A Stranger's Desire [Mass Market Paperback]

Cain comes to Sophie in her dreams, but is under strict orders not to touch her. He soon knows what love is all about after over a millennium of not caring when he realizes that his victim willingly sacrificed everything for a child not even of her womb. Cain falls in love with Sophie and wants to help her fully knowing the cost of betraying his employer is eternal loneliness in the deepest pits of Hell.

Fans of paranormal romances filled with angels, incubi, and demons will relish A STRANGER'S DESIRE. The story line is fast-paced and at a superior level when it concentrates on either Kara's health or the weird lead couple relationship. Acceptance of a scientist doing an incantation seems a stretch, even as desperate as Sophie was while a taut subplot focused on industrial espionage but feels mundane when compared with the wild paranormal elements that make Kimberly Raye's novel into a unique engaging read.

Harriet Klausner

Sophie, the frantic and frustrated scientist, is looking for a miracle in the form of a cure for her goddaughter who is desperately ill from cancer. Her attempts to find a cell stabilizing formula have all failed up until now and time is running out. In a moment of drunken desperation she calls on the Devil. Unfortunately he is unable to deliver the magic missing ingredient, but being the slimy twisted individual that he is, he agrees to Sophie's request along with taking her soul. He then sends one of his best incubi, Cain the Slayer, who has the power of sight to help Sophie.

Cain's gift of seeing the future is something he was born with and has always caused him nothing but heartache. His precognitive abilities have followed him now that he performs the Devil's bidding as an incubus, a punishment he relishes as he finds it a release from the everlasting torment of nothingness that his damnation would otherwise be.

This unlikely pair team up to help sort through the various ingredients to finalize the formula. During their time together, the attraction is scorching but yet both are fighting the demands of lust. While Sophie restrains her baser urges because she has no time for anything other than seeing Kara, her goddaughter, well. Cain's hands-off policy is due to the boss's orders. He can only seduce her after she has made her discovery and only then to get Sophie to agree to hand the formula to the Devil. While this does not mean that the erotic elements are missing from the book, but only that they are cloaked in dreams.

As their relationship heats up, so to does Cain's conscience, something that he has not heard from in hundreds of years. After experiencing the suffering of hell for a thousand years he feels that Sophie will soon regret selling her soul for the cure. He tries to convince Sophie that she doesn't know what she is getting into and that she should reneged on her deal with the Devil. Cain even goes so far has to give false information in an attempt to stall her work until he unexpectedly meets Kara and suddenly understands Sophie's reasons for selling her soul. The pair fall in and ultimately sacrifice everything for love.

While the paranormal elements are clearly there in the book, I find the story too pat. All the plot lines tied too neatly together in the end. I was looking for a darker romance and this one just did not seem to get there. I found it difficult to believe some elements of the story and also found that Raye skipped a few necessary explanations. All in all, the novel is enjoyable, light reading and those fans of Demon, Angel or afterlife romances should definitely give it try.