Betina Krahn, The Book of True Desires

The Book of True Desires

Betina Krahn

Jove, September 2006, $7.99

ISBN 0515141704

In 1898 at the Tampa Bay Hotel, statuesque beauty Cordelia O'Keefe checkmates elderly Samuel P. "Hardacre" Morgan before inviting the much older gentleman to join her for dinner. At the restaurant, Cordelia introduces her Aunt Hedda to Hardacre before he demands she tell him what she wants from him. She explains she is a gambling explorer who always wins her wagers, as she sets out to examine places no one of either gender visits. She further states she won a hieroglyphics stone dated back to the biblical era in Egypt, of the mines of a foreign king that experts tell her is Solomon. She wants him to fund her expedition to King Solomon's mines, until she states she is his granddaughter; her father was his son Thomas.

The next day he provides her with a counter-offer of financing if she finds the Mayan Gift of the Jaguar, with his indentured butler Hartford Goodnight to authenticate her success, or more likely failure. As the daring duo struggle for survival in the Yucatan against snakes, butterfly hordes, and two and four legged beasts, they fall in love, but an unknown person follows them with a plan to steal the Jaguar and kill Hartford and Cordelia.

From the moment that the incredibly competent Cordelia (think female Indiana Jones) checkmates her grandfather in nine moves, until the last rumble in the jungle, this terrific historical romantic adventure never slows down. The storyline is fast-paced, but the lead couple is a fully developed pairing, as Cordelia realizes the arrogant English butler is quite at home in the heat and danger of the Yucatan. Fans will appreciate joining the intrepid couple on their jarring, jostling, and jolting jaunt for the Gift of the Jaguar.