Customer Reviews

Touch Me With Fire

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

 

 

Nicole Jordan is an amazing writer who combines well-drawn, believable characters, believable secondary/ancillary characters (I could actually SEE Panna and Miklos, two of the Gypsies, when I read about them, and Vincent Foster was also quite real on the page), wonderful plot twists, and --always-- great steamy love scenes. Oh, and one more thing. She does her historical/cultural homework. I learned more about Gypsy culture (they figure prominently in the story) from this one novel than I have learned in all my previous years, and, well, I'm not a teenager, nor in my 20's or 30's.. you get the idea, lol. She paints pictures in her scenes, so full of detail that you 'fall' into the story. The characters do that to you. She has a real gift for this.

Blaise, the heroine, is not my fave type of female character --she is very headstrong-- but to her credit she IS brave, true, and very ingenious. She loves Julian almost immediately, and so did I! By the way, he wasn't a cold fish at all, as someone mentioned. That was a front. He proves to be rather HOT, in fact...

In turn, Julian gradually begins to love Blaise for her spirit and joie de vivre, her true love of life, and, in the end, for bringing his soul back to life. That's a very tall order : he has been through hell on the Continent in the Wars, and is widely believed to have murdered his first wife, Caroline. The evidence against him is circumstantial but quite damning, and Julian blames himself, as well. He feels responsible for her death, and is stuck at an emotional crossroads which most of us (who have lived long enough) can easily relate to. Blaise wants to help. (So did I!)

Brava! I love Nicole Jordan's books, and I'll be reading every one of her novels. I hope she keeps writing for a LONG, LONG time.

Blaise is an independant, adventurous woman who runs away from her aunt to avoid marriage of her aunt's choosing. She meets Julian, Viscount Lynden before she could escape and helps her avoid her aunt even without knowing her true identity. He takes her to be with her Gypsy family whom she claims that she is betrothed to one of them. However, Julian doesnt' seem to care, he wants her passionately. Although Blaise refuses to be his mistress, Julian stays in the camp and seduces Blaise to sleep with him. She brings him peace and makes him alive after years of feeling numb and bad memories. He was rumored to have killed his wife, so out of guilt he left his family home and joined the military. He decides to go back, and along the way Blaise helps him deal with his ghost and of course, they fall in love.

I enjoyed reading the book. The characters were developed well. A little twist in the story. Not as passionate as her other books, but worth reading.

Touch Me With Fire is a story that blazes with passion and senuality, as the handsome and charasmatic Julian Morrow, Vicount Lynden pursues the beautiful violet eyed, raven haired, Blaise St. James. Julian, an injured war hero is now home from Spain struggling with not only the deep physical and emotional pains of war, but the struggles and rumors surrounding the death of his first wife, which originally caused him to run off and fight so far away from England. Upon his return home, he happens across young Blaise, dressed as a servant, as she is on the run from her guardians and an unwanted arranged marriage. Julian does not realize Blaise is a "lady" and wants her as his mistress. He offers to take her to her gypsy friends and there in the romantic setting of the gypsy camp pursues her with lust and passion that the young, innocent Blaise struggles with and does not truly understand. Under the guidance and love of her gypsy friends, which are like family to her, she begins to fall in love with Julian. While Julian knows he lusts for Blaise, he struggles with his true feelings of love, as he watches the young, kind, loving Blaise care for him and others in the gypsy camp. He sets many alluring passionate traps for Blaise, who is drawn to this handome, sexy, yet troubled man. Finally he can no longer wait and arranges to have her, only to be caught and discover that she is not truly his firey gyspy, but a "lady" of the ton. He feels betrayed and manipulated and Blaise is confused, as their troubled, sensual marriage begins and the mystery surrounding the death of Julian's first wife begins to unravel to a surprise ending. The book is well-written and researched with strong characters, deep mystery, inner emotional stuggles, passion, desire, and love scenes beautifully written that keep the reader riveted to the page. It was a pleasure to read this book the first time around and it was even more pleasurable to visit it again as a reissue.

