Желание

by Louise Bagshawe, Луиз Бегшоу

Лиса Костело напуска родната Англия, за да търси късмета си в страната на неограничените възможности. Съдбата я среща с филмовия магнат Джош Стийн. Той се влюбва в нея от пръв поглед и не след дълго ѝ предлага брак. Разточителната сватбена церемония в Тайланд обаче завършва с грандиозен скандал. Лиса става свидетелка на изневярата на Джош с една от шаферките. И незабавно иска развод.

На сутринта Лиса се събужда до окървавеното тяло на Джош. Убедена, че в пристъп на гняв го е убила, побягва. Всички я заклеймяват като убийца. По следите ѝ тръгва журналистът Сам Мъри, бивш служител на ФБР, сключил сделка за милиони да отразява историята.

Сам открива Лиса, но все повече се съмнява във вината ѝ. Двамата започват свое собствено разследване. Но преди да стигнат до поръчителя, трябва да избягат от преследващия ги наемен убиец.

"Остроумен и интригуващ трилър, който се чете на един дъх."
Daily Mail

Genres: Chick Lit, Romance, Fiction, Romantic Suspense, Thriller

263 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2010

About the author

Louise Daphne Bagshawe was born on 28 June 1971 in England, UK. She attended local all-girls Catholic schools near her family home in Surrey, before going to Oxford University in 1989. After graduating with a degree in Anglo Saxon and Norse, she worked as press officer with EMI records and then as a marketing official with Sony Music. On her 22nd birthday, her passion for writing was realised with a major publishing deal as Louise Bagshawe. She is the author of more than fifteen novels, published in more than eight languages. She is sister of the also writer Tilly Bagshawe.

Louise married Anthony LoCicero, and they had three children, but since June 2011, she is married with her second husband Peter Mensch. She lives in Northamptonshire with her family, and has been the Parliamentary Candidate for Corby and East Northants since November 2006, and became the Member of Parliament for Corby after winning the seat at the 2010 general election.

Reviews

[Shannon · Rating 2 out of 5]

I used to be a fan of Louise Bagshawe, and for those that are, I think you will enjoy this book as it is certainly aligned with all her others, possessing the classic Bagshawe novel characteristics; strong female lead; masculine love interest; slimey evil guy; and of course the conspirator who is often predictable, though I'm not sure it's intended to be a huge surprise as I believe Bagshawe targets smart women who feel a part of them could be emulated through the main character, and therefore would clue on fairly early to who the real baddy is.

Which leaves me to conclude: it is a classic book from Bagshawe and if you have read her novels before, you will know exactly what to expect. It's enjoyable, but a bit like opening a Christmas present when you already know what it is.

[Bhavya · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.5 stars
It was one of the books which start out good, not great, but good enough...and then go into a hole there is no salvation from.
So yeah, here's to wasted potential.

[Nels · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5 out of 5 stars

[Tania · Rating 1 out of 5]

It was a bit stupid. I hate books where the characters just automatically fall in love.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lisa Costello is leading a charmed life – until she wakes up the morning after her glamorous Thailand wedding to find her new husband Josh dead in their bed, the murder weapon in her hand. She remembers learning at the wedding that Josh had been unfaithful, but she certainly doesn’t remember killing him. As Lisa flees the scene for Europe, ex-FBI trainee Sam Murray is on her trail. Catching up with her, he’s quickly convinced she’s been set up, and they start to work out which of movie producer Josh’s many enemies could be behind the hit. It’s a race against time to unearth the truth and keep Lisa out of jail – or gunned down by the professional assassin tailing them. And the danger only adds to the excitement of the passion brewing between them…

I’ve been a huge fan of Louise Bagshawe’s books for a long, long time. It was actually her books that got me into Chick Lit quite a few years ago, so you can say I owe my obsession with the genre to her a little bit! Louise has recently taken a bit of a shift in the direction of her books, and perhaps she is all the better for it. Her latest two books, Passion, and now this one, Desire, have been a little darker and grittier than her previous releases and I must say that I really loved this one far more than I was expecting, and I just couldn’t put it down!

Desire begins with a fairly shocking beginning, with the introduction of a mystery assassin and the storyline leading up to the murder of Josh. I love that from the beginning, the audience is in on who the murderer is, whether we know the assassin’s identity or not, but this just makes it more exciting because you want everyone else in the book to know too, and therefore I just wanted to keep reading and finding out whether it would dawn on people what is going on. The pace of the book is very quick, with a lot happening very fast, and this continues right the way through the book.

