Dangerous

The Outcasts #1

by Minerva Spencer

Book #1 from: The Outcasts Series
🎧Run Time = 10 hours & 29 minutes

⭐“A delight from start to finish with… scorching love scenes and a coolly arrogant hero to die for” (Elizabeth Hoyt): Seventeen years after being kidnapped, Mia — a duke’s daughter — finally returns to London. Forced into an arranged marriage with mysterious marquess Adam, Mia finds unexpected passion…

Lady Euphemia Marlington hasn't been free in 17 years - since she was captured by Corsairs and sold into a harem. Now the sultan is dead and Mia is back in London facing relentless newspapermen, an insatiably curious public, and her first Season. Worst of all is her ashamed father's ultimatum: marry a man of his choosing or live out her life in seclusion. No doubt her potential groom is a demented octogenarian. Fortunately, Mia is no longer a girl, but a clever woman with a secret - and a plan of her own....

Adam de Courtney's first two wives died under mysterious circumstances. Now there isn't a peer in England willing to let his daughter marry the dangerously handsome man the ton calls The Murderous Marquess. Nobody except Mia's father, the desperate Duke of Carlisle. Clearly Mia must resemble an aging matron, or worse. However, in need of an heir, Adam will use the arrangement to his advantage....

But when the two outcasts finally meet, assumptions will be replaced by surprises, deceit by desire-and a meeting of minds between two schemers may lead to a meeting of hearts - if the secrets of their pasts don't tear them apart....

Contains mature themes.

Genres: Historical Romance, Romance, Historical, Historical Fiction, Regency, Marriage Of Convenience, Audiobook

368 pages, Kindle Edition

First published June 26, 2018

About the author

**I ONLY RATE BOOKS I REALLY ENJOYED**.

Before I began writing I spent time as a dock worker, a reader for the blind, a criminal prosecutor, and I taught American History on the college level for five years. My last job was running an 8-bedroom bed and breakfast, a subject I will never write about...

I like historical fiction because I enjoy escaping into the past when I relax. And I write romance because I love a happy ending and everything that happens along the way.

I came to writing late in life and I feel like I have to write fast to catch up! I work every day at a desk looking out over the Sangre de Cristo mountains, my free range birds, and my three flock protecting hounds Earl, Spot, and Rover.

When I'm not writing I'm playing with my animals, knitting, DIYing, crocheting, sewing, or watching old movies.

I also write historical romance and erotic romance under the name S.M. LaViolette and historical mystery under the name S.M. Goodwin.

Reviews

[Elizabeth · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minerva Spencer's writing is sophisticated and wickedly witty. Dangerous is a delight from start to finish with swashbuckling action, scorching love scenes, and a coolly arrogant hero to die for. Spencer is my new auto-buy!

[Blackjack · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book to be a mixed bag. It has a promising start, and the first third of it was engaging and charming. Mia and Adam are both considered outcasts, though London society only suspects they have dirty little secrets in their past. Nevertheless, rumors and innuendo are powerful forces. To hide her history of having spent the last fifteen years living in a harem after having been abducted by pirates, Mia agrees to promote her father's mostly unbelievable tale of having just returned from life in a European convent. Her aristocratic father is desperate to marry his now 30+ aged daughter and get her off his hands. Adam has developed the reputation as a wealthy and handsome urban Bluebeard - suspected of having murdered his two wives - leaving him eligible to remarry once again. Given his situation as an undesirable bachelor still in need of a male heir, Mia's father bumps him up to the top of his list of prospects for the desperate Mia. I was pleasantly surprised by Mia and Adam's first encounter given the burden both characters carry around with them. Instead of wallowing in self-pity, they size each other up and like what they see. The physical attraction to each other is apparent from the first moment they set eyes on each other, and it remains an appealing part of their relationship. It is refreshing too that both toss out rumors and are able to share some of their truthful histories pretty quickly into their marriage.

After the courtship and wedding, the book started to slide downhill for me, alas. Both Mia and Adam have secrets they are unwilling to share, and as a result, they cannot really talk to each other above more than a superficial level. The steamy sex scenes pile on and I frankly got a bit bored with them since they were not really accompanied with emotional development.

Also, I had initially hoped that Mia's sharp critique of the repressed world of sexual politics in England would connect to the oppressive world of life in the Islamic world for women. Instead, life in Oran is portrayed in fairly one-dimensional villainous terms, whereas life for women in England is more complex and even promising of some opportunities of equality for women. Islamic pirates desire white slaves to grow their empire, and while this is historically accurate, the catastrophe to Africa and the Middle East as a result of European colonialism is not mentioned once. The book creates a world where white people are preyed upon by a heartless and corrupt Islamic world. Mia's experiences in a harem are horrible. She was beaten and raped and kept prisoner until she managed to escape. But while British men viewed women as objects and broodmares as well, there are a number of decent white men in the book with somewhat modern sensibilities toward women, including the hero. There really was not a single sympathetic Islamic character in the book. Jibril, Mia's teenage son seemed a promising prospect for more than a stereotype of Islam, but all of his positive characteristics are attributed to Mia and all of his negative traits, such as his arrogance and his high-handed attitude toward his mother are attributed to the Sheik who raped Mia. Even more ridiculous is that Jibril when we finally meet him is fair-skinned with red hair, and well-spoken with the countenance of an "English gentleman."

