A Bride for the Lost King

The Heirs of Liri #2

by Maisey Yates

Playing pretend may be more than the king bargained for in this fake engagement story by New York Times bestselling author Maisey Yates.

A wild king…

…and the one woman to tame him!

After years presumed dead, Lazarus must claim the throne he’s been denied. But to enact his royal revenge, he also needs a convenient fiancée to hide his hard edges. His right-hand woman, Agnes, is perfect, but her innocence could be his downfall…

Agnes owes Lazarus her life, and she’s dedicated it to protecting him. But his scorching touch has even her trembling! She knows their arrangement will last only until Lazarus has stolen back his crown. Can she ever be brave enough to admit he’s also stolen her heart?

From Harlequin Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds.
Read all The Heirs of Liri

Book 1: His Majesty''s Forbidden Temptation
Book 2: A Bride for the Lost King

Genres: Romance, Harlequin

256 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published July 27, 2021

About the author

New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Maisey Yates lives in rural Oregon with her three children and her husband, whose chiseled jaw and arresting features continue to make her swoon. She feels the epic trek she takes several times a day from her office to her coffee maker is a true example of her pioneer spirit. In 2009, at the age of twenty-three Maisey sold her first book.

Since then it’s been a whirlwind of sexy alpha males and happily ever afters, and she wouldn’t have it any other way. Maisey divides her writing time between dark, passionate category romances set just about everywhere on earth and light sexy contemporary romances set practically in her back yard.

She believes that she clearly has the best job in the world.

Reviews

[Ivy H · Rating 2 out of 5]

An utter disappointment, from one of my favourite HP authors.



I'd been eagerly anticipating this novel, since it's Lazarus's story and he's the younger brother of Alexius, the H from His Majesty's Forbidden Temptation



📍This book was all over the place. It's like a hybrid child of an HP novel and a fantasy story. The concept had worked well in His Majesty's Forbidden Temptation, but fell flat in this novel.



📍Both MC's were uninteresting, despite their *intriguing* respective backstories. Lazarus came across as whiny and Agnes, while being the more compelling and likable character, seemed too much like a prop, who's just there to be his romantic sidekick.



📍There was far too much boring introspection and uninteresting, repetitive dialogue exchanges between the MC's.



📍I also think this book was inadequately edited. I had issues with the way the storyline progressed, because some stuff seemed slightly illogical. I found it impossible to buy into the story of Lazarus's hidden kingdom within the Dark Wood, that managed to have high speed internet access and yet still be totally off the radar of all powerful governments in the world. Does the author seriously expect me to believe that Interpol, the CIA and other similar organizations wouldn't have had the technological wherewithal to detect the presence of this hidden kingdom ? There's a lot more I can highlight, but the key issue is that there's extremely poor and amateurish world building. I think Maisey Yates was onto a good thing, with the concept for this book but it's far too ambitious a project to be presented within the limited confines of an HP novel.



📍There were also a few incorrectly structured sentences, which suggests that the editor/copy editor was sleeping on the job.


Take a look at the sentence construction in the paragraph below and you'll see what I mean:


And if Lazarus had not been hardened by his years, by the early loss of his family. A family who had not even searched for him. Then he might feel guilt that he had no such intent. ( P. 27 of 374. 7% into HP e-book ).


I'm by no means suggesting that Maisey Yates is a terrible writer. In fact I think she's an awesome writer. But everyone makes minor errors, when writing. Sometimes it's an auto correct issue and sometimes it's just that the writer's thoughts are moving at a rapid pace while she's typing and unintentional errors crop up. It happens to me all the time when I'm writing simple book reviews. But HP manuscripts are supposed to be checked carefully by editors, so I lay most of the blame on the copy editor.



📍The whole vengeance and retribution tropes were dealt with in a most superficial manner. It's hard to believe that 30+ years of hate and vengeance is sorted out quite easily after the H goes on a morning ride with his brother and they speak for a couple hours.



