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Desire Me Only
Recent widow Lady Diandra Reynell returns to London from India and comes face to face with her arrogant stepson, Justin, who believes that Diandra may be responsible for the murder of his father and vows to uncover the truth, regardless of his forbidden passion for the lovely widow, in an erotic tale of love and adventure. Original. 45,000 first printing.
314 pages, Paperback
First published June 1, 1997
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186 people want to read
About the author
Thea Devine
59 books69 followersThea Devine is the author of eighteen historical romances and four novellas, including her contributions to the Brava anthologies Captivated, Fascinated, and, most recently, All Through the Night. Devine lives with her husband of 35 years in Ridgefield, Connecticut.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
February 8, 2015
A strange gothic tale with raunchy bits intact. A bit OTT & goofy at times, but it's all in good fun. Clearly this author uses her alpha asshole heroes to indulge her goffick sensibilities. :D
April 5, 2021
This is why you have to read more than just one book by a romance author!
Seductive was the first book I read by Thea Devine and no. I would not recommend it as an introduction to this much-talked-about author. In fact, it's a disservice to new readers of Devine that better works such as, Desire Me Only are not easily accessible. It's kind of a crime.
Everything that I felt didn't quite stick the landing about Seductive is perfect in Desire Me Only. I thought the more risque sex scenes were great. P.S. I now get why everyone comments about the nipple thing because uh, it's quite prominent here. The couple's hate-to-love chemistry was believable, taboo, and incredibly enticing (I'll take one order of mysterious stepmom and suspicious stepson with daddy abandonment issues, please and thank you!).
Desire Me Only is a fortune teller's dream of levitating tables, murdered oracles, grey ghosts, and magically appearing and disappearing planchettes. I've read some Victorian novels that play with the supernatural but I have to say that out of what I have read so far, this is one of the most thrilling depictions of all things Victorian cartomancy and spirit speaking.
If I had one minor bone to pick, it would be the over-reliance of the planchette that might be cheesy or fun, depending on your taste: The planchette is the vehicle to make H+h realize they should be together, and it is also the last thing we read about in the novel, as it magically appears near H+h.
Ooh and I was WAY off on my prediction on who was behind everything 😂
This was great! Highly recommend this work of historical erotica with all the supernatural fun of the Victorian era.
Seductive was the first book I read by Thea Devine and no. I would not recommend it as an introduction to this much-talked-about author. In fact, it's a disservice to new readers of Devine that better works such as, Desire Me Only are not easily accessible. It's kind of a crime.
Everything that I felt didn't quite stick the landing about Seductive is perfect in Desire Me Only. I thought the more risque sex scenes were great. P.S. I now get why everyone comments about the nipple thing because uh, it's quite prominent here. The couple's hate-to-love chemistry was believable, taboo, and incredibly enticing (I'll take one order of mysterious stepmom and suspicious stepson with daddy abandonment issues, please and thank you!).
Desire Me Only is a fortune teller's dream of levitating tables, murdered oracles, grey ghosts, and magically appearing and disappearing planchettes. I've read some Victorian novels that play with the supernatural but I have to say that out of what I have read so far, this is one of the most thrilling depictions of all things Victorian cartomancy and spirit speaking.
If I had one minor bone to pick, it would be the over-reliance of the planchette that might be cheesy or fun, depending on your taste: The planchette is the vehicle to make H+h realize they should be together, and it is also the last thing we read about in the novel, as it magically appears near H+h.
Ooh and I was WAY off on my prediction on who was behind everything 😂
This was great! Highly recommend this work of historical erotica with all the supernatural fun of the Victorian era.
February 1, 2012
2.5 stars. I can see some people finding this book quite enjoyable, but I can also see many people being very surprised at what this book is NOT. In short, it is NOT a romance love story. At least, not in the way most historical romances are written - even sexy ones. Throughout the book our hero/heroine (Justin and Diandra) have a love/hate relationship, which is far more hate than love. At night they let themselves get immersed into a private sexual underworld, where they experience pure physical pleasure with each other. The sex scenes were written a bit sketchy, but they were sexy. This isn't the steamiest book I've read, but it has some steam. During the day they go on as if their sexual escupades never happened, and they bicker and snicker like an old married couple. There were no romantic jestures or wooing of any kind. Just secret hot sex in the middle of the night. The rest of the story was interesting, so it had some redeeming qualities. The books plot includes a rather interesting mystery of women dying, ghosts spooking, tables levitating, and Ouija boards appearing out of thin air. We are challenged to wonder if these events are real or staged. In the end I didn't really care about our hero and heroine, and I have a hard time believing they would really get a "happily every after", so this one was not a winner.
