for the revival of their court. So starts the competition. We meet the sisters, 3 of them shows their virtues, except Mary. No one knows what her virtue is but they all are aware of their duties to the Seelie court. Even though not many believe that the Fey exist, the sisters do. Mary is rather bold and outspoken, doesn’t fit with other virtues of humility, diligence and charity. Chastity is the paragon of chasteness, so she’s not really attracted to any man. Though she doesn’t like it she knows this is how she’s supposed to be. So goes with Prudence. Mercy seems quite happy and kind, as she’s supposed to be but inside, she’s interested in the Dark Fey.
Then we see how the Unseelie are doing nowadays. Niall, the king, is very worried to find a cure for this curse. Prince Irian, the one cursed with sloth has just lost his human mate, who died while giving birth to his son. Niall, whose curse is wrath, goes to his deceased father’s chamber and asks the spirits to help him. And, he learns about the solution; look for the 7 virtues but you can’t force them to the court and force yourselves upon them. They must come to the Unseelie court on their own will and love these princes who’ll mate with them. It is then and only then the curse would be lifted. So, Niall sends Princes Thane (lust), Kian (Thane’s twin, envy), Avery (gluttony) and Rinion (vanity) to find the Lennox sisters. They know they have to find the other virtues too. Anyway, Rinion informs them that the oldest-born Lennox sister is already promised to him since the duke made a pact with him too, for more money. Now, Thane knows that he has to woo and seduce Chastity and bring her to the Unseelie court. So, they wait for the sisters, who are now in Glastonbury, just returning from a fair held for the ‘Eve of Beltane’ (the history of which I rather enjoyed reading). It is said that the Fey roam amongst the mortal on this eve. The sisters’ conversation kinda gives us a view of their relationship. Mary is rude and straightforward, always reminding her sisters that they’re boring. Chastity, Prudence and Mercy are true to their own virtues. Here, Thane introduces himself to have a look at Chastity.
Meanwhile, Crom, the Seelie prince is under his mother’s instruction to remind the Duke that he pay his tithe. Crom does that. He wants Chastity for himself. But, Crom has other plans, which is to throw his mother out and rule the Seelie court himself, with the help of these virtues. But, on the surface, he takes one of his men and embarks on meeting their virtues. But when he realizes that the Unseelie are also in pursuit, he commands Lennox to remove his daughters to their London townhouse. Lennox, who is now in a fix and a huge mess, for his bargains with the both court, is scared and takes the sisters to the townhouse, where his son and the new daughter-in-law resides. At that moment, Robert was holding a ball and the sisters are also attending. Chastity goes out to take fresh air (but it wasn’t that, Thane was already there, talking to her through her mind, beckoning her outside) and meets Thane, who wore a gilded mask on his face. Chastity, of course doesn’t know who he is. Thane starts working his magic and his sin, on her. I really loved the way he came as a mist in the moonlight and touched her. And, I loved the way he did that in their other meetings as well. They had a hot interlude and Chastity gets a little scared. She understands he must be a Dark Fey but still confused. Crom wards the townhouse with magic so that the Unseelie do not get in but Thane finds ways to meet Chastity, ie: when she’s out and then buying her a perfume. She asks Thane to leave her alone. Thane lies to her that he will, only if she takes the perfume. And yes, he can read minds... scary that! As Chastity is trying the perfume on, he becomes mist and puts his essence into the perfume so that he can come to her dreams and talk to her in her thoughts.
Though it was a bit disturbing for my peace of mind but I liked it Thane can see her and know what she’s doing, even when she’s taking a bath and so on. Thane’s sin, Lust, rears head and wants the mindless f*cking. So far, he has given in, taking countless other conquests, both human and fey. But, as he sees and knows more of Chastity, Thane realizes he wants her differently. And, he keeps on talking to her through her thought and one day, lures her to a garden on the back of the townhouse. He created this garden with his magic and toned down his ‘fey glamour’ so that Chastity thinks he’s a human. They have another interlude here but as Chastity began to understand that he’s a Dark Fey (you can guess how he knew!), he makes her forget this incident. In a garden party, where Crom and his man Arawn, who’s courting Prudence (she’s already taken with him), meet the sisters. Chastity is already in Thane’s spell, already wanting his presence wherever she goes. Crom doesn’t interest her but she tries to keep a face with him. This time, Kian accompanies Thane and meets his virtue, Mercy. I really liked this meeting, very beautiful. Anyway, Thane keeps on meeting her and come in her dreams, luring her with his dark fey magic and his sin. They were supposed to meet in a masquerade ball when their carriage containing Mercy, Chastity, Prudence and Lennox was abducted by Niall. They’re taken to a whorehouse, of which Lennox is a silent partner. Niall informs Lennox of his wishes and casts magic to make Lennox tell him about his bargain with the Seelie. In the meantime, Prudence meets her match and instantly in disgust! The gluttonous Avery makes her sick. Oh, I loved this scene! Avery is tall, broad and good looking, just as any dark fey but of course, he wants more and more of everything, including women. When Prudence realizes the women serving food to him are whores ... oh man, I could imagine her face! It was so funny!! I can’t wait for their book. Kian meets Mercy again and tells her that he’s her destiny; that she must wait for him. Mercy, as I mentioned earlier, is already more than interested in her fey prince, which made me interested in their book as well. Rinion wasn’t here since in Glastonbury he met Lennox and asked him to give him his bride and then Lennox came to London. I’m not sure where Rinion was at that moment. Thane meets Chastity, who was asleep because of the magic spell and speaks to her through her dreams. Then she wakes up and after some incidents, they make love. Gotta tell you, I didn’t like the way their love scenes happened, all of them. I couldn’t shrug off Thane’s sin, the fact that he’s deliberately manipulating Chastity and Chastity wasn’t always in accord with her body and mind while they made love. Just the feeling that any measure of manipulation was involved took the fun away from me. Even Thane knew what he was doing was wrong still... Also, the way Chastity behaved ... ermm, I don’t know how this was her virtue. Anyway, those maybe just me. So, for Thane and Chastity’s romance, not very convinced.
