Review: If You Desire

I wasn’t a huge fan of the first book in the MacCarrick Brothers series, but I loved this second installment. If You Desire follows brother Hugh. His story picks up right where we left him, near the end of If You Dare. He’s been called by his boss, Weyland, to protect the man’s daughter, Jane. Hugh has been in love with Jane for a decade. But he has stayed away from her, due to the MacCarrick family curse.

Just to refresh your memory, the MacCarrick brothers are Highlanders, cursed by an ancient book, never to find love or have children. If they try to have a relationship, they believe the object of their affections will suffer.

So to keep Jane safe, Hugh has stayed away. But now her life is in danger from Grey, an assassin. Hugh and Grey are both assassins, in fact, working for Jane’s father. But while Hugh kills bad guys that are a danger to the country (think old-world equivalent to a black-ops agent), Grey would kill anyone, including women and children. And he grew to love it. He also became an opium addict and Weyland put a hit on him.  It didn’t take. So to get even, Grey is targeting Weyland’s daughter.

It seems Jane has been in love with Hugh just as long as he has been in love with her. She has been hurt by his long absence in her life. But at his return, her feelings come back with a vengeance. Her dad convinces Hugh and Jane to marry and leave the country, so Hugh can serve as her bodyguard and protect her from Grey. The couple fights their feelings, but neither can deny their passion for each other. It takes awhile before their relationship in consummated, but the journey still manages to be hot and steamy.

Like all Kresley Cole books, the love scenes are hit out of the park. But unlike Court’s book, I cared about both of our main characters.  Hugh is very sympathetic. Easily, my favorite of the MacCarrick brothers. And Jane’s hurt and fears make complete sense from the mixed messages he has given her. I rooted for them to get together and rejoiced when they did.

5 stars.

If You Desire 

by Kresley Cole

Release Date: April 24, 2007

Publisher: Pocket Books