October 26, 2010
Because we must have balance, and so you all don't think I've gone all soft and gushy, here's some suckage to balance out all of my pleasant 4 & 5*'s reviews of late ;)
Looking for a charming or even a dark regency set romance? Well, don't look here. I have never read a romance so devoid of romance in all the years I've been reading the genre.
The story starts out when Diandra Reynell and her younger sister Selena leave India shortly after Diandra's husband mysteriously dies. Selena loathes India and wants to spend a season in London where she hopes to snag a husband. Although Diandra fears her step-son Justin, the Earl of Skene, will be less than thrilled with their sudden appearance she holds out hope he will do his duty by sponsoring Selena and putting them up for six months.
What Diandra fails to anticipate is the level of hatred Justin feels towards her. He seems to think she has murdered not only his Father (for his money) but also his Mother years earlier (so he would be free to marry her). Having had enough of Justin's insinuations and insults she tells him she will find lodging elsewhere. He decides to do the noble thing and puts them up but only so he can keep a close eye on her and hopefully find some sort of evidence to prove that she is a murderess.
When tables begin levitating and ghostly apparitions begin to appear Justin assumes it is all Diandra's trickery. She thinks it is his way of scaring her into leaving. This is only one of many obstacles that face them. There are murders, and dark secrets, jealous relatives, not to mention their own prickly personalities. Although they bicker by day they can't deny their physical attraction to each other in the dark of night where anything is possible and secrets are kept. They indulge in all kinds of carnal sex but once their needs are satiated they dislike and suspect each other all over again. The story takes a bit of a turn when women begin showing up dead and Diandra is almost the next victim. This forces Justin to reevaluate his misconceptions about her.
This is probably going to be harsh review but I spent my hard earned money on a book marked historical romance and I didn't find even a glimmer of romance within its 352 pages.
So what did I have a problem with? Well, first off I like snappy, witty or even sentimental dialogue. You know, the kind of dialogue that makes you like the characters? This book was filled with bitter, argumentative dialogue. Not only were the hero and heroine snapping at each other but so were most of the secondary characters! There wasn't a charming one in the bunch (well, maybe that poor sucker George but he was a very bit player). It got depressing and repetitive after page 100 and it never brightened up.
I have to give the author credit for pushing the envelope in the sex department but as much as I enjoy explicit sex I fear the characterization suffered in this book in order to include more sex scenes. I never got the impression that these two got to know each other or even truly liked each other. After the first sex act the many that followed bored me because I didn't care about these people. There was nothing sexy about their trysts because I knew they couldn't stand each other. I just can't fathom how anyone can be attracted to someone that makes them want to smash their face in with every obnoxious word they utter. Maybe my view of romance is skewed but romance, at least in my eyes, is about more than just lusting over someone's bod. This book was missing some important ingredients like caring, tenderness, and love. When I finished the last page I pictured these two killing each other in about a month.
Not only did the characters bother me but the writing did as well. The author has a habit of repeating herself, repeating herself, repeating herself. For example the hero is observing the heroine and the author writes, "He watched her, watched her, watched her". This strange sort of repeating thing is done many times over the course of the book - by both characters! I assume it's a quirk of the author or maybe she was striving for a stream of consciousness style of writing but it became annoying and distracting.
Well, if anything, I've learned that I like the idea of graphic sex but it has to be between two characters who like each other and I need a little dose of romance to go along with it or it just doesn't work for me. A little tenderness, a smile, a gentle caress, and a kind word would've made the descriptions of what one does with a man's cream all the more effective in my opinion . .
Looking for a charming or even a dark regency set romance? Well, don't look here. I have never read a romance so devoid of romance in all the years I've been reading the genre.
The story starts out when Diandra Reynell and her younger sister Selena leave India shortly after Diandra's husband mysteriously dies. Selena loathes India and wants to spend a season in London where she hopes to snag a husband. Although Diandra fears her step-son Justin, the Earl of Skene, will be less than thrilled with their sudden appearance she holds out hope he will do his duty by sponsoring Selena and putting them up for six months.
What Diandra fails to anticipate is the level of hatred Justin feels towards her. He seems to think she has murdered not only his Father (for his money) but also his Mother years earlier (so he would be free to marry her). Having had enough of Justin's insinuations and insults she tells him she will find lodging elsewhere. He decides to do the noble thing and puts them up but only so he can keep a close eye on her and hopefully find some sort of evidence to prove that she is a murderess.
