Stand and Deliver (Black Lace)

Stand and Deliver

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Suddenly, we cut to a fancy party in which every Princess Di lookalike is waitressing, dressed as a St. Sadly the camera pans too quickly, but there are like five different versions of this waitress. Note video arcade machine in back. I think they got the wrong extra call. The rich preppy movie is in the next studio. Happy Renfaire Doublet Boy has a jaunty accessory there in his blue polyester eyelet lace cravat.

Or wait, is that a print made of music notes? A crimper has been deployed! On the left, someone raided the Belly Dance Store. I used to have an Adam Ant poster hanging on the back of my office door, so no one could see it except me when I had the door closed. Ah, those were the days. Although, his trousers could have been tighter…. This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed. And does some pretty sneering. Is she wearing a retainer? SO ready for adventures on the salty seas! Little Drummer Boy is very committed to his nylon Grandma lace cravat!

I know I look FABulous. I suggest Johnny Depp play Adam in the biopic. This guy is having a really good time in his sparkly renfaire doublet. This is a historical romance. But you wouldn't know that based on the cover and not really from the blurb either. While I like the cover, I do wish it gave off a historical vibe.

Stand and Deliver was OK. I liked the main couple, Lucien and Ambrosius, but otherwise this didn't really stand out for me. It needed more fleshing out, especially Dante's character. Nov 01, Elisa Rolle added it.

This is actually a book that won me over in time and not from the first pages as usually a book does. I'm very much the reader that, if at page 5 is not yet taken by the book, goes back to the blurb to see if I missed something, than read the last page, maybe the before the last page I know, I know, shoot me on the place! No friends, I'm not such a martyr to finish a book I don't like, and so I don't post of book I don't like This is actually a book that won me over in time and not from the first pages as usually a book does. No friends, I'm not such a martyr to finish a book I don't like, and so I don't post of book I don't like at all.

Said that, Stand and Deliver arrived to me with a big handicap, it's a menages a trois. Usually I don't read them, but this was an all male menages and plus it was an historical romance, so, well, I decided to give it a try. Another handicap was the starting point of the story, a young earl kidnapped by two highwaymen who becomes their private sex toy Scarlet Blackwell chose the second way.

Lucien is a young earl indeed, comes to his wealth maybe too soon. At nearly 30 years old, he spent all his life doing nothing, and now he is obviously bored. When his coach is cut off by four masked men, Lucien should be scared, and instead he is bored. He doesn't need the money he has with him, he could be very well give them to the men and being happy and alive, but he instead decides to not "stand and deliver". He dares one of the two leaders of the group and obviously he looses the challenge, managing only to see in face the other man.

The same man who now forbids to his fellow highwayman to kill Lucien and instead kidnaps him. Ambrosius is the man who saves Lucien and instead Dante is the one who would have preferred to kill him. They have a strange relationship, a man linked them, Sebastian, Ambrosius' lover and Dante's best friend, and now that he is died, the two men seem to find in each other comfort.

But Dante is full of rage, and he thinks all the wealthy men he robs are the enemy, and instead Ambrosius is more the mourning type. With them there are also Robert and August, two lovers who play the role of silent best friends, usually characters that are not fated to last in the story, but don't worry this is not the case. All four of them live in a cottage in the forest, and no, it's not a retelling of Robin Hood, they don't rob the richer to give to the poorer, from what I gathered that is simply another job for them.

The main focus of the story it's not the "strange" career chosen by Ambrosius or Dante, or the tiredness of life that distresses Lucien, it's instead the play of domino among the three men and even a bit with Robert and August, even if this couple remain exclusive. Lucien thinks to be in love with Ambrosius, but lusts after Dante. Lucien believes Ambrosius and Dante to be in love, and so he would not be against the idea to be third in the menages, if only for the chance to be with Ambrosius.

Dante wants first to kill then to bed Lucien, but at the same time he behaves like he is trying to please Ambrosius, like if he is gifting him with a new toy to distract the man from the pain of losing his former lover. In all of this Ambrosius is the perfect mourning romance hero, with an aurea of sadness and imploring eyes, always trying to "say" something to Lucien, but actually never saying. That's, the play between the three it was what kept me reading. Oh yes, there is sex, a lot of sex, even a threesome, and it was probably good, but the sex wasn't the main event in the story.

The sex was always a tool, to persuade, to comfort, or to barter, and it was always used in the right way. The sex was not free and in this way it was right. I usually don't like when the sex is too much in comparison of the story, and I'm true, I wasn't expecting for Stand and Deliver to balance it as good as it did. Lucien is for sure the better character, above all since he didn't change: Talk about complicated relationships!

But then, as the story develops, it becomes clear there is far more going on underneath the surface than I expected. Between Dante, the cruel, cold leader who seems to have it in for Lucien, and Ambrosius, the man Lucien begins to fall for, there is not just heated lust Talk about complicated relationships! Between Dante, the cruel, cold leader who seems to have it in for Lucien, and Ambrosius, the man Lucien begins to fall for, there is not just heated lust but a dark past that keeps all three men in its clutches.

Lucien is a product of his time. He may be rich and an earl of some reputation, but he is lonely and very bored. When he is held up by highwaymen one night, decides to fight back, and gets taken prisoner when he predictably loses the fight, it is the most exciting thing that has happened to him in a long time. But he soon learns that the fantasy of living an exciting life as a criminal is far from romantic. Not that Ambrosius is aware of this, and he has enough demons to fight as it is.

But Dante is super aware of it and makes shameless use of his knowledge to get Lucien to where he wants him to be. By the time Lucien has figured out what is going on, he is neck-deep in trouble.