I'm not fond of books that devolve into stereotypes, but I am especially put off by books that use stereotypes of people of color so that white people can be uplifted and history can be white-washed. Whatever good feelings I was having about the book almost entirely dissipated by the end. My feelings of annoyance at some of Mia's silly actions that put her repeatedly in danger and required the rescue from her husband had me annoyed more than I probably would have been under different circumstances.

Artists have the freedom to construct any story they want, of course. I just wish for more historical accuracy. And, truth be told, I wish more than ever today that writers would be sensitive to the stories they tell about people who are already demonized and stereotyped too often in reality.

[Jeffe Kennedy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loved this book all the way through! It has everything a historical romance should. Sexy, thrilling, involved, foreign ports, pirate ships, crumbling castles - and a visit to Brighton. LOL! The hero and heroine are unique and engaging, and the secondary characters equally vivid. Can't wait to get my hands on the sequel.

Snap this one up, folks. You'll be glad you did!

[Heather K (dentist in my spare time) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, THIS is how you write a debut book. Minerva Spencer just made her way to my auto-buy list.

Dangerous was refreshing. In a sea of romances featuring virginal women, I loved Dangerous's sensual, sexy female MC. Mia was smart, powerful, and in her thirties. Oh happy day!

I loved Mia's relationship with the wealthy and secretive Adam de Courtney. In fact, Adam stole the show for me. He was exactly the type of hero I end up loving, and I wanted to know more about him. It was his intrigue and the chemistry between the two MCs that kept me wanting to read just one more page.

I wish the ending of the book was as strong as the start. I hated how Mia went from smart to TSTL (I mean, please), and how outlandish the plot became near the end, but the book was so satisfying as a whole that I had to give it 4-stars. Minerva Spencer is an author to watch.

*Copy provided by the author in exchange for an honest review*

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[Caz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've given this a B+ at AAR, so 4.5 stars

There’s been a shortage of really good historical romance so far this year.  I can count the number of DIKs (Desert Isle Keepers at All About Romance) I’ve given  on the fingers of one hand, and sadly, the lists of upcoming releases for the second half of the year don’t look to be offering much to shout about either.  But a shortage isn’t a complete absence; there have been a few gems, and début author Minerva Spencer’s Dangerous – the first book in her new series  The Outcasts  – is among them.

I am going to raise my hand and admit that when I first read the synopsis – our heroine was kidnapped by pirates, sold to a Sultan and lived in a harem for seventeen years – I had my doubts.  Not just because of the old-skool connotations associated with the premise, but because so many of the historicals published at the moment are setting aside character and romantic development in favour of mystery and adventure plots – and I was leery of reading yet another poorly conceived  story featuring a hero and heroine in the grips of insta-lust who gallivant around breaking all the rules that governed male/female interactions in the early nineteenth century and jumping into bed in chapter three.   So I picked up Dangerous with a bit of trepidation, but was quickly engaged by the confident, lively writing and breathed a sigh of relief at the realisation that my preconceptions had been unjustified.

Lady Euphemia Marlington, daughter of the Duke of Carlisle, has recently returned to London following the aforementioned seventeen years spent in the harem of Baba Hassan, Sultan of Oran.  Now aged thirty-two, she is well beyond marriageable age  and is already an object of curiosity and gossip given her prolonged absence from society – and her father is desperate to find her a husband before she does something scandalous that will render her completely unmarriageable. Her vivacity, wit and forthright manner already set her apart from the other ladies of the ton, and she’s most definitely not the demure, biddable sort so many men want to take to wife – but Carlisle hopes that the enormous dowry he’s offering will outweigh the fact of Mia’s lack of societal polish (and her advanced age.)  To Mia’s dismay, most of the men dangling after her (dowry) are either past their prime or young striplings; but ultimately, her plans don’t require her to like or spend much time with her husband.  What she wants is a man who will marry her and then leave her alone so that she can pursue her scheme of returning to Oran in order to reunite with her son, Jabril.

Adam de Courtney, Marquess of Exley, is the father of three daughters, a widower twice over and doesn’t really want another wife. But what he wants is one thing, what he needs is another… and he needs an heir. He’s surprised at being sought out by the Duke of Carlisle when society at large generally gives him a wide berth, believing him to have been responsible for the deaths of both his wives …until he realises that the duke wants to recruit him to the ranks of possible suitors for his recently returned daughter. Adam is not inclined to be manipulated – until he sets eyes on Mia. Red-haired, green-eyed and simply oozing sensuality, she is not at all what he’d expected, and against his better judgement, he’s fascinated. He has no intention of offering for her… until he does, surprised to hear from the lady herself that the sort of marriage she proposes is one sought after by most men – one with no emotional entanglements. Feeling unaccountably lucky to have found a woman who seems to have no qualms about being wedded, bedded and left to her own devices, Adam proposes, even though he’s sure Mia is up to something. He just can’t work out what.

