Deeper Than Desire

Holy cow was this "hot". It took a while to get into it, but I have since read some that just get right into the action and learned that you need to build up a little suspense. I have tried to read other books of hers since I read this one, and they are not nearly as good. It is cheesy and probably not exemplary writing, but it's a romance novel and page 91 and beyond is intense, haha.

Setting - England, 1813 --- Lady Olivia Hopkins and her extended family are visiting at the home of the widowed Edward Paxton, Earl of Salisbury. The visit has been planned and orchestrated by her step-mother Margaret with the planned intention that Lord Salisbury propose and marry Olivia thereby, saving the impoverished but blue-blood family from ruin. Disturbed over being forced to marry a man she is not in love with and not able to sleep, Olivia peruses the library and comes upon a book of pure erotica. She is both fascinated, shocked and aroused by what she is seeing and settles in to study the pictures - purely from an artistic point of view - having never before seen a male nude body. She is observed at this and caught in the act by a disturbingly handsome man who she later discovers is the earl's illegitimate son, Phillip. Olivia is instantly attracted to his dangerously dark looks but soon realizes that he does not have the means to save her financially strapped family from ruin. Although, in matters of the heart, worldly concerns never do seem to matter and Phillip and Olivia continue their clandestine affair as Phillip indoctrinates her in some very erotic foreplay. In the meantime, Olivia's cousin Winnie, whose meek and subservient demeanor hides a very passionate woman who has been trying to live down her mistakes of the past, is also being tempted by the undeniable attraction experienced between herself and the Earl. This attraction, was doomed from the very start based upon her lack of blue blood and common status, but again - that did not prevent matters of the heart and lust to catapult them both into a very passionate and surreptitious affair. Lastly, there is another family member of this group, Margaret's daughter Penolope. A sly, feisty, and very promiscuous 16 year old in whom her mother Margaret has great marital plans, but whose personal taste tends to run to stable lads. Penolope, playing with fire once too often, attracts the attention of a very dishonorable and dangerous man who seduces and plans to use Penelope for his own gains. Now if the above doesn't whet your appetite than you are looking at the wrong book. Cheryl Holt gives us a fully robust and tantalizing tale that will both amuse and excite the senses in a most pleasurable way. Olivia's obnoxious step-mother, was so nasty I wanted to jump in myself and choke her, that is after I gave her spawn Penelope a swift kick in the butt! But of course, this is what made this a total read for me - two really nice love stories, characters depicted in such a way that they engage all of the readers emotions, AND, on top of all this, she delivers a wonderful serving of deeply hot and sensual foreplay in a way one can depend on when reading her novels. Bottom line - Cheryl Holt remains on the top of my list for hot, and spicy historical romance reads! --- Marilyn, for www.romancedesigns.com

The story is about Olivia and Patrick, but it also about all the other characters as well. I never felt while reading this book that I would have liked to know more about one of the "secondary chararcters"( I use this term loosely, because they were all very well developed and important to the plot.) This book is fast paced, the story developed quickly and there was no down time where I skipped a few pages because a part of the story is boring. There is no underlinig mystery that seems to be a big part of romance novels lately and for that I am glad. It is refreshing to see a romance novel be just that, a romance novel. This is the first book that I read by Cheryl Holt, but it will not be the last.

I was determined not to like this book - just because I was mad that it wasn't going to be about the secondary characters (Ian and Caro) from Complete Abandon. But Cheryl is one of my fave authors so I snatched it up as soon as it was available and read it in 24 hours. I just could not put it down - even when the sun began to rise and I realized I had been up all night reading. The storylines that are going on: Olivia/Phillip, Edward/Winnie and Penny/Freddie as well as Margaret's manipulations was so was perfect!! The characters were great!! Cheryl has the amazing talent to create characters that you just love to hate while you are reading. I'm giving fair warning: If you do not like sexy/steamy books then you will not like this - the erotic feel of the book starts on the very first page. But if you love a more racy read! You will find this book irresistable! I am looking forward to Phillips' Sister's book coming out in the Fall.

In 1813, though she detests the deception and that the target is a much older man, twenty-three years old Olivia Hopkins knows her extended family needs her to marry Edward, the Earl of Bristol. While in the Earl's library late at night, Olivia finds an erotica book that entices her until she is caught by Edward's wrong side of the sheet son Philip Paxton.As her stepmother pushes Olivia towards Edward, Olivia and Philip have an affair taking pages out of that reference tome she had found. Soon Olivia falls in love with Philip, but he sees her as a means of revenge for his sire hiding him from anyone who matters. However, Philip finds revenge is not as sweet as the love he feels for Olivia, but will the couple find a path to change their illicit affair into a warm lasting legal relationship?Though the stepmother is too crazy to even heed anything she says, Regency romance fans will enjoy this erotic tale of forbidden love that feels and is right. The story line is fun to follow especially when the lead couple is hiding their tryst from everyone especially his father and her loony stepmother. Readers will enjoy the moment that Philip realizes that his love is DEEPER THAN DESIRE for vengeance. Cheryl Holt turns up the heat with this superior historicalHarriet Klausner