B-
Title: The Leopard Prince
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Publication Info: Forever April 1, 2007
ISBN: 0446618489
Genre: Historical: European
But when a romance continues to bring a warm smile to my face, and the memory of the plot brings with it a feeling of contentment and tender awe, I’m very very pleased. My only problem: the hero is the one creating these warm, fuzzy feelings. The heroine? I could take her or leave her. It’s not the love story between them that I adored so much; it’s the hero.
The Leopard Prince is an innovative and profoundly different type of romance: the heroine, Lady Georgina Maitland, is a wealthy woman with several estates. The hero, Harry Pye, is her new land steward. He’s her servant, though that doesn’t mean she’s not fascinated with him, though it does mean that he tries his damndest not to notice her.
There are two subplots and themes at work here, and Hoyt does a marvelous job of weaving them together, though the potential third, the fairy tale Georgina tells through the story, lost me after the second or third installment. The first, the story of Harry and Georgina, is woven through the second, which is really Harry’s story – and as a result, this book is very much in my mind a hero-driven story.
What fascinated me most was Hoyt’s exploration of class, and the different worlds that Harry had to simultaneously exist within – Georgina is his social superior, but as her steward he has access to parts of her world, a world that those he supervises would never see. But he also lives and works among those for whom the estate is their life and livelihood. He has to both care for those who live and work on the estate, while explaining to Georgina how important her decisions are and how they affect those same people. His job is to guide her towards a profitable estate, while advocating for everyone beneath her whose lives depend on her estate, and he exists between those people, not quite fitting in with them, or with her.
Hoyt does a masterful job of depicting how different classes of people interacted personally, and I read and re-read the scenes where Harry talks with ancillary characters. The use of language and colloquialism was intriguing. I learned a great deal about the difference in dialogue and the manners used among lower classes, and those varied encounters established Harry as a character who seems more real than most heroes.
He’s not cardboard or manufactured from Ye Olde Deck of Romance Cliches; even when discussing the most horrible aspects of his childhood, he maintains a realistic perspective and still manages to break my heart with his candor to Georgina. When he says, after telling Georgina the circumstances of his birth, that “All little boys love their mothers,” I literally had to stop reading for a moment and wipe my eyes. He’s a hero who is not afraid to admit his vulnerability to those who have earned his trust, and instead of coming across weaker for having divulged so much, he evolves into a marvelous character. Can you tell I’m crushing on this guy? Seriously, I am.
What I found most delicious was Harry’s confidence. He was a bastard, plus he had an active, identifiable and powerful enemy, whose villainy and vitriol was most often so over the top I literally expected his end would come when his head exploded all over the walls, and yet despite those circumstances against him, Harry had a deeply sexy confidence in himself, especially once he realized that Georgina returned his feelings of attraction. It became a pleasure for him to take care of her as well as of her estates. Certainly an uncommon balance and rebalance of power in a romance novel relationship.
Sadly for me, Georgina was not his equal in characterization or in depiction. She made several really doofy decisions in the course of the story, and while I respected that she did not waver in her belief in Harry, even when others tried to frame him for horrible crimes committed on her land, I wished she’d been at least as solidly crafted as Harry. She resembled the fairy tale she told through the story: not quite real, and somewhat nebulous in purpose.
Yet when I look back on this book, or pick it up to flip through it, Hoyt’s exploration of the status differences located between labels like “bastard,” “nobleman,” “gentleman,” and “honorable man” continues to enthrall me with subsequent re-readings. The degree to which this book continues to resonate in my mind is as much a testament to her prose as to her characterization, and I’m looking forward to her next novel.
Sounds good…I’m just laughing at the name Harry Pye (Hairy Pie)…how do authors pick names? I have to wonder sometimes if they’ve said them outloud…too funny though!
This is so weird, but I was ordering this book online & decided to check out this site for any new reviews. & here it is! You guys are a little spooky. haha
I loved Harry, too! The story, not as much, although I’m definitely a Hoyt fan and can’t wait to pick up The Serpent Prince.
