Prince of Dreams by Lisa Kleypas

The most dangerous and desirable man in all of England, Nikolas burns to possess Emma Stokehurst, but the proud, headstrong beauty is promised to another. Still, there are no limits to how far the wealthy, bitter exile will go to win her exquisite hand - though owning Emma's body, but not her love, will do nothing to fill the empty spaces in his heart.

But Nikolas's destiny awaits him elsewhere, as passion's magic transports him to a different place - a land of splendor and romantic dreams. For only there can he experience the true ecstasy in one remarkable woman's tender touch - achingly familiar yet gloriously new - and learn, at last, to love.

So often we see a lamentation around romance land that we want to read something different, something unusual, something not the same virgin widow, or rake who needs to be redeemed or ...well...whatever! And yet, when you get something different, like this book, sometimes it really doesn't deliver! And to be honest, this is one of those times.

This is the follow up book to Midnight Angel, and features as the hero Prince Nikolas Angelovsky and Emma Stokehurst, daughter of the hero in Midnight Angel.

Nikolas decided many years ago that he was going to have Emma Stokehurst for himself, no matter what it took, so when she turns up at his doorstep having been dumped by the love of her life, he takes complete advantage. Despite the fact that she knows that her parents will strongly disapprove, she becomes engaged to Nikolas.

Once they are married, there is a surprise from his past, and he also seemed really distant from Emma, never really connecting with her, to the point that she believes that she has made a terrible mistake in marrying him.

And then something strange happens - he is cast back in time a couple of hundred years to Imperial Russia, and he finds that he is one of his own ancestors, friend to Peter the Great. As his past self he needs to marry, and so out of a line up he chooses Emelia, who looks exactly like Emma. He therefore gets to marry her all over again, and without giving too much away when he returns to the current time he is suddenly madly in love with Emma, and with a little hesitation she accepts that. Throw in a suspense subplot and we have a hodge podge of things that really just didn't have any form of cohesion - a bit like this review really!

If that sounds a bit odd, then you are not far off. Nikolas was moody and broody, and there was even unfaithfulness on his part suggested, and I am afraid that we got nowhere near believably redeeming him in this book. Emma wasn't too bad as a heroine, but she wasn't enough to carry the book by herself.

So in summary, in my opinion, this is as close to a stinker as you can get from the usually very consistent and very talented Lisa Kleypas.

Rating 2/5