The characters are all fantastic, especially the leading lady Lisa. She is a British character in amongst an American setting so she stands out immediately and that’s important to the people reading the book as she is the one that requires our sympathy, and you have to want it to work out right for her. She is very likeable, and I enjoy her character development throughout the book. She starts off as a bit of a bimbo trapped in a world she doesn’t understand, but as the story moves on, so does Lisa as a character and I really enjoyed this. Bagshawe has also written a great relationship with Sam, the American journalist who tries to help Lisa, and he’s also very likeable, and a bit of a “hero” character!

As well as following these characters, the book moves across several different countries as well, and I really enjoyed this aspect of it. Bagshawe really translates each of these places onto paper really well, and I had no difficulty in imagining them in my mind when I was reading which made it all the more exciting. There were some great action scenes in there, which weren’t too over the top and fitted well into the whole book. There are two big dramatic scenes which went really well in the book right near the end, and I was literally on the edge of my seat reading them, it was really well done and I couldn’t believe how much I loved them!

I was a little worried about a chick lit book about an assassination because the two don’t really go hand in hand but for this book it definitely works! Bagshawe definitely has a real talent for writing and I think that if this is the direction she is going to take her books in from now on, then it’s going to be very successful because I can’t think of anything else like it out there at the moment! The characters were all well written and believable, the plot was fast paced and exciting, and the book as a whole was just great. I loved it, and cannot recommend it enough, particularly if you like something a bit different from your normal chick lit! Fabulous!

[Preet · Rating 4 out of 5]

I'm huge Louise Bagshawe fan. I own and have read all of her books except her latest "Destiny" and hope to change that soon.

I was really looking forward to reading this book after I got done with "Passion". I like the new dynamic Louise has going here with adventure and danger with romance thrown in. That being said, I just wish she'd done it better.

I liked Lisa. Even though she's put down from page one and you don't know anything about her yet. There were parts where I felt Lisa's characterization was shaky. The book kept mentioning she was not like all the other blondes in Hollywood, but then why did she always take the path of least resistance? And I liked Sam even less. I do like a macho hero who can handle just about anything, but having a hero who admitted to enjoying prostitutes? That's a bit much for me. But I must say I'm glad there's some sex in the book, even if it isn't the best sex scene Louise has ever written.

The best part of this book is the intrigue. It's a nice thriller even if it's main characters are a bit lost and confused. :)

[Bharath · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book starts with a bang for sure. Lisa wakes up to find her husband dead on their wedding night. The dagger is in her hand and they have just had a fight the previous night. Former FBI agent and now media reporter Sam gets on her trail. He believes she is innocent. What follows is a lot of running around and danger as a killer pursues them.

While the book was a good read overall, the last few pages could have been better. A recommended read..

[Jayne · Rating 1 out of 5]

With the plot this could have been brilliant but what a let down. It was neither chick lit or thriller just a clump in the middle. In the end the whole thing felt silly and not well thought out. Disappointment

[Simone · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book ok but a Jackie Collins-esqe....Hollywood tacky

[Treasure · Rating 3 out of 5]

was this book a literature masterpiece?
absolutely not

did this book keep me entertained?
yes,yes it did

This book is the kind of book I only enjoyed because of my mood.The writing isn’t really my cup of tea.The structure and pacing of the book is questionable but nevertheless it kept me entertained.

Let’s start of with the things I liked/enjoyed:

- love love the idea and concept of the book.It’s unusual not very common and sparks immediate interest
- the book is rather fast paced. There’s constantly something going on which grabs the reader’s attention quite easily
- smart fmc. Unfortunately quite rare in the book industry
- multiple pov‘s

Now to things I didn’t particularly like/enjoy:

- as already said i don’t like the writing of the book. I can’t even explain why, I just don’t like it
- the multiple pov switches in a chapter. I’m generally not a huge fun of pov switches in a chapter but here in this book i just found it really irritating. One paragraph it would be Lisa then the next Sam then back to Lisa oh and let’s also squeeze Felix in there too! 😒
- towards the end Lisa’s character was really put on the back burner even though she’s literally the mc. I hated how much she depended on Sam. Lisa was such a character towards the beginning and then she only appeared for sex.
She’s the fugitive not Sam. Later on I know it’s a bit different but I still Lisa isn’t dumb and helpless
- lastly the pacing of Lisa and Sam‘s relationship. First it starts of with minor attraction and then boom sex, let’s not do that

[Richard Gadsby · Rating 1 out of 5]

I really struggled with this book and couldn't wait for it to end. I found a number of issues with it, starting with the removal of the suspense element at the beginning where it flags up that the accused isn't the killer. The opportunity for any kind of intrigue is therefore lost.

