A Passion for Pleasure
By Nina Rowan
Publisher:
Grand Central Publishing, Forever
Release Date: April 30, 2013
Sebastian Hall, brother to Alexander, Viscount Northwood (A Study in Seduction), resigned his position as conductor of the orchestra at the Court of Weimar, apparently in a display of artistic temperament, broke with his high-born patrons, and returned to London. Sebastian’s father, the Earl of Rushton, has never fully approved of his son’s musical career and is eager to see his second-born son settled into an appropriate position and married to an appropriate bride. Rushton gives Sebastian an ultimatum: marry or risk the loss of his allowance and possibly of his inheritance as well. What few people know is that a debilitating weakness in the muscles of his right arm and hand has left Sebastian unable to play the piano. His disability leaves him emotionally wounded and financially burdened by medical bills. When his brother Darius offers him money to find the plans for an encryption machine believed to be in the possession of Mr. Granville Blake, expert in automata and owner of Blake’s Museum of Automata, Sebastian reluctantly agrees to find the plans.
Clara Winter, the niece of Granville Blake, found sanctuary
with her uncle when her father cast her out after her husband’s death. It is
she whom Sebastian finds when he pays his first visit to Blake’s Museum of
Automata. Although he has forgotten her, Clara recognizes him. He may look
quite different from the musically gifted charmer who was the darling of London
society, but Clara knows this man is the same Sebastian Hall who once gave
music lessons to her and her brother in the halcyon days before the death of
her brother and mother. What Clara doesn’t know is what this man who seemed the
epitome of masculine beauty and grace to a younger Clara wants with her uncle.
She discovers Sebastian’s need for the encryption machine
plans just after she learns that her latest effort to gain custody of her only
child has failed. Her son, Andrew, according to the terms of his father’s will,
is the ward of Clara’s father, Baron Fairfax. The baron, who declares Clara
responsible for her husband’s death, charges that she is an unfit parent and
has kept Andrew from his mother for more than a year. Knowing her father is
facing bankruptcy because of his extravagance, Clara had hoped to offer him
property she holds in a life tenancy to sell in exchange for her son, but the
courts have ruled that she cannot break the trust. Desperate to have her son
restored to her, Clara offers to locate the plans Sebastian needs if he will
marry her, sell the property, which he can do legally as her husband, and use
his influence as the son of an earl, to help her reclaim her son. Against the
backdrop of familial conflict, a mother’s desperation, and an artist’s loss of
the gift that defined him, the relationship between these two develops as they
learn to love and trust one another and to believe in all they can achieve
together.
A Passion for Pleasure
is the second book in Rowan’s Daring Hearts series. While her sophomore novel
lacks the rich historical and political contexts of her debut book, A Study in Seduction, it continues the intricate presentation of the theme of parenthood introduced in the first book. Rowan weaves the primary thread of Clara’s struggle to be reunited with her son with secondary threads that include Clara’s relationship with her own twisted father and with the maternal uncle who assumes the paternal role his brother-in-law abdicated and Sebastian’s relationship with his well-intentioned but controlling father and the mysterious mother who plunged the family into scandal when she eloped with her soldier lover. The Hall family is an interesting collection of characters, different from one another yet bound together by familial bonds and by the scandal that shadows all their lives. Clara’s story is interesting in its own right, and she is a particularly sympathetic figure as she exemplifies not only a mother willing to take any measure to reclaim her child but also the legal and social restrictions imposed on women of the period.
The chemistry between Sebastian and Clara is powerful, and
the love scenes sizzle. I would like to have seen more details of the emotional
development of their relationship. As it is, pragmatism and passion seem to be
their strongest ties. I need to see the evidence rather than merely be told
that they make one another better people. I also thought the fizzling out of
the plot point involving the encryption plans was a betrayal of reader
expectations. I recommend this book but with the noted caveats. I do think
reading A Study in Seduction, while not necessary to understand A Passion for Pleasure, will make for a
more rewarding reading experience.
Despite the flaws in the second book, I am intrigued by the world
that Rowan has created. At the end of my review of A Study in Seduction, I expressed the hope that Talia and
Castleford would get their own book, and I’m delighted that it is the next book
in the series. I also look forward to learning more about diplomat Darius and
his twin Nicholas. I found 2012 an exceptionally good year for debut
discoveries, and Nina Rowan ranks high on that list.
I find that I am becoming more dedicated to reading series in order. I always feel as if I belong to an outer circle of readers when I don’t. How important do you consider reading series books in order?
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