Mia is just as drawn to the handsome, coolly aloof marquess as he is to her, even though she realises that he isn’t going to be easy to manage and that she’s going to have to be careful around him if she’s to follow through with her plan to return to Oran. Fortunately however, the fact that his principal estate is near the south coast is perfect for her plans – and the fact that she wants him desperately, wants the pleasure she’s sure he will be able to give her, is an added bonus.

There are so many ways the author could have got this story wrong; by turning it into a comedic fish-out-of-water tale as Mia continually outrages society with her lack of observance of the customs and societal norms; by telling a melodramatic story of her kidnap and rescue or focusing on Adam’s past and engaging in much angst and hand-wringing over his dead wives – but she skilfully avoids the potential pitfalls and instead concentrates on building the relationship between her principals and, even better, writes a couple who act their ages (thirty-two and thirty-seven) rather than like brainless teenagers. Mia hasn’t learned to dissemble and simper like an English miss; she is comfortable with her body and who she is, and the mental acuity necessary to maintain her existence amid the intrigue of the sultan’s court means she’s accustomed to thinking for herself. Mia’s lack of inhibition, her obvious enjoyment of sex and her fierce intellect all delight her new husband, while Mia is falling in love with the loving, generous man she is discovering beneath Adam’s façade of icy disdain.

There are things Adam and Mia keep from each other – fairly big things – but their relationship is, for the most part, an honest one; and when the Big Secret comes into play in the last part of the book, Ms. Spencer doesn’t drag it out. This couple actually communicates with each other and owns up when they do something wrong; the romance is well-developed and the sex scenes (of which there are several) do a great job of showing the couple’s growing intimacy and how it leads to trust, and eventually to love.

There’s a lot to enjoy about Dangerous, and although it’s not without its flaws, none of them were large enough to spoil my overall enjoyment. While the aforementioned sex scenes are well written and integral to the development of the relationship, there are perhaps a few too many of them; and Mia has a number of almost-TSTL moments in the last few chapters which feel somewhat out of character. Adam’s dead wives and his reasons for keeping his daughters away from London are plot-overkill; I get that there needs to be a reason for him to have been shunned by society, but the rest of it is largely unnecessary, especially as the concerns that lead him to keep his daughters sequestered in the country are dismissed by one sentence from Mia in a rather clumsy ‘why didn’t I think of that?’ moment.

But those really are minor criticisms, and I’d definitely recommend Dangerous to anyone looking for a new voice in historical romance. Ms. Spencer’s writing is sophisticated and witty, the two principals are fully-rounded and there’s an engaging secondary cast, too, one of whom is going to be the hero in the next book in the series, Barbarous, which is due out in October. You can be sure I’ll be picking it up.

[🦉Maggie Whitworth · Rating 5 out of 5]

❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️
💋💋
I loved , loved , loved this book , it was such fun to read .
Dangerous is a great title and apt for the characters and the storyline.
Mia is brilliant such a great character, she sassy and different, not your usual Debutante at all , she’s got her own ideas and is not afraid to flaunt it .
Adam I loved so much , damaged by the experience of two bad marriages , kids he doesn’t gel with , the ton who avoid him , he’s just not excepted , until Mia , she slowly worms her way into his life , not changing him but giving him more reasons to develop himself and his attitude to people and life , she shows him how to relax and love and not be scared of his emotions.
By introducing the quantity and quality of secondary characters that she has , the author has left herself in an envious position.
She can use Adams sister and Daughters ,Mia’s Brother and sons and go down the family saga route .
Or she could use the friends route , to create a series , all of them are wonderful and would work well in their own right .
This book is well written with humour ,tension, and emotion .
I can’t wait to read more of Minerva’s books , and I believe their is much more to come from such a good writer .
I received an advanced copy of this book and chose to submit a review

[Holly · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Ignore the Fabio-esque cover, this book isn't as cheesy as it would imply. However, it's not exactly literature either, it's still 'just' a historical romance, albeit a refreshingly different one. The heroine is not some nubile young thing in her first Season as you see in most of these kinds of books, instead she's a thirty-two year old woman, back in England for the first time since she was a young girl, gone for so long under mysterious circumstances. The hero also isn't your typical well-liked Rake either, he's actually rather shunned by the entirety of the ton. I greatly enjoyed their romance, it's fun and witty and sexy. Unfortunately the 'action/travel' sequences at the end left me a little bored and shaking my head at some character stupidity.