📍 I didn't enjoy the way the MC's relationship developed. There was too much focus on their sexual connection, especially on the H's part and there were a couple of icky moments where the poor heroine is thinking about the many times, in the past, when she'd been crushing on the H and had seen him with his numerous sex partners. It wasn't anything specific but I got the idea that she wasn't talking about seeing him going on dates with OW but about seeing him engaging in sexual activity with OW. I don't have a problem reading about heroes going on dates with OW, during the time before they're involved with the heroine, because that's not cheating. But I do get bothered when it's implied that the heroine has actually seen him having sex/making out etc with these ladies. It's still not cheating but it's just kinda sad, especially when the heroine was emotionally tortured by what she'd seen, as is shown below:


Exhibit 1


She knew Lazarus to be a man with a healthy sexual appetite. He took lovers. She had seen him do it. And it had taken strips off of her heart to watch it, but she had comforted herself with the fact that she was special.



Exhibit 2


I have watched you satisfy your urges with many women. They come and go from your chamber in an alarming pattern.


📍The MC's get their HEA after a short separation but there's no grand, permanent closure and it ended on a somewhat abrupt note with them just going off into the HPlandia sunset. It's not the most satisfactory conclusion to an HPlandia excursion, especially when Maisey Yates has written some sublimely romantic epilogues in previous novels.


To be honest, the only parts I enjoyed in this book were the cameo appearances from the MC's of His Majesty's Forbidden Temptation. They were far more interesting than Lazarus and Agnes.


Safety: There's no cheating and both MC's are celibate during their short separation. However, there's mention ( see above ) about the heroine's reaction to *seeing* the H with his OW, during the time before they were involved.

[Bibi · Rating 1 out of 5]

A secret ancient kingdom within a modern world? The story would have worked better in the fantasy genre since not one thing about it is believable.

[Vashti · Rating 3 out of 5]

This read more like a mash up of fantasy/I don't know what the heck kind of trope..seriously I got whiplash between the two tropes.
It had been a very long time since I read the first book in this duology about Alexious ,the older brother. I was looking forward to Lazarus's book,the brother who was presumed dead when he went into the Dark Woods never to be seen again.
I did not see the progression of love between the two mc's.
The ending left me unsatisfied.

[Aou · Rating 3 out of 5]

The story was good despite being not believable but tooo much talk made me descrease stars.

[Susan in Perthshire · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh, dear! Maisey Yates is one of my favourite writers and I've read dozens of her books and loved them. This is so awful that I find it difficult to believe Maisey Yates wrote it.

First, the plot lacks credibility. A secret kingdom with the internet etc, that absolutely no one in the world knows about? Seriously? Satellite spies can focus on an individual's face from miles up, but the intelligence services of the world miss a secret kingdom? The world-building was poor, and as a fairy story, it just didn't work - unlike several other books which have gone down that route, (the brilliant Caitlin Crews comes to mind here).

The characters never came to life. I was looking forward to Lazarus' story after reading his brother's book. However, this just didn't work for me. I found nothing attractive in Lazarus, and his behaviour towards Agnes was utterly insensitive for so much of the time. Sex seemed to be the only thing they had. Agnes never came to life for me.

Lazarus' thirst for vengeance, (developed by the man he trusted but whom he eventually realised had deceived him), just disappeared after a conversation with his brother. I think there were lots of great ideas in this story, which would have worked in a longer book; but within the confines of a category romance, they were simply under-developed.

I found the pacing and the continual inner monologuing very slow, and to be honest - though I cannot believe I'm going to use this word in a description of a Maisey Yates book - somewhat boring at times.

I am really upset to write such a negative review about one of my favourite Mills and Boon writers but this story just missed out on so many levels. Maisey's writing is always good, but - the storytelling here, simply didn't work for me.

I think what was very evident to me in this, and the previous book was that MY was trying on a different voice - and it simply didn’t feel authentic to me. Never mind, it won’t stop me reading her books.

[Page Passion · Rating 2 out of 5]

What a mess!

I finished this crazy book not out of enjoyment, but mostly because I had to see the finale of the train wreck.

