After reading My Fair Concubine (one of my favorite books from last year), I was curious to see if the author had written a book about Dao, the servant girl who ends up as a princess. I found out that she had, but it was a Harlequin Undone – their line of short, sexy ebooks. I figured it was worth a try.
An Illicit Temptation by Jeannie Lin
(2012, Medieval China) 1/29/13
Grade: 3
Dao is a house servant masquerading as a princess on her way to marry a powerful chieftain. As a lowly commoner with no prospects, she is content to be an alliance bride until an encounter with Kwan-Li, her enigmatic escort, tempts her with the promise of forbidden love. On their adventure through the wild Khitan steppe, Dao discovers Kwan-Li has secrets of his own… Sequel to My Fair Concubine.
This novella had its moments, but in the end it was just too short. The setting of this story (medieval China and the steppes) was fascinating, but there wasn’t enough space to really explore it fully. The first half of the book was interesting, but just when I wanted to know more about the characters, the author switched the focus to the love scenes. They were fine, but having multiple love scenes in such a short book meant that other aspects of the story were neglected. The novella was fine as a quick follow-up to My Fair Concubine, but it just wasn’t long enough to stand alone. I think the author could have written a full length book about these characters, and I wish she had.
I wish the author had done more to explore the steppe setting in this story – I just finished listening to a five part podcast about the Mongols and I was eager to read a romance with that setting. But maybe that’s too foreign for romance readers. (It works for Game of Thrones!)
Karen Wheless
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