Rexanne Becnel: Dangerous to Love

MY REVIEW

Dangerous to Love
Author: Rexanne Becnel
Release: November 15, 1997
List Price: Retail unavailable - buy used

Read: August 5, 2009
My Rating:


Author Homepage | Amazon.com

Setting: 1829, England

SUMMARY (from back cover)

~ A SPINSTER ~

Spirited scholar Lucy Drysdale has long dreamed of London - the stimulating lectures, the intellectual banter. But first she must chaperone Lady Valerie, a tender young girl embarking on her first social season.

~ A RAKEHELL ~

Before Lucy can guide Valerie through her first society crush, they are swept into the world of the Earl of Westcott, London's most notorious rakehell.

~ A DANGEROUS GAME OF HEARTS ~

Ivan Thornton, the gypsy Earl, gained his title only because his father had no legitimate heir. Bitter over the cruelties society heaped on him when he was just a boy, Ivan takes sweet revenge - he breaks the hearts of young society women.

~ WINNER TAKE ALL ~

For Ivan, the two women are easy prey for his game of deceit - until Lucy's passionate touch ignites a desire that sears his soul. And Lucy finds, in protecting Valerie from the charismatic Earl, that she has left her own heart dangerously vulnerable ...

REVIEW
Could have been four stars because all the right components were there - wonderful leading characters, interesting supporting ones, great dialogue, and hot hot HOT intense chemistry between the hero and heroine - however after Ivan and Lucy marry, his behavior was a real turn-off.

I love the tortured and grew-up-unloved-and-alone hero as much as the next girl, but where's the fun in reading about a hero who is mean to the heroine, abandons her for more than two months the morning after they get married, and then vacillates between ignoring her and going out of his way to hurt her?

Yeah, yeah, we get the whole explanation that he's afraid of love, afraid of his own feelings for Lucy and hers for him, but still ... could have been shown to the reader in another way, because although reading snappy dialogue and about antagonizing encounters is enjoyable (and sometimes preferable) at the beginning of a hero and heroine's relationship, if it devolves into meanness or goes on for too long, it kind of takes the fun out of things.

SHOULD BE PART OF A SERIES ... BUT ISN'T
Ivan's three friends - Alexander, Giles, and Elliot - were wonderful and I was really hoping that this book was the first in a series and I would go online to find that the three friends were hero of their own books ... unfortunately, that was not the case. The four friends met as children when they were all sent to the same school, Burford Hall - or Bastard Hall, as it is more fondly known by those bastard sons unlucky enough to have been sent there.

If Ms. Becnel happens to read this post, I have to urge her: write these three books! Especially Elliot's - he seemed like he would be extremely interesting as the hero of his own romance novel.