When Crom goes to the masquerade ball, he only finds Mary there. And then I saw that Mary might not be a virtue at all. She was not only bold but makes a bargain with Crom; she’d secure Chastity for him and in return, she wants her prince. She also agrees to sleep with him. The next day, Lennox meets the Fey queen as commanded. This meeting and also seeing the way the queen and Crom’s heads work, I’m not sure why Seelie are called the good ones. Some information I read about them told me they’re the true barbarians in the lot! Anyway, the queen asks Lennox to present the sisters to her in two days. She also convinces him that the Dark Fey are bad and lying to him about taking care of the sisters. Lennox now wants his daughters to go to the Seelie court. But, that wasn’t about to happen. Chastity has already decided that she wants to be with Thane, though about love, she was confused *rolls eyes*. After they meet in the back garden and make love, Thane tells her he loves her but then, as guilt assails him, he confesses why he pursued her and the truth about the situation at Unseelie court. Chastity is hurt and just that moment Crom and her father comes to the garden and asks her to come away with them. Crom was putting spell on her to believe in him, telling her that Thane’s lying about loving her and so on. Thane could feel it, he could also feel Chastity’s confusion and in a rage, he takes her away to the Unseelie court and then, to his room. He tells her here he’s not always in check of his sin or his dark fey side, also gives her the glimpse of what he wants; complete submission from her. Chastity gives in because now that she’s not under Crom’s spell, she realizes she loves him too.
In the epilogue, the diary which Chastity was writing throughout the book, continues. We get to learn more of her POVs. Thane has made her a fey princess and taken her as his eternal bride. She’s now soulless like any Fey, which means she’s dead to the mortal world. Many other things are revealed in this entry. Chastity tells us that Dark Fey are always misunderstood and that she hopes that her sisters would also follow her path and to their destiny to save the Unseelie court. She visits them and her parents in their dreams through Thane’s magic and keeps them updated about her existence ... But, the twist about Mary and one possible illegitimate Lennox sister was what had me really surprised. She keeps her bargain with Crom, even though Chastity is lost, its Prudence he wants now. A jealous Mary decides to betray her sisters to get what she wants.
Well, if I talk about Thane and Chastity’s romance, it was lacking a lot of things. I already mentioned what bothered me the most. I also didn’t quite feel the yearning, longing that would convince me of their love for each-other. I’m also not convinced that Thane will ever be true to Chastity since the court knows of his sin and accepts him as he is ... There was one scene in the court, where a pixie handmaiden asks him if she could do anything to ‘appease’ his sin. Though Thane said no, thinking of Chastity, I found it rather ... ermm disturbing. As you can guess, he’s always ‘hard and ready’; Lust is always rearing its head (no double entendre intended ;p). So, I believed that they were certainly in ‘lust’ with each-other but love? I don’t know. But, I really found other things about the book interesting and going quite insane because I have to wait for the other books. I loved knowing about the Fey and their courts. Reminded me much of Kinley MacGregor's “Lords of Avalon” series. I give this book a 4 star and eagerly await the next installment, “Vanity”, which will be out sometimes next year... Oh, the misery! *sigh*
To keep the record right, here’s my scribble on “The Sins and the Virtues”:
Seven Virtues, quadruplet sisters; so far 3 of them are known as virtues...
Mary Lennox - purpose?
Temperance - Prudence Lennox, possible mate Prince Avery. It’s not that silly, ermm Seelie Arawn.
Chastity - Chastity Lennox, mate Prince Thane ... Book Lust
Kindness - Mercy Lennox, possible mate Prince Kian, Thane's twin.
Diligence - ?
Charity - ?
Humility - Is it the illegitimate Lennox sister? Would she be Prince Rinion’s mate?
Seven Sins, all princes of the Unseelie court...
Lust - Prince Thane, mate Chastity ... Book Lust
Pride/Vanity - Prince Rinion, possible mate??
Gluttony - Prince Avery, possible mate Prudence.
Envy - Prince Kian, possible mate Mercy.
Wrath - King of the Unseelie Court, Niall, possible mate??
Greed - ?
Sloth - Prince Irian, Niall's cousin and half-Elvin, possible mate?? The guy just endured a tragedy when his human mate died because of the curse while giving birth to his son.
# What about Crom, Niall's twin, the half-Unseelie?
*Update*
With a lot of frustration and sadness, I have to add that the next book “Vanity” won’t be out early next year, as CF’s latest (on Oct, 2011) blog post tells us. It’d be sometimes around Dec 2012 or Jan 2013. This is my worst nightmare!!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 5, 2010
At a time when literature is reintroducing us to the fantasy creatures of faeries, Lust provides adult readers a whole new erotic escape where dreams, magic, and passionate seduction enchant you like never before. This book hasn't even hit the shelves yet, and already I'm anxiously waiting for the next installment!
There's something magically delicious about fantasizing that somewhere out there is a dangerously dark and handsome creature hell bent on seducing you in to a passionate frenzy, slowly to be stripped of your fears of the unknown, and unexpectedly fall in love. Maybe dreams do come true. At least in Charlotte Featherstone's world they do. Lust, is the first book of the new series, The Sins and the Virtues, set to hit shelves in late January, 2011. Based on the title, can you guess what sin you'll be introduced to first? That's right: Lust. And how delicious it is!
