Desire

October 15, 2001
Following in the tradition of The Seduction
and The Passion, the third installment in Jordan's Regency-era Notorious series is rife with sensual love scenes and the kind of misunderstandings and misadventures typical of the genre. When English spymaster Lucian Tremayne, the Earl of Wycliff, comes across Brynn Caldwell as she's emerging from the ocean after a swim, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to her and offers for her hand in marriage. Brynn refuses, informing him of her family's curse—the women in her family are doomed to lure the men who love them to their death. Unafraid of a mere curse, Lucian convinces Brynn to marry him by offering to help her family out of debt. In a plot twist familiar to Regency fans, Brynn and Lucian each struggle to keep their emotions separate from their desire for one another but, inevitably, love blossoms between the two. This overused story line is enlivened by a subplot involving a gold smuggling operation that strikes close to Lucian's home and leads him to mistrust his beguiling wife. The sex scenes here are fewer and less explicit than in Jordan's earlier entries, but the novel's intricate plot and colorful characters more than compensate. This delightful tale will please fans and newcomers alike.

September 15, 2001
While searching for a traitor in Cornwall, Lucian Tremayne, Earl of Wycliff and a spy for the English government, is bewitched by the sight of Brynn Caldwell rising out of the ocean like some foam-bedecked goddess. Vowing to take Brynn as his bride, Lucian is at first thwarted by the beautiful siren, who fears a family curse that dooms any man who falls in love with a Caldwell woman. Family debts eventually force Brynn to wed Lucian, but once Lucian suspects that Brynn may be involved in the scheme to smuggle English gold to the French that he's investigating, he's torn between his duty to his country and his desire for his reluctant new wife. Jordan creates a seething sexual tension between Brynn and Lucian that builds into exquisitely sensual, intimately detailed love scenes, which become an integral part of the plot. Readers who enjoy other sensual historical romance writers like Stephanie Laurens or Robin Schone will find this to be an equally seductive indulgence.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2001, American Library Association.)