By Sylvia Day
Paperback, 352 pages
Published August 30th 2011
by Kensington Brava
The longer the resistance...
Seven years ago, on the eve of her wedding, proper Lady Jessica Sheffield witnessed a licentious scene no innocent young miss could imagine. Shocked, yet strangely titillated, she'd held her silence regarding scandalous Alistair Caulfield, and walked down the aisle as expected. But through years of serene, unremarkable marriage, Caulfield's image remained burned into her imagination, fueling very illicit dreams. .
...the sweeter the reward
Alistair ran far from the temptation of the prim debutante with the fire of passion in her eyes—all the way to the West Indies. As a successful merchant, he has little in common with the rakehell youth she knew. But when newly widowed Jessica steps aboard his ship for a transatlantic passage, seven years' worth of denied pleasures are held in check by nothing more than a few layers of silk—and the certainty that surrender will consume them both. . .
After reading Sylvia Day's Bared To You I had to read more from her. This book was said to be the inspiration for Gideon so how could I not go for it! Now I am not a fan of historicals. I hate stupid whiney women who have no back bone. Who always do what they are told is proper rather than what their hearts or bodies want. Ms Day solved that problem for me by creating Jessica. She is a very strong minded woman who knows what she wants in life and will do whatever it takes to make it happen.
Right from the beginning of the book you are hooked into the attractive Alistair Caulfield. When Jessica stumbles upon him making love to another women outside she cant help but watch the exchange between them. Knowing in the morning she is to marry her betrothed, she should walk away but cant help but find the sex and the man captivating to watch. She was told by the older women in her family that sex was a duty and you had to just lay their until it was over. But the women under Alistair looked as though she was enjoying the play between them. This was so hot to read and I knew the book was going to only get better.
After seven years of a great marriage, Jessica's husband passes and leaves her a piece of land in the West Indies. Determined to never have to rely on a man Jess sets out to travel across the sea to see and sell her land herself. What she never expected is to travel on Alistair's boat.
Both jess and Alistair try to deny what they really feel for each other and once they finally give in they plan it to only be while on their journey, giving Jessica a way to test her inner passions and try something scandalous and give in to what her body wants.. For once they go home Jessica must fit back into society while Alistair Caulfield does not fit into that world. What Jessica dosent know is that once Alistair got his hands on Jessica he was never letting go.The passion and the connection between them sizzles off the pages. They are so captivating and mesmerizing to read. I could not put the book down and often found myself reading so fast to see what was going to happen next, I would have to go back and reread a page or two.
I also loved how not only did we get the story of Alistair and Jessica, but you get the sub story of Jessica's Sister and her husband's complicated marriage. They have such and emotional journey too and it is not so simple to fix.
All around I found this book to be amazing and you can bet that Ms. Day is on my auto buy list from now on! A story so hot you need oven mitts to hold the book!
5 out of 5 stars!