Two realms - the Unseelie (Dark Fey) and the Seelie (Light Fey) - are caught in a bitter battle that has withstood centuries of deep seated hatred, and an unbreakable, unforgivable curse. Seven Unseelie princes have been cursed with seven sins, slowly killing the Unseelie court. Depriving them of love and heirs. Their only hope of salvation lies in finding their opposing virtue, seven women born of the virtues. One additional hurdle is that these woman are mortal and literally ARE the virtues. The princes are used to taking what they want when they want it -- especially through their ability to coerce and seduce. However, in order for the curse to be broken, the virtues must go willingly.
The beautifully dark Prince Thane leads the determined pack of cursed princes into the mortal realm around the time of Beltane, to locate and seduce their virtues in finding their place within the Unseelie court. Thane knows immediately who his opposing virtue is due to the strong pull his sin has towards one beautiful, utterly innocent woman, who's name is the virtue she embodies: Chastity. His sin, lust, rages within his body, trying desperately to capture and take that which he wants, his opposing virtue, Chastity. The dark fey blood of seduction only adds to his sin, making it nearly unbearable for Thane to control his urges, when what he needs to do is gain the trust and submission of Chastity.
But, Thane wants something more than to get Chastity to submit and let his dark fey instincts, and sin of lust, take her. Instead, he wants something he's never had before: a connection, a friendship, a lover, and wife. Someone to hold and night and not just ravish. Someone he can talk and laugh with. Someone that is truly his and not being sought after to break the curse put upon his court.
Thane is nothing short of delicious in this story. He's confident, he's seductive, he's dark and mysterious, and a whole lot of dominant! Yet at the same time, he has an inner sense of wanting someone to call his own which makes him vulnerable, caring, protective, and adoring; which comes out when push comes to shove in making Chastity his.
Chastity IS a virtue -- literally. She's never been touched, and never even wanted to seek out the touch, comfort, or even conversation in the opposite sex. But when Thane comes in to contact with her, suddenly a womanly awakening is upon her. She wars desperately with herself, not understanding what's going on, unsure of the response in her body, and even her own thoughts.
However, Thane is not the only fey pursuing the virtues. Crom, prince of the Seelie Fey, is also after Chastity, while fellow friend, Arawn is after Chastity's sister, Prudence (the virtue temperance). The pursuit of the virtues from both sides makes for interesting events to unfold.
I absolutely loved the character development in this story! The connection between the hero and heroine was so apparent, likable, and nothing short of HOT! The glimpses of the side interactions between the other sins and virtues were just as intriguing, leaving me with questions and wanting more.
Speaking of questions, there are many that arise while reading this first book in the series, which is to be expected as the story arc of the series will need to continue. However, some of my questions come with the characters and events themselves. For example, one of the sisters appears to not be a virtue, but rather a mystery of who - or what - she is, but was born as one of the quadruplets. There's also a particular event that took place that I don't see how it chronologically could, but I can't go in to further detail do to spoilers.
The author's writing style was another plus to me. I had heard that Charlotte Featherstone was a talented writer, but until reading Lust, I simply had no idea what I was missing out on! I'm the type of reader that craves description, emotion, and strong connection of characters -- and that's exactly what I got. If you're a reader that enjoys a stronger content of dialogue, then you may not be overly enthusiastic about the style. However, the dialogue in this book is great! I loved the conversations, both naughty and nice. But I must say that Ms. Featherstone has a yummy way of creating direct and erotic conversations between characters! You will not be disappointed if you like dirty talk!
Now to the really great parts... the smexin'!! Dear Lord, grab a fan, a towel, and ice, because all will be necessary when Lust starts to win over Chastity! :)
Besides being left with questions on some of the characters and events that took place, I also wish the ending was a little longer. Don't get me wrong, it was good and definitely had closure, but I just wanted more. It seemed like things could have been elaborated on. I can't go into further detail without giving spoilers, so I'll leave it to you to read. Even with a great epilogue, I was left on a cliffhanger! I can't even be for sure who (which virtue and sin) the next book will follow!
~*~Final Thoughts~*~
Sorry for the extra long review -- but I simply can not state enough how much I loved this book and am anxiously awaiting the next in the series! Despite some of the issues, I'm rating this 5/5. I might be going against my rating rules, and I may be left with questions and seriously wanting more, but the bottom line is that this was one of the best erotic historical fantasy's I've read. And just look at that cover! :)
The plot, writing style, and more particularly the characters, make this book a great fantasy, and highly erotic, read! Ms. Featherstone was a new-to-me author, but in one book, she's made me a fan!
Lust, and the Dark Fey's, will deliciously enchant you, seduce you, and leave you wishing fairy tales did come true!
There's something magically delicious about fantasizing that somewhere out there is a dangerously dark and handsome creature hell bent on seducing you in to a passionate frenzy, slowly to be stripped of your fears of the unknown, and unexpectedly fall in love. Maybe dreams do come true. At least in Charlotte Featherstone's world they do. Lust, is the first book of the new series, The Sins and the Virtues, set to hit shelves in late January, 2011. Based on the title, can you guess what sin you'll be introduced to first? That's right: Lust. And how delicious it is!
Two realms - the Unseelie (Dark Fey) and the Seelie (Light Fey) - are caught in a bitter battle that has withstood centuries of deep seated hatred, and an unbreakable, unforgivable curse. Seven Unseelie princes have been cursed with seven sins, slowly killing the Unseelie court. Depriving them of love and heirs. Their only hope of salvation lies in finding their opposing virtue, seven women born of the virtues. One additional hurdle is that these woman are mortal and literally ARE the virtues. The princes are used to taking what they want when they want it -- especially through their ability to coerce and seduce. However, in order for the curse to be broken, the virtues must go willingly.
