Early Review of Pride & Passion (The Brethren Guardians, #2) by Charlotte Featherstone

• Title: Pride & Passion (The Brethren Guardians, #2)
• Classification: Adult Fiction
• Genre: Historical Romance 
• Format: Paperback, 384 pages
• Publisher: HQN Books (November 15, 2011)
• ISBN-10: 0373776179
• ISBN-13: 978-0373776177
• Author's website: http://www.charlottefeatherstone.net/index.html

Pride: proud or disdainful behavior or treatment
Passion: strong amorous feeling or desire; love; ardor  

When the fortune teller showed her a vision of her future, she didn't believe it to be true...

     "She heard the words, whispering around her like a lover's touch.
     Why did you forsake me?
     His answer had been soft, a mere whisper, their palms had touched through the gauze, his heat singing her just her just as his words did.  
     I have been here all along, waiting for you to see me beyond the veil that separates us. 
     She had turned then, breathless with anticipation. She saw her pale hand reach for the curtain, its trembling strength barely able to grasp the filmy material between her fingers. But with one tug, the fabric that separated them fell, pooling between them. She had looked up from the back mound, up along a body that hers recalled with such visceral pleasure. To a set of eyes that were so...wrong.
     Gray eyes."

She told him he was passionless. He took that as a challenge...

     "The power of a kiss is a heady pleasure, one that teases the mind, warms the heart, lifts the soul and tempts the body."
     Lucy let herself grow lax. Behind her closed lids, she say him, and did not run from that image, or the knowledge that the man seducing her with words was not the man she had come to meet, nor was he anyone she would have ever dared to think might have this effect on her.
     "One should feel a kiss deeply from the inner core of their being, to the outside, where the flesh burns for touches from lips and hands, and the caress of a warm, velvety tongue."
     A breathless pant escaped her, and she knew she should be utterly mortified by it. But he only pressed close, and she felt the tentative touch of his warm palm grace her fingertips. 
     "Words, and kisses are so very much alike, they have the power to lure and entice, to arouse, and soothe--to punish in the most pleasurable of ways. Like words, a kiss should leave you wanting more--needing more."  (Side note: It goes on and gets better.)

Now the question remains, will she let her pride get in the way of her passion--a passion that might prove to be all consuming and everything she ever wanted? 

Charlotte Featherstone is in my top 10 favorite romance authors. With every book of hers that I read, she rises another notch in those ranks. Her writing style is beautiful, seductive and captivating. If she were a man she'd be called a silver tongued devil - which in this book, Adrian definitely is.

In the first book of the series, 'Seduction & Scandal' we were introduced to the secret world of the Brethren Guardians. A position which is passed down from father to son to care and guard three holy relics. While two of the relics were lost in the last book, they were retrieved by the end and the thief killed. The identity of the person who orchestrated the theft, the mysterious Orpheus of the House of Orpheus, is still unknown. Until Orpheus' identity is revealed and the man apprehended, the relics, the Brethren and their loved ones will not be safe for there's no rest for the wicked and Orpheus definitely fits that bill.

I must say there was one scene in this book that puzzled me. In the scene, Adrian gets a little emotionally carried away and attempts to seduce Teresa. While I'd never ask for the scene to be pulled, I couldn't help wondering why he didn't whisk her away to somewhere more private and safe first? I wondered if I'd missed something and reread that little bit. Believe me that was no hardship. On a more positive note, there was a twist in this book that caught me off guard. Truly love it when that happens.  

While I absolutely loved Adrian, I did not like Lucy very much at the beginning of this book. She seemed spoiled and a little too head strong. I loved the fact that the prologue dealt with the vision of who Lucy will end up with. I felt the veil/gauze was a nice use of imagery which seemed to represent Lucy's pride coming between her and the man she was meant to be with.

As the name implies, I believe Featherstone took a page from 'Pride & Prejudice' and masterfully rewove it into her story. Not an outright rework of the famous book, she just cleverly took one aspect of it and made it her own. If not for the similarities in the names, I may not have picked up on it.

On the Lisarenee Romance Rating Scale, this one gets a SHOWER rating -  a warning label should be added to make sure your significant other is handy or your shower is in working order when reading the book because a cold shower may be necessary. Need I say more? Overall, I gave this one 4 out of 5 roses. 

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