Name: The Ice Princess
ISBN: 9780892963010

Elizabeth Hoyt

Seven Nights of Sin As the madam of Aphrodite's Grotto, the most infamous brothel in London, Coral Smythe knows everything possible about men's needs and desires. Yet she's never experienced the love of a single man-not even that of Captain Isaac Wargate whose hawk-like eyes stare at her with both condemnation...and lust. Seven Nights of Ecstasy Captain Wargate heartily disapproves of the sensuous madam who always wears a golden mask. She lures his officers from both his ship and their duty. But when Coral herself is offered up as the prize in a game of chance, Wargate impulsively enters...and wins. Seven Nights of Love Now the puritanical navy captain has just seven nights to learn everything he can about the mysterious madam and what she knows of a man's desires. But when Coral is threatened by the new owner of Aphrodite's Grotto, will Wargate take a chance on the woman beneath the mask...and on love?

The Ice Princess

Michelle Xu

I give this novella a solid 4.

I am, however, rating this AS a novella, compared to other novella's I've read. In my experience, no novella can truly be compared to a full length novel due to its length. Its lack of pages never allow the author to develop the characters far enough to completely connect with the readers.

This novella, however, gets very close. We can at least connect with Coral. Both Coral and Isaac were wonderful protagonists. I was so happy Coral got her own story. She was always so intriguing from the first time we met her in The Raven Prince. I loved that we got to see a different side to her. She was not always this perfectly confident woman with a hard outer shell--she's vulnerable, scared, young, and inexperienced. This novella does so incredibly well in the length it has at really helping readers peal back Coral's layers bit by bit, discovering her personality at the same time as Isaac.

Isaac is a great male protagonist, but that's just it. He didn't really have anything wrong with him. He didn't have those layers that Coral had and he was fairly one dimensional. While normally, that bothers me, this novella did such a great job with Coral, that we were more able to use Isaac as a vessel to learn about her.

The best part was definitely their interactions together--from the witty banter at the beginning to their deeper and more personal conversations later on.

In general, the novella was believable in how Coral opened up to Isaac. The unbelievable aspect was definitely (view spoiler)[marriage (hide spoiler)]. I wish that didn't get thrown in there quite so fast. It didn't seem real enough yet. Even though this is a novella, Hoyt really did not have to stop at (view spoiler)[marriage (hide spoiler)] because she could have taken it in any which way, that their relationship could have continued. The epilogue itself allows us to infer that they are together. Therefore, the (view spoiler)[ marriage  (hide spoiler)] aspect really was unnecessary.

Two things I'm super happy about:
1. She kept the fairy tale involved in this story even though it was a novella. While I found this fairytale to be the most lackluster, it tied in the most closely with the story itself.
2. The epilogue. SO HAPPY that there was an epilogue. Books 2 and 3 did not have epilogues and I honestly felt those two books just read as if they were cut off at the end. We didn't see any more growth of the characters or their families, and the epilogue really helps us see where they go. I was SO disappointed that The Serpent Prince didn't have an epilogue because out of ALL the books, it was the one that needed one the most. Either way, I'm happy The Ice Princess was given its fairytale ending.

This was absolutely wonderful. It was a quick and sexy read with some feels. My first courtesan novel AND my first of Elizabeth Hoyt’s books. It won’t be the last of either.