The beautifully dark Prince Thane leads the determined pack of cursed princes into the mortal realm around the time of Beltane, to locate and seduce their virtues in finding their place within the Unseelie court. Thane knows immediately who his opposing virtue is due to the strong pull his sin has towards one beautiful, utterly innocent woman, who's name is the virtue she embodies: Chastity. His sin, lust, rages within his body, trying desperately to capture and take that which he wants, his opposing virtue, Chastity. The dark fey blood of seduction only adds to his sin, making it nearly unbearable for Thane to control his urges, when what he needs to do is gain the trust and submission of Chastity.
But, Thane wants something more than to get Chastity to submit and let his dark fey instincts, and sin of lust, take her. Instead, he wants something he's never had before: a connection, a friendship, a lover, and wife. Someone to hold and night and not just ravish. Someone he can talk and laugh with. Someone that is truly his and not being sought after to break the curse put upon his court.
Thane is nothing short of delicious in this story. He's confident, he's seductive, he's dark and mysterious, and a whole lot of dominant! Yet at the same time, he has an inner sense of wanting someone to call his own which makes him vulnerable, caring, protective, and adoring; which comes out when push comes to shove in making Chastity his.
Chastity IS a virtue -- literally. She's never been touched, and never even wanted to seek out the touch, comfort, or even conversation in the opposite sex. But when Thane comes in to contact with her, suddenly a womanly awakening is upon her. She wars desperately with herself, not understanding what's going on, unsure of the response in her body, and even her own thoughts.
However, Thane is not the only fey pursuing the virtues. Crom, prince of the Seelie Fey, is also after Chastity, while fellow friend, Arawn is after Chastity's sister, Prudence (the virtue temperance). The pursuit of the virtues from both sides makes for interesting events to unfold.
I absolutely loved the character development in this story! The connection between the hero and heroine was so apparent, likable, and nothing short of HOT! The glimpses of the side interactions between the other sins and virtues were just as intriguing, leaving me with questions and wanting more.
Speaking of questions, there are many that arise while reading this first book in the series, which is to be expected as the story arc of the series will need to continue. However, some of my questions come with the characters and events themselves. For example, one of the sisters appears to not be a virtue, but rather a mystery of who - or what - she is, but was born as one of the quadruplets. There's also a particular event that took place that I don't see how it chronologically could, but I can't go in to further detail do to spoilers.
The author's writing style was another plus to me. I had heard that Charlotte Featherstone was a talented writer, but until reading Lust, I simply had no idea what I was missing out on! I'm the type of reader that craves description, emotion, and strong connection of characters -- and that's exactly what I got. If you're a reader that enjoys a stronger content of dialogue, then you may not be overly enthusiastic about the style. However, the dialogue in this book is great! I loved the conversations, both naughty and nice. But I must say that Ms. Featherstone has a yummy way of creating direct and erotic conversations between characters! You will not be disappointed if you like dirty talk!
Now to the really great parts... the smexin'!! Dear Lord, grab a fan, a towel, and ice, because all will be necessary when Lust starts to win over Chastity! :)
Besides being left with questions on some of the characters and events that took place, I also wish the ending was a little longer. Don't get me wrong, it was good and definitely had closure, but I just wanted more. It seemed like things could have been elaborated on. I can't go into further detail without giving spoilers, so I'll leave it to you to read. Even with a great epilogue, I was left on a cliffhanger! I can't even be for sure who (which virtue and sin) the next book will follow!
~*~Final Thoughts~*~
Sorry for the extra long review -- but I simply can not state enough how much I loved this book and am anxiously awaiting the next in the series! Despite some of the issues, I'm rating this 5/5. I might be going against my rating rules, and I may be left with questions and seriously wanting more, but the bottom line is that this was one of the best erotic historical fantasy's I've read. And just look at that cover! :)
The plot, writing style, and more particularly the characters, make this book a great fantasy, and highly erotic, read! Ms. Featherstone was a new-to-me author, but in one book, she's made me a fan!
Lust, and the Dark Fey's, will deliciously enchant you, seduce you, and leave you wishing fairy tales did come true!
January 15, 2011
This is a story of two Fae Courts, The Seelie (Light) and the Unseelie (Dark), and of both their sins and virtues.
Several centuries ago the Dark King Duir became besotted with the Seelie Queen Aine and kidnapped her, making Light Queen his prisoner and concubine in the Dark Court. Aine despised the Dark King and vowed to escape him. After birthing him twin sons she finally had her chance; escaping with one of her sons, the one resembling her Seelie side and leaving the other that resembled the hated Unseelie, she returned to her kingdom but not before placing a curse on the Dark Court and the princes of the court, including her own son.
Now (around the mid 1700’s) King Duir is dead and Aines forgotten son rules as the Dark King, his court is slowly dying and the princes are becoming slaves to the cardinal Sins that Queen Aine cursed them with. The only way to save them and break the curse is to find the Virtues; seven mortal women born every one hundred years that represent the virtuous aspects of humanity. They cannot use their dark gifts and force these women; they must follow willingly to the Dark Court. But what woman would freely choose to be in a court of sin and debauchery?
Lust is a deliciously dark and sinfully erotic tale of temptation.
When the Duke of Lennox made a tithe with the Queen and then later a dark fae he never imagined that in return each would require his beloved daughters as payment.