Overall I was very surprised to see that this was the author's debut novel, as it's really quite good, so I will definitely give her next book a try. Thanks to Hollis for her review which made me want to read this book :)

[Lauren · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read: 9/4/24
4.5 stars
Setting: England and Algeria 1811
BOTM GROUP

I loved this book! Great adventure with a wonderful romance. The MC fit perfectly together. They brought at the best in each other, which sadly is lacking in most hr novels.

I was nervous about how the author was going to handle the difficult plot. The h lived in a harem for 17 years. It's tricky to introduce this subject, and MS did it brilliantly.

I highly recommend this well written book! I'm definitely going yo read the next book in the series.

[Elizabeth Everett · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book because I received an ARC and let me tell you. Whoooooo boy. It's so up my alley. There are dashing rogues, alpha leads, non-virgin heroines, pirates, adventure, dark family secrets, hot sex, sweet words of love, heartfelt revelations -everything I want in romance all rolled up into one. The best part is a truly strong heroine who isn't a twentieth century woman shoehorned into a regency setting. She's bold and unconventional for believable reasons - she has a backstory and she continues to grow throughout the book. I went back and forth on the hero but came around in the end. And, there are two super intriguing luscious secondary male characters who piqued my interest for the rest of the series.

Minerva Spencer is an excellent writer. She has a sly sense of humor with a great hand at action scenes - and the love scenes are delectably edgy. This book has that old school feel, but with a modern sensibility when it comes to the heroine. READ IT!

[Jacob Proffitt · Rating 1 out of 5]

I got four chapters down before deciding to stop. I can't buy Mia, even a little. 17 years in a harem complete with 17 year-old son needs to have some weight to it. The effects of her life in the harem are all over the map from making her eager to sex up the attractive man (our hero, naturally) to master-level man-manipulation skillz to disturbing memories of what happened to her nurse to a strong desire to escape England to return (to her son). I'm sorry, but that last makes no sense at all. I mean sure, she's in England where women have few rights and are considered property of their husbands legally, and her father is something of a jerk, and she's facing a life of frowny looks accompanying her regular meals, consistent shelter, and nice clothes. But she wants to go back to where she was literally sold into sexual slavery. I don't care how cushy a place her son might be able to provide (who would be seen as a half-breed, no matter who his father is/was), but that's just insane.

Anyway, if you're going to tell a story with a protagonist who was ripped from her privileged home and raped from the time she was 14, that needs to have a consistent effect on her personality. Experienced sexual adventuress, man-manipulator, resigned to trading sex for better than she has now, caring mother, traumatized survivor, are all possibilities and the first two even have bleed-over. But "all of the above" just does not work.

[h o l l i s · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'll admit that I requested this book solely because of the 'escaped the harem' plotline. I had hoped to discover a book not unlike THE DUKE OF SHADOWS by Duran that explored non-English elements of historical romance but was maybe a little less dramatic and angsty. The fact that DANGEROUS had a true blue Fabio-esque bodice ripper cover was also entertaining as hell and I had hopes that same kind of fun would translate into the story. And, spoiler, it did.

Lady Euphemia Marlington is thirty two and finally having her debut. Recently returned to London under mysterious circumstances, her father is hoping to marry her off before tales of her misadventures for the last seventeen years become any wilder than they already are. It's bad enough that her age makes her unsuitable but the scandal that surrounds her reappearance means the only real options left to her for a husband include deviants or men twice her age. Ultimately, however, Mia is less concerned over who she marries because she knows she'll be escaping England at the first opportunity. She left something behind when she left the harem, something dear to her, and she has no problem ditching an unwanted husband in order to retrieve it.

That is until she meets Adam de Courtney, Lord Exley. Why this handsome, and age-appropriate, man is interested in her, she doesn't know. But he needs an heir, she needs a husband to grant her independence from her father, and so they get married. But the more she spends time with the complex Lord Exley, the longer she delays her plans to leave. Soon she is caught up in a romance when all she wanted was a marriage of convenience.

As for Adam, infamously known as The Murderess Marquess, he has resigned himself to never again marrying, never having an heir, for who would trust their daughter to a man who had lost his two prior wives under suspicious circumstances? But then he meets Mia and is both intrigued by her father's desperation to marry her off to him and intrigued by the woman herself -- not the least for the fact that the story about her absence doesn't seem to be truthful. But it doesn’t take long for his intrigue to turn into obsession, not just for her body but for her company, as she works her way under his skin. He doesn't want to care for her, doesn't want to long for her, and yet she consumes every thought in his head, his body burns for her, and soon they are sharing confidences, playing cards, falling in love, when all he wanted was to wed her, bed her, and then go about their separate ways.

For the first fifty percent or so of this story, I honestly couldn't believe Spencer's DANGEROUS was a debut. This book is fun, witty, sexy as hell, and has just enough mystery surrounding Adam's backstory to make him a legitimately broody, hard to read, and hard to open up, hero. Mia, on the other hand, has endured life in a harem, snatched up at the tender age of fourteen, and yet lives her life to the fullest. She is full of joy, delight, and ridiculously sensual for a woman who has been trained to please others while never experiencing her own pleasure. The chemistry between these two is fantastic and watching them spark off, and against, each other is great fun.

