A PASSION FOR PLEASURE (Darling Hearts #2) by Nina Rowan-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Goodreads-Release Date April 30, 2013

Prelude to a Kiss

A brilliant pianist and notorious rake, Sebastian Hall indulges his passion for music and women with equal aplomb. But now that his elder brother has married, his father insists he pursue a more respectable path and find a suitable wife.

Music to Her Ears

As a girl, Clara Whitmore quietly loved her piano teacher from afar. Yet her youthful crush cannot compare to the powerful desire she feels when she unexpectedly meets Sebastian again. Perhaps the man who once dominated her dreams could be the husband she has hoped for—and save her from the fate she most fears.

Love Strikes a Chord

Risking scandal, ruin, and their own reputations, Sebastian and Clara enter into a marriage of convenience. But the pair soon discovers that their undeniable attraction is anything but convenient. Swept up in a crescendo of desire, Sebastian and Clara take each other to new heights of ecstasy—until secrets from the past threaten to doom the duet forever. Now Sebastian will have to change his tune—and prove his love is true

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REVIEW: A PASSION FOR PLEASURE is the second storyline in Nina Rowan’s historical romance series Darling Hearts. Although it is part of a series, A Passion for Pleasure can be read as a stand along without too many difficulties.

Clara is a young widow who is currently working with her uncle at his automaton museum. But Clara is more than a widow-she is a mother who has not seen her son in over a year due to circumstances that have spiraled out of control. Her father has guardianship of the young boy and holds leverage over Clara; the information is a lie but a lie that could destroy her life. What Clara doesn’t know is that there is more to the story than Clara ever thought possible. To help get her son back, Clara proposes a marriage of convenience to her former music teacher that could help them both. But what ensues is a battle for custody that will pit two powerful families against one another and a reunion between mother and son with some amazing revelations.

The relationship between Clara and Sebastian is loving and romantic and, welcome in the face of so much sorrow and pain; despair and anger; rumination and angst. A marriage of convenience was proposed but Sebastian demands a marriage that is in every way possible not in name only. The chemistry is immediate even when Sebastian has a difficult time remembering the young student he once taught.

The scandal that has rocked Sebastian’s family is the elephant in the room, which further adds to an already tense situation between Sebastian and his father. Sebastian’s music career is all but over and he withdraws from the music world without any explanation to family and the society that once held him in high esteem. It will take the love of his wife to show Sebastian that music does not stop when the musician can no longer play. Sometimes the music plays on in the heart.

A PLEASURE FOR PASSION is a fast paced, passionate storyline that will strike a chord with historical romance readers. The customs and language of the era are intertwined with a storyline that is sure to please. There are several plotlines involving Sebastian’s family including a reluctant meeting between Sebastian and his mother, and it is Sebastian’s growing love for his new wife that forces a grown man to begin the first steps in accepting the choices his mother made. Clara is a woman who begins to tear down the wall between a mother and son, but a wall that will probably remain standing none-the-less.

Reading Order
1. A Study in Seduction
2. A Pleasure for Passion

Copy supplied by the author.

Reviewed by Sandy