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May 25, Erastes rated it liked it Shelves: Oh dear, I thought. The cover is quite nice. Moonlight and a castle: Not a bad cover at all. The length is only 34, words, though — even though Total e-bound Publishing call it a novel. Lucien is travelling the London to Nottingham roa Oh dear, I thought. Lucien is travelling the London to Nottingham road incidentally where his parents were killed by highwaymen some years before. They were as nice and chivalrous as pirates were like Jack Sparrow. Lucien is waylaid by four highwaymen and when he jumps out of the carriage to defend himself, his coachman sensibly runs away.

There are unforgivable typos too. All little things on their own, but put together they irritate and pull a reader out of the immersion of the story. What happens next is pretty predictable. Granted the richest of the land could afford such luxuries, but these four bandits live alone with no servants and cook for themselves. They are not princes and kings.

Neither did the constant weeping. Jan 01, Nile Princess rated it it was ok Shelves: Ok, another book that I almost abandoned. An earl gets robbed by some highway men and, much to their amusement, he decides to fight back. In the midst of the struggles, he rips off the scarf that conceals one of the highway man's face which means that he should be killed, but because the robber is attracted to him, he takes him with them.

This was another story that was bogged down with sex.

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Apart from that, we have the hemming and hawwing over Ambrosius's attraction to the e Ok, another book that I almost abandoned. Apart from that, we have the hemming and hawwing over Ambrosius's attraction to the earl I'm forgetting names while feeling like he's betraying the memory of his deceased lover, Sebastian.

Dante one of the other three highway men is somewhat psychotic and bent on killing the earl, either with sex or by more traditional means. At some point, we see a softer side of him that just comes out of nowhere. The ending left me totally confused. They do not abandon these beliefs to live the same life they abhorred. Living in an estate with servants, with a rich earl paying for them to travel to France etc.

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Why were you robbing people again?? I hope we get to read his story. Why introduce us to him and go into all his unrequited love issues to leave us hanging? Oct 27, Kara rated it liked it Shelves: There is one scene when they are all together otherwise it was just one main couple at the end. I could go into all the things I did not like and liked but this was such a short book I would end up giving away a whole bunch of spoilers then. The way Dante was with everyone was so mean The way he implied taking Lucien by force even if Lucien did not want him.

Stand and Deliver by Scarlet Blackwell

This book I am just not sure what to say about it. I think I just went in expecting one thing and got something completely different from it. So you get a lot of one on one time with all three men and very little of them all together. I think honestly Dante's whole attitude it just made me not a fan of the book unfortunately. So while I liked parts of this book there were also parts that I did not like. Altogether this Novella was just not for me I received this book free in exchange for an honest review from Inked Rainbow Reads. Feb 23, nisie draws rated it did not like it Shelves: All the explicit sex couldn't save this from bad writing, bad characterization and a dull plotline.

Who would think a book about a fancy earl getting kidnapped and having sex with sexy highwaymen would be dull? Also there's only so many times you can read the phrase "the other" or "the highwayman" without cringing inside. Jul 25, Ami rated it really liked it Shelves: Lucien Mayer, Earl of Ravensberry, is held up at gun point and robbed by four highwaymen. When he challenges one of the highwaymen to a fight, he ends up as their captive. As a captive, Lucien finds himself grows intense feelings for two of the highwaymen -- the sarcastic-coldhearted Dante and the reserved-angsty Ambrosius whom just lost the love of his life six months previously.

He falls for Ambrosius at the same time drives lust for Dante.

This is dark and complicated love as its best. I don Lucien Mayer, Earl of Ravensberry, is held up at gun point and robbed by four highwaymen. I don't usually go for historical but this story focuses on the characters, the setting barely matters and the language is also not one of those complicated old languages that I despise.

It is so messed-up, the relationship between the three guys: Dante, Ambrosius, and the center of it all, Lucien. I love how Ms. Blackwell slowly reveals what happens to Ambrosius and how Dante is actually misunderstood, for he has more layers in himself for being who he is. But the setting of the situation is so captivating and yet again so complicated, my brain and heart is a mess when I read it, in a good way.

I love how not simple the problem is, that there is more to the feeling that these men carry for each other. The sex is not a portrayal of romance until the end, at least Let's just say that by the time the story ends, I must take a deep sigh because I feel like in a rollercoaster ride. This is the kind of story I love Everyone knows the dangers of night travel.

Too many of the wealthy and prestigious have been robbed and killed by the highwaymen known as the Dark Knights. Lucien knows just how deadly they are. He is the Earl of Ravensberry a man that lost his parents to these devils on horseback. Leaving a card game with a purse full of coin and well into his cups he discovers that they are willing to take more than riches, sometimes the robbers take the robbed. A little bit of Stockholm Syndrome meets an alm Everyone knows the dangers of night travel. A little bit of Stockholm Syndrome meets an almost dubious consent here in the pages of Stand and Deliver.

I need to stress the almost of this almost dubious consent. Lucien has managed to convince himself that he can use his sexiness as a method of getting away from the highwaymen. The more time he spends with them the more he discovers there are so many more pleasurable things to do with Ambrosius and Dante than escape them.

Ambrosius and Dante both have some inner torment they are attempting to deal with. I really needed some closure where Dante is concerned. Dark and twisted guys need a happily ever after too. He had a few tender moments, well almost tender. Sep 22, Diverse rated it really liked it Shelves: Lucien is kidnapped one evening by 4 highwaymen. Dante, the leader of the gang, is massively complex.

I hated him, then liked him, then was confused by him, and ending it all with feeling bad for him. Ambrosius, is immediately taken with Lucien.

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