My Forbidden Desire starts with Harsh (from the first novel) and Alexandrine reconnecting. They are brother and sister. Alexandrine has been certain of Harsh's death for years, she's resentful for his sudden presence and insistence she needs protection from an evil mage... who just happens to be her real father.

Xia, a secondary character in My Wicked Enemy, is a newly freed fiend and the one charged with protecting Alexandrine. When Carolyn said she had refashioned bad boy Xia into a hero I knew I had to read his story! His intense hate, eagerness to kill, and desire to give out pain would be hard to overcome for any writer. Even more so when you planned to pair him up with someone who Xia considers his enemy, no matter how harmless. In my opinion, Carolyn has done a phenomenal job revealing the witch hater’s inner good qualities. Xia is very easily worth the price of the book.

Alexandrine Marit as a heroine is very likeable... despite being a witch. She possesses a great amount of unselfishness, though she has to work for it. The talisman she has found is putting a number on her similar to Golem’s reaction around the one ring in The Lord of the Rings. Her self-sacrifices pile up throughout the novel – if I were to list them it would seem ridiculous, but I assure it is not. Simply put it is quite the only way to prove her character to Xia.

It took me a while to get into this book. The first chapter or two was pretty rough. I started and stopped twice before finally overcoming the strangeness of the novel's set up. As with Carolyn’s other novels, once you are involved in the story you simply can’t put it down!

Rating: 3 Stars

Buy: My Forbidden Desire

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3 Stars, ARC, Bodyguard, Contemporary, Cursed Lead, Demon, Enemies, Foster/Orphan, Interracial, J-L, Magic Users, Paranormal, Survival, United States of America, Warrior

Tags:

bad boy, carolyn jewel, desire, eagerness, fiend, good qualities, hard time, hero, heroine, marit, novel, novels, phenomenal job, sacrifices, secondary character, shoes, talisman, unselfishness, witch, xia