Lady Anne's Dangerous Man

Lady Trilogy #1

by Jeane Westin

In Restoration England, where the battle of the sexes is especially humorous and high-spirited, a beautiful young aristocrat embarks on a swashbuckling adventure with a dashing highwayman.

Lady Anne Gascoigne is eager to take her wedding vows—until she discovers her devious fiancé has conspired to let King Charles II steal her virtue. To save her honor and her life, she must flee under the protection of a notorious but charming rake who has just escaped hanging—only to be captured by Anne's heart.

The illegitimate son of a powerful man, John Gilbert lives by his wits and his sword, leading a merry band of men who rob the rich and corrupt, then escape to a forest hideaway. As proper Lady Anne blossoms under John's command, opening up to the freedom and sensuality he offers, she poses a new set of challenges for him—to stay alive long enough to ensure her protection, earn an equal place by her side, and convince her of his undying love.

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical Fiction, Historical, Fiction, Romantic, Adult

336 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2006

About the author

Jeane Westin's professional writing career began with a humourous camping disaster article for her local newspaper. National newspaper and magazine articles followed until she moved on to non-fiction books and then to long hardback historical novels. Jeane's second novel, 'Swing Sisters' came out of her youthful love of jazz, the major record collections she carted about the country and from wondering what women's role was during the early years of that special American music.

Reviews

[Misfit · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had recently won a copy of the author's newest novel, The Virgin's Daughters In the Court of Elizabeth I, and while waiting for that I looked at what else she'd written and found several romances and the library had them so I figured I'd give one a whirl. Big mistake. Huge.

Set during the reign of Charles II, Lady Anne finds that her betrothed has offered up her maidenhead to the lustful King. Distraught, she runs to her father for help, and until he can arrange to nullify the engagement sends her off in the protection of notorious highwayman "Gentleman Johnny" (odd choice for a protector, but oh well) and he takes her to his forest hideaway that is soooo well hidden they have buildings and a real life community going on there. Now it is a romance so you know sparks start flying as the two begin lusting after each other, but circumstances keep the two apart and also bring Anne's fiancé Lord Waverby and her uncle back into the picture.

While I certainly wasn't expecting high fiction going into this, I wasn't really expecting such a trite fluffy mess either. Lady Anne was bordering on TSTL, the bad guys were cartoon cut-out villains and frankly our hero was unbelievably wishy washy. I really didn't get any chemistry between the two, nor could I find myself caring much what happened. But worst of all was the purple prose, of which I'll give you one example,

"For one too-swift moment, he allowed his eyes to absorb her appearance, the red glint of hair brushed into soft side curls, the bodice pushing up two orbs of quivering flesh like an offering of rich cream custard to the gods."

At least orb is being used other than describing the heroine's violet eyes in a romance novel. Skip this, I wish I had. Can I have my Friday afternoon back? Please?

[Samantha · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is one of those unexplained mysteries to me. On a bunch of levels I should’ve hated this book and dropped it into my “did not finish” pile. But I just couldn’t seem to do it. Even though Westin’s style is a little more melodramatic than I usually like and the story seemed to have a lot of historical romance cliches, this book still managed to keep my attention until near the end. And by then I had less than 100 pages to go so I figured, "What the hell. I might as well finish."

When we meet Lady Anne in the book she’s being a naughty bird, by sneaking off for a little heavy petting with her fiancé. But that plan goes down the toilet when she overhears her fiancé telling King Charles that he can have Anne’s virginity in exchange for land and money. Anne isn’t happy about this so she flees to her father’s house where she tells him everything she heard. Her father is, of course, pissed at this news and immediately starts to devise a way to get Anne out of her engagement.

His brilliant plot? Hand over his precious daughter and her virginity to John Gilbert, a handsome highway man known for his bedroom skills. Daddy is obviously a genius. So he dashes off to stop John’s hanging and offer him a deal. In exchange for a reprieve from the noose John has to keep Anne out of danger until the engagement is all cleared up. So John decides that dealing with Anne is better than death so agrees and takes her to his Robin Hood-ish hideout in the forest.

What really bothered me in this book was how linear the problems were all solved. Towards the end I got bored with how neatly John and Anne were dealing with all these problems, even though they all where related to each other and could lead back to one thing/person. But some how they managed to never touch each other and were all solved one. At. A. Time.

I also had some minor pet peeves within the story. The biggest one of those being how John and Anne had whole conversations with only their eyes. It went something along the lines of ‘Because they were so well connected they needn’t words to talk. Anne looked at him and her eyes said “I love you” and he looked at her and his eyes said “I know. Don’t worry.”’ And the “conversation” didn’t stop there. They actually had a whole dialog going at one point during a ride in a carriage.

Anyway, despite all my complaining about this book I still enjoyed bits and parts of it and the characters were fun.

[Tabetha Waite · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book years ago and loved it, simply for the highwayman adventure.

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

The books starts with an attempted rape and hanging in the first twenty pages....and by the end so many 'adventures' and 'trials' happen to Lady Anne and Johnnny I was ready to give up on them. If you like on going 'suspense' you may enjoy this book, otherwise it is a bit ridiculous.

[Cat · Rating 1 out of 5]

started this book several times...and just could not get into the story. I never finished it

[Tammy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This historical romance takes place during the reign of King Charles II. The main character is on the run from the lecherous king and many others. I like the variety of characters.

[Anna Shoultz · Rating 5 out of 5]

Kept me hooked, likeable characters, didn't drag on with boring or unnecessary fluff.

[Lynn Calvin]

headless woman cover

[Katrinagarcia]

Bold and adventurous.