Julian is a classic tormented hero -- an "alpha" male with a good heart, a scarred face, a gimpy leg, and a young wife who loves him and for whom Julian will do anything, even against his better judgment. Is this your kind of hero? Then try this book. The sex between him and Blaise is hot -- but hey, they're married! Just a very good read, with a smooth style, and lots of gypsy lore. Excellent.

Julian was just one of those characters for me. Not only did he have the scars on the outside but he had them within which were much worse. He truly needed a spirited Gypsy type like Blaise to bring him out of his inner suffering and make him whole again. At times Blaise seems to be truly beating her head against the wall with Julian. He seems to fight her at every turn although still enjoying her nightly in his bed. She wants to prove to him and to everyone else that he is not the murderer he thinks he is is. She seems to win on all fronts except with Julian himself. At times you just want to shake him as he makes a few steps forward then misunderstands everything and goes off in a sulk to London. She really has to use desperate measures then to get him back. This was a great romance, although not quite as sensual as others, still very good. As usual Jordan delivers.

blaise is a wonderful character...strong and intelligent. julian is the kind of man women dream of. hot smoldering dangerous and troubled. i fell in love with him right off the bat

Half American Blaise is being forced by her shrewish English aunt to go visit an older vicar that her aunt intends to try and marry her off to but Blaise is determined that if she marries it will be for love, certainly not to some stuffy cold-fish Englishman. She trades places with a maid and when she sneaks into a room to disguise herself with ashes she encounters a viscount with an adonis face named Julian. Julian is fascinated with the spirited violet eyed girl. He has returned from Spain where he received injuries to his face and leg which has left him with a significant limp. Julian is haunted by the image of his first wife laying dead on a Roman ruin site after a riding accident. His first wife was cheating on him and after they argued, she took off in a storm and he later found her dead. All though he didn't harm her, he feels guilty for her death and her lover spread rumors that Julian murdered her. Julian believes that Blaise can bring him back the enjoyment of life and propositions her. Blaise refuses and claims she is the adopted child of a local gypsy tribe. Blaise's deceased father was a reporter who traveled with the tribe and they agree to help her hide from her aunt. A determined Julian follows and vows he will make Blaise his mistress but when her real identity is revealed his offer will have to be marriage.

This is a great story and has plenty of adventure and passion. I kind of got ticked when Julian treated Blaise so awfully because he had to marry her. She told him from the beginning she didn't want him around but he followed her anyway. Just because he thought she was lower class and available for sex without committment doesn't mean she trapped him into anything. However, he does end up compensating for that still makes me mad.

I won't write too long of a review, since it seems this book is no longer in publication.

I do need to say that I hated both of these characters. Blaise was annoying, immature, and totally ridiculous. She fell in love with Julian almost immediately, even though she supposedly detested "cold fish" English noblemen. She reminded me of a dog that is continuously neglected and mistreated but still loves his master.

Julian is incredibly annoying and totally unsympathetic as a "wounded hero." He is a crybaby who wants a doormat for a wife. Well, then I guess he shouldn't have seduced Blaise in a hayloft if he wasn't willing to be a man and marry her afterwards. Yeah, yeah, yeah, he didn't know she was a noblewoman. So, instead, he decides he will seduce her and then maker her his mistress. Yeah, those are nice intentions. What a gentleman. NOT.

The whole plot of this novel is absurd. The way Julian treats Blaise is condescending and just mean-spirited. It's not Blaise's fault that Julian neglected his wife and drove her into another man's arms. It's not Blaise's fault that Caroline (the late wife) died in a storm. Nothing he blames her for is her fault. Mostly it is all his fault. Ugh...he has to be the most unendearing "hero" I've ever encountered.

If you come across this one at a booksale, I wouldn't recommend putting out the $0.25 for it.