The Art of Desire

I have a confession to make.  I’ve been a sucker for romance novels since I was attending primary school.  That means I was reading in this genre before I was twelve years old.  Good thing my mother didn’t know.

I have another confession. Only a few years ago, I found out that there were romance novels with black people in them. Naturally, I gravitated toward those—not to say I don’t read romance with white characters but I’d been reading those for most of my teen years and way into adulthood. 

I found Selena Montgomery’s gem of a novel in a used book store last week when I went in to drop off my book.  Of course, I snapped it up because the place where I buy books rarely carries novels by black romance writers. I gotta harass them about that. Anyway, on to what I thought of The Art of Desire:-

Storyline: Phillip Thurman, a secret agent who was taken prisoner and spent three years behind bars, is working to resume a normal life. He meets a capricious female who has sworn off men. They’re attracted to each other, which leads to problems when a conspiracy is hatched to seize rulership of the kingdom of Jafir. Phillip is under threat because of his past involvement in thwarting terrorist factions.

Players: Phillip Thurman is a strong, self-contained man. He was ditched by his fiancé and therefore had reservations about a woman, who on their first meeting gave the impression of being a dilettante. His weakness is allowing the disappointment of the past to colour their relationship.

Alex Walton is a beautiful, sexy and talented artist, who makes dumping men a habit.  She starts out looking scatterbrained and flighty, but as the novel progresses she changes her outlook and the way she thinks about relationships.

I liked: the way Phillip and Alex interacted with each other. They witty exchanges and her talent for exasperating Phillip made this a fun read.  And yeah, the sensual connection between the two was well-written and therefore, convincing.

I could have lived without: a couple of the descriptions in there, like that of the obelisk the heir to the throne had to present for accession to take place. Also, there was a nifty ‘putty’ gun that for the life of me I couldn’t picture. Of course, this could be simply be a handicap on my part.

Overall comments: I liked the spy angle which meshed nicely with the romance. In Alex Walton, Montgomery created a refreshing character, nicely complemented by Phillip’s solid presence. I’m not sure why, but during the last third of the book, I wasn’t as drawn in as when I started, but that could be due to my short attention span.

Rating: Four-and-a-half-hearts!