Review: Lord of Darkness (Maiden Lane #5) by Elizabeth Hoyt

Posted March 19, 2013 by Karen in Book Reviews / 0 Comments

12907444Title: Lord of Darkness (Maiden Lane #5)
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Rating: 4.5/5 Stars
Genre: Historical Romance
ISBN: 1455508306
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

When Strangers In The Night

He lives in the shadows. As the mysterious masked avenger known as the Ghost of St. Giles, Godric St. John’s only goal is to protect the innocent of London. Until the night he confronts a fearless young lady pointing a pistol at his head—and realizes she is his wife.

Become Lovers…

Lady Margaret Reading has vowed to kill the Ghost of St. Giles—the man who murdered her one true love. Returning to London, and to the man she hasn’t seen since their wedding day, Margaret does not recognize the man behind the mask. Fierce, commanding, and dangerous, the notorious Ghost of St. Giles is everything she feared he would be—and so much more.

Desire Is The Ultimate Danger

When passion flares, these two intimate strangers can’t keep from revealing more of themselves than they had ever planned. But when Margaret learns the truth—that the Ghost is her husband—the game is up and the players must surrender…to the temptation that could destroy them both.

Karen’s REVIEW

Lord of Darkness is the fifth installment of Elizabeth Hoyt’s Maiden Lane series, and starts two years after it ended. As readers of the series with know, the series centers around St. Giles, the poorest and most dangerous area of London. The focal point being the Home for Unfortunate Infants and Foundling Children, which has blended the lives of both the commoners and aristocracy of 18th century London, as the orphanage is endowed by a league of very wealthy aristocratic ladies. What would a romance be without commoners, mingling with their wealthier better dressed peers, drudgery, or as we all know it real life ? I for one don’t care to read about going to the market or the excitement of paying bills, so a good historical romance has have a fairytale quality and here Hoyt is a master of her craft. To be honest until January, I hadn’t read many historic romances, I thought it wasn’t my cup of tea. But after reading a Georgian period romance, I decided to explore the genre. I did my research; perused many authors and decided on Hoyt and her Maiden Lane series, the advantage being that she had a new book coming out at the end of February. So I dove into her series.

I find Hoyt’s books fun and intriguing, and Lord of Darkness is a good fit into the series. The story centers around Godric St.John and his bride of two years, Margaret Reading, and is a fast paced adventure murder mystery. The destitute St. Giles area of London is where the pregnant Margaret’s true love died in the previous Maiden Lane book, at the hands of the mysterious Ghost of St. Giles. Margaret’s brother had bribed St. John to marry her, so no one would know she conceived a child out of wedlock. One major problem is that St. John is the ghost of St. Giles, the accused murderer of his wife’s true love.

What I like about the book is that characters both primary and secondary are fleshed out by Hoyt. She doesn’t skim over personal details and you know her characters inside and out. St. John was a very minor character in book one, and Margaret was introduced in book two, and Hoyt had fleshed them out in her previous Maiden Lane books, so that I was familiar with them as characters.

Hoyt also writes scenes that are detailed to the point that I could almost smell the stench of the open sewer that London was during the 18th century. She doesn’t white wash the plight of the poor, but neither are her books historic treatises. When one of her characters visit Bedlam and encounters the mentally ill held in horrible conditions I shuttered.

The book is a delightful romance where love concurs all even the death of ones soul mate. Both of these characters are in this marriage not because of a love match, one because of a pregnancy and the other because of coercion. Most marriages in that period weren’t love matches, but more family alliances. Both the characters had already found their true love and because of death lost it. Neither Godric nor Margaret are really living a full life. St. John wants to protect the good residence of St. Giles, using the disguise as the Ghost; for this is the only time he feels alive. Margaret has come back to London after a two year absence to gain a reason for happiness in her life and to revenge her lost loved.

Godric is everything a reader could want in a hero tortured and descent, but he is a wraith of what he should be; as his beloved first wife Clara has died. The two of them really never had a life together as Clara got sick a year into their marriage and lingered ill dying slowly. His first marriage was a love match, and St. John, is morning just as much her death as the possibility of what his life could have been, if only she would have been healthy.

Margaret is a contender for best heroine of the series, as she has a gregarious effervescent personality, despite her heart ache. She arrives in London and proceeds to take over Godric’s life; much to his dismay.

What I didn’t like about this book, men in wigs; so my imagination just skims over the wig issue.

I recommend this book and series to anyone wanting to take a leap into the historic romance genre, as The Lord of Darkness and the entire series has been a pleasure to read.

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