Review: For Desire Alone

Reviewed by Shelly
 

This is the second book in the Mistress Matchmaker series. I didn’t read the first one, but I’m thinking this one could be read as a stand-alone as there’s no notice to say otherwise.

Mistress matchmaker Vivien Manning’s best friend, Mariah Desmond, has just lost her protector/lover, Owen. It’s not until after his death that Mariah finds out that although Owen promised to take care of her, he’s only left her £1,000.00 and her household bills paid for six months. She quickly realizes that she must find a new protector. Her friend Vivien has weekly parties where mistress can find protectors. Once she arrives at one of Vivien’s parties, she sees John Rycroft who was Owen’s best friend and someone she also considered a friend. During the party, John sees Mariah across the room talking to a prospective protector and John gets upset and takes her away to have sex into one of the back rooms. Put the brakes on - wait wait wait what just happened?!?

I had so many problems with this book I didn’t know what to do. Mariah claimed to love Owen, her dead lover and protector of three years. But after a couple of weeks she quickly jumped into ‘love’ with John. Yes, they’ve known each other for three years but it’s not been the kind of friendship where their attraction was ever recognized or even acknowledged. So it was hard for me to see how these two are compatible so quickly. Furthermore, Mariah was unbelievable to me as someone truly seeking a protector, because she couldn’t seem to focus on that because she’s so busy knocking boots with John. If you don’t know where your next dollar is coming from, is sexing it up the best use of your time?

Don’t worry, I’m getting to John. He started throwing around his alpha maleness with Mariah and she just kept taking it. He was an absolute jerk and I never liked him. But here’s what I didn’t understand, how could John claim to love/care for Marian yet not tell her that Owen only left her £1,000.00 and six months of household expenses? Even more, why not even seek her out prior to her having to find another protector if you care about her even as a friend? He wasn’t a poor man, so I just didn’t understand the rationale of his callous treatment of her.

The first two-thirds of the story was all about Mariah and John having sex - Mariah complaining to Vivien that she’s in love with John but he doesn’t love her - she must find a protector (rinse and repeat). By the last third, there was some real conflict with the arrival of John’s brother, Adam, and his father, Vaughn, but by then it felt so forced and didn’t seem to fit into the story line. Arrghh – I really wanted to like this story so much but I just couldn’t give a good gosh darn about either of these two. The only reason I upgraded to the rating is because of the last part of the story.

Happy Reading Folks!

Rating: C

*ARC provided by author for review 

Click to purchase: Amazon

For Desire Alone

by Jess Michaels

Release Date: November 6, 2012

Publisher: Samhain