In Which Thoroughly Obsessed Thursday Revisits Some Old Promises

Remember a long-ass time ago when I told you I would come back to the "other things" I liked about Elizabeth Hoyt's Legend of the Four Soldiers Series?

Well, gather 'round, children.  It's time.

The first book in the Four Soldiers series begins with a prologue that, well... begins the story of the Four Soldiers.  You with me?  Emeline, the heroine of To Taste Temptation, was read The Legend of the Four Soldiers by her nanny when she was younger.  The nanny was Prussian and the book that she read from was in Prussian (?), and Emeline wants the book translated.  Melisande, the heroine of the To Seduce a Sinner, can translate the thing.  Helen of To Beguile a Beast has lovely penmanship and transcribes the thing.  Oh, and it just so happens that Beatrice of To Desire a Devil knows how to bind books.  Just sayin'.

So each of our Four Soldiers' tales is accompanied by a "fictional" Four Soldiers tale.  Before each chapter is a little piece of the fairy-tale story, and each epilogue wraps everything together, finishing the sub-story and illuminating the grander theme within our novel.

Iron Heart, Laughing Jack, Truth Teller, and Longsword each fight their own mythic battles for the princesses they love (Solace, Surcrease, Sympathy, and Serenity, respectively).  Obviously the tales feature parallel obstacles to those faced by our Soldiers, and the princesses represent what our heroines give them.

While the whole "each heroine has a part to play" thing is a little much, I do like this common thread for the women throughout all of the stories.  The men have their war, and the women have these tales, and to be honest, they don't really have much interaction with one another from one book to the next.  It is their only real connection.  At the end of To Desire a Devil, the unveiling of the books that Beatrice has bound is quite interesting, because it really gives the reader a sense of how much these women have bonded, if unknowingly.

The other thing I want to mention is the time period in which these books take place.  In my mind (and quite generally speaking) there are three time periods of historical romance novels- Medieval, Regency and Victorian/American West.  The Legend of the Four Soldiers takes place about six years after the end of the French and Indian War, which places it squarely in the Colonial period.  I had to keep reminding myself to picture corsets and powdered wigs rather than empire waists and Hessian boots.  Very strange.  But very cool.  It was refreshing to read something different.  And for that reason alone this is a series worth checking out.