MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE

Author: Carolyn Jewel ISBN: 9780446178242 6/2009 PARANORMAL Publisher: GRAND CENTRAL

TORN BETWEEN... Alexandrine Marit is a witch in mortal danger. An evil mage craves the powerful, mysterious talisman that supplies her magic, and the only person who can keep her safe is a dark and dangerous fiend called Xia. With his fierce animosity toward witches, he's hardly the ideal bodyguard. Yet as days turn into nights, she can't deny the white-hot passion between them. DESIRE AND TEMPTATION Xia hates witches. They enslave and mercilessly kill his kind. But he's been ordered to protect Alexandrine, who, to his surprise, has a spirit he admires and a body he longs to possess. With the mage and his henchmen closing in, Alexandrine and her protector must trust the passion that can unite them...or risk losing everything to the enemies who can destroy them both.

RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS:

Carolyn Jewel sets her paranormal romance, MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE (Second in her Magekind series), in present day San Francisco where a battle is brewing between magekind and fiends. Alexandrine Marit is a witch of little consequence, but she’s come into possession of a talisman that contains the soul of a fiend sealed within it. Alexandrine’s birth father is a most powerful mage, Rasmus Kessler, who gave her up for adoption when she was three because of her lack of witch power. Her adopted brother, Harsh Marit, has found out that Alexandrine has a target on her back, and parks one of his formerly mageheld fiend friends Xia with her as protection. The main problem with this is that Xia used to be enslaved to Rasmus, and he really hates witches. Will Alexandrine and Xia be able to get past their species antipathy in order to act on the chemistry they feel pulling them together?

Jewel carefully crafts a whole society overlaid on the human experience, with its own hierarchy, strictures and rewards. I admit I had to keep asking myself who was on each side, but eventually I got it. The magekind, or mages and witches, had been enslaving the demon fiends for centuries, and the few fiends out there who aren’t enslaved are itching for a turn of the tables. When Nikodemus and Carson Phillips devise a way to break the hold mages have on their fiends, that becomes possible. Xia was one of the fiends Carson released, and he is struggling not only with his lifelong hatred of magekind, including witches, but also his newfound freedom and ability to make his own decisions. Carson and Nikodemus are at a meeting of strong fiend warlords, trying to broker some kind of deal to keep things on an even keel as the magekind are defeated and leave a power vacuum. Left on their own, Alexandrine and Xia must fight Rasmus and figure out on their own how to free the demon from the talisman to keep Rasmus from killing them (as well as keeping him from sucking that demon’s power into himself to continue his already long life).

As a sequel, it was almost more confusing than it should have been. It felt like all of the characters were struggling with the unknown, and because of that, I felt disconnected and floundering. The only truth that Xia and Alexandrine (and I) could cling to is that as love often goes, there’s no denying its existence and that it usually strikes unlikely pairs, leaving them in turmoil. The struggle to love despite overwhelming differences, is a most powerful bond.

Like its predecessor, MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE is just one long chase scene with interludes of battle or wild sex. It too, would make a great action movie. Tons of wicked fighting and some interesting shape shifting to augment the already hot lovemaking between Alexandrine and Xia. I can just imagine his lapis lazuli coloring. The action is non-stop, as well as dilemmas of allegiance, love and family loyalty. Readers who like a lot of action with their romance will be well served.

Susan Barton