Talk about complicated relationships! It is one thing to have a captor/captive dynamic in this tale about Lucien, a bored and lonely earl, and the highwaymen who take him prisoner. Based on the book’s blurb, I expected that much. 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 but a dark past that keeps all three men in its clutches. It makes for a riveting read, deeply emotional outbursts and conflicts, and some scorching “therapy” between the sheets.

Lucien is a product of his time. He may be rich and an earl of some reputation, but he is lonely and very bored. The fact that he is attracted to men doesn’t help, but his lack of interest in any of the men he encounters makes it worse. 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. Lucien is fascinated by Ambrosius, who doesn’t seem to be as cold and intimidating as Dante, their leader. But Lucien also feels Dante’s pull – the danger, sheer violence, and the promise of being used hard have Lucien enthralled.

Ambrosius has a sad history, and some of it is intimately entwined with Dante’s past. 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. He doesn’t want to return to his boring life, but he cannot stay with murderers, no matter how much he is beginning to love Ambrosius. The conflict almost tears him apart, and I was glued to the pages as he battled his conscience, his heart, and Ambrosius’s needs for revenge all at the same time.

If you like stories about men who live on the shadier side of the law, if two men who are separated by the life they live as much as their pasts sound intriguing, and if you’re looking for a read that is as fascinating and full of raw emotions as it is hot, then you will probably like this novella.


NOTE: This book was provided by Pride Publishing for the purpose of a review on Rainbow Book Reviews. ( )

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!) and then, if nothing else happens, I close it and open another one. 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... well, a part from the "highwayman" factor, it didn't seem an accurate historical romance, and I have my idea: or you are perfect in what you write, full details and all, or you are at the opposite, the historical setting is barely there, and you instead focus on the characters. 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: he was and is and will be always a bored son of the aristocracy who has found a new toy; Dante and Ambrosius can believe that Lucien is their captive, but Lucien and the reader know better.

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