Where the story fell apart for me, though, was near the climax. Circumstances arise where we have Adam and Mia traveling to Oran, where the harem is located, in a civil war-like setting and.. I just felt the story had too much happening and the characters became reactionary and stupid. Mia specifically, I'm sad to say, had a few TSTL moments that made me shake my head because throughout DANGEROUS she's.. well, dangerous. Dangerously clever, dangerously smart, dangerously calculating. I suppose the argument could be made that she lost her head because of the high stress situation, and I think perhaps the author tried to backtrack that into the narrative by way of a certain comment that shows how overwhelmed Mia is after everything settles down, but it felt a little too late by that point. There also might have been one too many sex scenes, especially near the big build-up; though I might be criticizing that because sex was deliberately used to avoid talking about a certain issue which happened to be right around the time I thought the book was the weakest. Personally I’m not a fan of the sex-sleight-of-hand distraction tactic but if you're a reader who loves it steamy, I think you'll be very satisfied.

That being said, I enjoyed the lighthearted, fun, and -- on the surface -- perhaps ridiculous nature of this book; which, side note, appears to be less ridiculous and more grounded in fact than I initially thought it to be. I feel the strength of the unexpected romance to be really strong, and believable, and appreciate that even though Adam helped to 'rescue' Mia and assist in a dangerous situation, Mia rescues him right back by offering insight into his past and insight into his present. As far as the wrap-up, I really enjoyed the epilogue, which seems to be hinting at a future romance for later in The Outcasts series that I would be very interested in reading. Jibril and Eva for book three? Please?

If you're wondering which debut author to take a risk on, or looking to try something different for your next historical romance, I would definitely suggest giving this one a go. I, for one, am definitely going to read more from her.

3.75 stars

[Crystal's Bookish Life · Rating 3 out of 5]

Great writing, loved the older (32) heroine. A bit too reliant on their physical relationship and I wished her 17 year kidnapping had carried more weight in her approach to her new romance.

Will be in my next vlog

[Amanda Richardson · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dangerous by Minerva Spencer is a fantastic read! Mia is a curiosity to the English ton, she has been gone from England for 17 years and no one knows where she was during this time away. The truth is, she was a captive in a sheik's harem and bore him a son. At 32, she is finally making her debut into society because her father is forcing her to marry.
Mia of course, doesn't want to marry especially a stuffy Englishman but she will to appease her father and then she will leave her husband and follow her dreams for her life. Most importantly, returning for her son.
Adam has buried two wives and no one is sure he didn't kill them. He is kind of reclusive, kind of an outcast and like Mia a bit of a curiosity. He is drawn to Mia, he has three daughters but decides he may as well marry again to sire an heir and Mia fits the bills.
These two are in for a wild ride to their happily ever after. The passion between Mia and Adam leaps off the page, Mia doesn't feel sorry for herself or bemoan her situation - I believe she may be the most pragmatic character I have ever read in a romance novel. She is realistic and willing to enjoy the passion between them until she is ready to leave.
Adam is shocked by his depth of feelings for Mia and how compatible they are. He planned on having a typical ton marriage of convenience but Mia swept him off his feet. I also enjoyed that there were very few misunderstandings between Adam and Mia and that misunderstandings weren't used heavily as a plot device. Mia is an interesting character since many of her formative years were spent in captivity in a harem. She is much different than any woman Adam has ever known.
Very, very good story and I highly recommend this one to historical romance readers who enjoy passionate romance and developed characters.

[Ira · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was amazing, so heartwarming, warm, thrilling and amazing! Halfway through the ebook, I went online to put the paperback on my wishlist because I felt that I simply needed to have this one in print as well!
The contrast between London's ton and Mia's warm and sensual manner is striking and you just feel her husband relax into something unknown to him, something warm and very much alive, you feel the love between the hero and the heroine grow and I loved to see the lightness and the laughter Mia brings into her husband's life. And I also loved to see how Adam de Courtney's acceptance of her past and her allows her to blosssom and to be happy.
Mia hugs and caresses her way straight into her husband's heart and when she disappears, well, he won't let her get away...and he won't let her face the danger alone.....
A wonderful book - I just wanted to say "to read on a sunny afternoon" but actually, no matter where and no matter what the weather or the place, this book is always a good choice! I can't wait to read the next book in this series!

[Heather andrews · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sometimes Adam's lady drives him bonkers, "he stared at her. She crossed her arms and stared back. Adam cast his eyes ceilingward. “Fine. A bargain.” I don't think Adam appreciates others seeing his wife naked, "...the door swung open and one of the housemaids entered. The girl’s jaw came unhinged and her eyes fixed on the naked backside of her mistress. He lurched to his feet. “Come back in five minutes.” The door clicked shut almost before the words left his mouth." Adam's woman knows how to tire him out, "he barely had enough energy left for a weak laugh. “You will be the death of me.” I liked this book, I loved that Adam's lady would drive him bonkers and make him question things.

