Dangerous [Paperback]

This is a story which contains elements of romance, suspence and well rounded realistic characters, making the book hard to put down. It is also refreshing as it deals with a different storyline from most romance books which cannot escape from the common cliches.

Constance Athelson has a gift which allows her to communicate with the dead and see into the future. Relying on her intuition she attends The Black Widow's Ball dressed as Isis in the hope of meeting Lucien Blackmore, Earl of Blackmore. She wants to be employed by him in cataloguing his collection of egyptian art and antiquities. Constance has had vast experience in this area having worked with her husband prior to his death. She is aware that being a woman will not work in her favour so her application will most likely be rejected due to her gender.

On arriving at the ball however, she begins to regret her decision as this is no place for a widowed viscountess,and neither will her revealing outfit persuade her prospective employer of her suitability for the position of 'Antiquities Cataloguer'. Concealed behind her mask, she flees to the safety of a room only to find herself in the arms of a stranger who believes she is the goddess Isis incarnate. They share passionate, consuming sex but Constance escapes without revealing her identity to her lover and without seeing the man she hoped would employ her.

Constance succeds in getting employed by cleverly avoiding to reveal her sex in her application and without signing her full name. When she arrives at Lyndham's Keep her boss is conveniently away so she has a few weeks to work before he becomes aware of her trickery. She hopes that her thorough work will persuade the earl to overlook her gender. Imagine her surprise when the Earl turns out to be none other than the man at the ball! He , in turn, is infuriated by her presence but cannot avoid the strong sexual attraction he feels for her. He recognises her as the woman he has been searching for since that fateful encounter, but there is a family curse that has been haunting the family for two generations. The males in the family murder the women they love and then they suicide. Can Lucien take a risk with the woman he loves to destraction? Can he trust her and believe that she communicates with the dead?

Well, it definitely kept me engrossed though I did find Lucien's mistrust of Constance frustrating and aggravating to the point where I would have loved to give him a slap across the face for being so short sighted and stubborn. Great read with a difference.

Constance Athelson, Viscountess Westbury has both an obsession and a secret. Her obsession is to be taken seriously as an Egyptian art cataloger and secure the open position to catalog the extensive and priceless collection of the Earl of Lyndham. Masked as the Egyptian goddess Isis Constance had heard the earl would be attending this evening's Black Widow masquerade ball otherwise, she never would be attending. Her secret was a visionary gift that allowed her to both see and communicate with spirits, including visions of upcoming events.

Lucien Blakemore, Earl of Lyndham couldn't believe his good fortune, or his intense reaction to the masked goddess that slipped into the room he was occupying. In a surreal moment it seemed as if destiny had delivered Isis into his arms, but the fervor of their passion was real until she fled into the night without him discovering who she was. Like a dying man in the desert he knew he could never love a woman but the sensual eroticism he'd experienced with this mysterious lady was something he longed to repeat.

*** Monica Burns has an extraordinary talent in writing sensual historical tales that will singe you from the top of your head to the tips of your toes. Not only has she succeeded in making this story boil over with steamy and beautifully orchestrated sexual encounters, but she imparts a fabulous paranormal element and mystery with Constance's gift of visions and ability to communicate with ghosts.

Lucien is fleshed out as an arrogantly and masterful lover who believes that because of the Blakemore Curse, love is an impossible and dangerous dream. The frequency of physical sex as Lucien tries to believe his passion for Constance is lust rather than love gets increasingly intense and plays out perfectly along with mystery and ghostly encounters.

The fast pace, as the plot and mystery thickens surrounding thirty years of bloody murder and suicides, is supported and enhanced by a superb cast of secondary characters which culminated into a surprise ending this reviewer never saw coming.

Bottom line: This is a powerful sensually driven historical paranormal that is a testament to Ms. Burns gift of keeping her readers spell-bound. Highly Recommended Reading!

Marilyn Rondeau, for www.paranormalromance.org

Constance Athelson doesn't flaunt the fact she can talk to spirits. Left a widow after her husband died on an expedition in Egypt, she allows her friend to talk her into attending the Black Widow's Ball dressed as Isis, the Egyptian goddess. There she has a passionate encounter with a masked man. The vision she has afterward, though, frightens her and she runs from her lover, despite the fact she feels drawn to him.

Lucien Blakemore, Earl of Lyndham, has searched high and low for Isis. When he can't find her he decides to retreat to his home to talk with the man he recently hired to catalogue his Egyptian artifacts. When he arrives he finds his new employee is not a man, but a woman. And she's also his Isis.

Despite the attraction, though, Lucien battles against something permanent. The curse on the Blakemore men means his attraction to Constance can only end in tragedy. Can Constance's love save him from his eventual spiral into madness that has caused death in the last generations of Blakemores, or will Constance help Lucien to get to the bottom of the curse, so they can be together forever?

Hot and erotic, Dangerous pulls at the reader's heartstrings. I fell in love with Constance and Lucien from their first encounter. Both of them face demons of their own, and are strong-willed. The way they battled them, and came to the eventual conclusion, kept me turning the pages and rooting for their happily ever after.

Dangerous is full of interesting side characters who added to the mix. I enjoyed the way Ms. Burns kept me guessing right until the end. I adore things with Egyptian mythology, and a good ghost story always pulls me in. Dangerous has both of those elements, and is sure to charm readers.

Amelia
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed