Dangerous Passion [Paperback]

STORY BRIEF:
Drake heads up a billion-dollar empire selling weapons to various countries. He lives in a fortress of a home with bodyguards. One day he sees paintings in an art gallery window that he can't resist. He goes inside to look and meets the artist Grace who takes his breath away. She brings her work to the gallery every other Tuesday. For the next year, Drake secretly stands in the alley on those days so he can watch her through the gallery window. He loves her from afar but knows he can't bring her into his world. One of his enemies learns of his Tuesday visits and hires four men to ambush Drake. One of them grabs Grace and holds a gun to her head. He and Grace are able to get away, and Drake takes her to his home fortress. He later shows her she can never be free again, because his enemies will always be after her as a way to get to Drake.

REVIEWER'S OPINION:
Totally enjoyable. Emotionally fulfilling. This is similar to her other books. The same alpha-type warrior who is so in love with a woman and so turned on by her that "he needs to be hosed down." The same type of heroine: gentle, caring, beautiful, brave, and needing protection. It's easy to read. Every once in a while I'm in the mood for this kind of writing. Makes me feel good. Some of it is a little over the top - with exaggerations similar to "I've done this thousands of times ..." and "I'll kill him if he so much as leaves a scratch on her." I like her style and enjoyed this even though there were a few weaknesses described below.

CAUTION MILD SPOILERS:
The weaknesses were: 1. I wanted to see how Drake would uncover and deal with the traitor in his organization, but it never happened. 2. Grace's psychic ability painting his scar felt thrown in and didn't go anywhere. If the author was trying to show a psychic connection between the two she needed to do more with it than she did. I think the story would have been fine without the psychic part. 3. The hero was a bad guy, an arms dealer. For some readers that may be a problem. I was ok with it. Not every story needs to be about perfect do-good heroes.

This is not a weakness, but I would have liked seeing more story about what went on between Andrew and Shota - how Andrew enticed information from Shota. Shota was so loyal. I wanted to see how someone could pierce through it.

DATA:
Story length: 310 pages. Swearing language: strong. Sexual language: strong/erotic. Number of sex scenes: 10. Total number of sex scene pages: 34. Setting: New York, S. Carolina, Italy, Sivatu (island in the Pacific). Copyright: 2009. Genre: erotic romantic suspense.

OTHER BOOKS:
For a list of my reviews of other Lisa Marie Rice books, see my 4.5 star review of "Midnight Man" posted 3/17/09.

I Was going to give this two stars if I was able to finish but, so help me God, I gave it my best shot and could only manage to get to the two-thirds mark.

The plot had so much potential. A bad ass arms dealer falls inlove with a girl next door artist and his enemies are after them. But aside from a little action in the beginning, nothing happens. The couple spends the majority of the book in his apartment over analizing their feelings for one another. THERE IS SO MUCH INNER DIALOGUE AND BACKSTORY. The author, while she came up with a good plot, clearly doesn't know how to write an engaging scene.

I disagree with some of the other naysayers here in that I didn't mind that the heroine was passive. I am actually quite bored with the overly feisty strumpets that are played time and time again in almost every other romance novel out there. Grace's character was refreshing in that sense, but we never really got to know her. While we are given a tremendous amount of backstory on our boy Drake, we don't really know anything about Grace.

That leads me to my next point, Drake. I get that we like our heroes to be out of this world and a bit over the top, but for Pete's sake, he needs to have some faults for him to be believable. Drake is a black belt in several different types of martial arts, is the best sniper in the world, has a rock hard body, a huge penis, makes ten million dollars a week, knows every single firearm ever made (seriously), is fluent in several languages, while he hasn't had sex in a really long time and has never been in a relationship and rarely sleeps with the same girl twice he still knows how to please a woman in bed and is an awesome lover, even though he grew up parentless on the streets and was part of a gang at an early age and has never had any close friends he's still an excellent communicator and very empathetic to Grace's every need, oh and he has manners - not because he learned them, but because he NATURALLY (yes the author really does make pains that we as the reader should know this) is a gentlemen. OF COURSE HE IS. And one other thing, he doesn't even care if he comes or not during sex as long as she has lots of multiples.

Sounds like a great guy, right? Well actually I never understood why he has to be so tender and caring. I thought the whole purpose about creating a bad boy fantasy was so that we could have a fantasy about falling for a bad boy. Why bother making him a deadly killer if you're just going to make him an emotional pansy?

Another major gripe that I have, the heroine sees her best friend get his head blown off and a few hours later she's having a romantic dinner with the hero discussing her best friend's body in the morgue and talking about bullet trajectories and CSI. SERIOUSLY? If I saw my best friend get their head blown off, or hell, anybody getting their head blown off, I'd probably be a withering mass of sobbing blubber for months, possibly years, to come. Actually, I don't think that the heroine EVER cries for her best friend.

Overall, this story is a serious case of telling not showing. There is so much inner dialogue and the story never really moves. There is one scene where the hero is masterbating while thinking of the heroine and I did think that scene was hot because there are rarely masturbation scenes in romance novels, but other than that, there was little redeaming qualities about this book.

Viktor "Drake" Drakovich is wealthy, mysterious, and deadly. There is nothing he can't have; except Grace Larson, so he buys her paintings instead. Drake hides in the shadows, watching Grace, longing for her, until his enemies discover his weakness and come for them both. Drake has to protect Grace from his enemies and himself. To have Grace, is to risk her life, and that is something Drake will not do.

Dangerous Passion stirs the senses with dramatic exchanges and deeply erotic scenes. With languid, sensual moments and electrifying car chases, Dangerous Passion kept me on edge from the first page to the last. Drake's enemies may be aggressive and relentless, but Drake is stronger and smarter. He is accustomed to waging war. Emotions and feelings are foreign to him. His need for Grace is tangible. Grace is independent and strong, but her almost solitary existence makes her vulnerable. Drake appears to be super-human; he's the wealthiest, most powerful, and most capable of men. Grace didn't stand a chance against his overwhelming desire for her. What transpires between Grace and Drake in Dangerous Passion has a dream-like quality to it; complete with a villain, a tortured hero, and a fairytale ending. Dangerous Passion is a perfect addition to Ms. Rice's Dangerous novels.

Nannette
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed