If You Desire by Kresley Cole

This was my first by this author, and I just didn't love it as much as I thought I would. I'm a sucker for the theme -- hero is in love with the heroine for years and doesn't think he's good enough for her, comes to find out heroine has loved him for years too..... In this book Hugh MacCarrick has come back to England at his at an urgent request to protect his employers daughter Jane Weyland from a mentally unstable rogue assassin who wants revenge on both Hugh and Jane's father by killing Jane -- the only woman either of them care for. It felt like a thin excuse, but I went with it. Jane is a bit of a thrill seeker. Within the first couple of chapters we meet her as she and her cousins are attending a masquerade ball for courtesans.... yeah. A little odd. Then Hugh marries Jane so that he can take her away to hide her (all things considered marrying her to protect her reputation seemed a bit like closing the barn door after the cows have escaped - LOL!), but he is determined to keep the marriage in name only and leave her when the threat is over, despite the fact that they are both madly in love with each other.

Frankly, the chemistry between the hero and heroine was pretty darn good throughout most of the book. I admit that. But the writing had an odd feel to it, and the hero's primary reason for not wanting to stay married is a curse that was put on his family 500 years before dooming he and his brothers to never love. It added an odd supernatural element to the story that felt totally out of place. Perhaps if I had read the first in the series first it might have been better explained... The ending was a little anti-climatic, I felt. Not as strong as I expected. Over all I enjoyed it and it was a quick read, and I will likely read more by the author if I happen across her books, but I won't be rabid to find them all.