When tables begin levitating and ghostly apparitions begin to appear Justin assumes it is all Diandra's trickery. She thinks it is his way of scaring her into leaving. This is only one of many obstacles that face them. There are murders, and dark secrets, jealous relatives, not to mention their own prickly personalities. Although they bicker by day they can't deny their physical attraction to each other in the dark of night where anything is possible and secrets are kept. They indulge in all kinds of carnal sex but once their needs are satiated they dislike and suspect each other all over again. The story takes a bit of a turn when women begin showing up dead and Diandra is almost the next victim. This forces Justin to reevaluate his misconceptions about her.
This is probably going to be harsh review but I spent my hard earned money on a book marked historical romance and I didn't find even a glimmer of romance within its 352 pages.
So what did I have a problem with? Well, first off I like snappy, witty or even sentimental dialogue. You know, the kind of dialogue that makes you like the characters? This book was filled with bitter, argumentative dialogue. Not only were the hero and heroine snapping at each other but so were most of the secondary characters! There wasn't a charming one in the bunch (well, maybe that poor sucker George but he was a very bit player). It got depressing and repetitive after page 100 and it never brightened up.
I have to give the author credit for pushing the envelope in the sex department but as much as I enjoy explicit sex I fear the characterization suffered in this book in order to include more sex scenes. I never got the impression that these two got to know each other or even truly liked each other. After the first sex act the many that followed bored me because I didn't care about these people. There was nothing sexy about their trysts because I knew they couldn't stand each other. I just can't fathom how anyone can be attracted to someone that makes them want to smash their face in with every obnoxious word they utter. Maybe my view of romance is skewed but romance, at least in my eyes, is about more than just lusting over someone's bod. This book was missing some important ingredients like caring, tenderness, and love. When I finished the last page I pictured these two killing each other in about a month.
Not only did the characters bother me but the writing did as well. The author has a habit of repeating herself, repeating herself, repeating herself. For example the hero is observing the heroine and the author writes, "He watched her, watched her, watched her". This strange sort of repeating thing is done many times over the course of the book - by both characters! I assume it's a quirk of the author or maybe she was striving for a stream of consciousness style of writing but it became annoying and distracting.
Well, if anything, I've learned that I like the idea of graphic sex but it has to be between two characters who like each other and I need a little dose of romance to go along with it or it just doesn't work for me. A little tenderness, a smile, a gentle caress, and a kind word would've made the descriptions of what one does with a man's cream all the more effective in my opinion . .
February 26, 2018
Two words: Victorian Hate!sex >:D
November 2, 2015
Until I found Kindle in 2009, THIS was the greatest raunch. Ever.
If it came out in Kindle, I'd buy it. Twice.
And I still have the paperback.
Angry, nasty, smutty historical bodice ripper goodness.
Classic.
If it came out in Kindle, I'd buy it. Twice.
And I still have the paperback.
Angry, nasty, smutty historical bodice ripper goodness.
Classic.
June 26, 2023
4.5 Stars
Brief review follows:
This was an excellent - though difficult romance to read. I am still not sure it is fully a romance despite the conventional HEA that we do get. This is a mélange of gothic vibes, erotica (ish) and romance which makes for a pretty compelling package. I was quite surprised at how readable this was and how compelling I found the story - even though I wanted slightly more romance in the end ().
For me the most compelling this was that there was actual plot in this "erotic romance". The couple's lust and obsession for each other didn't overcome the issues they had and there was drama and angst which kept the book interesting. It's probably me, but reading about sex-scenes gets boring after a while if there is no emotion or plot happening.
Surprise of the month - I would have given this 5 stars if the ending was a little longer.
Brief review follows:
This was an excellent - though difficult romance to read. I am still not sure it is fully a romance despite the conventional HEA that we do get. This is a mélange of gothic vibes, erotica (ish) and romance which makes for a pretty compelling package. I was quite surprised at how readable this was and how compelling I found the story - even though I wanted slightly more romance in the end ().
For me the most compelling this was that there was actual plot in this "erotic romance". The couple's lust and obsession for each other didn't overcome the issues they had and there was drama and angst which kept the book interesting. It's probably me, but reading about sex-scenes gets boring after a while if there is no emotion or plot happening.
Surprise of the month - I would have given this 5 stars if the ending was a little longer.
