A Dangerous Love - Brenda Joyce

A Dangerous OBSESSION Torn from his Romany mother's arms as a small boy, Viscount Emilian St. Xavier has spent a lifetime ignoring the whispers of gypsy that follow him everywhere. A nobleman with wealth, power and privilege, he does not care what the gadjos think. But when the Romany come to Derbyshire with news of his mother's murder at the hands of a mob, his world implodes. And Ariella de Warenne is the perfect object for his lust and revenge.…

A Dangerous PASSION Ariella de Warenne's heritage assures her a place in proper society, though as a radical and independent thinker she scorns her peers' frivolous pursuits in the Ton, fashion and marriage. Until a Roma camp arrives at Rose Hill, and she finds herself drawn to their charismatic leader, Emilian. Even when he warns her away, threatening that he intends to seduce and destroy her, she cannot refuse him. For Ariella is just as determined to fight for their dangerous love…

As was so pleased with how much I enjoyed the Perfect Bride that I decided to try another book in the same series. Unfortunately that didn't prove to be a very wise decision in the end because both the hero and the heroine annoyed me to no end.

The hero is half gypsy. He was made to leave his mother to go live with his father while still a child, he was made fun of and abused while growing up and even today, after he inherited a title, he is not well received in the neighborhood. He takes his revenge by sleeping with has many of his neighbour's wives as he can. When his relatives move to de Warenne's land he meets Ariella. She is immediately attracted to him and tries, time and again, to get close to him. To which he always says no. But Ariella perseveres and eventually they become lovers.

Now my problem is that despite being a very tortured hero I couldn't find any sympathy for Emil. He just wasn't a nice person to Ariella and I couldn't understand while she kept playing with fire. After all during those times Ladies were supposed to have a reputation to maintain and a bastard baby would definitely be a no no. Besides, he couldn't have been clearer with her, he always maintained he did not want friendship, just sex, was she really expecting him to change his tune after a night of love making?

The fact that I was totally annoyed with the characters really ruined the story for me. I kept reading in the hopes that it would get better but till the end I never felt it did.

Grade: 2/5