A DIK Read

The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell Samantha James Grade: A- Sensuality: Hot Earlier this year I had the great good fortune to read an ARC of Samantha James' The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell. Since it'll be released in a couple of weeks, now's a good time for me to extoll its virtues.

My history with Samantha James is mixed.  The very first book I read by her - Just One Kiss - earned a C+ from me (a review is online at AAR).  In my review I describe the hero thusly: "his soul is as black as his midnight hair".  The reason for his torture?  The typical cuckholding in his past.  There were some terrific scenes in the book, but in the end I could never figure out why the heroine loved the hero because he spent so much time being a total bastard to her.

I had more luck with Every Wish Fulfilled (also reviewed at AAR), which earned a B- from me. Though I mentioned two dubious scenarios in my review, I thoroughly enjoyed the lead characters, and easily saw why the heroine loved the hero as she did.

An even better romance was the Medieval His Wicked Ways, a straight B read that I reviewed at AAR. While the Highlands kidnapping premise was not particularly novel, the execution was strong, the love scenes yummy, the leads lovable, and as a sort of cherry on top, a stint on an island was a pleasure for this lover of cabin/road romances. 

The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell doesn't necessarily break new ground as far as premises are concerned either, the hero, heroine, and their tortured love story stole my heart.  I imagine that a good many readers will not love it as I did, and will find the storyline too conventional and well-worn to be worth repeating.  To me, though, there's nothing that proves talent than taking something we've all read before and making it seem fresh and new. Here's the back cover blurb:

A cruel twist of fate changed Simon Blackwell's life irreparably. A man of intense passions, he resolved to deny his emotions and desires forever, taking refuge in the wilds of the moorlands and shutting himself off from the world. But on one extraordinary night, on a rare trip to London, the unthinkable occurs. An intoxicatingly beautiful stranger stirs the sensuous hunger he has sworn to resist. Simon Blackwell believed that no woman could tempt him.

No woman . . . save Annabel McBride.

Annabel knows nothing of Simon's secret pain. But one irresistible kiss plunges her into marriage with a man she scarcely knows, a man who hides a shattered past. She can feel the blistering heat of the fire that smolders within this exquisitely handsome man, making her yearn for much more than the union in name only he has promised her.

But Simon dares not love again—for fragile love can be lost in an instant. And now Annabel must find a way to open his heart to the most glorious risk of all . . .

When Annabel and Simon meet, it's not auspicious.  She takes a strong dislike to him, finding him imperious and unfeeling.  Simon doesn't necessarily dislike Annabel, but he so consciously cut himself off from his feelings that it doesn't matter.  A series of events leads to a kiss that compromises Annabel, and the two are married.  

Annabel hasn't a clue that Simon does not intend for their marriage to be real.  Is it a relief to know that there will be no wedding night or marriage bed? And how can it truly be that if they wait a year, then divorce, he'll arrange it so she's not spoiled goods and thereby unmarriageable in the future? No...Annabel determines to make their marriage real...and can't imagine why Simon rebuffs her.  She doesn't know that there is a Big Secret in Simon's past, and though it's alluded to (and Simon promises Annabel's family that he will tell her in his own time) even the reader is kept in the dark. That this book remains a DIK even though Simon takes far too long in talking about the Big Secret says something about how strong the rest of the book is, particularly since I find that B.S.'s that exclude the reader's knowledge are rarely enjoyable. But on the plus side, this story's B.S. lends the book a Gothic tinge.

Once Annabel decided to make her marriage real, she set out to seduce her husband, and the result of her actions are some of the sexiest love scenes I've read in a straight romance. They're not as earthy as the love scenes in Elizabeth Hoyt's The Raven Prince, but they're equally as smokin'.   While Annabel succeeds in seducing Simon's body, he refuses to let her know that she's also seduced his heart.  And that leads to some heart-breaking, two-hanky moments.  Equally poignant are Simon's diary entries that open each chapter. I can't imagine reading another hero this year who will be more tormented than Simon, and so deserving of an HEA.

Readers looking for a heroine willing to fight for what she wants and a hero who slowly finds his way out of a personal hell...look no further, and when, at the end of the month The Secret Passion of Simon Blackwell is released, grab it and start reading. 

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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