Meet Chastity Lennox, one of the Duke’s four daughters, she is virtuous and chaste like her namesake. No man has ever captured her attention or caused a flutter in her chest until the day she crosses paths with the dark and sensual Thane. He awakens her like no other and she struggles with the two halves of herself; the virtuous woman she has been and knows she should be and the woman yearning for passion, heated looks passed between lovers and intimate caresses. Most of Lust is about Chastity’s struggle, she can tell no one of her wicked desires and she flitters back and forth between what she feels is right and wrong. She is scared of loosing herself if she is no longer virtuous and chaste, who will she be then?
Dark Prince Thane, the Dark King Niall’s half brother, is the keeper of Lust and man oh man does he ooze with it. Tall, dark, sinfully handsome, Thane is a walking temptation. He is determined to seduce Chastity and woo her over to the Dark Court to break the curse, but as he comes to learn her and get inside her head he finds himself wanting more. He truly wants her to come to him of her own free will because she wants him, the man he is. Not just the dark fey prince or Lust. So he suppresses Lust as best as he can, and to also treat her with honor, because all Lust wants is to take and pillage and Thane wants so much more.
But the ante is upped when the Seelie show up. The Light Prince Crom, Aines son, also wants Chastity and he isn’t restricted by a curse. He is drawn by her virtuousness and what she can do for his court. And he is of the Light, so that makes him good…right? Well, sometimes good and bad isn’t so black and white. And Chastity doesn’t want to be put up on a pedestal and live a life of duty and expectation for her virtue- she craves excitement. But Crom is determined; he will have a virtue for his court.
Lust has an intricate plot and the concept of it is truly tantalizing. The dialogue is great, the characters detailed & relateable, well paced, the sexual scenes are just knock-your-socks-off good.
Thane sucked me in right away; he’s sexy, intense and yes sweet. And ya’, did I mention sexy? And good with his hands too. ;) Chastity was had a lot of internal monologue going but it was needed for the charter to work through her struggles as was understandable. Thane’s brethren are intriguing and I look forward to seeing more of them and their interactions with the rest of the Virtues. Oh, and The Dark King Niall, really looking forward to that.
I really loved the beginning with all the set-up and introductions and then ending was good. I would of liked to see some of the life at court but it was wrapped up nice and the epilogue left a cliffhanger for the next novel in the series. Though there were a lot of POV’s I found this easy to get through without having to backtrack. But there was some confusion for me in the middle. 1. Chastity goes back and forth with acknowledging Thane as a dark fey. I thought this was already settled but she doesn’t truly grasp this until the end. 2. Some of the ‘this is a dream but it’s real, no it’s a dream, or is it?’ Was a bit hard to keep up with. 3. There was one sexual scene that contained a action & a climax and it was great but then it goes back to Thane saying that he wants to do this and give her release, but he just did that!
But overall a great read, this is a new-to-me author and I am looking forward to Rinion’s, Vanity, novel next in the series.
Warning: This is erotica with graphic sexual scenes.
Several centuries ago the Dark King Duir became besotted with the Seelie Queen Aine and kidnapped her, making Light Queen his prisoner and concubine in the Dark Court. Aine despised the Dark King and vowed to escape him. After birthing him twin sons she finally had her chance; escaping with one of her sons, the one resembling her Seelie side and leaving the other that resembled the hated Unseelie, she returned to her kingdom but not before placing a curse on the Dark Court and the princes of the court, including her own son.
Now (around the mid 1700’s) King Duir is dead and Aines forgotten son rules as the Dark King, his court is slowly dying and the princes are becoming slaves to the cardinal Sins that Queen Aine cursed them with. The only way to save them and break the curse is to find the Virtues; seven mortal women born every one hundred years that represent the virtuous aspects of humanity. They cannot use their dark gifts and force these women; they must follow willingly to the Dark Court. But what woman would freely choose to be in a court of sin and debauchery?
Lust is a deliciously dark and sinfully erotic tale of temptation.
When the Duke of Lennox made a tithe with the Queen and then later a dark fae he never imagined that in return each would require his beloved daughters as payment.
Meet Chastity Lennox, one of the Duke’s four daughters, she is virtuous and chaste like her namesake. No man has ever captured her attention or caused a flutter in her chest until the day she crosses paths with the dark and sensual Thane. He awakens her like no other and she struggles with the two halves of herself; the virtuous woman she has been and knows she should be and the woman yearning for passion, heated looks passed between lovers and intimate caresses. Most of Lust is about Chastity’s struggle, she can tell no one of her wicked desires and she flitters back and forth between what she feels is right and wrong. She is scared of loosing herself if she is no longer virtuous and chaste, who will she be then?
Dark Prince Thane, the Dark King Niall’s half brother, is the keeper of Lust and man oh man does he ooze with it. Tall, dark, sinfully handsome, Thane is a walking temptation. He is determined to seduce Chastity and woo her over to the Dark Court to break the curse, but as he comes to learn her and get inside her head he finds himself wanting more. He truly wants her to come to him of her own free will because she wants him, the man he is. Not just the dark fey prince or Lust. So he suppresses Lust as best as he can, and to also treat her with honor, because all Lust wants is to take and pillage and Thane wants so much more.
But the ante is upped when the Seelie show up. The Light Prince Crom, Aines son, also wants Chastity and he isn’t restricted by a curse. He is drawn by her virtuousness and what she can do for his court. And he is of the Light, so that makes him good…right? Well, sometimes good and bad isn’t so black and white. And Chastity doesn’t want to be put up on a pedestal and live a life of duty and expectation for her virtue- she craves excitement. But Crom is determined; he will have a virtue for his court.
Lust has an intricate plot and the concept of it is truly tantalizing. The dialogue is great, the characters detailed & relateable, well paced, the sexual scenes are just knock-your-socks-off good.
