Reviewed for queuemyreview.com; book release Aug08

I’ve been on quite the historical kick lately. “Too Dangerous To Desire” by Alexandra Benedict is the follow-up to “Too Great A Temptation” which I enjoyed very much so I was happy to get a chance to hopefully check in with some of the same characters and see how they were getting along. And the male lead for this book promised to be one of those ‘tortured heroes’ we all love to love!

Adam is an interesting Alpha/Beta/Alpha character who can’t quite decide what to do with the rest of his life. His wife was lost in a tragic accident at sea, but he blamed his brother, almost killed him in a fit of grief-stricken, deluded retaliation, and now at age 28, has secluded himself in a cottage by the sea…determined to live alone and unhappy, smothered with guilt. A tortured hero, indeed! Then one day as he’s staring out to see, he notices a woman approaching the bluff. She calmly strips off her clothes, and JUMPS into the sea, sinking like a stone. Adam saves her. But apparently, she didn’t want to be saved. Her beauty draws him, her secrets lure him, and her fragility makes him determined to keep her safe…even from himself.

Evie is her name. She’s running from ‘him’. ‘Him’ turns out to be the husband of her dead sister, Ella. Evie is sure ‘he’ killed Ella. ‘He’ is very rich and very influential, and has apparently returned for Evie, because of her beauty. Evie’s father, a drunken degenerate, has sold her to ‘him’ so Evie decides to kill herself to get away. The pain and suffering in Adam’s eyes calls to her, and she feels strangely safe with him, so she decides to stay anonymously in his cottage. She’s just beginning to ‘feel things’ when she’s with Adam when she is stolen away by ‘his’ henchmen. Adam knows he needs help, so he turns to his brother, the Duke, for assistance.

So there’s the stage setting for a rousing good story. Only for me, the story wasn’t. Here’s a few of the reasons: Evie was a twit. Yes, hard life. Yes, her sister had snuck out letters describing (apparently in graphic, lurid detail) the horrors of the marriage bed (and her husband was quite the sadistic sicko). Yes, her father was a drunken lout. I can understand all that. What I don’t get is…with all that, she suddenly and inexplicably feels ‘things’ and ‘safety’ with Adam—after two or three days! Then Adam wants to help her learn to fight, either with swords or her fists. Evie doesn’t want to learn…it’s violent. Um, safety? After all Adam does for her, she waffles from trust to distrust like a flounder. Ugh. Several TSTL (too stupid to live) moments for her, over and over and over again. Maybe it should be too stupid to learn? And then there’s Adam. He’s 28 and determined never to have sex again to be ‘true’ to his dead wife! Oooookay. It’s his fault she drowned after a storm at sea. Hello, feel godlike often? He refuses to reconcile with his brother after many gestures by: the brother, the brother’s wife, and his mother. Like that hairshirt? Comfy? And when they do have sex…no pain when she’s a virgin? Sure. And she’s now hot for it? Uh huh. The whole story just felt rather scripted to me. Same for the denouement, although there are a couple of surprises. And then Evie becomes a psyche expert towards the end, but can’t figure out her own fears? Enough!

So I did finish the book. I was glad to catch up on the lives of the characters from earlier books…but very disappointed with this story. It just had so much promise. I wanted Adam to be a grown-up and I wanted Evie to just grow up. I guess this isn’t a very glowing review for “Too Dangerous To Desire” by Alexandra Benedict. But I’ll still try her next novel as I’ve enjoyed at least two others by her in the past.

Til next time
JJ ( )