The characters are all superficial and cardboard cut-outs. The hero just happens to know somebody in every part of the world who can get him out of a scrape. He's also always ahead of anyone else - it makes no difference who. I couldn't see any depth to the plot - it just followed its inevitable path to a cosy conclusion.

The book is clearly aimed at an American audience which means that the dialogue feels stereo typical. There's also too much foul language, perhaps for the same reason. The sex scenes reminded me of The Mister. It's all formulaic and uninvolving. I like a bit more of a challenge with my reading. This book didn't satisfy.

[Krista · Rating 4 out of 5]

I took this book out because I was trying to figure out if it was a book I read back in high school (I was wrong but I found out what book it really was at the end so it worked out). I loved Lisa, I found her to be a very strong character in the beginning. She was smart and fast and did what she needed too. That started to fade away a bit once she and Sam got together. She was still smart and took care of herself but slowly started to fold into him. I liked Sam for most of the book ( the "taken her when she was half asleep" made me say nay to him in the end)
3.5/5

[Leah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Lisa Costello is leading what you might call a charmed life up until she waves up the morning after her lavish Thai wedding to find her husband dead in bed beside her and no recollection of what happened the night before. All Lisa does remember is seeing her husband Josh being unfaithful to her and realising just what a sham her wedding actually is. Realising that things are looking increasingly bad for her she does the only thing she can think of and she flees. Ex FBI-man Sam Murray is quickly on Lisa’s trail though and as Lisa ends up in Europe, Sam isn’t far behind her believing that Lisa could indeed be innocent. The two eventually join forces and it soon becomes a race against time to unearth the truth particularly since there’s a disgruntled assassin on their trail…

I’ve become quite a fan of Louise Bagshawe in the past few years. I really enjoyed Sparkles and thought it was a very well thought out and absorbing read. I then read Tuesday’s Child which I just plain old loved before finally getting my hands on her last release Passion which was touted as a James Bond for girls. I thought Passion was just as absorbing as Sparkles and I loved how much of a thriller it was. Chick lit books rarely have thrills and assassin chases so it’s fair to say that Louise Bagshawe proves a welcome distraction. I was obviously thrilled to receive a proof of Louise’s newest book Desire and I finally succumbed to reading it.

Most of Bagshawe’s novels revolve around a similar style plot – a strong female heroine ends up in a difficult situation of sorts and ends up needing to have a man by her side to help her through it. But all of her plots differ – Sparkles was about the diamond industry, Tuesday’s Girl was more chick lit than usual and Passion was James Bond for girls. Therein lies my problem with Desire – it’s not dissimilar to Passion. In both Passion and Desire you have Melissa and Lisa respectively finding themselves on the run from an assassin and having the help of a man to guide them through it. Will in Melissa’s case and Sam in Lisa’s case. Although Lisa is also on the run from the law it just seems that Louise Bagshawe has trotted out the exact same plot from her previous book.

Much like Passion, Desire begins by introducing us to our assassin and the client who hired him (although we don’t find out who the client is until much later) before bringing us back to Lisa’s story and her wedding in Thailand. After Lisa discovers her husband being unfaithful before her very eyes, Lisa then wakes up the very next morning to find her husband dead. The reader of course is well aware that Lisa didn’t do it but thankfully the unravelling of the plot is still worth reading. What I think is done well in Desire is the descriptions of all of the countries Lisa – and later Sam – find themselves in. Lisa is a Brit living in America but there’s not much time spend in America and the book flits from Thailand to Hong Kong to Europe and I very much felt like I was there with Lisa and Sam. I also liked the inital chase between Lisa and Sam as Sam tries his hardest to track Lisa down until it becomes apparent that Lisa actually needs Sam to help her prove her innocence. From then on they make a very good team.

I quite liked Lisa. She’s, as I said, a Brit girl living in America looking to make her life better and then Josh comes along and literally sweeps her off her feet. We learn how their relationship came along and we learn how it all came to the sticky conclusion of Josh’s murder and I thought it was a shame Lisa had to put up with so much. I also liked how her survival instict came rushing up to her once she discovered Josh’s dead body. Enjoyed might be the wrong word for someone running away from a crime scene and evading the cops but I liked how smart Lisa really was in knowing that she had to get away to be in with a chance of surviving. I also liked Sam, he seemed very much in the mould of Will from Passion, but he was still a likeable character despite the similarities. I liked the way he managed to track Lisa down and I thought he was wasted as a celebrity journalist as his tracking instincts were fab.