I have to say Hoyt really knows how to pull at my heartstrings.
i just had a variation of the deja vu experience annie described above (hi, annie!).
i just finished ‘raven prince’ and was debating whether to put ‘leopard prince’ on my tbr list. and voila! the smart bitches ride to the rescue again.
i originally picked up ‘raven prince’ on the strength of a recommendation from a published author in my writing group, and on how much i liked the little teaser provided by hoyt to whet reader appetite. it’s a list of ‘rules’ for historical romance heros, and the hero of ‘raven prince’‘s reaction to each. as it turns out, it’s the funniest part of the whole book.
‘raven prince’ is a worthwhile read, despite a couple of logical inconsistencies that took me briefly out of the story.
but the high comedy quotient of the teaser isn’t an accurate reflection of the tone of the rest of the book (despite a well-written and humorous opening scene in which the two leads meet) – and i’m trying to focus my current reading on candidates for
(WARNING! SHAMELESS PLUG ALERT!)
the ‘Laughter Reviews’ on my blog.
This would be a good place to thank the Bitchery once more for the outpouring of suggestions some time ago to my question of recommended funny romances. Further suggestions (don’t ncssarily have to be romance) still gratefully received.
Maya, at: apprentice-writer.blogspot.com
I liked this book and I liked Harry too, but—here comes the inner history beast—land agents were generally NOT lower class men. It was an acceptable career for someone from the gentry or even an impoverished younger son of the nobility. You’d hire someone gentlemanly who could represent your interests to your neighbors and fellow landowners.
ahem, for a funny book Maya(shameless plug), try mine, The Rules of Gentility.
while I firmly believe that the first book in Hoyt’s prince series “The Raven Prince” is superior, I did like this book too. Georgina was…a little daffy, but not hatably so because she’s very genuine about meaning well. Harry was all right, but I think Edward and Ana from book 1 had much more chemestry outside the bedroom than Harry and George. I think my two favorite parts of the book were:
1- after sex, in the afterglow, Georgina asks Harry what he’s thinking and he replies by starting a conversation about crop rotation. sexy, sexy crop rotation.
2- Harry barges into the wedding, rushes Georgina away, and leaves his two friends out in the church with the wedding party, standing around awkwardly while he goes and has sex in the rectory
oh yeah, and you gotta give points for naming her hero Harry Pye. Nothing like a good pun to make you giggle every time his name shows up!
aw, I loved Georgina! I liked how she was kinda believably quirky and was actually set up with unusual character traits that were consistently referenced throughout the work (her tendency to make sort of henwitted non sequitors when stressed, for example). And like, this is one of the only romances I’ve ever read where the heroine runs away from the hero and I understand exactly why and think it’s an okay decision.
The only thing that disappointed me was that we didn’t get another hundred pages of Harry resolving his issues.
Shall pick up a Hoyt soon, then! Haven’t read anything by her, yet.
I loved Georgina, too!! I totally bought her as a smart woman who was limited in her world view by her class and upbringing, and that she hid behind a ditsy veneer.
I’ve been looking for a book which has a social inbalance between the two main characters. Looks like I’ll be giving The Leopard Prince a try, then.
I loved this book. Read it quickly and passed it on to my mom who loved it as well.
And yes, I crushed on Harry completely. But I also found George to be quite entertaining. She was quirky and funny and on more than one occasion made me laugh. Especially when she was telling the fairy tale. to me, the story itself wasn’t so important as the telling of it…she just came across as fun and it made me smile.
I mostly loved this book (Eliz. Hoyt has some mad writing skillz), but had the same reservations about Georgina that others have expressed. Chiefly, whenever she got to telling her fairy tale, she’d pull out some mannerisms (putting her hands on her hips, saying “What do you think of that?” after a plot point) that read very little-girlish to me, and I found it off-putting and somewhat creepy.
Also, the sex scenes tipped over into strokey territory for me, and it took me out of the flow (heh) of the otherwise expertly crafted story.
All that said, you better believe I’m logging onto my local library website every day to put “The Serpent Prince” on hold as soon as it’s available. I get a sense Hoyt is most partial to Simon, in her “Prince” trilogy of heroes, and so am I. A vain, fastidious, wig-wearing horndog with a self-deprecating sense of humor? That’s my kind of romance hero!