The Danger of Desire by Sabrina Jeffries

Narrated by Beverley A. Crick

The Danger of Desire is the third in Sabrina Jeffries’ current Sinful Suitors series, and while not as strong as the previous book (The Study of Seduction), it’s nonetheless an enjoyable and sensual tale of an unlikely couple struggling to keep their secrets in the face of an unexpected and almost overwhelming attraction.

Warren Corry, the Marquess of Knightford is widely known to be a rogue of the first order. His reputation as a womaniser is well-deserved, and he is usually to be found traipsing around the stews of London every night, patronising the brothels and drinking establishments until the early hours. He’s also cousin to Clarissa, Countess of Blakeborough and, like her husband, Edwin, is a member of the St. George’s Club, a gentlemen’s club much like all the others, except that its members have banded together with the aim of protecting their female relatives from fortune hunters and other unscrupulous men. When Clarissa asks Warren to ask around about her friend, Miss Delia Trevor, he initially suspects her of matchmaking. But when she explains that Delia has been behaving oddly of late, Warren realises Clarissa’s request originates from concern for her friend and agrees to see what he can find out.

Delia has come to London for the season not, as her aunt believes, to find a husband, but to find the man who cheated her brother Reynold out of a large sum of money at cards, causing him to commit suicide. That last isn’t widely known, however. Society believes Reynold to have slipped and fallen into the Thames while drunk – as does his widow, Brilliana (I’m afraid I can’t take that name seriously, and she’s the heroine of the next book – ugh!). The only clues Delia has to go on are the name of the gambling den at which her brother played, and that his lordly opponent had the tattoo of a sun on his wrist. While trying to find ways to get a peek at the wrists and forearms of the gentlemen she meets at the various parties and gatherings she attends, Delia spends her nights at the card tables disguised as Mr. Jones, using the skills learned from her card sharp of a father while trying to see if she can unmask the man who drove her brother to his death.

The fact that the far-too-inquisitive, roguish, maddening – and maddeningly handsome – Marquess of Knightford suddenly takes an interest in her immediately puts Delia on her guard. She can’t afford to let anything distract her from her purpose – which is to find the cheat and then threaten to tell all unless he returns the money – and she knows she can’t possibly be the type of woman Knightford finds attractive. But in spite of his infuriating tendency to interfere, Delia can’t help being drawn to Warren and his deliciously seductive ways.

And Warren is surprised to find his cousin’s horribly dressed friend is possessed of a quick wit and a waspish tongue – and of course, there is nothing more attractive to a man like him than a woman who protests she wants nothing to do with him ;-) When he discovers what Delia is up to of an evening, Warren is furious with her for putting herself in harm’s way, and tries everything he can think of to stop her returning to the gaming hell, even going to far as threatening to tell her aunt, but Delia won’t budge. She refuses to tell him what she’s doing or to help her – but Warren is far from stupid and very quickly pieces together a good part of Delia’s story on his own.

The romance between the couple is well done, with plenty of flirtatious, sexually-charged banter and searing stolen kisses, even as they are equally determined to prevent the other from discovering their secrets. It’s revealed early on that Warren has a reason for his night-owl lifestyle; he is plagued by debilitating nightmares which have affected him for most of his life, and believing them to be a weakness, he has concealed his affliction from everyone – even his family. But when he and Delia are discovered in a compromising position and have no alternative but to marry, Warren realises that keeping his darkest fears from his wife is going to be incredibly difficult. He tries to keep Delia at arm’s length, putting their fledgling marriage at risk almost before it’s begun. Things are complicated still further by the eleventh-hour – and out of left field – revelation of the identity of the card cheat, which is somewhat anticlimactic and to my mind, denies Delia a real sense of closure over what happened to her brother.

In spite of those reservations, I enjoyed the story overall – although the final part is more or less a set-up for the next book and feels a little rushed. But Warren and Delia have great chemistry, their verbal sparring is fun and sometimes a bit naughty and the love scenes are sexy and well-written. I especially liked that neither of them was desperately trying to get out of getting married after they were compromised; it was obvious the pair of them had fallen for each other and just wanted that little extra push to own up to it.

Beverley A. Crick returns to narrate this Sinful Suitors book, and does another excellent job all round. I really enjoy her performances, as she has a wonderfully naturalistic method of delivery and her acting choices usually correspond exactly with what I’m expecting to hear at any one point. Delia is described as having a throaty tone to her voice, so Ms. Crick has opted to pitch her at the lower end of her range rather than in the middle or higher as she has often done for other heroines she has performed, and it works very well. For some reason, though, she has done the same with Brilliana, which means that at times, the two women sound rather similar. On the whole, though, her differentiation is very good – her range of male voices is improving, it seems, as there are a couple of scenes in which Warren and Edwin both appear, and although there isn’t much dialogue, the subtle differences in tone and timbre are obvious and mean the listener isn’t confused as to who is speaking. My one criticism is of the Welsh accent she attempts to give Delia’s servant, Owen. It’s a difficult accent to sustain (unless you’re Welsh!) and I’m afraid Ms. Crick doesn’t quite manage it, but Owen is a minor character, so it’s not something that adversely affected my enjoyment of the audiobook.

All in all, The Danger of Desire is an enjoyable addition to this series and while I had some reservations about the story, the narration is very good and makes it an easy audiobook to recommend.

Caz

Narration: A-

Book Content: B

Steam Factor: Glad I had my earbuds in

Violence Rating: None

Genre: Historical Romance

Publisher: Tantor Audio

The Danger of Desire was provided to AudioGals by Tantor Audio for a review.