Scan barcode
A review by rjordan19
Ever Yours, Annabelle by Elisa Braden
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Overall: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and heroine
Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: Yes, 10 years later
Format: audiobook checked out on Hoopla
Should I read in order?
Ideally yes, though this book could be read after the others in the series as it was written later. (This is the prequel novel for Braden’s Rescued from Ruin series)
Basic plot:
Robert returns to London to find a wife and meets Annabelle, who he thought was left in the past.
Give this a try if you want:
- Regency time period - 1816
- London setting
- unrequited love – from both!
- brother’s best friend
- disability rep – hero has a damaged leg that pains him and uses a cane
- artist heroine
- secret writer
- bit of a murder mystery but lots of character focus at the same time
- medium steam – 3 full scenes and some kisses
- hero wants a wife
Ages:
- I have notes that the heroine is 20, hero is 25 but this may have been in the prologue, which was 1809 (so for the main story, I’d guess about 27 for the heroine and 32 for the hero)
First line:
Lady Annabelle Huxley had loved Robert Conrad for an entire thirteen years of life, yet in all that time she had never imagined him naked.
My thoughts:
Ohhhhh this book just checked allllll my boxes I was in the mood for. I adore hero pursues, and when Robert gets his priorities straight with Annabelle I was absolutely swooning in his courting.
The tension in this one was soooo good to me. This was the first time I have listened to Mary Sarah as a narrator and she’s definitely my favorite (I was talking to someone else that said she has terrible narrator reviews! Well I’m here to say I love her!!!) Her heroine voice was perfect to me, but her hero voice as well I just adored. She does that growly whisper just so good (to me), and something about it reminded me of Captain Vane from Black Sails, who can read me a story ANY TIME.
Anyway, lots of longing and angst in this one and the sexual tension was so strong for me. I just adored these two so, so much. The suspenseful part I was on the edge of my seat. I was just rooting for these two the entire book and I adored the whole story. This will absolutely be a reread for me and is my favorite by Braden that I’ve read so far (Books .5, 1, 2, and 3 of Rescued from Ruin and book 1 of Midnight in Scotland). As I went through my bookmarks in the audio to actually write the review, I found myself just relistening to so many favorite parts. I just adored this book so much!
My only complaint, was there was a point towards the beginning of the book when Robert and Annabelle were reconnected and he thought
Warriors did not go hungry. Warriors saw what they wanted and fought to claim it.
but then we come to find he’s about to run away from London! He ends up staying, but this was the only part of the book that disappointed me 😆
Endearments:
Hero calls the heroine ‘bumblebee’
Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts: These are taken from audio and any grammar mistakes are my own
Seconds later, it twisted and yanked from her grip.
“Do not bloody well run from me.” He reached for her. She shoved his arm away. He grunted, but rather than retreat, he advanced. Moved inside the tiny space. Closed the door behind him, forcing her back against the closet’s wall and trapping them both inside utter blackness.
“Is that very clear, Annabelle?” The growl was low and throaty now, near enough to tickle her skin. She could not see him, but she felt him, felt his arm brace on the wall by her ear. Felt his breath wash against her cheek. Felt his heat and size surrounding her like a furnace.
“Never run from me,” he rasped, “I will always catch you.”
---
“What do you want? Do you want me on my knees?”
He groaned, long and pained. His head came down to rest upon her shoulder. The cool strands of his hair tickling her bare neck. “Yes,” he whispered. “Yes, I do.”
---
“You drive me mad,” he growled. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes mirror bright, his wondrous lips swollen. “Need a taste.”
---
“Say you’re mine, love,” his growl rippled against her ear as his fingers circled and slid between her folds.
“Say you’ll be my wife.”
Her heart pounded. She couldn’t catch her breath. What was he doing to her?
“Robert?”
“Say yes, and I’ll make you come again.” He didn’t sound like himself. He sounded growly and hoarse. Rough. It made her want him more.
“Oh, god, Robert.” His name was one long moan. She hooked an ankle behind his good leg. “I need you.”
“Damned right you do.”
---
“Or shall I leave you like this? Starving for a meal you’ll never have?”
“No, please.”
“Marry me, Annabelle. Be my wife.”
---
“Where were you?” he growled. “Tell me.” His lips claimed her throat, trailing suckling kisses down and down and down.
Content warnings:
- scenes of some danger, pain, recovery, depression, gun violence and death
- leg injury that results in disability and pain years later
- infant death
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Safe sex: I don't believe anything is mentioned but they are married and monogamous
33% - kisses
38% - really tension filled partial without any true kisses
43% - 🔥kiss to distract, breast play, fingering for heroine while he begs her to be his wife
68% - kisses
77% - 🔥kisses that lead to fingering and oral for her, missionary
85% - kisses
99% - 🔥kisses and missionary outdoors
Plot/Storyline: 📖📖📖📖
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥🔥🔥
Humor: Yes
Perspective: Third person from both the hero and heroine
Cliffhanger: No
Epilogue: Yes, 10 years later
Format: audiobook checked out on Hoopla
Should I read in order?
