It's only fair to tell you right off the bat that adulterous sex plays an integral role in this novel, so if you're a reader who can't get past that, your best bet is to give Irresistible a pass. But if the morality aspect doesn't bother you too much (the cuckolded husband is a jerk and the wife feels really, really bad) there are quite a few pleasures to be had in this almost retro-style book.

Frankly, on a few occasions I did feel like I was reading a story written 15 to 20 years ago in which the uber-alpha hero is both mean and melancholy, not to even mention border-line brutal to the heroine. But Karen Robards is an old hand at this and soon enough the hero softens up, the heroine displays just enough gumption, and the mistaken identities and misunderstandings give way to a more fully developed story of two people clearly fated to be together.

When the book begins, Lady Claire Lynes is quite literally clinging for her very life on a rocky seaside ledge. Mysteriously abducted by brutes who plan to murder her, she has managed to elude her kidnappers only to be cornered with the churning sea as her only means of escape. Enter Hugh Battoncourt, English spy who finds himself on the same seaside ledge expecting to find Miss Sophie Towbridge, a courtesan with treasonous letters she wishes to sell to the French government. Hugh mistakes the cowering Claire for the courtesan and, before you know it, our heroine finds herself aboard Hugh's ship on her way to France.

Not only does Hugh think Claire is a trollop, he thinks she's a treasonous trollop - hardly an auspicious start to any relationship. And with the enforced proximity of a rough crossing to the French coast, Hugh and Claire have plenty of time to rail at each other, hold each other at gunpoint, engage in the old turn-your-back-while-I-undress-and-struggle-with-my-buttons thing, and, of course, fight their fierce attraction. Eventually Hugh is brought to realize that he has, indeed, abducted the wrong woman, while the emotionally bruised and battered Claire begins to feel her first real stirrings of passion.

When the two finally arrive in France, Hugh, who now believes completely in Claire's innocence, plans to send her back to England while he continues on his clandestine mission. But treachery interferes and - dangerously close to being taken prisoner by the dastardly French - our hero is saved only by some pretty quick thinking on the part of our brave heroine. But, despite his feelings for Claire, Hugh is a man on a mission and even though the two spend an idyllic and passion-filled night in a remote French farmhouse, the morning after finds Claire bereft and alone with no sign of the man she now loves.

Clearly, their paths will cross again. And when they do some months later in London, Claire is surprised to discover that her mysterious lover is both more and less than the man she believed him to be.

Let me say that the first half of the book (consisting mainly of the voyage to France) was both familiar and frustrating, consisting of too many misunderstandings, too much hostility, too much sudden passion - well, just too much of everything. But, for me at any rate, it was worth hanging in there. Karen Robards writes superb love scenes and the two-chapter encounter between Claire and Hugh is nothing less than a knockout. I also have to say that once Hugh and Claire are back in London society, it was almost as if I were reading a different book by a different writer. I liked both Claire and Hugh here, understood who they were, and felt compassion for the situation in which they found themselves. And, while I don't want to give too much away, Karen Robards surprised me with the truth of Hugh's identity and I have to say I loved it.

Karen Robard's also does a good job of bringing just enough emotional complexity to her characters. Claire is married to a cad who seems to subscribe to the just-think-of-England approach to sex and her awakening to passion is a believable one. Hugh is a sexy, strong, and appealing hero - or at least he is once he accepts the truth of Claire's identity. And that is an important caveat. During the first half of the book, Hugh was definitely treading in mean hero territory and, like a lot of readers, that's a place I just don't want to go. I should also say that Claire has a pretty good reason to be angry with Hugh here, and I think it's an anger a lot of readers will share.

But with those caveats, overall I found Irresistible to be an adult, sexy story of two people I came to like. And, though it is clearly not a book for everyone, readers who can handle a little moral ambiguity on the way to the greater good (and who don't object to a little judicious page-skimming during that rough first half) will probably rate it as an enjoyable and worthwhile read.