Apr
The Leopard Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt
Review By: Lacey Kaye
Book: The Leopard Prince
Author: Elizabeth Hoyt
Author�s Website: http://www.elizabethhoyt.com/
Publisher: Warner
Release Date: April 2007
Back in January, I called The Raven Prince cinematic. I’d like to use the same term to describe The Leopard Prince but it seems too weak. There’s more to TLP than sweeping visuals — and yes, I mean visuals. I know it’s a book. I read it. Duh.�������”Visual” might be a good word for it. “Emotional” is too cliche. “Real” comes pretty close, but then you lose the rest. I suppose if I had to use just one word it would be WURSCHMURPLE.
Yep, the sound of slack-jawed speechlessness.
We met Harry Pye through several tantalizing glimpses in The Raven Prince. As a sub-character, he had only the basic description afforded him,�yet it was enough that I prayed he would get his own book. Harry Pye: brown hair, brown clothes, plain and plain-spoken, and yet with a danger about him that made you just want to reach out and hug him and tell him everything was going to be all right.
My fear in reading The Leopard Prince was that Harry would have morphed into a glorious hero, guaranteed to sweep the heroine off her feet and into a sunset of happiness. Not so. The Harry Pye in TLP is no cleaner, no nicer, no louder or more engaging than the Harry Pye in The Raven Prince. And that’s what makes him so damn appealing.
Harry is who he is. He’s dirty. Poor. Quiet. Dangerous.
Hot.
He’s smokin’ hot. Lady Georgiana can see it better than anyone else. She is who she is, too: loud, talkative, bossy — and she and Harry have a dynamic that will keep you turning pages for hours on end. The�characters Ms. Hoyt portrays in her novels aren’t gorgeous actors on a stage. They’re fallible people, the kind you might meet on a street or in a coffee house.
A very dirty coffee house. Ms. Hoyt never forgets a setting. Indeed, The Leopard Prince will strike you as aged, worn; full of history and smells and people with problems. It’s cold. Dank. Wet. Man, is it wet. By the time you get to the end you’ll feel as though it’s been raining forever, and the moisture has seeped off the page and into that part of your brain that gets really annoyed when it won’t stop raining.
Which is just an example of why I call The Leopard Prince visual. You feel as though you’re watching it on a screen instead of reading it in a book. No — there’s more to it. You feel like you’re THERE instead of watching it on a screen. Ms. Hoyt uses a�large cast of characters chosen directly from your memories, complete with mannerisms and voices you’re sure to�recognize from your own life journey. No detail overwhelms;�each contributes to push the story along on a subplot-ride you’ll be talking about for months.
The characters’ realistic dialogue and diction leaves the potential for unsuspecting readers to find themselves offended every now and then. I was never offended (amused, engaged, titillated), but certainly not every reader will feel that way. Aside from common diction (that absolutely made the book for me), the book is sexual. It’s not that it has sex scenes, but that it IS sex. Ms. Hoyt seems to choose every word precisely for its ability to heighten the sexual tension. Blood, bruises, sweat, dirt, violence — the writing will carry you beyond what you may normally associate with romance, to a new level where life is colorful and choices are never black and white.
It’s fantastic.
I’m out of glorious description for the moment so I’ll move on. Many readers figured out the fairy tale in The Raven Prince was easier to read and more enjoyable if they ignored it the first time and went through and read it as its own short story later. What I loved (LOVED LOVED LOVED) about the fairy tale in The Leopard Prince was its masterful integration with the h/h romantic development. I found myself looking forward to hearing more of the fairy tale, not because it was a great fairy tale (often silly, you’ll see) but because I ADORED the h/h interaction written around it. And that’s all I’m going to say about that.
If I haven’t convinced you yet that you HAVE to read this book, email me so I can come back and elaborate on some point I missed. You like sexual tension? You’ll love this book. Like a good mystery? This is the book for you. Characterization get you going? You’ll know these people better than family. Humor more your thing? I think you see my point. The only people who might be wary of The Leopard Prince are those who shy�from graphic sex. I know it can be hard to imagine how “hot” can get “hotter,” but if you’re curious — buy this book 
To the rest of you…loosen up!
GO.BUY.THIS.BOOK
