Review: Deep Desire by Z.A. Maxfield
Publisher: Samhain
Publish Date: February 3, 2015
Reviewed by: Heller
How I got this book: E-Arc from Publisher
The Hours Trilogy #1
There’s no leverage like seduction… until love takes a bite of his plans.
As the Indiana Jones of historical erotica, there is no document existing—or just rumored to exist—Adin Tredeger can’t unearth. Why he would risk the biggest coup of his career to join the mile-high club is beyond him. But the disarming, dark-eyed man who somehow enters Adin’s locked airplane washroom has him completely nude and coming apart. All without a whimper of protest.From that moment, Adin and Donte Fedelta engage in an international battle of wit and cunning. The prize—a priceless, 500-year-old journal with illustrations so erotic it could make the Marquis de Sade blush.
Yet Donte’s desire for the journal goes far beyond simple possession. The undead nobleman wrote it. And he’s not above using every trick in his otherworldly arsenal—including seduction—to get it back.Chemistry draws them together even as fortune tugs them apart. But when a third party joins the chase, they must unite to fight an enemy with a deadly goal—to erase Donte from history.
Product Warnings: This product contains one cocky college professor, one centuries-old vampire who is out to show him who’s at the top of the food chain, and red wine. Because it goes so well with humble pie.
One of the most compelling parts of this book, for me, was the love story of Donte and Auselmo. I found the journal entries both beautiful and tragic and I could see why Donte fought hard to retrieve that last physical tie to his first and best love.
Although I enjoyed the world created here I found the vampire world-building a bit light with more the focus on the manuscript but given that it’s the first book I’m looking forward to that being explored in more depth later.
I couldn’t help but feel bad for Adin here. The poor man dealt with quite a lot in this read with several brushes with death and had his world view shift quite sharply. I hope that in future reads he’s not as sad and beaten down. He’s a good man and I enjoyed his friendship with Edward quite a bit and would actually love to read the story of how Edward and Tuan met. There were other strong secondary characters as well that made this a nicely layered read. This was definitely a sexy read with a lot of action but quite melancholy with the peppered journal entries. I won’t say it ended on a high note but rather a hopeful one. I’m looking forward to reading the other books.
I’m giving Deep Desire a B