AAR

[Eliza]

What I find interesting is that the cover quotes for this book are by Eloisa James and Elizabeth Hoyt, two authors who are tops with me for their crisp, clear, clean writing styles--along with Lauren Willig and Diana Gabaldon, who I also love for the same reason.

By way of contrast, the cover quotes for "At Your Pleasure" are by Liz Carlyle and AAR.

Interesting--to me anyway--since I enjoyed Ashley's book but not Duran's. Apparently even writing styles are subject to taste even though in a long-ago thread on Potpourri, storytelling won hands down over writing.

Strangely enough, while I was fairly alone for favoring writing then, I liked Duran's story over her writing while some preferred her writing but had credibility issues with the heroine.

Just goes to show you have to take it one book at a time.

[xina]

[ChrisReader]

I liked this book a lot -but then again I didn't have any preconceived notions of what Hart's proclivities were or how I wanted them to be. I was going along for the ride to see where Ashley was going and quite frankly I didn't care for the Hart we saw in the first book at all. I'm glad that his story took place when he was at a different point in his life. It also made sense to me that seeing Ian evolve and grow through his relationship with Beth would have a profound effect on Hart. As each of his brothers matured and worked through their demons, finding happiness with their wives, Hart would have felt marginalized to a degree and it makes sense he would have looked back to what he saw as the happiest time in his life and the woman he felt was the "one."

I really liked how Ashley conveyed how much Hart and Eleanor still thought of each other through the years. I'm surprised no one else mentioned the letter Hart sent Eleanor which was not only a doozy but incredibly trusting of him considering they were not even speaking at the time. I thought it was sad and very telling he thought she was the only one he could confess to about it and how confident he was in her that he could put such a confession in writing!

A lot of people have said they didn't think Eleanor had a very good reason for breaking off the engagement with Hart and here I have to disagree again. Eleanor had Hart's supposed ex-mistress come and tell her how she had devoted her life to his whims and desires and that he was still colluding with her about the best way to "catch" Eleanor. Her entire courtship was planned by Hart, essentially as a scheme. On top of that she knew he had dismissed the woman who had been so essential to him for years and built her life around him (we the readers know the woman in unbalanced and evil because of what happened "years later" with Beth but all Eleanor knows is there is this woman Hart has essentially washed his hands of). I don't think it's crazy of Eleanor to doubt his feelings, sincerity and whether she is just the next rung on his ladder. Maybe in a few years his "needs" would change again? Add to that his appalling behavior when she was breaking up with him and quite frankly I would have run away from him. When he should have been trying to rebuild their trust he was threatening her and her father. Again- I'm glad that's not the Hart we saw in this book.

[xina]

[xina]

I see that there are 2 more books planned in this series...whoo hoo! So, I know who Daniel (the last book) but who is Juliana (or Elliot) in the next book?
_________________
"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride

[Eliza]

From Ashley's web site, a list of Mackenzie men, including:

Daniel Mackenzie
Born in 1866, Daniel is the oldest son of Cameron Mackenzie. His mother dead, Daniel is more or less raised by all four Mackenzie brothers, and later, Isabella. Cameron considered himself to be a bad father, but Daniel enjoyed growing up in a houseful of bachelors and retained a good humor. He loves the horses his father raises, but he also has a love for science and engineering.

Watching what happened with his father and uncles in terms of marriage, the good and the bad, Daniel is determined not to marry until he meets his soul mate.

Elliot McBride
Elliot McBride is the third oldest of the McBride clan, one of four brothers to Ainsley Douglas (heroine of The Many Sins of Lord Cameron). Elliot goes to India with the army, then leaves the service but stays in India to start a business helping other colonials settle there. During this time, he is captured and held in prison for nearly a year, often starved, often tortured, and forgotten by his captors for long stretches of time. The one thing he remembers is Juliana St. John, a lovely young woman he loved from afar in his youth but who unfortunately is to marry another.

