What Price Love? audiobook

Story About Cynster Extended FamilyWHAT PRICE LOVE? is the thirteenth Cynster novel. This is the story of Dillon Caxton, Flick's cousin from A ROGUE'S PROPOSAL. Dillon got involved in a horse race fixing scheme that his cousin helped extract him from. For ten years, Dillon has worked to rebuild his honor. He has succeeded and is now trusted with the register of all the racing horses in England. Priscilla Dalloway is determined to get access to the register. She is concerned about her twin brother who has disappeared. Her only clue is the register. She will do whatever it takes even if she has to seduce Dillon. The mystery in this book is very good. I was interested all the way through. I also really liked the romance which was very compelling between Dillon and Pris. I really liked how they recognize one another as like beings. They are both a bit reckless. Usually in these novels there are a balance between the personalities of the characters. Here the characters are alike and understand one another. My one complaint is that Pris is too reluctant to marry Dillon. Her position is quite illogical and I found that part of her personality a bit annoying. It was only a small annoyance and did not destroy my enjoyment of the book as a whole.

This book was so engrossing! In addition to the usual "I'm feisty, you're feisty, together we're spicy" romance plotline, there's a very intricate plot about horse racing and switching out horses and a gambling racket. It was fascinating! I actually enjoyed it a lot, even though I'm kind of burned out on romance novels.In that respect, saddling herself with an innocent, sweet young thing like Miss Blake wasn't what one would expect of a clever and intelligent femme fatale. Yet Miss Dalling qualified as clever and intelligent, and her type of beauty was the epitome of fatale--the sort men died for.

Dillon Caxton is disillusioned with love. Blessed with wealth, status, and stunning good looks, he has no time for marriage-hungry misses. As a guardian of the "sport of kings" he has a daring criminal scheme to thwart-one that threatens to wreak havoc on the thoroughbred racing world.Lady Priscilla Dalloway has to rescue her horse-mad twin brother from the dangerous swindle in which he's become embroiled.

Soon...

Regency romance set not in London, for a change, but amongst the horse racing at Newmarket.

My rating: 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4 stars.This book is well-written, because Stephanie Laurens is a talented writer. I read it several years ago, but recently decided to re-read the entire Cynster series, since I had enjoyed them all. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I still like this book -- maybe not quite as much as the first read, but I still liked it a lot.Dillon was OK, but it bothered me that he just decided he was going to marry Priscilla, without discussing it with her for a long time. He just assumed she would be OK with that, and started making plans without her input. Then he was surprised when his proposal didn't go well? Duh!It also seemed like Dillon and Priscilla were mostly in lust, not love, for a large part of the book.Priscilla was OK, but it bothered me that she kept doing things that put her in danger. She knew her brother was in danger, so she does things that put her in danger too? That was just dumb. I get that she didn't trust Dillon yet, but still ...I also got a little tired of the repetitive reminders of how beautiful Priscilla was, and how handsome Dillon was. I get it, they were both very good looking -- but I didn't need reminding of that so often.My rating system is below.1 star -- Hated it, or did not finish. I usually only give this rating if some of the content is truly objectionable to me, like if one of the main characters does something really awful, and gets away with it.2 stars -- Didn't like it. This rating usually means that I thought the writing wasn't very good, the editing was terrible, I didn't like the characters, or it had other major flaws.3 stars -- I liked it, but had some minor issues with it. This rating means that there were minor editing issues, the story needed more character development, it was just too unrealistic, or had some other fairly minor issue. The majority of books I read get this rating – I do not consider it a bad rating.4 stars -- I liked it a lot. This is a high rating for me, and I rarely give a higher one.5 stars -- I loved it, and will probably read it again. Very few books are good enough to get this rating from me. The ones that do are usually classics.

Dillon Caxton, cousin to Felicity Cynster and protegee of her husband Demon, has managed to overcome the scandal of his youthful indiscretions and become a reliable and trusted member of society. He is now the Keeper of the Register of the horse racing industry and is most determined to keep his chosen industry as honest as possible. The romantic interest that enters his life is the Irish lady Priscilla Dalling, whose twin brother Russell works for a racehorse owner. When she receives a letter from her brother informing her that he thinks something illegal is going on and he intends to investigate, Priscilla is determined to follow him to England to help get him out of the danger she is sure he has put himself in. Unknown to the Dallings, Dillon, Demon, and their friend Barnaby Adair are investigating a race-fixing scheme that Rus and Pris have unwittingly poked their noses into.This is the first Laurens book that I have given 4 stars to. I enjoyed the mystery, which was given equal precedence to the romance in the story. It made it easy to overlook the usual tediously long seduction scenes and focus on the action and the character development.

So good to get into straight romance again. And boy was this a good choice. Its been awhile since I've read a Cynster novel and I picked up right where I left off. The ending truly spoke of why I enjoy this series so much. The family; the support and the love truly make this series.Some cons. Both Pris and Dillon are too pretty for the world apparently, lol. I do not remembwr Dillon being considered this hot in Demon and Flick's story. Yes he was younger but usually people considered this good looking show it from young. I also did not like the ending for Mr. X. After creating this intricate web they way that ended was so lame and a let down. Lastly, some character stuff fell flat for me. the guys in this series are starting to seem less and less unique personality wise. But also I didn't really feel either Dillon or Pris were wild and reckless. Kept being told they were but beyond racing on horses and randomly sticking their nose in things I didn't see it. Also, the whole twin thing fell flat for me here. I loved it for Amanda and Amelia. Their books are my faves. But the twin connection with Pris and Rus was much talked about but always debunked by the same storyline. Is it just me? Pris thought she if she saw this thing she would know what Runs was up to but nope. Runs supposedly says he knows how she's feeling but ultimately ignores that for his own relationship apparently.Okay, pros. The case/mystery turned out to be the most complex I've ever seen in this series from what I remember there's only one other that comes close. The stakes have risen and there were multiple layers of danger for several characters. Which made the villains choices at the end so annoying. Because before that he was doing great. Several things surprised me. They started having sex earlier than I was expecting. Which I was okay with. Probably the most liberal couple so far. Trigger warning for attempted rape. I was not expecting that at all. These were good surprises. Made the story more dynamic. And of course as I mentioned in the beginning the family element is always my favourite. That they all have several people to go to. To talk about their feelings and their choices with. I also always love the depth of emotional exploration for each couple. They have to figure out what they are feeling and what motivates those feelings and how to communicate them. Plus as always the sex scenes are wonderful. The English countryside sure does have a lot of random houses and gazebos for secret dalliances to occur.

For someone who hasn't ridden a horse in 20 years, I get really excited about these books that feature around racing, or horses in general. Another amazing Cynster associated story. I really should get tired of them because they are all vaguely similar, but I just don't. Definitely keeping on with these!

What a great storyteller Stephanie Laurens is.I have loved every book in this series and always look for her books.The Cynster family books are just such well rounded books ,you invest in these characters and cant wait to see what they are up to in the next book.