I should have known what I saw that this book was dedicated to Henry Cavill from the Witcher, yes you read that right, that Maisey was going to try some nonsense in this book!

The whole secret kingdom, very odd, but not even the worst part of this book. The characters were so blah. The dialogue rarely was engaging and the pages and pages of inner monologue were repetitive and boring.

This didn’t make sense in terms of a contemporary romance. The author is obviously a fan of the show Witcher (I’ve never seen it so I’m not sure how close the plot is to the book). One thing l like about MY is that she always tries something new in her stories but this was just weird af and not gripping at all.

A fantasy version of a Presents just doesn’t make sense.

[Mattie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I did not like the plot at all. The whole premise of a secret kingdom in the middle of woods is pretty ridiculous for a non paranormal book. I didn't like the characters either, hero slept with so many other woman and just took them into the woods and slept with them, he never once thought of using protection with heroine so I don't even know if he used it with all those other women. Does he have lots of children out there or even STD's??? I didn't particularly care for the heorine either, she may be a fighter and capable in that area but she came across as very weak where hero was concerned. Np.

[T'Odes · Rating 1 out of 5]

Barely 2 pages in and I know the book is crap😪. This pandemic is really messing with alot of writers

[Heather Songster · Rating 1 out of 5]

Where to start with this one. Well, I won't say that I enjoyed it. I didn't have high hopes after reading the first novel, His Majesty's Forbidden Temptation, but I did hope that the author would at least take the elements that worked from the first novel and polished them up for the second. It seems to have been the opposite with the insufferably arrogant Lazarus and his unfortunate body guard Agnes. To hear my full exasperated review, you can visit https://hopelesslyromanticpodcast.com....

[RomLibrary]

A wild king…
…and the one woman to tame him!

After years presumed dead, Lazarus must claim the throne he’s been denied. But to enact his royal revenge, he also needs a convenient fiancée to hide his hard edges. His right-hand woman, Agnes, is perfect, but her innocence could be his downfall…

Agnes owes Lazarus her life, and she’s dedicated it to protecting him. But his scorching touch has even her trembling! She knows their arrangement will last only until Lazarus has stolen back his crown. Can she ever be brave enough to admit he’s also stolen her heart?

[Alison Stone · Rating 4 out of 5]

I hate to give any writer a negative review but Yates did a bad job with this story. There were several continuity issues. And the story of a kingdom in the woods in 2021 doesn’t work. Plus there was bad character development, and a tiny one page dark moment.
The only other thing that was very abrupt and out of place and this was a big thing- the first sex scene was not acceptable. It was a punishment for the heroine and was very out of character for the hero.
I am sorry for Yates but I will not hold it against her.

[Carmelita Clardy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great 2nd book

This is the 2nd book in the series and it didn’t disappoint. The H was presumed dead but in fact he was kidnapped. The h was a teenager when the H saved her from being killed. He taught her to be a warrior and his protector. She has loved him forever, but he had darkness in him and didn’t think he was worthy of love. My only complaint is the ending was rushed and no epilogue. Kind of left you hanging.

[Gail · Rating 5 out of 5]

Redemption

This second half of the duet explores what happens when a lost brother, believed dead, is found alive and well. Lazarus and Agnes, his shield maiden, discover truths about themselves that lead to the pain and pleasure of love. A good story. It moves fast.

[Karen Geurts · Rating 5 out of 5]

I liked Lazarus and Agnes's story more than the 1st book with Tinley and Alex. They both grew up without their families, and there was a lot of deception, that they believed was true. I liked the way they came together as a couple. Would have liked a longer and better end.

[Harlequin Books]

Categories
Multicultural & Interracial Romance
Miniseries
The Heirs of Liri (Book #2)

[Harlequin Books]

Categories
Multicultural & Interracial Romance
Miniseries
The Heirs of Liri (Book #2)

[Dorel · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the 2nd book I read by Maisey Yates. I'm sorry I stopped reading this story 📖 at chapter 3 because it didn't grab my interest.