Decadent Deceptions – Review

Posted August 3, 2010 by Jen in 4.5 stars, Erotic Romance, Historical Romance, Rating A, Reviews Tags:

Decadent Deceptions
Author: Keta Diablo
Release Date: October 2008
Publisher: Noble Romance Publishing
ISBN: #978-1-60592-013-9
Genre: Historical Erotic Romance
Note: This book was given to me by the author for the purpose of review.
From the author’s website:

Daring and desperate to win Morgan’s love, Olivia Breedlove embarks on a reckless folly. But everything backfires when Morgan remains one step ahead of her and the game ventures down a path of duplicity and murder.

A decade ago, Morgan was a heartbeat away from taking Olivia’s virginity. Her father, Thaddeus, intervened and threatened to meet him over pistols if he so much as looked at his daughter again. But now, Thaddeus is dead and Morgan has no intention of ignoring the ravenous hunger he’s harbored for the blasted woman for ten years. 

One way or the other, he will quench this burning desire and make her his forever.

What I’m talking about:
The book starts out with the recent death of dear Olivia and Cain’s father. He was a wealthy man who split his estate between his son (and fiancée) and daughter – with one catch: she must wed a respectable man of the gentry within 6 months. Headstrong Olivia does NOT like this plan, especially when the love of her life (and brother’s best friend) does not meet her father’s criteria.  Alas, Olivia is determined to win over Morgan, regardless of her father’s last wishes, if only Morgan would look at Olivia as more than a little sister.  In order to win over Morgan, Olivia begins a quest to make him jealous by venturing to the local brothel to “observe and learn.” 
Meanwhile, Morgan has loved Olivia for ten years and is nearly insane with desire. He wants Olivia to love him and determines to “help” her in her endeavors.  Morgan and Olivia enter into game of cat and mouse to try and win over the other. Little do they realize that they both want the same thing: each other. Misconceptions raise the stakes at each turn of events. (It reminded me of that Friends episode when Phoebe and Rachel tried to get Chandler and Monica to admit that they were fooling around, yet Chandler and Monica wanted the ladies to admit they knew…) Top off these games with the fact that some one is killing off the brothel’s female employees, and it looks like the same person may be stalking Olivia.
I have to tell you that I usually hate it when couples hide their emotions from one another for silly reasons. I’m usually yelling “Grow up and just tell him/her you love them.” But the intense sexual attraction between Olivia and Morgan kept me glued to this delightful tale. Their wicked games engrossed my life – keeping me up until all hours reading. The societal expectations of the times had me worried that they would be discovered as they toyed with and indulged in each other, drawing out their unspoken lust.  The knowledge that there was a murderer in the mix had my heart racing. In short: this book had me hooked.
There were a few times during the book that I did get a little bothered with Morgan pushing things too far-too fast. And boy did he put his foot in his mouth a time or two. But Ms. Diablo didn’t let these “negative” character points draw out. It seems like each time I’d get frustrated (which wasn’t often), the situation was remedied to my liking within a page or two. 
All of these wonderful (and not so pleasant) situations caused me to experience joy and heartbreak while reading the book.  This made the moment when Morgan and Olivia finally came together in love all the more spectacular.  This book is a wonderful blend of mystery, action, humor and HOT sex! I did not want the tale to end.
My Rating

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