Ideally yes, though this book could be read after the others in the series as it was written later. (This is the prequel novel for Braden’s Rescued from Ruin series)
Basic plot:
Robert returns to London to find a wife and meets Annabelle, who he thought was left in the past.
Give this a try if you want:
- Regency time period - 1816
- London setting
- unrequited love – from both!
- brother’s best friend
- disability rep – hero has a damaged leg that pains him and uses a cane
- artist heroine
- secret writer
- bit of a murder mystery but lots of character focus at the same time
- medium steam – 3 full scenes and some kisses
- hero wants a wife
Ages:
- I have notes that the heroine is 20, hero is 25 but this may have been in the prologue, which was 1809 (so for the main story, I’d guess about 27 for the heroine and 32 for the hero)
First line:
Lady Annabelle Huxley had loved Robert Conrad for an entire thirteen years of life, yet in all that time she had never imagined him naked.
My thoughts:
Ohhhhh this book just checked allllll my boxes I was in the mood for. I adore hero pursues, and when Robert gets his priorities straight with Annabelle I was absolutely swooning in his courting.
The tension in this one was soooo good to me. This was the first time I have listened to Mary Sarah as a narrator and she’s definitely my favorite (I was talking to someone else that said she has terrible narrator reviews! Well I’m here to say I love her!!!) Her heroine voice was perfect to me, but her hero voice as well I just adored. She does that growly whisper just so good (to me), and something about it reminded me of Captain Vane from Black Sails, who can read me a story ANY TIME.
Anyway, lots of longing and angst in this one and the sexual tension was so strong for me. I just adored these two so, so much. The suspenseful part I was on the edge of my seat. I was just rooting for these two the entire book and I adored the whole story. This will absolutely be a reread for me and is my favorite by Braden that I’ve read so far (Books .5, 1, 2, and 3 of Rescued from Ruin and book 1 of Midnight in Scotland). As I went through my bookmarks in the audio to actually write the review, I found myself just relistening to so many favorite parts. I just adored this book so much!
My only complaint, was there was a point towards the beginning of the book when Robert and Annabelle were reconnected and he thought
Warriors did not go hungry. Warriors saw what they wanted and fought to claim it.
but then we come to find he’s about to run away from London! He ends up staying, but this was the only part of the book that disappointed me 😆
Endearments:
Hero calls the heroine ‘bumblebee’
Quotes/spoiler-y thoughts: These are taken from audio and any grammar mistakes are my own
Seconds later, it twisted and yanked from her grip.
“Do not bloody well run from me.” He reached for her. She shoved his arm away. He grunted, but rather than retreat, he advanced. Moved inside the tiny space. Closed the door behind him, forcing her back against the closet’s wall and trapping them both inside utter blackness.
“Is that very clear, Annabelle?” The growl was low and throaty now, near enough to tickle her skin. She could not see him, but she felt him, felt his arm brace on the wall by her ear. Felt his breath wash against her cheek. Felt his heat and size surrounding her like a furnace.
“Never run from me,” he rasped, “I will always catch you.”
---
“What do you want? Do you want me on my knees?”
He groaned, long and pained. His head came down to rest upon her shoulder. The cool strands of his hair tickling her bare neck. “Yes,” he whispered. “Yes, I do.”
---
“You drive me mad,” he growled. His cheeks were flushed, his eyes mirror bright, his wondrous lips swollen. “Need a taste.”
---
“Say you’re mine, love,” his growl rippled against her ear as his fingers circled and slid between her folds.
“Say you’ll be my wife.”
Her heart pounded. She couldn’t catch her breath. What was he doing to her?
“Robert?”
“Say yes, and I’ll make you come again.” He didn’t sound like himself. He sounded growly and hoarse. Rough. It made her want him more.
“Oh, god, Robert.” His name was one long moan. She hooked an ankle behind his good leg. “I need you.”
“Damned right you do.”
---
“Or shall I leave you like this? Starving for a meal you’ll never have?”
“No, please.”
“Marry me, Annabelle. Be my wife.”
---
“Where were you?” he growled. “Tell me.” His lips claimed her throat, trailing suckling kisses down and down and down.
Content warnings:
- scenes of some danger, pain, recovery, depression, gun violence and death
- leg injury that results in disability and pain years later
- infant death
Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:
Safe sex:
33% - kisses
38% - really tension filled partial without any true kisses
43% - 🔥kiss to distract, breast play, fingering for heroine while he begs her to be his wife
68% - kisses
77% - 🔥kisses that lead to fingering and oral for her, missionary
85% - kisses
99% - 🔥kisses and missionary outdoors