Customer Reviews

Prisoner of Desire

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I liked this book more than the average romance because the lead heroine, Anya, has more strength and verve than what this genre normally offers. She runs her own plantation and has business instincts, yet she is still vulnerable and looking for love. The sex scenes were a little boring, and the dialogue seemed strained and silly at points (at the end of the book, for example, she asks her lover if he hates her). In all, though, the book was enjoyable and worth it's price. But I wouldn't have paid much more for it.

If you like historical romances, then this is definitely THE ONE for you. It has all the components of love, drama, action and theatrics. Very interesting main plots and subplots. High enjoyable- so good that I read it twice. I have also read several of Jennifer Blake's other novels and this one is much much much better. The newer material she's writing is quite bland to the stuff she was putting out during the 80's. This book has a lot of passion and more importantly, wit. Interesting characters. Loved this novel!

Her fiancé killed in a duel, Anya Hamilton is content wallowing in her grief and running the family's plantation. The man who killed Jean, Ravel Duralde, returns to New Orleans and promptly gets challenged to a duel when he *accosts* Anya at a masked ball. Desperate to prevent it so that her sister's intended isn't killed as well, Anya cooks up a hair-brained scheme to kidnap Ravel and hold him captive at the family plantation. Being a romance novel, you just know sparks are a-gonna start flying between the two, but things get complicated when it appears that someone wants one of them dead - or is the mysterious "boss" after both of them?

As much as I enjoyed Blake's Love's Wild Desire, this one didn't work as well for me. The whole prisoner bit was a tad bit hard to swallow, as was Anya's penchant for running out into the dark streets to strange houses inhabited by bad people, only for Ravel to rescue her so they can have hot sex. Wash, rinse, repeat. :(

I liked the New Orleans setting, and I enjoyed the way Blake uses her knowledge of the city and its culture to immerse the reader into her world. Anya is definitely not a TSTL heroine, but you will want to strangle her at the way she keeps walking into one dangerous situation after another. One big change between this one written in the 1980's and LWD written in the 1970's is the sex is a lot more prevalent and in your face than the earlier book. While still tame compared to what I've seen in some of today's romances this is not the first time I've noticed this pattern with other authors who wrote in both those decades. This is a quick, easy read and should do nicely when one is in the mood for some brain candy or a beach read.