Kresley Cole, If You Desire

If You Desire

Kresley Cole

Pocket, May 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 1416503609

After a decade on the job, by 1856 Hugh MacCarrick is considered by his superior Lord Weyland as the perfect assassin; dangerous situations do not faze him because he has been cursed; his affliction is compounded because he loves Jane, the daughter of his boss, unattainable to a MacCarrick, who are cursed "to walk with death or walk alone." Thus he expects something bad to eventually happen to him anyway so he takes risks that no one else would contemplate.

However, daring Hugh is not prepared for his latest assignment. Lord Weyland asks Hugh to come home from the continent to keep his daughter Jane safe as he believes a former agent turned rogue called Davis Grey plans to kill her. Although he has always loved her, Hugh knows she and the other Weyland eight are women he can never have, especially now that he is a hardened killer. Once the threat is neutralized, he will leave. However, Jane will not let him go this time; her plan is to seduce her beloved so that he will never leave her again as she believes together they can prevent the curse from happening.

The second MacCarrick Victorian romantic suspense (see IF YOU DARE) is a fabulous thriller that grips readers from the onset as the hero lives life over the edge because he expects the ancient curse to destroy him, he believes. Jane is a terrific counterpart to Hugh because she refuses to back down when she must choose between transferring the curse to her and giving up on her beloved. Without love, she feels she has nothing at all (hopefully Tom Jones the singer will not mind my paraphrasing).

Harriet Klausner