The Princess Stakes

I enjoyed The Princess Stakes. The heroine is a beautiful Indian princess named Sarani Rao. Her character is well developed and reflects the struggles a woman of her time might face with prejudice and intrigue. The hero Rhystan is the new Duke of Embry and also a sailing captain. He and Sarani have met before. Their relationship ended in heartbreak and confusion. Is it possible for them to find love again? There are quite a few very steamy scenes in this book, sometimes, a little too much for my taste. Overall, a very well written book by one of my favorite authors. I checked out this book from my local library.

I haven't completed it yet but if you are going to take a character from another ethnicity, try to rssearch first. The heroine is half Indian and a hindu raja's daughter at that and she is eating beef?!!! Hindus don't eat beef as cows are considered holy. Even killing one is a sin for which she could have been killed by the mob which was agitated over her English origins already and the author mentions it like it's an everyday occurence for the princess. Just don't write a person from another country if all you are going to do is change their name and skin colour. The characters so far are well written except there's nothing Indian in the princess except the title.

Better for the critics, while the romance still works This is the reworked version of The Duke's Princess Bride, which the author graciously revised to address the concerns from various critics who took issue with the race and culture depictions in the first story. The romance between Sarani and Rhystan is still the focus of the book, though I thought the history and cultural lessons more than set the necessary tone and attitude for the reader. It's always fun to read an enemies/second-chance story - there's no hate like the love-fueled hate of a heart not willing to face its true feelings, and the tension between these two is beautifully wrought. Their stormy relationship may not have a lot of surprises, but this author's writing style is eminently enjoyable as she brings every emotion into play. Even when we know we're going to get a satisfactory HEA, there's enough conflict in their relationship to make us wonder just how much personal growth each of them is going to have to experience before they're ready for their forever. I'm definitely the target audience for the romance, even though I'm probably not the target audience for the careful approach to the racial history and cultural sensitivity. Set in England and India in the turbulent 1860's, it works as both a swoon-worthy romance and a sensitive history lesson. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.