Dinca’s review of Desperate Desires by Terri Wolffe
Erotic Historical Romance ebook novella published by Terri Wolffe 1 Feb 11
Sex, sex and more sex. Not even really good sex. Just sex.
Lady Lucinda Davenport, at the request of her much older husband, sets out with her mentally challenged brother and several servants to kidnap a duke. She searches the ton for a suitable father for her child. Finding Lucien Brandford, fourth Duke of Carlsborough, to be acceptable, she lures him to her carriage while her oversized brother, Georgie, captures him in a bear hug until she can get him restrained and drugged.
Lucien wakens to find himself tethered to a bedpost. After being restrained and drugged and kidnapped, I am wondering how he ever managed to have sex in the first place, even if she is a beautiful woman. And once he is released from bondage, he stays for more? He has always preferred women who have no need of commitment. Now he finds himself wanting the one woman he can’t lay claim to.
Long story short: the husband pimps his wife out to get an heir. Hmmmm. I guess it is not my kind of story. I understand people do bad things for good reasons, but I just don’t see the glory here. The end is predictable since this is supposed to be an historical romance as well as erotic. But why he would fall in love with a conniving sperm thief is beyond me. I feel the book needs a little more story telling. That would have placed it in more of a romance category instead of, in my opinion, what goes way beyond the erotic and borders on porn, especially when the book is touted as a “sweet and spicy novella.”
Disappointment also comes near the end of the book when Lucien goes to confront the husband, aiming to tell the man that Lucinda is his and he will marry her, never let her go when she’s finally a widow. I kept reading only because this confrontation intrigued me, and it’s never given a scene of its own. It’s totally glossed over with no other mention of it whatsoever, and that one small scene would have made the entire story so much more romantic than what it is.
Considering this is Terri Wolffe’s debut book, I will not be hunting down any of her future works.
Grade: D
Summary:
The cunningly audacious Lady Lucinda Davenport is by no means a conventional woman. Smart and fiercely determined, she’s more comfortable adding numbers than she’ll ever be socializing with highfalutin members of the ton. When desperate straits force her into action to save her home and lands, she finds herself faced with only one option. Summoning every ounce of her courage, she sets in motion a wild and raunchy scheme that would set the ton on fire if they ever caught wind of her actions.
Lucien Brandford, fourth Duke of Carlsborough, is a dangerous man. Wealthy beyond imagination and handsome to a fault, the Duke is sought after by nearly every woman of the ton. Single, widowed, or married, ladies vie for his attention with cutthroat precision. But the Duke has no tolerance for the machinations of his title and fortune-hungry peers. He seeks his pleasure from women who require no commitment.
That attitude ensnares the Duke in Lady Lucinda’s plan. Caught unawares, Lucien finds himself at the mercy of a bold and luscious woman whom he cannot decide if he wants to strangle or bed.
The sensual dance that follows between captor and captive as they engage in a volatile battle for control, culminates in a seismic eruption—both psychological and sensual. As tempers flare and sparks fly, an intense and erotic interlude of passion ensues.
The temperamental lovers soon discover what all the world knows: that in order to possess the love of a lifetime, they must submit to one another to conquer their own Desperate Desires.
Read an excerpt.
