Smitten by Books

Forbidden Passion
Author: Rita Herron
Publisher: Grand Central
Pub. Date: April 1, 2010
ISBN-13: 978-0446199490
Retail: $6.99
352 pages

SHE SEES HIM IN HER DREAMS…

Fueled by her family’s murder years ago, Dr. Marlena Bender has devoted her life to understanding violent criminals. But when a serial killer in this small Southern town starts taking the lives of women in diabolical ways–leaving trophies of his kills on Marlena’s doorstep–it all hits too close to home. Terrified, Marlena turns to the only man she can trust…the man who saved her life.

BUT HIS SECRET IS HER WORST NIGHTMARE.

Sheriff Dante Valtrez would move heaven and earth to keep Marlena safe, but he’s not the savior she thinks he is. A dark legacy runs through his blood and a dangerous secret lies within him. Now a fierce, hot, ruthless desire draws Dante and Marlena together–as a demonic force from his past threatens to rip them apart, destroying everything they hold dear.

~*~*~

Action-packed, exciting and sexy…Rita Herron continues her Demonborn series with a compelling story of a demon walking the fine line of good and evil who finds his soul mate in Forbidden Passion.

Forbidden Passion is book three in Herron’s Demonborn series. While the characters from book one and two are mentioned in this book, their stories do not have to be read to enjoy this novel. It could very easily be considered a stand alone book. This is not an ongoing battle against the same villain that uses the same characters in each story. This is a series that focuses on each brother’s battle with his evil side and how the women in their lives help them win that battle. Our main character in Forbidden Passion is Dante, who has been an outsider from his demon family since he refused to kill our heroine, Marlena, years ago.

This book follows his quest to protect her years later, as his evil family rises up to draw Dante back to the dark side. He struggles against his evil father and at the same time, discovers the family he never knew he had who are working on the side of good. Dante and Marlena fight against everything trying to push them together; their bond, their history and their passion. Are both of them so damaged from events in their past, they can never find the courage to love again?

Herrron takes paranormal to a different arena, which is something completely refreshing. Most paranormal series can or will take place in a large city with multiple characters whereas this novel has the feeling of a small quiet town and focuses on the two main characters. There are other characters introduced along the way, but they don’t deter the story from its main focus and still makes it all flow very nicely.

Dante and Marlena have a relationship that begins more on instinct rather than feeling. It’s easily described as something along the lines of love at first sight. The action moves so fast in this story they hardly have time to sit down and communicate what’s going on between them, so its develops more by their physical attraction to each other. As in most cases, they have personal baggage that is holding them back, but as the story develops, they find it’s becoming harder and harder to resist one another:

He swallowed again, disturbed by his reaction to her. The slow burn of arousal heated his blood. Her scent enveloped him, the scent of an animal on the prowl recognizing its mate.

He’d never expected Marlena to make him feel like this, to have this instant attraction to her. This dark…lust.

This damn need…

This novel moves very fast, which leads to the one and only complaint with the story; it moves too fast. As a reader, some areas lacked the proper description to create an emotional involvement in what was happening in the story and with the characters. So much happened so quickly, it was hard to process everything that was going on and the character development suffered for it. Overall though, it was a fun exciting read, with quite a few surprises along the way.

Rating: 7  (Good )

Heat-Level: 3  (Sensual)

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