Dangerous Games : All About Romance

Dangerous Games

Grade : C+

Occasionally I need to realign my perspective of romance novels, rather like shoving my glasses up my nose. Realistically, as long as I’m entertained and my eyes aren’t rolling around in their sockets for four hours straight, the book counts as a decent read. Dangerous Games almost fits the bill, but not quite.

It is London in 1851, and the beau monde knows Lilly Hampton as the loving wife of her deceased husband Charles, the architect of the Crystal Palace. But Lilly has two secrets. The first is that she fell out of love with her husband years ago, leading to secret number two: She was the brains behind her husband’s architectural gems and he had appropriated her designs for years. Now, one year after his death, Lilly is betrothed to her husband’s associate and the director of the British East India Company. Both anticipate the opening of the Crystal Palace (also Lilly’s creation), that will house the Koh-I-Noor, the largest diamond in the world and a recent acquisition of the British Empire.

But a mysterious man enters Lilly’s life. Julian St. Martin, agent and assassin for the crown, needs the Crystal Palace’s architectural plans to foil an assassination attempt on the Queen. Because Lilly thinks he’s only after the diamond (he couldn’t do anything so pedestrian as communicating, now could he?) she refuses, and he proceeds to seduce her until she agrees to give him the plans.

Now, if I were a really hot spy who needed to stop someone putting a bullet through Queen Vic’s head, obviously my first option is to find the architect of the proposed assassination venue and blackmail her with exposure unless she hands over the blueprints. And if she refuses, clearly the only thing that’s going to make her break is giving her lots of orgasms. The suspense plot is otherwise quite logical; there were some unexpected twists and the villain’s plot makes a surprising amount of sense. But St. Martin’s involvement – indeed, the man himself – is the weakest part of the story. Julian St. Martin is portrayed as a tortured aristocrat, hardened first by the loss of his wife in Afghanistan, then by his occupation as assassin for the government. But since when did Victorian viscounts go around sharpshooting for Her Majesty? And why should he expect Lilly to trust him when he doesn’t give her a reason to? He also treads the narrow line between hero and anti-hero, and I winced at some of his tactics. That said, it made his amorous fall more satisfying, but by the end I still wasn’t sure if I trusted him. Fatal.

Lilly’s only mistake in the enterprise is to fall in love with him, because as the story stands there is no earthly reason to love the man who blackmails and seduces you and never explains himself (secrecy aside). Otherwise, Lilly is easily the strongest element in the story, and I liked her – it was far easier to believe that St. Martin fell in love with her than the reverse. She never gives in to St. Martin and keeps her head about her (even after a gajillion orgasms), and struggles genuinely with the manner of her husband’s death. And her fictive architectural talent doesn’t stretch the imagination either. Ms. Mede draws a very sympathetic and interesting heroine in Lilly Hampton, and also provides an unusual setting, interweaving fiction with historical fact with relative ease. While there were some clunky expositional soapbox conversations, otherwise I enjoyed the trip to 1851 London.

Dangerous Games was a close call, and I can’t quite recommend it because the hero’s depth of character doesn’t match the heroine’s, but the setting was nicely done and the heroine was pleasant. I’ll be keeping an eye on this author, and hope the next one will be even better.

Reviewed by Enya Young

Grade : C+

Book type : European Historical Romance | Historical Romance

Sensuality : Hot

Review Date : July 1, 2009

Published On : 2009

Enya Young

I'm a teacher who's been fortunate to live in a few places; currently I'm in England. And if you give me a choice between savoury and sweet, I'll go for savoury every time.

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