[George Jr. · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was fortunate enough to read an advance copy and was thoroughly entertained by this up and coming writer. Minerva spins a fast paced, well-written story with wickedly witty dialogue and clever plot twists. The verbal exchanges between Mia and Adam are delightful and their growing attraction embodies the best in romance novels. I look forward to many more stories from this prolific writer. If you’re a fan of romance novels, Minerva Spencer is definitely one author to follow.

[Sam I AMNreader]

DNF-16%

*** I Feel it is important to edit this review in light of more information and discussion around the topic. I will just point you to my friend's Blackjack's review https://www.goodreads.com/review/show....
Honestly, Blackjack's review primed me going in and by the first few chapters I was too worried to continue. Given the Islamophobia today, I don't want to support anything that may reinforce negative stereotypes of Muslims, people from the Middle East, or anyone of color. I'm a mood reader, and I reserve the right to feel like this isn't the time (regardless historical accuracy) to see characters from these regions treated as one-dimensional. All my friends have loved this book with few exceptions. I think it's probably really good, however, my tolerance is balanced on something the size of thumb tack, and just as instable.

_____Original review
Honestly, It’s not hitting its stride for me, other than some good chemistry. unfortunately based on what I see now and where it sounds like this is going after reviewing what my friends list says, I’m not here for it. I’ve got Milan, Duran, and Thomas backlists!

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Minerva Spencer’s Dangerous is one of those books that will go on my keeper shelf! It’s sensual, fast-paced, and has an action-packed ending that had me on the edge of my seat. Both Adam and Mia have events from their past that have molded them. Mia is a curiosity to the ton, and Adam is ostracized from the society he was born into. He needs a strong woman to draw him from the dark shadow he now lives under, and Mia is the perfect woman to show him that love is still possible.

This story also takes the reader from London to the country, then to Northern Africa. I don’t wish to give too much away, but the journey is fraught with danger, heroics, and the introduction of a new character that I’d enjoy seeing get his own story. I highly recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Kensington for an Advanced Readers Copy.

[NMmomof4 · Rating 3 out of 5]

3 Stars

Overall Opinion: This was alright. I liked the banter and overall relationship between the mcs. I just felt like it was underwhelming in the end. I wanted a big ending to go along with the building if their big romance, but instead it just seemed to fizzle out. I was really disappointed that the epilogue wasn’t even about this couple and more about side characters. I think I needed much more to feel satisfied in the end. Don’t get me wrong! They have the typical characteristics so I would still classify as a HEA, it was just…underwhelming. Don’t really know how else to describe it 🤷🏻‍♀️

Brief Summary of the Storyline: This is Mia and Adam’s story. When Mia is being forced to marry after secretly returning from being held captive in a sultan’s harem, her father presents her to the notorious Adam, who has two dead wives. Both are outcasts in society but see the benefit in a marriage of convenience, especially when considering how attracted to one another they are. There is some breaking through walls, some secrets revealed, sexy times, and a little suspense…and they get a HEA ending.

Point Of View (POV): This alternated between focusing mainly on Mia and Adam in 3rd person narrative.

Overall Pace of Story: Good. I never skimmed and I thought it flowed well.

Instalove: No. Instalust? Yes. They take a while to develop stronger feelings.

H (Hero) rating: 3.5 stars. Adam. I liked him for the most part. I understood (later) why he was so cold at times, but I liked how he became warm with the h.

h (heroine) rating: 4 stars. Mia. I liked her. I appreciated her strength and optimism even though she had been through a lot.

Sadness level: Low, no tissues needed

Push/Pull: Yes The H pushes away emotionally and I’d say they both are pursuers of the relationship at times

Heat level: Good. They have some good tension, chemistry, and scenes -- but not so much it takes away from the story.

Descriptive sex: Yes

OW (Other Woman)/OM (Other Man) drama: Mild The H’s mistress that he broke it off with before his marriage to the h talks to the h and tries to start drama but the h quickly puts her in her place

Sex scene with OW or OM: No

Cheating: No some slight mention of the H visiting his mistress after meeting (before marriage) the h, but then later mention that he didn’t even like kissing the mistress — so I’m unsure what was supposed to have happened between him and the OW (all off page)

Separation: No

Possible Triggers: Yes The h had been kidnapped/held in captivity for ~17 years/raped as part of a harem when 14/had a child from said rape (off page), the H had 2 previous wives that died (off page), and mental illness (side character off page)

Closure: This ends in a good place but with what I feel was focusing on setting up more books in the future and not with closure for this couple. I would still call it a HEA, but I was disappointed in the lack of closure.

Safety: This one should be Safe for most safety gang readers

- Does Not have cheating
- Does Not have a descriptive sex scene with OW/OM
- Does have the H pushing the h away
- Does Not have a separation between the h and H
- Does Not have abuse by mcs
- Does have a HEA ending

[Robin (Bridge Four) · Rating 3 out of 5]

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

A woman trapped in a harem for years has come home, only to marry a man believed to have killed not one, but two wives, well count me in since that isn’t something I see in historical romance ever.  I’m not one to be really caught up on how true to the time something is as long as I like the story so this whole trope worked for me.