February 26, 2012
Moi, je dis: ENCORE!
Histoire: top.
Scène d'amour: extra hot.
Une héroïne pas neu-neu. Un héros qui en veut. Une pseudo histoire paranormale qui fonctionne. u méchant bien méchant qui arrive à la fin. Un beau final. Qu'est-ce que je pourrais demander de plus ? Encore d'autres histoire de cet accabi, tiens! *-)
5 étoiles= A lire et relire de toute urgence!
Histoire: top.
Scène d'amour: extra hot.
Une héroïne pas neu-neu. Un héros qui en veut. Une pseudo histoire paranormale qui fonctionne. u méchant bien méchant qui arrive à la fin. Un beau final. Qu'est-ce que je pourrais demander de plus ? Encore d'autres histoire de cet accabi, tiens! *-)
5 étoiles= A lire et relire de toute urgence!
January 20, 2015
Stepmommy is a widow. Stepson has a hardon and a bad attitude. Familial bonds are tested.
March 20, 2024
Some great sex scenes, but all of the seance scenes were just plain silly. And I get so tired of the nasty little sister trope that Thea Devine drags into all her classic novels. What is the deal with all the petty sibling rivalry in this author's books? It's unattractive!
August 4, 2011
Diandra, Justin's stepmother, returns to England after Justin's estranged father and her husband dies suddenly. Justin is bitter about his family leaving him as a boy in school in England while they all went to India, and his feelings toward Diandra, though complex, are violently negative - at first. Lots of ghost mystery in this one and the end was a bizarre twist.
January 25, 2018
For me it was a confusing read
December 1, 2022
Very weird writing style.
November 14, 2024
Ugh! Too much sex, but the murder plot line kept me reading.
Read
January 20, 2016At first I thought I was reading a suspense filled historical mystery. However I quickly found out that wasn't so. There was paranormal activity throughout, which just became annoyingly repetitive.
I loved the initial banter between Justin and Diandra, but never saw anything beyond a sexual "need" between them...and it was seemingly directed by unseen forces; with the day always came the resentment and the initial loathing for each other. I just never "felt" them as a couple.
The other characters never really pulled me in either. In fact this entire book became a "thorn in my side" because I felt compelled to read it until conclusion. It never got any better. Just more and more of the raunchiest sex scenes...yet we were supposed to believe this couple overcame their adversity and fell in love outside of the erotic scenes. I never felt that ever happened for them.
The repetition of the paranormal incidents was the worst of all...felt like I was reading a badly written ripoff of a Poe novel. All in all I can't say enough how much I absolutely detested this book.
I loved the initial banter between Justin and Diandra, but never saw anything beyond a sexual "need" between them...and it was seemingly directed by unseen forces; with the day always came the resentment and the initial loathing for each other. I just never "felt" them as a couple.
The other characters never really pulled me in either. In fact this entire book became a "thorn in my side" because I felt compelled to read it until conclusion. It never got any better. Just more and more of the raunchiest sex scenes...yet we were supposed to believe this couple overcame their adversity and fell in love outside of the erotic scenes. I never felt that ever happened for them.
The repetition of the paranormal incidents was the worst of all...felt like I was reading a badly written ripoff of a Poe novel. All in all I can't say enough how much I absolutely detested this book.
February 3, 2015
Another winner by Ms. Devine. How I love her inventive plots, the intricate mysteries that always surprise, the emotive loving. She can bring forth the sights and sounds of British India and late 1800 London. The clothes, the food, the entertainment all laid out so that you feel you can be there, without being trite or silly. Diandra is the young widow of a British Earl, met and married in Colonial India. She travels to London to give her younger sister a chance at a season fitting for a young girl just emerging into adulthood. Her step-son, Justin and now Earl, is less than happy or gracious but grudgingly sponsors their introduction to society. Many twists and turns. Terrific book.
September 18, 2013
Just one issue that I never could work out... apparently his aunt lusted for the hero...she was referred to as his aunt throughout the book...but when one of the dragons of society spoke of her it was stated she was his sister in law.... It threw me and I am still confused...lol
April 29, 2014
I bought a box of vintage books. I was surprised by this book. I did not expect to have a mystery that kept me guessing until the end. It's too bad many of the contemporary erotic books lost the need for a complete story.
November 11, 2010
I do not have a "sick" shelf, if I did, this one would be on it. I would not even give it one star if goodreads would let me.
June 24, 2025
Couldn't bring myself to finish it
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews