Customer Reviews

Princess: (Book 2 in the Ascension Trilogy)

5 star:		(35)
4 star:		(6)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

The Princess is the tale of a jaded, lost hero who rediscovers the joy of love with the princess of his dreams.

Darius Santiago has been in love with Princess Serafina, his protectee, since she blossomed into a beautiful, young woman. But he knows that King Lazar (who adopted him as ward) would never approve of such a match, especially since Serafina is engaged to the mighty Prince Anatole in order to save Ascencion from Napolean's attack.

Serafina has always been in love with the darkly handsome Santiago. But having been rejected once, she believes that his recent attraction to her is only because she is forbidden fruit.

Darius risks death in order to keep Serafina in her protective, little bubble world, uncovering dangerous evidence against her fiance and her failed kidnappers. But as he finally succumbs to his feelings, he realizes that only by unveiling his darkest secrets to her can he hope to keep her forever as his bride.

This is a fantastic sequel to the Pirate Prince and even though some reviewers seem to think that Lazar and Allegra aren't stellar parents, I can only see their love for Serafina and Rafael. Lazar dotes on her constantly, wrapped around her little finger. As always, Foley's books are filled with interesting plot twists and devious villains that I've come to enjoy as part of her romance book experience.

I have read A LOT of Romance novels (and I mean a lot), but this is the BEST one I have ever read. I never thought anything would top 'Honor's Spendor' by Julie Garwood, but this one did it!!! I loved the book so much I wrote to Ms. Foley and thanked her for writting it (and I've never done that before). I have never read such passion, devotion, and fierce love between two characters as I did in 'Princess.' Darius loves Sariphina so much it hurts. And likewise, she always knew she belonged to him. This book was everything I have ever looked for in a love story. I mean, you could feel every emotion they felt as you were reading. I cannot say enough about how great this book is. You have to give it a try. I read the book before this, 'The Pirate Prince' and though that was an enjoyable read, this book surpasses it a billion times over in my opinion. Read them both for yourself and see if you agree with me. Thank you, thank you, thank you Ms. Foley for writting the best book I have ever read!!!! Oh, if you want another good book by Galen Foley, you will LOVE Lady of Desire as well! She is such an intense and gifted new writer and she knows exactly what women want!

What an incredible match those two made! I never would have thought a world weary warroir would fall for a little spoiled princess but the effect was charming! I guess Darius needed relief from the world he was living in - the cold heart-less world of whores and danger - and so he turned to the delightful little Serafina. Admittedly Serafina annoyed at the beginning she seemed like a baby and I couldn't figure out why Darius would fall fo her. But then you get to know her character and what a good person she is and how much Darius needs her. How much Darius needs to unburden his soul to her - I mean the book is a work of art: you fall in love with both these characters eventually and for different reasons. Perhaps I would have prefered the book if Serafina wasn't soooooo beautiful, it would have meant that Darius wouldn't seem like a man running after an innocent young girl. Although truth be told, his resisting her charms shows that he was trying to save her from him so I suppose you could say that he wasn't really running after her. I found it SOOOOOO romantic when Darius finally gave into desire. He was such a gentleman all the way through the book! I fell in love with him from the start! Serafina was brilliant too! She seemed like a child at first but later on in the book you realise that she is smart and behind those beautiful eyes there is some wisdom. By the end of the book you really do appreciate all the effort she puts into saving Santiago's soul. You recognise her as a mature young women by the end of the book and Santiago as a sensitive warrior not a brutal one! What a romance! What a love! RECOMENDED - A TRULLY, TRULLY ROMANTIC BOOK!

Darius is the King's most trusted spy and master assassin. As a royal ward, an adopted son of King Lazar and the captain of the Royal Guard, he lives in the world of treachery, political intrigues, and espionage. With a dark and tortured past, he is ruthless in his pursuit of perfection. Quiet but fearless, always on guard with his emotions, his emptiness and desperation mirror his need to prove himself worthy in the eyes of one stunningly beautiful royal protectee, Princess Serafina, the only woman he loves beyond reason but will never possess.

Serafina is betrothed to a Russian prince to ensure the safety of the kingdom from Napoleonic conquest. As head of the palace security, Darius acts as her personal bodyguard, protecting her from men at all cost even from himself. He is aware of the feelings of adoration and devotion Serafina has always harbored towards him but he fiercely masks his smoldering attraction in favor of gratitude, honor, loyalty and love for King Lazar and the royal family.

Gaelen Foley weaves a tale of the inner battles of Darius to resist the irresistible Serafina whose caresses promise ecstasy beyond his wildest dreams. She pursues and he flees in this fiery dance of passion. Gaelen Foley sets in motion a sequence of events that will challenge the strength of their deep and unconditional love.

Aside from the sizzling erotic moments, she also packs exciting fast-paced actions, from the violent rescue of the princess by Darius, his suicidal mission in Milan, and his final encounter with Prince Tyurinov.

Gaelen Foley has created the character of beautiful Serafina as a pampered and spoiled princess who can have "any man in the planet" but who worships only her dark, brooding protector. Intelligent and beautiful, kind but willful, Princess Serafina knows what she wants and that is the love of only one man, Darius. She will pursue him at all cost even in treachery and seduction for she vows no man will ever rule her heart. She seduces him in their secluded hideaway. In the end, to finally claim her man, she pulls out a scheme this time, in FLAGRANTE DELICTO!

Even her daring a la "femme fatale" rescue of Darius from the hands Anatole proves her deep love and absolute loyalty to her man.

The story begins with the rescue of Princess Serafina by Darius in the garden maze on the night of her engagement party from French spies out to kidnap her to avoid the alliance of Russia with Ascension. The wounded Darius leads the panic stricken princess back to the palace through a secret passage leading directly to her bedchamber.

As head of the palace security, Darius is the only man privy to the secret door to the bedchamber of the princess. Although he has never violated her privacy in the past, his access to the secret door will later seal his claim to Serafina but will destroy the trust of the King and face the wrath of her fiance, Prince Tyurinov.

Inside her bedchamber there are so many tender and poignant moments that will reveal how deeply they feel for each other. He discovers that she keeps a portrait of him on the mantel. While tending to his wound, Serafina finds out that he still wears the medal she has given him on her twelfth birthday when he took the bullet meant for the King.

When security demands that she be whisked away to a secluded hideaway alone and unchaperoned, she manuevered the King to have Darius as her protector. She senses that Darius needs to learn how to love and heal the wounds of his past and she is the only person who can handle him. He tries to resist Serafina but the smoldering passion is a force to reckon with. What follows is the battle of wills...

I like Serafina's relentless determination, gentle persuasion even brazen maneuverings to get her man. You will feel the inner turmoil Darius suffers in trying to ignore her romantic advances and sweet seduction. Her gentle yet not too innocent declaration, "You can take anything from me", when he takes the white bow she ties around her head for keepsake when he leaves for Milan in a suicidal mission is utterly provocative and seductive. Imagine what Darius feels!

I love their verbal sparring and I admire her spunk in one incident, which I quote:

Studying him intently, she rested one juicy hip against his desk, her slim arms folded under her breasts, "You're very handsome when you scowl".
He gave him a dirty look. Laughing softly, she reached out and gently smoothed his hair out of his eyes. "You need to learn to relax-".
He grabbed her wrist and forced her hand away. "Stop touching me, for God's sake! Why are you always touching me? What are you trying to do to me?"

Poor Darius, can he ever resist such a temptation from the virginal princess who is off-limits? Secluded in a villa, passion explodes. While she remains intact and technically a virgin, he shows her all the wondrous ways a man can physically and sexually love a woman.

Their physical intimacies in the secluded villa, the taking of her maidenhead in her bedchamber on the eve of her wedding and later the incredible bout of afternoon sexual delights in the pink room in the same villa days after their wedding are so sensual and graphic and yet poignant and romantic you will appreciate Galen Foley's talent to satisfy the romantic and sensual fantasies of her readers.

This is a beautiful and satisfying sequel to Pirate Prince. Read the book and get carried away in this forbidden love by Gaelen Foley. She knows how to deliver a story with a strong plot, well defined characters, and scorchingly sensual love scenes that capture the readers' imagination. This blazing tale of seductive desire and passion is simply AWESOME!

Serafina is the Royal Princess and "Jewel of Ascencion" - Ascencion being a mythical island off the Italian coast, resembling Sicily and Corsica in nature. She is a 20 year old beauty; a willful, fairy-like creature. Every prince in Europe wants to marry her, as do many wealthy commoners. Her heart is taken, however. Since her earliest childhood she has adored her bodyguard and adopted older brother, Darius Santiago.

Twenty years earlier, when Darius was just 14, the King and Queen rescued him from his destitute life on the streets. He was wild and starving - but he managed, at his young age, to save the Queen's life. Since that time, he has been raised, educated and trusted as one of their own. Santiago is a dark hero, who keeps to himself, trusting no one - understandable, considering his past. He had risen in the ranks to Captain of the Royal Guard by age 20, and now, at 34, is Commander of an elite armed force and a spy for the King. He is the bastard son of a Spanish Count and a gypsy mother. His mother cared nothing for Darius and abandoned him; his father, a cruel and brutal man, cared nothing for him. Although he has noble half-brothers, they are not worthy of their rank or their inheritance. So, the Count, recognized his illegitimate son before he died, and Darius is now a wealthy man. His adopted family does not know this, however, because to Darius, his wealth and official position in society makes no difference. In his mind, he is still the abandoned offspring of a gypsy and a Spanish Grandee. He constantly tries to prove himself worthy of the Royal family's trust and affection. The most difficult thing he has ever had to do is ignore Serafina's love and pretend indifference to her. How could he betray her parents by declaring his love for their only daughter?

