Desire Denied (Desire #2)

Beth Carmichael has had quite an unfortunate crush as a teenager on her best friend’s older brother. What a cliché, right? But, that was all in the past. And then, events conspire to throw him in her path again. It all begins with a business trip to Columbia, which said best friend, Loretta, joins her on. Then gets kidnapped. So, Beth has to notify Zach, Loretta’s brother, ex-Navy SEAL and her crush, of the kidnapping. As a cherry on top of it all, the kidnappers demand that she be the one to deliver the ransom money. What could possibly go wrong?

The book abounds with intriguing male characters; hopefully more of them will get their happy endings in future books. The main obstacle to Zach and Beth’s relationship is the fact that he is convinced that Beth is a bad influence on his sister (mainly because Loretta did blame a lot of things on Beth), and it proves tiresome having Zach accuse Beth of it again and again. Then, there is the fact that Beth was underage when Zach first noticed her in a romantic sense. The reader is advised that there is a somewhat graphic scene of attempted rape. All in all, a steamy suspense story that will keep the reader on the edge of their seat!

Ana Smith