Reviews for En El Lado Oscuro Del Deseo/Dark Fever

The average rating for En El Lado Oscuro Del Deseo/Dark Fever based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-10-15 00:00:00 Jon Steelman Re Dark Fever - Charlotte Lamb continues on with book five of her Sins series. This one deals with the Deadly Sin of Lust. Both CL and Dante take the classic definition in this one. Unlike more refined compilers of the list of moral sins, they equate Lust with ' the disordered love for individuals, thus possessing at least the redeeming feature of mutuality, unlike the graver sins.' In other words, lusting after a person isn't as grave a sin as the others on our list because Lust requires interaction with another person. Tho one of the English Cardinals proclaimed Lust was the outward expression of Gluttony and transforms one into a slave of the profane, which eventually forces one to focus inward and again cut oneself off from Divine Love. CL has a specific focus for this exploration of Lust as a deadly vice, she tells us in her author's note: Dear Reader, The Seven Deadly Sins are those sins which most of us are in danger of committing every day: very ordinary failings, very human weaknesses, but which can sometimes cause pain to both ourselves and others. Over the ages they have been defined as: Anger, Covetousness, Envy, Greed, Lust, Pride and Sloth. In this book I deal with the sin of Lust. We can all become driven by desire, especially when we fall in love; it is a natural human instinct, and can be beautiful�but lust can also have an ugly face and express the very opposite of love. Sometimes lust is born of hatred and a desire to destroy. We start this one the just turned forty year old widowed h. She is having a very intense and passionate dream that turns into a nightmare when the h realizes that the amorous male she is dreaming about is some faceless entity and not her beloved husband of 20 years that was sadly taken from her life three years earlier. The h is also the mother of a 19 yr old girl and a 15 yr old football mad son. Since there is nothing like teenagers to make you feel ancient, the h is soon awash in a mopey moment that she has arrived at middle age and maybe the best part of her life is over. She misses her husband and she looks in the mirror and she sees the advance of time. She wonders what is left for her in the future, outside of getting her chicks launched into the world and running her half of a small boutique for women. Even tho her boutique partner tells her that her life is just starting to perk up and she needs to get involved again, it takes the gift of a vial of French perfume from her son and a new set of Chanel eye shadows from her daughter to get her thinking that maybe she needs a revamp of her image. She isn't sure she will ever want another man in her life, her older husband was her world for years and they were deeply devoted. But the winter snow and ice is making her long for sunnier climes, so the h decides to take herself off to a resort in Spain - to the utter shock of her children. (Tho the cheeky little devils are filled with suppressed glee when they realize that if mum's off on a vacation, they can sneak in that massive kegger they have been wanting to do for ages.) So the h takes herself off to Spain and shortly after her arrival, she espies a VERY handsome Spaniard, whose skin tight and nearly transparent black speedos make her mouth water. The h is highly embarrassed by her ogling of the local eye candy and soon hurries off for a night of Tapas Bar tastings with a larger group. The h is the lone female amidst a group of couples. One German Lady is very nice, but her husband wants to go back to the hotel early, so the h finds herself alone again. She is warned by the group's tapas bar guide that there are purse snatchers out and about and looking for victims. It is recommended that the ladies don't venture out on their own. The h drinks a lot of very rich red wine and CL does a veritable orgy of tapas food porn, the wild flamenco music is making the h's pulses and her head pound and she steps outside to get some fresh air. The h gets distracted by a red flamenco dress across the street and forgets the warning about being out by herself. Inevitably a skeezy guy dressed in black leather on a motor bike tries to steal her handbag. The h uses some self defense moves and then becomes petrified when the black leather skeezy guy pulls out a knife. It looks like the h is in a very dangerous situation, when all of the sudden headlights appear and the Speedo Man hops out of his very nice sports car. He rescues the h and insists she report the attack to the police . He also helps her back to her resort and treats her for shock. We find out Mr. Speedo is actually the Manager and Owner of the resort and we get lots and lots of Spanish HP travelogue as the H escorts the h about. He manages to get lots of gropey handling and roofie kisses in too, but the h is still trying to shake off her feelings of betraying her deceased husband and the H being in his early thirties is rattling her composure. CL is pretty much content to let the Lurve Force Mojo simmer, so while the tension is fierce, the Purple Passion Mojo Explosion never happens. Mainly because the skeevy black leather guy gets out of jail and starts stalking the h. He manages to sneak onto the resort grounds one night and the h opens the door to her room to him, thinking that he is the H. There is a vicious almost rape scene, where the h is beaten and doing her best to fight the skeevy criminal off, before the H and his security guards manage to break open the h's door and save her. This really unnerves the h and she wants to go home, but her face is really bruised and she doesn't want to scare her children witless. She figures they will never let her leave her home ever again if they see her all beaten up. So she hides and rests in her room for a few days and the H tries to talk to her and get her to go out with him once more. The h just can't tolerate a relationship at this point, but it is more PTSD from her attack than any objection to the H. The h also worries that the divorced H, whose ex wife was the nice German Lady's sister in law and very incompatible with the H, will want a younger woman eventually and will also probably want children that she may be too old to have. The h decides to sneak back home to England after a few more days of healing, without telling the H. But when she gets there, the H shows up in his exotic sports car three days later. The h's kids are gobsmacked. The son is leery of any bloke who is hitting on his mum and the h's daughter is wondering what a rich, hot guy like the H is seeing in her mother. The h manages to ride herd on her kids, but she too is wondering what the H is up to. For the H it is pretty simple, he wants the h badly and to him, she is the epitome of hot sexy passion and charm. But he also really likes her and during the time they spent together, they really had a lot in common and his feelings are running very deep. The H makes a big declaration of his love for her and the h acknowledges that she is feeling the love too, so we leave the two of them ready to embark on the exploration of a new relationship. One that may lead to a new lifetime of love for the big HEA. This one isn't much of a romance really, more like an h who overcomes her midlife, soon to be empty-nester crisis. The h and H did have a decent amount of chemistry and the potential for the future was there, but CL belayed that in favor of the h needing time to recover from her attack. Which nicely shelved the myriad of questions that this potential relationship raises in terms of who lives where and with whom and how and where exactly these two can go together as a couple in the future. Unfortunately that means that this book is more a HFN ending and not a true HPlandia HEA - which can be a big disappointment when you want a more substantial romance in your HP outing. Next up - the sin of Anger - a good shout about things can clear the air, but what happens when a long suppressed rage explodes and who or what will be caught in the fallout?

Review # 2 was written on 2020-10-25 00:00:00 Mark Krass "Dark Fever" is the story Bianca and Gil. A nice romance with a 40 year old widow and mother of two kids, who finally decides to take a vacation after being alone for a long time. She soon encounters a chiseled Spanish god, our gorgeous hunk of a hero, who is a 38 year old hotelier. Sizzling attraction blooms, dramatized by some miscreants and the heroine's remembrance of her dead ex. There is an almost assault by evil OM, but the hero is protective and stands by the heroine, while she continuously runs away from him afraid of her feelings. Her grown up kids are annoying, we don't get any sex scenes, and the book ends abruptly. Oh well. Safe 2.5/5