Lord of Desire

Title: Lord of Desire (2005)
Author: Paula Quinn (Warner)
Period: Medieval-Norman Conquest (1065 England)
Grade: C

Lord of Desire is a romance rarity, an erotic bubblegum Medieval. Quinn has crafted two likeable enough leads but they are out of place in the setting. This isn't a wallpaper romance because it isn't that the setting is ignored. Instead, it is just misused to an almost comical level. The role of the match-making Fairy Godmother is played by William the Conqueror. For serious? The dialogue and idioms are so completely modern that it is laughable.

Brynna Dumont's (why does a Saxon girl have a Norman/French last name?) father was defeated in battle by a Norman, Brand Risande. King Edward and Duke William of Normandy orchestrate a marriage between the two that Brynna agrees to if only to ensure peace for her home and people. Brand, a close friend of William's, is much more reluctant to agree to the match. His former fiancé betrayed him with another and he refuses to ever love again. Brynna has the modern and cheerful attitude that she can not imagine a loveless marriage. She is certain she can make her husband love her. They are in lust from the start and she is almost instantly in love. The two build a good rapport and their chemistry is the highpoint of the book. Paula Quinn's books are billed as highly erotic romance novels, but here the sex scenes (while rampant) weren't that hot or risque by my standards.

The entire novel seems one where love and lust are easily confused. Brand is a funny and charming hero, but his entire being revolves around loving (or more likely lusting) after his former fiancé. I think it is always a bad sign when the hero's friends, such as William, despise his former love while he remain ignorant of her character flaws. It paints the hero as a fool. It bugs and overshadows his good quality. That it continues for so long and to Brynna's determent makes it intolerable.

Brynna, for her part, is an imperfect heroine. She does a lot of jumping to conclusions, storming away, and attempting to make Brand jealous. Luckily, she has the assistance of her friend William to patch up her marriage. Good thing he wasn't too busy with scheming to invade a nation and build an empire to fix the love life of a random Saxon girl. If the history and setting were not so completely abused, I'd rank this romance considerably higher because of Quinn's felicity with relationship development.