Dark Prince
3.5 Stars

Crippled as a child, Jane Heatherington has few expectations or prospects other than working in her father's inn. But when an enigmatic stranger arrives, Jane finds herself sold into indentured servitude and thrust into a life of danger and intrigue as her master, Aiden Warrick, is rumored to be a smuggler, a pirate and perhaps even a murderer.

Similar to the first two books in the series, Dark Prince contains allusions to a famous work of gothic fiction. In this case, the story is suggestive of Daphne de Maurier's Jamaica Inn with its references to a coastal inn, a bullying innkeeper and a band of wreckers.

While the book is quite slow to start, the narrative picks up along the way and the romance is engaging. The mysterious and brooding Aiden and the sweet yet resilient Jane are both appealing characters and their interactions are satisfying.

The weakest aspect of the book is the mystery plot, which is comprised of too many disjointed threads that never completely reach their potential.

All in all, not the best installment but a quick and enjoyable read nonetheless.

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There were a lot of editing issues in the Kindle edition that kept distracting me. The spelling issues were likely OCR errors rather than copy-editing but to have so many speaks of a lack of quality control. I liked both the story and the style quite a bit but I could not look past the poor formatting. ( )

Jane Heatherington is sold to Aidan Warrick to pay off her father's debts. But who is Warrick, he says he is a smugglar and a pirate. But what truly is his plan and why.
A dark romance with some mystery makes for an enjoyable read ( )

I read this for the Gothic square for Halloween Bingo

Jane Heatherington studied the horizon, dread gnawing at her with small, sharp bites. The sky was a leaden mass of churning gray clouds that hung low on the water, and the ocean pummeled the shore with a strength that heralded the furor of the coming storm. Breathing in the tangy salt scent of the sea, Jane clenched her fists, making the edges of the delicate pink shell in her hand dig into the skin of her palm, grounding her as she struggled to hold her misery at bay.

We've got a heroine walking on rocky cliffs on a windy, dark, and gloomy day, a dark mysterious stranger, and murder mysteries. The first couple chapters felt like the author went through a Gothic list and was crossing them off as a lot of dark and gloomy elements were relayed.

The story is told from the heroine's pov and this helps to keep the hero dark and mysterious but even before the half way mark he is pretty much revealed to basically be fairly benign. The hero and heroine had good chemistry, if their love felt a little rushed.

The second half and whole revenge story felt somewhat cobbled together and I'm not sure I felt the emotional pull from it. The description of weather and the hero wearing a dark capped coat seemed to be the biggest Gothic themes and therefore, I was a bit let down with the Gothic feel. ( )

Really enjoyable. Give me a stormy coast, with broken ships, murder, smugglers, and a mysterious man with a tormented soul and I'm hooked.To be honest, what I'm beginning to really enjoy about the romance books that I'm finding to read are good, well written characters with flaws. I do not care for a heroine that's perfect in her beauty or can do everything and bake a great apple pie! The men tend to be more perfect looking than they ought to, but a great backstory and a fascinating character goes a long way towards keeping me reading.This novel had all that. The twist at the end was really terrific and had me thinking it was all going to hell...BUT, I won't read a book with a sad ending, so there you are. ( )