Mia sighed, unwillingly recalling the hundreds of crying episodes she’d been forced to tolerate during her time in the harem. At least there would be no danger of poison or knives this time. She put an arm around the weeping woman and uttered soothing words while patting her back.

Mia is used to playing games.  Stuck in a harem with numerous other women, she has watched her back all her life, so it should be easier to guard it against one allegedly murderous Marquess instead of many women.   If her father intends to marry her off to any that will have her, with a mysterious past she supposes Adam will do. But the more Mia gets to know Adam, the more she thinks everything the rumors say about this man can’t be true.  Too bad she plans to run off first chance she gets.

"You must cultivate acceptance and learn to accept minor, er, shortcomings in your suitors.”
Shortcomings. The word caused an almost hysterical bubble of mirth to rise in her throat. What the duke really meant was the only men willing to take an older woman with a dubious past were senile, hideous, brainless, diseased, or some combination thereof.

I really enjoyed most of this story.  For one, Mia is a woman who thinks, she has a plan to get back to her son and no one and nothing will stop her.  That is until unexpectedly she starts falling for the man she thought would be pleasurable enough to bed but easy enough to leave.  

Adam, on the other hand, is a man on the fringes of society and one with many secrets.  With rumors of two dead wives, it is hard to get invited to a single party, let alone have a potential bride practically shoved into his lap.  Adam needs an heir though and the beautiful and mysterious Mia might just be exactly what he requires, since she wants nothing to do with him after she conceives.  Too bad the more time her spends with her, the worse that deal sounds.

There are plenty of missteps and mishaps along the way for Mia and Adam to go through and make it to their ending.  The romantic journey and different backstory of the heroine is what made this for me. There are some great side characters and I’m very interested in seeing where Barbarous, the sequel to Dangerous goes.

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

[Joanna Loves Reading · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 Stars on this unique to current trends HR. I am rounding up because some of the positives are promising and make me want to continue with the series.

There was considerable buzz on this debut novel by Minerva Spencer. First, one of my favorite HR authors, Elizabeth Hoyt, raved about it, and then there was quite a bit of buzz in my GR circles about the Bodice-Ripper-esque cover. Could it be that a NEW author is bucking current trends to gives us a fresh and exciting story? And a Regency no-less? The, in my opinion, single most saturated sub-sub genre of HR, filled with cookie-cutter stories. And did it deliver on these lofty, unfair expectations I had? Yes. Mostly.

The heroine, a Duke’s daughter, had returned home after 17 years in a harem near Oran. She had been sold to the harem after the ship she had been traveling was captured by pirates. Her red hair and green eyes made her more valuable as a gift to a Sultan than as ransom to her father. When she returns to England, her father concocts a story and tries to marry her off as quickly as possible. To accomplish this goal, he introduces her to the worst lechers of society, the ones desperate enough to marry her. He finally finds the winner in the Marquess of Exley, who was rumored to have killed his first two wives.

Mia was having trouble fitting in to British society, having become accustomed to life in the Harem. For example, the handsome footmen were not eunuchs and the food was bland. She was immediately intrigued by Exley, who was younger and much more handsome than her other suitors. He saw through the guise quickly, and they started their marriage on a mostly honest footing, with her holding back one big secret and he not being very open about his first two marriages.

This book featured many love scenes, and while I thought them well done, there were too many, in my opinion. They started out showing how compatible the h&h were, with a natural growing intimacy that was leading to trust and love. I thought this lovely and well done. But, after awhile, they grew tedious and felt gratuitous for me. I was ready for the story to move forward. When it did, I was disappointed that Mia was still holding onto to her one secret, without putting her trust in her husband.

I thought the family dynamics portrayed were interesting and well done. There is also a fantastic cast of secondary characters with some interesting sea-faring potential heroes. Overall, I thought the characters great. Mia was a refreshing heroine in her attitude and approach, and I thought Exley a perfect match for her.

Despite a couple of quibbles, I did like this book and look forward to the next in series, featuring one of those sea-faring heroes.

*I received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

[Mei · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must say that for a debut novel this is good! Not excellent, but good!

The fist part was very interesting with a heroine who thinks in one way and acts in another all for her benefit! I found her intriguing and her actions very much in line with her harem upbringing.

She was abducted and sold to the sultan (who was a pedophile, by the way...), but she adapted to the life in harem and thrived there. She also had a son who didn't want to go to England with her when she escaped after the sultan's death.

So, she's an unusual heroine: she is not afraid of sex, she knows how to manipulate men, she knows that she's a very much gossiped about, she knows that she must keep her son existence secret... She superimposes her harem experience on English way of life with success!

