MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE Review - Carolyn Jewel

A paranormal romance the likes of which I haven't read before. MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE by Carolyn Jewel was passionate, no doubt about that. What made it unique was the story; a well developed plot full of twists and turn that took me toward the unexpected at pretty much every turner. MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE was a nice change, a foray into the wild side of paranormal romance.

My Forbidden Desire by Carolyn Jewel
Publisher: Forever
Pages: 384
My Recommended Age Group: Adult
Released: June 1, 2009
Related books: My Wicked Enemy
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From GoodReads:

TORN BETWEEN...

Alexandrine Marit is a witch in mortal danger. An evil mage craves the powerful, mysterious talisman that supplies her magic, and the only person who can keep her safe is a dark and dangerous fiend called Xia. With his fierce animosity toward witches, he's hardly the ideal bodyguard. Yet as days turn into nights, she can't deny the white-hot passion between them.

DESIRE AND TEMPTATION

Xia hates witches. They enslave and mercilessly kill his kind. But he's been ordered to protect Alexandrine, who, to his surprise, has a spirit he admires and a body he longs to possess. With the mage and his henchmen closing in, Alexandrine and her protector must trust the passion that can unite them...or risk losing everything to the enemies who can destroy them both.

My thoughts:

Alexandrine Marit is a witch; well, sort of anyways. She has magic, sure enough, but unfortunately, her ability to access it is so limited that apart from some limited premonitions she's really no different than your average, every day Joe. What makes her special is the talisman that she wears around her neck; a talisman that should supposedly hold great power but does absolutely nothing for Alexandrine's limited magic. Imagine her surprise when her brother, long believed to be dead, shows up and insists that her very life is in danger due to the innocent-looking necklace. He brings along with him Xia, an ex-mageheld, and one very angry demon.

I really loved Xia's character as he is part of what made MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE so unique. It's hard for me to put a finger down on what special attribute he has, but I think I love him because he is the ultimate bad boy. It's no secret that we women tend to fall for the tall, dark and handsome bad boys out there. That fits Xia to a T, and he is definitely not ashamed to admit it. He absolutely hates Alexandrine with an intense and undying passion. Only problem is that her body and her magic are terribly arousing to him. What is one to do when you despise what another is and yet find yourself attracted to him or her at the same time? Well, try to get them in bed of course!

There are two things that make a great romance for me. One is a strong heroine, and the other is a strong hero. MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE holds both of those. Alexandrine is the type who is unwilling to take crud from anyone and she will sure as heck let Xia know when she thinks he is out of line. Of course, even when he is out of line, he's still intensely attractive so Alexandrine finds herself attracted to the demon just as much as she despises him. This conflict creates an amazing degree of depth that should allow for enjoyment throughout multiple rereads.

Jewel does a fantastic job with building the tension throughout MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE. Very seldom would she immediately give us what we wanted. Instead, she'd tease us, pulling us along just to the snapping point and then she gently release us, only to start the process all over again. This made the book quite difficult to set down and in fact, I only found four spots where I could set it down. When the tension is so delicious that you can't help but to keep reading and experiencing the story, you know you've got a great book in your hands.

The one thing that caught me up a few times were the few disconnects in the story. There were a couple times where it felt like I must have skipped a paragraph or two because the transition from one event to another seemed to be lacking something. The few times I reread the section I discovered that I hadn't missed anything. The best way I have to describe it is like trying to write this huge research paper but being told that you have to keep it to a short word count. You write the paper up, discover it's too long and then have to cut sections out. Only problem is that everything flows together so well, there's nothing that can be cut out. You do it anyways to stay within the limits of the paper and end up with something that is less stellar than the original product. Now, I'm not at all saying that these disconnects were due to editor overzealousness, that's just the best way I have to describe the feeling that I got those couple times. Really, it did not detract from the book too much and obviously I still loved MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE.

Fair warning time: You probably don't need this warning as it should be obvious, but just the same, I'd be remiss if I didn't give it. This book has strong adult themes and scenes. I would give it a sensuality rating of four with the only difference between four and five being the choice of words used. Jewel takes romance to a whole new level here; I suggest a cold drink, or perhaps a cold shower in between chapters.

Writing: 8
Interest: 8
Passion: 9
Originality: 9
Characters: 9
Pace: 8
Overall: 51/60 - B

Book Cover: 3/3

Under my rating scale, MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE earned a lovely B. If you aren't acquainted with my ratings, a B means that I loved the book and highly recommend it. If you'd rather think of stars than letters, consider B a four star rating.

To break it down, I gave Writing, Interest and Pace 8's because they were all fabulous and really helped to move the story along. The difference between eight and ten were due to mainly the disconnects that I experienced in the story. There were a couple times that I didn't understand what was going on in the story and a couple times that a highly charged scene needed a bit of a caffeine boost. The remaining qualities I look at, Passion, Originality and Characters all scored remarkably high. The passion between Xia and Alexandrine is palpable. There are a few twists and turns in this relationship that make it quite unique, but I'll refrain from explaining them here to avoid spoilers. The originality of the book was also amazing. The same twists and turns that I just mentioned created a whole new atmosphere that I had not yet experienced. The highly developed characters added to the recipe for a great plot and made this story something special. I really loved where Jewel took MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE and think that her plot choices helped to make this book as phenomenal as it is.

Now that I've told you what a winner MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE is, why are you still here? Go, buy it and read it! MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE does include characters from Jewel's earlier work, My Wicked Enemy but I wouldn't let that deter you from the book. I had not read the first book and don't feel that this impacted the story much at all. Jewel does a fantastic job of making MY FORBIDDEN DESIRE a stand alone novel.