Review: For Desire Alone by Jess Michaels (ARC)

Soon after her protector's death, Mariah Desmond discovers that very meager arrangements had been made for her. With very little savings, she has no choice but to seek out another protector -- and she only has six months to do so before the lease on her house runs out.

Mariah still believes in love (and was in love with her previous one) and so she's refused Vivien's help to match her with a new protector, hoping that she could find someone on her own.

John Rycroft has desired Mariah since the first time he saw her -- but he could not betray his best friend, Owen (her protector) and so he's desired her from afar. He is surprised to see Mariah at Vivien's ball, so soon after Owen's death. One touch and his long-suppressed desires all come to the forefront -- and he has this one opportunity to act on it.

Jess Michaels offers a warning on the title page of the book: "Contains intensely sexy scenes of two people falling into bed (a lot) and in love." -p. 2

I think Michaels has done a good job of selecting appropriate titles for her stories: The first book, "An Introduction to Pleasure" introduced us to the world of Vivien Manning and her mistress friends. Lysandra and Andrew were tentative in their exploration of love and desire. In For Desire Alone, John and Mariah are making up for lost time -- they've felt desire for each other for a long time but hadn't had the opportunity to act on it until now.

They make no pretenses when they start their affair -- they are delving into the depths of their passion.

The interactions between the hero and heroine are very physical -- that's how they communicate to each other. And Michaels does a very good job of writing about their physical intimacy.

Overall, this was a very good follow-up to An Introduction to Pleasure. I am now more intrigued about Vivien Manning, who plays a bigger role in this story.

For Desire Alone is the second book in Jess Michael's The Mistress Matchmaker series. It will be released on November 6, 2012. (For an excerpt, click here.)

The third book, Her Perfect Match is scheduled for release in March 2013. For more information about Jess Michaels and her books, visit her website.


Disclosure: I requested this ARC from the author. Yes, this is an honest review.