Lawson’s review: Her Only Desire: A Novel by Gaelen Foley
Historical Romance released by Ballantine Books 07 Mar 27
Exotic settings, daring missions, court intrigue, and breathtaking escapes can make for a great story. Unfortunately in Her Only Desire these things don’t tie together well enough to have the neat little bow at the end of the book.
Georgiana Knight, or Georgie, is named after her scandalous aunt Georgiana (from the Knight Miscellany series from Foley). Her aunt is her idol, and she reads a book of essays about how “wedlock is padlock”. Georgie is introduced tearing through a spice market in Calcutta on a horse on her way to saving a dear friend from suttee.
Georgie is fiercely loyal to her friends, very intelligent, and has serious abandonment issues because her mother died when she was young. Her father and brothers also go off and leave her alone most of the time and she feels like an orphan. Her fears usually trigger some sort of panic induced asthma attack which she can only end through yoga.
Since she’s left on her own a lot, she’s pretty spoiled too. Very used to getting her own way (hence the intervention in suttee, even if it is a barbaric and demeaning practice, it used to be very sacred to Indian life) and expects to charm every male around her to fall at her feet.
Ian Prescott, the Marquess of Griffith, is a diplomat in Calcutta on his way to stop a war between a majarajah and the British army in India. When he sees Georgie tear through the spice market he follows and narrowly saves her from an angry Indian mob.
Ian has been a secondary character in the other Knight books. He’s noble, proper, but he’s got a fiercesome and passionate dark side. Ian’s really not all bad, he’s noble, honorable, and has a fiercesome (but slightly dark) passionate side. He works well enough as a leading man in this book.
When Ian continues on into India’s interior for his diplomatic work, Georgie follows even though Ian told her to stay in Calcutta for her safety. Court intrigue, daring missions and breathtaking escapes follow. Georgie is forced to leave her beloved India halfway through the book and the rest of the story unfolds in England.
The pacing and tone of Her Only Desire never really take off. There is action, action, dialogue, travel, description, description, action, description, more description, and I take some time looking up stuff on the internet about India and the courts of the majarajahs. I spent about as much time reading about Indian history and culture on the net as I did reading the first half of the book.
The second half was alright, but we don’t find out that Ian has a deep dark secret until the last quarter of the story. It’s slightly hinted at sure, but he’s not too tortured about it until that last quarter of the book.
Neither Georgie nor Ian are very well developed, some of the Indian secondary characters seem rather sketched and stereotypical. The scenes in England are pretty mundane and predictable. There is some good action, but again, the pacing is not what it could be.
What was very well done in the book was descriptions of locations (India), fashions, and food. I was more excited about dinner scenes than I was the sex scenes (and given that Georgie’s inner dialogue tells us she’s read the Kama Sutra and is obsessed with sex this is probably a bad thing). The food just sounded so tasty. Foley always does a good job with description of setting and other things, but the characters lacked development and the idea they would have long lasting chemistry doesn’t really fly.
Maybe the Knights should have ended with Jack’s story, because this branch of cousins doesn’t seem very interesting.
Grade: C-
From the exotic splendors of India to the elegant ballrooms of Regency London, celebrated author Gaelen Foley pens the enthralling tale of a luscious beauty who has sworn never to call any man her master, and the powerful marquess whose passion threatens to conquer her. . . .
Born into the wealthy British ruling class of India, Georgiana Knight is as unconventional as she is beautiful. She has sworn not to marry till she meets a man who will treat her as an equal–but that vow doesn’t appease her sensual curiosity. When Ian Prescott, the Marquess of Griffith, arrives on a mission to defuse the threat of war, she is immediately drawn to the mysterious and darkly handsome diplomat, and cannot resist provoking the hidden lust that smolders beneath his cool surface.
Ian is mesmerized by Georgie’s alluring mystique but burdened by a dark secret. And she is a temptation he cannot afford. But when she becomes entangled in his mission, she must be secreted away to England for her own safety. Georgie finds herself in the unfamiliar world of aristocratic London, where Ian becomes her guide, her confidant . . . her seducer. His incendiary kiss sets her soul on fire, and Georgie knows she will never be satisfied until she has made this magnificent man her own.