Thane sucked me in right away; he’s sexy, intense and yes sweet. And ya’, did I mention sexy? And good with his hands too. ;) Chastity was had a lot of internal monologue going but it was needed for the charter to work through her struggles as was understandable. Thane’s brethren are intriguing and I look forward to seeing more of them and their interactions with the rest of the Virtues. Oh, and The Dark King Niall, really looking forward to that.
I really loved the beginning with all the set-up and introductions and then ending was good. I would of liked to see some of the life at court but it was wrapped up nice and the epilogue left a cliffhanger for the next novel in the series. Though there were a lot of POV’s I found this easy to get through without having to backtrack. But there was some confusion for me in the middle. 1. Chastity goes back and forth with acknowledging Thane as a dark fey. I thought this was already settled but she doesn’t truly grasp this until the end. 2. Some of the ‘this is a dream but it’s real, no it’s a dream, or is it?’ Was a bit hard to keep up with. 3. There was one sexual scene that contained a action & a climax and it was great but then it goes back to Thane saying that he wants to do this and give her release, but he just did that!
But overall a great read, this is a new-to-me author and I am looking forward to Rinion’s, Vanity, novel next in the series.
Warning: This is erotica with graphic sexual scenes.
March 26, 2019
Quick review, sorry, don't have much time.
I loved reading this book, even if it wasn't the best by Charlotte Featherstone. It must have been the "fey" part (not really a fan) and the "destiny" part (I hate when something is being forced on someone).
However (apart from the "the fey have very sensitive ears" that made me think badly about Deep Space Nine and the Ferengi and really made me laugh), it was steamy without much actual sex, I loved the idea of people fighting their destiny to live what they want, I loved the characters, mostly, but the unlikeable sister made up for an interesting heroin later in another book ?...
I loved reading this book, even if it wasn't the best by Charlotte Featherstone. It must have been the "fey" part (not really a fan) and the "destiny" part (I hate when something is being forced on someone).
However (apart from the "the fey have very sensitive ears" that made me think badly about Deep Space Nine and the Ferengi and really made me laugh), it was steamy without much actual sex, I loved the idea of people fighting their destiny to live what they want, I loved the characters, mostly, but the unlikeable sister made up for an interesting heroin later in another book ?...
December 26, 2010
This review was originally done for The Romance Reviews and can be found here:
http://erotic.theromancereviews.com/v...
This book was so good, I don't even think I could begin to do it justice. I was totally immersed in the sensual world of the Fey while entranced by a young woman's introduction to the most erotic delights.
The cursed princes of the Unseelie Court (Dark Fey) are trying to find a way to save their dying kingdom. They feel that the Lennox sisters are just the way to do that. If they can get these women, who they believe are the Virtues that rival their Sins, to come to their court willingly, the Unseelie may be able to have children and thrive again.
However, the Queen of the Seelie Court will do whatever is in her power to prevent that from happening. She cursed the Unseelie because of what was done to her many years ago, and she's not through exacting her revenge. Thane, a prince of the Dark Fey, has been cursed with the sin Lust who takes over his body, and now he's set his sights on Chastity Lennox. She resists him at first, but he awakens a whole new side of her that both scares and excites her. What starts as duty develops into love, but it may not be enough to save the kingdom.
I don't even know where to start with this book. It was so amazing. The world building was phenomenal. The light and the dark Fey are battling it out for the Lennox sisters in England in the year 1789. I felt instantly transported to this rural town where Chastity and her sisters live. As someone who usually doesn't care for historical fiction, the fact that I was so drawn in was a clear testament to the author's superior writing.
The characters in this book are phenomenal. We are dealing with Virtues and Sins. Chastity, of purity and innocence, and Thane, of lust and dark desires. Their chemistry was palpable. Even when she was fighting them in the beginning, it was a tangible force in the book. But when they actually came together, it was electric and erotic, with deep emotion attached. I loved the two of them together. The angel and the devil. The way that through her love, Thane strove to become better--to be more than just his sin.
The other characters in the book, like the other Unseelie, who have their own sins to deal with, and the Seelie, who are supposed to be "good Fey", really made the story much more well-rounded. We get a lot of background information in this first book that I think will be very important going forward in the series.
As you might assume with a book about Lust, there were plentiful sex scenes in the book. All of them are extremely sensual, but there were some that were extremely creative. There was one scene in particular in a carriage that completely blew me away. I really appreciated the fact that the heroine was supposed to be a virtue, one of chastity to be exact, and she did not just jump right into bed with the first man that she was actually attracted to. Thane had to put a lot of work into bedding Chastity, and that made the story more real (as real as you can get with Faeries, curses, and virtuous daughters).
Ultimately it's a love story, and I was surprised to find myself rooting for the Dark Fey Prince to claim his princess, so that they could live happily ever after. And while they did, they had quite the fight on their hands. The plot lent nicely to betrayals, uncovered secrets, and revenge.
A fantastic start to a series into which I can't wait to dive deeper. LUST has an original plot, fantastic characters, an abundance of erotic love scenes, all wrapped up in superb writing and world-building. I was ensnared from the first word, and I couldn't disentangle myself until I had devoured the entire book! I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading romances. The story is written so well that I think even if the particular sub-genres (historical romance, fantasy romance and/or erotic romance) aren't of your interest, you will enjoy the book anyway.
http://erotic.theromancereviews.com/v...
This book was so good, I don't even think I could begin to do it justice. I was totally immersed in the sensual world of the Fey while entranced by a young woman's introduction to the most erotic delights.
The cursed princes of the Unseelie Court (Dark Fey) are trying to find a way to save their dying kingdom. They feel that the Lennox sisters are just the way to do that. If they can get these women, who they believe are the Virtues that rival their Sins, to come to their court willingly, the Unseelie may be able to have children and thrive again.
