Tina's Reading Books

Oh, man, I liked this book quite a bit.

Here we have the gorgeous Evander St. John, Duke of Casterwell and his equally gorgeous wife Julianna.  They are like, totally, an A-list couple -- the Posh and Becks of their day.  Just two beautiful, cool people that other people want to be around and they have awesome parties and two great kids and a successful loving marriage.

And then we have Benedict Yeats, Egyptologist who has been madly in love/lust with Evander since they were at school together (where Evander was the coolest guy at their school).  

Ben is invited to the St. John's country home to enjoy a (fairly risqué) house party and stay after everyone else is gone to catalog a room full of legendary Egyptian antiquities acquired by Evander's grandfather.  Of course Ben is thrilled to have the chance to work with such a famed collection, but he is miserable to be so close to the one person he desperately wants but can't have because he is happily married.

Or not.

Because Evander seduces Ben quite thoroughly.  Aghast Ben realizes that Evander likes men and even better likes him.  But what about Julianna and his marriage?  Ben may be in love but he is no home wrecker!

Like I said, totally enjoyed this one.   Evander and Ben were two really great characters to get to know.  Like Ben, I loved Evander.  He seduced me on the page as well.  The author did a great job of making you understand how charismatic and handsome Evander is and why he seems to be a sun that so many people orbit around.  And Ben's quieter, more internal intensity made a great foil for Evander.  Best of all the two of them together felt really romantic and very sexy.

But what about Julianna?  I also liked her.  She was a fab character who was written very smartly.  As a reader I immediately copped to what was going on.  Poor Ben was much slower on the uptake.  But we needed to get our angst/conflict from somewhere and as a place to hang the conflict on, Ben's reluctance to be a side piece was a good one.

I also liked that we got to go on an dig in Egypt with Ben.  That was an unexpected bonus.

Good book!