Wicked Intentions

I can understand how readers of romance novels would be upset with this novel. I don't normally like novels where the hero is a bully and abuses the heroine at all. Very few authors pull it off and this author pulls it off. If you don't want dark and don't want tame S & M, then don't read this. I was forewarned before I read this book. I can get sick of nicey nice romance novels and so I went looking for a dark read. You have to be in the mood for this, as their first encounter will shock your socks off and perhaps turn you off to the book. I wish I had not read the spoilers in the reviews. My reaction to their first encounter was an acceptance of what I knew was going to happen. I wonder what my reaction would have been, had I not read the spoilers... probably utter shock. This is very good dark Gothic story telling and very original in it's examination of the Victorian era and its love of mysticism. For all that Victorian society is portrayed as proper and sterile, in history books, it was anything but. It was a time of decadence and that included kinky sexual decadence. One only has to look at old cartoons and bawdy publications to know that. It was a time of condoms and more sexual freedom... even if history tries to show that it was a proper asexual era. The author pulls off this story by setting it in the time period she did. This is not a hero you can like at all. She is a heroine that is questionable and you are never sure why she allows him to do the things he does to her. Sometimes she has no choice. Other times she does and is willing. This is a good mystery and the characters are hugely flawed, but this is the kind of book I wanted to read and the author pulled off what many authors can't with an unlikeable hero. This is not a romantic couple and even in the end, they aren't sure if they love each other. This is not a romance novel... but I wasn't looking for one when I read this. I was looking for a really good story and that it is.

I couldn't put this book down, even sitting by the pool on the weekend, a setting in complete opposition to this book. It reminded me of Joanna Bourne's Spy series, but much darker. If you want a little light relief in your romance, this is not for you, but sometimes I like them intense, and this delivers.

I have read and loved every one one of Lydia Joyce's gothic romance novels. Having said that, I will explain that these novels are not your typical romance fare. They are dark, deep, sometimes disturbing stories about people who are forced to survive in a repressive, often cruel period in time-the Victorian era. In this story, Em, who calls herself Esmerelda and pretends to be a spiritualist to make her living, is challenged by the son of one of her sponsers-Thomas Hyde, Viscount Varcourt. Esmerelda knows her game, however, and is willing and prepared to try and turn the tables on Thomas-even if that means using her sexuality to control the relationship. I didn't see Em as a victim, but rather a strong woman who is very attracted to the strength and power of the Viscount, but is reluctant to be a pawn to him. She pushes his buttons, knowing what he will do, but she is not afraid of him. Every encounter between them was partly due to her scheming-it's a toss up of who is in control, after all, he uses sex, but she also bonks him on the head with a candlestick, and threatens to kill him with a steak knife. However, this is a romance novel, albeit a dark and stormy one, so there is a happy ending for Em and Thomas, two lonely and miserable souls who find love-and each other-in spite of their harrowing beginning. A keeper for me, as are all of this talented and daring author's works.

Esmeralda is a mysterious spiritualist who has been welcomed into the homes of London's upper crust. But her presence is provoking to Lord Varcourt, as his mother engages Esmeralda's supposed gifts. Intent on finding out her secrets, Varcourt follows her home and uses sex as a weapon to bend her to his will. What follows leads to an agreement between enemies that becomes an erotically charged battle of wills and desires. In this noir-esque romance, mysteries pile upon mysteries. Varcourt and Esmeralda fight their dark needs for one another as they work together to find resolutions to the secrets that have haunted them both. With several scenes of forced seduction, this isn't for the faint of heart. But Ms. Joyce handles the fine line between love and hate, pain and lust, with a deft hand. For those who like their historicals with a bit of an edge to them, Wicked Intentions will tease and tempt the reader along with the two protagonists. Niki Lee Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed

In 1866 Emmeline Dunn has one reason for living and that is to avenge the affronts of her father's second family. She knows as Emmeline she cannot succeed as her stepbrother has the Ton on his side, but as Esmeralda the spiritualist she can achieve her objective because she can search records that Emmeline cannot. Lady Hamilton has not recovered from the death of one of her sons. She desperately needs to speak to her late child and prays that Esmeralda can bring them into contact. The distraught mom's other son Thomas Hyde has become angry and cold since his brother's death except towards his mother as many suspect him of the deed. He vows to expose Esmeralda as a fraud taking advantage of a grief stricken women. However, even when he and Esmeralda are fighting, passion simmers between until it ignites into an inferno. As they fall in love, they learn perhaps too late the interconnection between their families even as someone serendipitously plans to harm both of them. This is a fabulous historical romantic investigative tale starring two obsessed individuals falling in love at a time neither welcomes the feelings as they have other needs to take care of first. Thus Emmeline and Thomas make a great pairing as love battles deep emotional scars in a superb Victorian amateur sleuth romance. Harriet Klausner