However, the Queen of the Seelie Court will do whatever is in her power to prevent that from happening. She cursed the Unseelie because of what was done to her many years ago, and she's not through exacting her revenge. Thane, a prince of the Dark Fey, has been cursed with the sin Lust who takes over his body, and now he's set his sights on Chastity Lennox. She resists him at first, but he awakens a whole new side of her that both scares and excites her. What starts as duty develops into love, but it may not be enough to save the kingdom.
I don't even know where to start with this book. It was so amazing. The world building was phenomenal. The light and the dark Fey are battling it out for the Lennox sisters in England in the year 1789. I felt instantly transported to this rural town where Chastity and her sisters live. As someone who usually doesn't care for historical fiction, the fact that I was so drawn in was a clear testament to the author's superior writing.
The characters in this book are phenomenal. We are dealing with Virtues and Sins. Chastity, of purity and innocence, and Thane, of lust and dark desires. Their chemistry was palpable. Even when she was fighting them in the beginning, it was a tangible force in the book. But when they actually came together, it was electric and erotic, with deep emotion attached. I loved the two of them together. The angel and the devil. The way that through her love, Thane strove to become better--to be more than just his sin.
The other characters in the book, like the other Unseelie, who have their own sins to deal with, and the Seelie, who are supposed to be "good Fey", really made the story much more well-rounded. We get a lot of background information in this first book that I think will be very important going forward in the series.
As you might assume with a book about Lust, there were plentiful sex scenes in the book. All of them are extremely sensual, but there were some that were extremely creative. There was one scene in particular in a carriage that completely blew me away. I really appreciated the fact that the heroine was supposed to be a virtue, one of chastity to be exact, and she did not just jump right into bed with the first man that she was actually attracted to. Thane had to put a lot of work into bedding Chastity, and that made the story more real (as real as you can get with Faeries, curses, and virtuous daughters).
Ultimately it's a love story, and I was surprised to find myself rooting for the Dark Fey Prince to claim his princess, so that they could live happily ever after. And while they did, they had quite the fight on their hands. The plot lent nicely to betrayals, uncovered secrets, and revenge.
A fantastic start to a series into which I can't wait to dive deeper. LUST has an original plot, fantastic characters, an abundance of erotic love scenes, all wrapped up in superb writing and world-building. I was ensnared from the first word, and I couldn't disentangle myself until I had devoured the entire book! I wholeheartedly recommend this book to anyone who enjoys reading romances. The story is written so well that I think even if the particular sub-genres (historical romance, fantasy romance and/or erotic romance) aren't of your interest, you will enjoy the book anyway.
June 21, 2012
4 Stars
Review also posted at link: Under The Covers Bookblog
Lust is the first installment of The Sins and The Virtue Series by Charlotte Featherstone but not my first read of Ms. Featherstone’s work. I have read her novella Forever Yours, which I loved and I must say the same for this book.
The series is called “The Sins and The Virtues”, true to the name, the plot revolves around the Sins and the Virtues who possess them (rather reminds me of the LOTU by Showalter who possess demons in their bodies) There is a battle between the Light and Dark Fae. Due to past circumstances, a curse was casted upon the Dark Fae. Their kingdom will not prosper but diminish until the men (who possess the sins) of the court are able to make the women (who possess the Virtues) come home with them, willingly. The worst part of the curse is that the women they bring home are no other than the Virtues, specifically opposite of their sins. Our heroes will have to work hard to find their HEA and for the sake of their kingdom.
The heroine for this book is Chastity Lennox, a lady of purity and the hero is Prince Thane, Unseelie Prince possessed with the sin of Lust. Let me tell you, their journey to HEA is nothing of Chasteness but loaded with Lust. Their loves scenes were extremely hot with a lot of s*xual tension in the beginning. This prince definitely has bragging rights to his name, Lusty indeed. I love their love story and the sub-plot of the two kingdom’s battle is just as interesting.
Few things to consider and here are my thoughts. 1. Because our Hero is LUST, there was too much of it. (I can’t believe I just said that). Please don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed every bit of it but the romance or the “getting to know each other” was overcome with their explorations of each other, IMO. 2. There are some things that I’m not used to as far as the historical and Fae elements of the book. Please don’t laugh, this is my first Fey story. The Seelie vs. Unseelie, Dark vs. Light Fae is very confusing to me. I mean. Seelie is the light and Unseelie is the Dark. But the use of both words truly messed with my head. My poor friends Fran and Annie had yet again had to endure my million questions. 3. Other things to get use to are the customs, politics, words and clothing they used back then are foreign to me. Take note that I am fairly new to any Regency or any other Historical books. Thank God for my Dictionary app. I survived. However, my lack of knowledge will not deter me from the new world Ms. Featherstone created. I will be waiting and sure to read the next installment as soon as it is available.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a time peace with a big twist of PNR.
Review also posted at link: Under The Covers Bookblog
Lust is the first installment of The Sins and The Virtue Series by Charlotte Featherstone but not my first read of Ms. Featherstone’s work. I have read her novella Forever Yours, which I loved and I must say the same for this book.
The series is called “The Sins and The Virtues”, true to the name, the plot revolves around the Sins and the Virtues who possess them (rather reminds me of the LOTU by Showalter who possess demons in their bodies) There is a battle between the Light and Dark Fae. Due to past circumstances, a curse was casted upon the Dark Fae. Their kingdom will not prosper but diminish until the men (who possess the sins) of the court are able to make the women (who possess the Virtues) come home with them, willingly. The worst part of the curse is that the women they bring home are no other than the Virtues, specifically opposite of their sins. Our heroes will have to work hard to find their HEA and for the sake of their kingdom.