When Elliot finally escapes from prison and returns to Scotland, he finds that his mind is broken--he suffers backflashes and other episodes he can't explain. Determined to regain his sanity, Elliot returns to India to face his fears, but travels back home to Scotland to start his life anew, beginning with attending the wedding of his beloved Juliana.
http://www.jennifersromances.com/NewSite/Mackenzies/characterbio.html#elliot

The following link also has family trees etc.
http://www.jennifersromances.com/NewSite/Mackenzies/mackenzie_main.html

[xina]

Thanks Eliza! I'm happy this series is continuing.
_________________
"As you wish"
~The Princess Bride

[Eliza]

Warning! This is l-o-n-g and has spoilers.

After letting the books and the discussion settle for a while, I had a smack my palm to my forehead moment about something that wasn't mentioned in this thread. Maybe it was thought of, but it seems to me we danced around it with various parts (kink, Eleanor, Ian/Hart, stand alone, etc.), and that's the arc of the story and the theme developed through all four books with all four brothers, with Ian and Hart rightly being the main pillars of the series. This wasn't just another family series where each gets his turn.

The main through-thread as I see it now is the father, always the father, and what results from him. And the main thing about these stories is all about control, or lack thereof, and not sex at all. How the characters' sex lives unfold is a key to each character, but not the whole or even the main event. And it's no accident that Ian's story is first and Hart's last.

Ian is the youngest and he has a condition that gives him the least control, while Hart's position as the oldest brother and heir drives him to assume the most responsibility and power.

Ian can't communicate as others and has rages he learns to control. He's first at his father's mercy, and then beholden to Hart, so the control in his life is mainly to shut down or walk away. But to my mind the most powerful, memorable scene in the first book is when Ian and Beth make love and Ian stares directly into her eyes. That was the telling moment to me. Sex at that time was how he could communicate best--and he grows with his marriage and expands to the rest of his life through to the last book.

Hart is the other pole: he has all the power and controls all he can--including saving Ian's life, and what all that went with that. Control is always the first and the last thing with Hart, and sex is just another part of that--not the key point. If you re-read the books, you'll see how often the gossip pages and his reputation play to his benefit for controlling whatever he wants.

Remember how often his mask is mentioned too? The young Eleanor jilts him not because of his mistress or the house, but because she doesn't want to be broken by Hart after hearing what the mistress has to say. The author says that outright. And Eleanor worries about that again later on by the way Hart goes back to maneuvering their wedding after being briefly so open and needy with her.

It's his last adventures where his outward control is stripped forcibly from him, leaving him control of only his own reactions (not the same but somewhat like where Ian had been), leading to his newer view of all of life that is around him. If you didn't catch the obvious redemption images, Ashley also spells them out in text afterwards.

In Hart's last love scene, the author also spells out it is about love and trust above all else.

And to close the circle, the author has a final scene with Hart and the father's portrait. And the new life of all the men is shown not just in the final, all-together-happy-family event, but in those portraits accidentally taken where Ian and Hart are each looking directly into their children's eyes.

The other completed circle is that as Hart saved Ian, Ian was there to save Hart right back. Ian's appearances weren't coincidental or just guest appearances in Hart's book, which is why, I think, that several posters mentioned them as such wonderful parts of book 4.

As for the darkness theme with Hart, because these are romances, I think some readers may have looked at sex as a standard, oughta-be-there element, where I think the darkness is more about the father's lasting effect and what Hart had to do to save Ian, feeling he lost his soul in the process.

This is already long so I won't go into the middle brothers' different but also similar issues.

On a side note, when Eloisa James, Julia Quinn and Connie Brockway were writing The Lady Most Likely, one of them said on Facebook that in working together, they'd come to think that most romances were somehow or somewhere based on parenting. I found that interesting, and it has made me thoughtful of how often that is true.

So...thank you if you got this far in my long-winded post.

[JaneO]

@Eliza
Excellent analysis. I think you are right, and this is one of those instances when reading the entire series in sequence is necessary to fully appreciate it. That is something that usually annoys me, but in this case I have no objections.

[xina]

[Eggletina]

[Eliza]

I enjoyed reading your thoughts, Eggletina. Would you mind if we discuss a couple further?

[Eggletina]

[Eliza]

Thanks for replying, Eggletina. It's really great to see through others' eyes and be able to swap ideas. I really enjoyed reading your posts.

[LordRose]