The Emperor Napoleon is ruling and conquering Europe as the novel begins. He needs the Ascencion Navy if he is to defeat the British. All the unmarried Bonaparte brothers and Napoleon's stepson have been offered as marriage choices for Serafina, in return for a political alliance. Neither Serafina nor her parents want such an alliance with France. So, the Princess becomes betrothed, out of duty, to a Russian general and nobleman - who murdered his first wife and is planning to overthrow the Tzar. The man is a ruthless brute. Darius has discovered this information while in Russia, doing a background check on the prospective groom, at the request of Ascencion's King. He returns home with the information in time to rescue Serafina from an attempted kidnapping by Napoleon's henchmen. Thus begin a series of events and adventures that will put lives in danger and risk the island kingdom...as well as the love between Serafina and Darius.

I really liked much of the plot, especially the historical detail. However, there were quite a few incidents that were totally unbelievable, including Santiago's plot against France's Emperor. I don't want to disclose more detail and ruin the story for those who have yet to read it. The pace of the novel is slow at first because of repetitious information and unnecessary dialogue. Much of the dialogue between Serafina and Santiago, especially in the novel's early stages, is totally fatuous. She sounds much too juvenile, as a woman, to have earned the love of a man 14 years her senior. Mature young women of that age do exist...but she does not come off as one of them.

I would have rated the book 5 stars except for the annoying flaws mentioned above. I do look forward to reading the first book in the series, "The Pirate Prince."

This was a wonderful love story between Darius and Serafina! He was a truly magnificent hero. That he was, in essence, one of her servants made it that much more fun! The only problem I had with the book is that, if I remember right from Pirate Prince, Darius had been a slave to Malik in the first book and had suffered horribly at his hands, though that was never mentioned in Princess, instead his 'hell' had come from his parents. I have to admit, I liked Lazar better in Pirate Prince and I didn't care for Allegra's attitude when she found the two of them together, especially after reading about her indiscretions in Pirate Prince, she should have been a bit more sympathetic to Serafina. But when the guitar was found on Serafina's bed, it brought tears to my eyes, and when he came back to her, the scene was so poignant and touching, you couldn't help but fall in love with the dark warrior. I also loved what he told Pauline Bonaparte! All in all, I loved the story and can't wait to read Prince Charming!

Pirate Prince was perfect, and this book has a few flaws, but it's a shame to undervalue such a great book just because it can't live up to it's predecessor. Very few books can.

Perhaps people are annoyed by the fact that the hero and heroine of Pirate Prince became rather cold-hearted and insufficient parents to Serafina. Also, Ascencion, which seemed to be a charmingly provincial Italian island in Pirate Prince, begins to look and sound more and more like Regency England. These things can be off-putting to Pirate Prince fans. There is also some occasional overdoing of the mushy declarations of love, but overall the author is a good enough writer to pull it off.

This story deserves all five stars for fantastic writing, a great heroine and wonderfully tortured hero, and most amazingly, a subplot that is as good as any adventure novel. There is actually more to a Galeen Foley book than just romance (not that it's lacking). She is the only romance writer I know of whose plot could stand on its own even if you took the romance out. This is what I most love about these three books (Pirate Prince, Princess, and Prince Charming): you get more than just a love story.

You also get more than just a hero and heroine in this book. Pirate Prince and Princess both contain strong characterizations of upcoming heros. You meet (and really get to know) Darius in Pirate Prince, and Rafael (of Prince Charming) in Princess. In fact, their stories are so interesting, I would suggest actually reading these books in order so as not to miss out.

And that's another thing I love about Galeen Foley's novels: they are unique. The plots are fresh and so original that these books are an absolute relief from the typically predictable romance novel genre. And you don't miss out on a thing, because they are still highly erotic love stories full of longing, fear, and overwhelming emotion.

...but this book is flawed. While it is a carefully plotted book the characterizations are weak. I don't know why anyone would want this princess; she is almost cartoonish in her attributes and personality traits.

Darius isn't much better. I think the "big" revelation of why he thinks he's unloveable was pathetic.

The dialogue between the two was inconsistent, sometimes very romantic and true and other times forced and trite. It does bother me how this author uses present day slang in her novels. While most probably wouldn't mind, it breaks the believability of the story for me. Ms. Foley does it in all her books.

I wasn't bored in this book; I finished it, which I can't say about all her books. In the end, I think I will like this author better when she matures and better understands the dynamics in compelling and believeable relationships.

This is the second book in the Ascension series. In this story the Princess Serifina is going to be married to a Prince from Russia who is not what he seems. But, Napoleon wants her to marry his stepson mostly to get her fathers Navy. But none of this really matters to Serifina, as the only man she has ever loved does not love her back (Darius). In fact he made that clear 3 years ago when she told him she loved him and he walked away.

Darius is the boy that came home with Lazar in the last book after saving Allegra. I wonder how it is that they were such strong characters in the last story but play a much smaller part in this one..

The story starts out with Serafina being stalked and trying to be kidnapped by the French only to have Darius save the day.

See how Serafina tries to make Darius realize that is all she really needs.

I liked this one better than the first book!

This was, in my opinion, the most compelling of Gaelen Foley's novels so far. The heat between Darius and Serafina just leaps off the page to keep the reader enthralled. While the plot is a bit predictable at times, it is never boring. Foley's books just keep on getting better.