Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Book Review: Desired



Desired

by Nicola Cornick
Series: The Scandalous Women of the Ton #5
Release date: 15th November, 2011
Publisher: HQN Books
Pages: 384 (ARC by NetGalley)

Summary from Goodreads:

Her wicked ways were the talk of the ton...

Teresa, Dowager Marchioness of Darent, is rumored to have exhausted her four deceased husbands with her insatiable needs. So it’s no surprise that every rake in the ton wants to bed her. If they only knew…through clever marriages to men who would ask nothing of her physical self, Tessa has remained rather innocent in the ways of the bedroom. But now she’s on the verge of losing everything and wants to take care of the stepson she’s grown to adore.

Enter Captain Owen Purchase. The handsome American adventurer has come into the title of Viscount Rothbury. And the rumors surrounding his injuries at sea suggest that he could fit Tessa’s requirements. But little does Tessa realize that the gossipmongers are wrong. She just might lose her heart, and her desires, to the most unlikely of men…

Beware of the scandalous woman…

Review By Alaiel Kreuz:

Tessa has a really bad reputation, specially in her time but she didn't care. What if people thought she was some sort of "black widow"? What if they were always whispering behind her back about her young lover? Or about the crazy parties she usually frequented? "Let them whisper"- was what she always said- "the more they whisper the far away they are from the truth".

And it worked like a charm. While everyone assumed she was a complete "featherbrain" she was in fact the opposite: the cartoonist known as Jupiter who supported the reformists. And her alter ego, just like her, was quite popular in a really bad way. The government had put a price over Jupiter's head and a yankee with English roots suspected the truth.

His name? Viscount Owen Rothbury. This gentleman was a fundamental key in Tess' plans for two reasons: a filthy man wanted to marry Tess' stepdaughter while she was still "pure" and if she didn't accept he was going to begin gossips about her and with her reputation everyone would believe him... So Tess took a decision: Owen would be her forth husband.
Why not? She was rich and he needed the money; as her wife he would never betray her; being married again meant she would have to behave properly and the gossips would die before they were even born and, most importantly, Owen was impotent so she didn't need to worry about having sex with him.

Why the "no sex" policy? Tess' past had a terrible and sad secret...

But you see, there was a little problem with her plan: Owen wasn't impotent, far from it actually. And he liked her a lot.
Oh, yeah.

Personal opinion:
Tess won a space in my heart from the very beginning. She is not only strong but courageous, kind and independent. And while her fears felt very real her emotions and hopes were real too. I found myself wanting to hug her and confort her in the rare occasions she needed support.
Owen was also an amazing character. His best quality was that he is direct and that made him authentic. What begun as a game to catch Tess ended in a mature and tender love where she needed him to heal her psychological wounds.

And there's a plot, a real plot. Sometimes I have found romance books with a lot of sex and no plot to make the story interesting. Well, with Desired I didn't have this problem. Thanks Nicola!

My goal? I'll try to buy the previous books of this series as soon as I can because this one left me wanting more.

Alaiel's Rating:


If you really like it, you can find it here:

1 comment:

  1. I just finished reading this book last might & I really liked it too. Totally concur with your review; I really liked both characters. It was so interesting how the story unfolded from what seemed like an ordinary story to a thickened plot. I like especially how the many aspects of Tess' character & her background was revealed to us, the reader, & how Owen comes to discover them.

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