Her father is anxious to have her wed, but Mia doesn't want any of the men her father hs cosen for her, until Adam... He's misterious and stunningly beautiful and Mia wants him! A heroine who is not ashamed to admit her sexual attraction! LOL

Adam is attracted to the woman who's very unexpectedly beautiful and who is also plain spoken, who's not shy and who clearly not unexperienced!

So they marry, but both of them hide srecrets from each other.

And that's when things go topsy-turvy with the book... :(

From thei idyllic honeymoon, where they fall in love with each other, secrets creep out and the, until then, intelligent woman starts acting like a crazy adolescent, a TSTL new adult!

As you all well know, I HATE that kind of behaviour!

Her actions become irrational and the author tried to expelain them with mother's love, but they were so idiotic that she failed to convince me!

The last part of the book is a piratesque adventure where they save slaves from the dungeon, free her son and defeat his evil brother... OTT... :(

Also the hero's secret comes out and while I can undestand and sympathize with his misfortune, I found that Mia solution and his acceptance of them was a littl bit too quick and simplicistic...

So, I loved very much the first part, but didn't like the second.... so for me it deserves 3 stars.

[Elena Mikalsen · Rating 5 out of 5]

This story blew me away. It's not your typical predictable love story--the couple has experience, intelligence, and wit. They are a perfect match for each other and have quite a backstory. I couldn't put this one down.

[Nabilah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has been on my TBR pile for ages, and I decided to read it on a whim (It was 2 am, and I just wanted to read 1 or 2 chapters before hitting the pillow again. Instead of sleeping, the book kept me awake until the wee hours of the morning).

I’ve always enjoyed Ms. Spencer books, but not many of her books quite hit the DIK status for me. Her books sometimes suffer from pacing issues, and the plot tends to be over-convoluted. I am thrilled to note that this book is free from these issues.

The characters are compelling with well-fleshed-out backgrounds, the story is unique, the writing style is highly readable, and the story kept me at the edge of my seat. I think the author hits the right balance in this book.

I’m giving it 5 stars based on the readability and the page-turning factors alone.

[Jenn (The Book Refuge) · Rating 5 out of 5]

Reread for 2021 favorites.

I just love Mia and Adam. They are passionate, quick to feeling, sexy, and so crazy for each other. Misunderstandings don't usually work for me, but with the stakes on the line in this one... I am so invested.

******************************************************

So, I freaking loved this one!!!

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Marriage of convenience fans, rejoice! Dangerous was a refreshingly different novel, but with all the things we love about a classic Regency romance imbedded in its DNA. I loved the creativity involved in creating a believable heroine who, at thirty-two, had never enjoyed her first Season. I went along for the ride with this "wicked" sensual woman with concerns much greater than that of a young debutante. Lord Exley, as well, had some life experience and real concerns. Together, they were a great romantic match.

I enjoyed this sophisticated, sensual read!

[Eleanor Nystrom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a fast, fun read!

My curiosity over everyone's secrets compelled me to burn through pages. I had to know how Mia had come to be in a harem. Similarly, I had to know how Adam obtained his bad reputation. I loved Mia and her awkwardness in social settings, and Adam was such a compelling character. I loved watching him thaw and fall for her, and the love scenes were a perfect blend of steamy and emotional.

Even when I thought I had everything figured out, there were new twists. The ending is an adventure involving ships at sea, storms, marital strife in close quarters, and distant lands. Super entertaining read.

[Candace N · Rating 5 out of 5]

Dangerous by Minerva Spencer is a very exciting book, full of emotion, adventure and hoards of memorable characters.  Minerva is a new author to me and I thoroughly enjoyed her writing style. I really, really liked this story! It was unique, captivating and full of humour.   The storyline itself sets this book apart and makes it stand out.  The plot is HUGE, unpredictable and extraordinarily well done. The characters are amazing! They all seemed so real and there was a lot of them. This book was incredibly difficult to put down! A page turner through and through.

[Emma · Rating 1 out of 5]

ugh! Another Dnf.

By the fourth book this month, I decided I don't like the male MCs in historical romance. They are not honorable or devoted as i thought they would be ... The male MC here was rude and arrogant even when he is in no place to be. Him having a mistress and sleeping with her straight after his marriage discussion with heroine, and attempting to again after the marriage was decided with the intention to keep her after marrying the heroine wasn't endearing either, I don't get the purpose of him having a mistress in the first place considering all women avoided him bc of his reputation, it didn't make sense. Besides, the condescending way he behaved with the female MC made me really dislike him, by the time he pulled his head out of his ass I was no more interested in the story. It didn't help that the whole harem concept and how the people and the life in North Africa were presented was racially insensitive. The only saving grace was the heroine's character, but not enough to keep me reading.

[Tamra Baumann · Rating 5 out of 5]

DANGEROUS by debut author Minerva Spencer is full of fun, action, and adventure. The hero and heroine, both judged wrongly by society, are the perfect match. Together, they find love, happiness, and new beginnings. I truly enjoyed this book.