The heroine for this book is Chastity Lennox, a lady of purity and the hero is Prince Thane, Unseelie Prince possessed with the sin of Lust. Let me tell you, their journey to HEA is nothing of Chasteness but loaded with Lust. Their loves scenes were extremely hot with a lot of s*xual tension in the beginning. This prince definitely has bragging rights to his name, Lusty indeed. I love their love story and the sub-plot of the two kingdom’s battle is just as interesting.
Few things to consider and here are my thoughts. 1. Because our Hero is LUST, there was too much of it. (I can’t believe I just said that). Please don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed every bit of it but the romance or the “getting to know each other” was overcome with their explorations of each other, IMO. 2. There are some things that I’m not used to as far as the historical and Fae elements of the book. Please don’t laugh, this is my first Fey story. The Seelie vs. Unseelie, Dark vs. Light Fae is very confusing to me. I mean. Seelie is the light and Unseelie is the Dark. But the use of both words truly messed with my head. My poor friends Fran and Annie had yet again had to endure my million questions. 3. Other things to get use to are the customs, politics, words and clothing they used back then are foreign to me. Take note that I am fairly new to any Regency or any other Historical books. Thank God for my Dictionary app. I survived. However, my lack of knowledge will not deter me from the new world Ms. Featherstone created. I will be waiting and sure to read the next installment as soon as it is available.
I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in a time peace with a big twist of PNR.
January 20, 2011
I love Charlotte Featherstone's erotic, historical romances. Sinful was one of my favorite reads in 2010. When I saw that she was starting a new series that's a mixture of historical and erotic romance mixed in with the paranormal, I was so excited!
Lust starts off with the history of the Fae. The Unseelie King falls in love with the Seelie Queen and kidnaps her and holds her against her will. She becomes pregnant with twin boys (Crom and Niall). The Unseelie King is obsessed with his sons. The Seelie Queen uses his newfound distraction as a means of escaping. She takes one of the twins (the one that looks most like her) with her as she returns home. She hates the Unseelie King so much for what he has done to her that she issues a curse on the Unseelie Court. The princes of the Unseelie Court are cursed with the 7 Deady Sins. The only way to break the curse is to have one of the 7 Virtues fall in love with them and come to the Unseelie Court - willingly.
I enjoyed the premise of this book. A lot of background information was provided to set up the plot. The story gets off to a good start. We are introduced to Chastity, one of the virtues and the counterpart to Thane's sin. Thane's sin is Lust and he needs Chastity to break the curse so begins his quest to seduce her. The seduction of Chastity is long and drawn out. His element is fog and mist and uses it to surround her and bring out her darkest desire. Chastity resists at first but slowly gives in. In the process of trying to seduce Chastity, Thane also must worry about Crom, the Unseelie Prince and Niall's twin brother. Crom wants Chastity for himself. Both Thane and Crom are racing to see who can seduce Chastity first.
I found the seduction of Chastity to be long and arduous at times. There were some parts that I skimmed because I felt that it slowed down the pace of the story. Charlotte Featherstone knows how to write some hot and steamy sex scenes. And they were plentiful in Lust, maybe too much. So much so that I started skimming the sexual parts (gasp!). Even though this is an erotic story, I was hoping that there would be some semblance of a romance between Thane and Chastity. I didn't feel any romance or connection between them at all. Maybe their story is not about romance but basic lust between two people. I know that Thane's sin is Lust but I wanted more of an emotional bond between the two and I didn't feel it.
Although I didn't thoroughly enjoy Lust, I plan on reading the next book of the series. I think the series has potential to be great and look forward to reading more.
Lust starts off with the history of the Fae. The Unseelie King falls in love with the Seelie Queen and kidnaps her and holds her against her will. She becomes pregnant with twin boys (Crom and Niall). The Unseelie King is obsessed with his sons. The Seelie Queen uses his newfound distraction as a means of escaping. She takes one of the twins (the one that looks most like her) with her as she returns home. She hates the Unseelie King so much for what he has done to her that she issues a curse on the Unseelie Court. The princes of the Unseelie Court are cursed with the 7 Deady Sins. The only way to break the curse is to have one of the 7 Virtues fall in love with them and come to the Unseelie Court - willingly.
I enjoyed the premise of this book. A lot of background information was provided to set up the plot. The story gets off to a good start. We are introduced to Chastity, one of the virtues and the counterpart to Thane's sin. Thane's sin is Lust and he needs Chastity to break the curse so begins his quest to seduce her. The seduction of Chastity is long and drawn out. His element is fog and mist and uses it to surround her and bring out her darkest desire. Chastity resists at first but slowly gives in. In the process of trying to seduce Chastity, Thane also must worry about Crom, the Unseelie Prince and Niall's twin brother. Crom wants Chastity for himself. Both Thane and Crom are racing to see who can seduce Chastity first.
I found the seduction of Chastity to be long and arduous at times. There were some parts that I skimmed because I felt that it slowed down the pace of the story. Charlotte Featherstone knows how to write some hot and steamy sex scenes. And they were plentiful in Lust, maybe too much. So much so that I started skimming the sexual parts (gasp!). Even though this is an erotic story, I was hoping that there would be some semblance of a romance between Thane and Chastity. I didn't feel any romance or connection between them at all. Maybe their story is not about romance but basic lust between two people. I know that Thane's sin is Lust but I wanted more of an emotional bond between the two and I didn't feel it.
Although I didn't thoroughly enjoy Lust, I plan on reading the next book of the series. I think the series has potential to be great and look forward to reading more.
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