Louise Bagshawe’s writing is as good as always but as I was reading I just couldn’t help comparing it to Passion. There are subtle differences – particularly why both Melissa and Lisa end up on the run – but bar that the similarities are seemingly endless. I had my suspicious about who it was that had hired the assass-ing right at the beginning of Desire and it turns out I wasn’t too wide of the mark so when it was eventually revealed I didn’t feel too shocked as I kind of saw it coming. There are lots of action scenes throughout the book which I thoroughly enjoyed though. There’s nothing like a chick lit action scene and Bagshawe excels at writing the action scenes. I could feel the tension between Lisa, Sam and the chasing assassin.

Overall I thought Desire was an OK read. It loses by being so so similar to Passion and I agree with the review I read on Amazon – it was as if Louise had changed a few points of the plot as well as the characters and title name and came up with Desire. Had I not already read Passion then I would have thought this was an outstanding and original read. As it is, I thought it was far too same-y. My advice would be to read either Passion or Desire and personally I’d pick Passion having read them both.

[Dorothy · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is strictly a book for lovers of the Romance genre, even though its plot sounds thriller-esque. I say that because, much though I enjoyed the opening premise and the main characters, I soon started to feel bogged down and irritated by the long-winded Romance-style internal monologues. Yes, we know Lisa's scared, we don't need yet another entire page of her agonising about it. Not finished it yet, it will depend how many more of them I can bear to wade through.

[Dariana Atanasova · Rating 3 out of 5]

Изумена съм как е възможно такава хубава криминална история да има такава ужасна корица.. и име. Човек би помислил, че е поредната любовна боза.
Този роман ми допадна и въпреки супер излишната “романтика” има страхотен out of the box сюжет.
Прочетох я на един дъх и я препоръчвам за моменти в които ти се чете но не знаеш точно какво. Впечатли ме, но имам твърде високи критерии за 4 или 5 звезди 😁

[Rachael · Rating 3 out of 5]

Desire follows the classic recipe of a “who-done-it” mystery with a touch of steaminess, romance and life on the run. I personally wasn’t too keen on the writing style - the short, stocatto’ed sentences didn’t create flow. But I enjoyed the storyline, but I won’t lie… I was a little let down by who hires the assassin to kill Josh Steen - would’ve loved it to be someone totally unexpected. But it is a solid 3/5.

[Matthew Hardy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This one caught me by surprise, and I mean that in the most complimentary way possible. The story hooks you in from page one, the plot is fast-paced and exciting, leaving you wanting to read chapter after chapter, and it has a genuinely surprising twist near the end. I'll be looking out for more works by this author for sure!

[Victoria · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF 0/10
Was this written in the 90s and rereleased now to include cell phones? Are there cell phones? No there's not. This is not a modern book and it shows. Lascivious gross man constantly leering at this chick while he's meant to be helping her. Whatever!

[Alison Hydes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book had an interesting plot. Girl marries man who is killed while she is asleep.Everyone thinks she is the murder. She escapes. A journalist starts tracking her, they meet then they become the hunted. Along the one they fall in love.
I quite enjoyed the story.

[Smitha Vasudevan · Rating 3 out of 5]

Did Lisa really murder her new husband in Thailand on their honeymoon. Lisa does not remember much except being betrayed. Fleeing from the scene, she has only a faint straw to hold on to. Will Sam help her escape being framed?

[Sukanya Roy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good book

[June Jones · Rating 4 out of 5]

This should be rated as a thriller, very exciting middle and end, bit slow at beginning.

[Claire Rumens-harper · Rating 5 out of 5]

Unstoppable

This has to be one of the best books I’ve read.
Well written, filled with suspense, betrayal and fear!
5 stars just doesn’t seem enough!

[Ipek Izmirli · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book is a good combination of romance and thriller.
At first I was not sure if I’d like it,however I loved it.

[Borislava Kratunkova · Rating 5 out of 5]

Страхотна книга! Перфектно съчетание на динамика,любов,страст и тръпка от преследване по целият свят.

[Melissa Projkoski · Rating 2 out of 5]

..

This book is quite different to her other books.
It dragged on a little at times and went into too much detail in some parts.
Ending quite predictable.

[Nessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was great read, I absolutely love Louise books.

Thoroughly enjoyable and can't wait to read more by this author.

[Lynne Foster-Jones · Rating 2 out of 5]

Far too predictable unfortunately...

[Chrissia]

I want to read this so bad

[Jo L Caunt · Rating 3 out of 5]

6