The Pleasure of Your Kiss by Teresa Medeiros

Ashton Burke and Clarinda Cardew's book




The Pleasure of Your Kiss


By Teresa Medeiros


Book Blurb:
Ashton Burke is a legendary adventurer who has spent the past ten years roaming the globe to forget the girl he left behind. His devil-may-care life is interrupted when he's hired to rescue his brother's kidnapped fiancée from a sultan's harem. Too late, he discovers she is none other than Clarinda Cardew, the very same girl who made off with his jaded heart a decade ago.

The last thing Clarinda wants is to be trapped in a palace of sensual delights with the man whose irresistible kisses still haunt her sleepless nights. Although he vows he is only doing his job, Clarinda quickly realizes that allowing Ashton to rescue her may put her yearning heart in even greater peril. In a journey that takes them from the delicious intrigues of a sultan's court to the glittering ballrooms of London, Ashton and Clarinda resume the steps of their dangerous dance only to discover the most seductive pleasure of all may be love itself.

My feelings are all over the place with The Pleasure of Your Kiss. There were times in the story I thought it was spectacular and then there were other times I was skimming the pages to get past them.

As always with Teresa Medeiros, the writing is top notch. I am a big fan of her style. I also really loved that The Pleasure of Your Kiss was a historical romance where the setting is primarily centered in a far off distant land full of camels, silks and Sultans. What a pleasure to read something different. I got all caught up with the scents of oils, the silk textures of the lounging pillows and the fresh breeze wafting up from the ocean. Simply excellent. 


Ash and Clarinda have a past relationship that dated back to when they were just children. I adore these types of stories with rich backgrounds. I can really get into couples with histories. Although Ash and Clarinda seemed to have been destined to be together and totally in love, I am not all that sure I bought into the reasons behind Ash's decision to leave her and England behind. Regardless, their young love impressed so deeply on Ash that every woman he met along his adventures, he always compared back to Clarinda. Clarinda however was extremely bitter. 


Ten years float by and Clarinda along with her socially inept best friend, Poppy find themselves kidnapped and held hostage at the mercy of the Sultan, Farouk. I really liked Farouk. Teresa Medeiros did a wonderful job setting up this character. I think he was my favourite character in the whole story. Which I think is one of my problems. Shouldn't my favourites be either Clarinda or Ash?  I wanted to read more about Farouk and his friendship with Poppy. These secondary character relationships just caught my interest more.   


Clarinda quickly bored me with her attitude. Yes I understand her young heart was broken in peices by Ash but I wished she was funny or sarcastic or something other than what was given. She did a lot of thinking to herself and hiding. I don't think she should have rolled over and simply forgiven him and I know that she was in a precarious situation being stuck at the palace with Farouk. This part is where the skimming happened. I just wanted to move forward and get over her bitterness and see what was going to happen. 


Teasers: mistaken identity massage, cucumber practice, hammam pool surprise, opium aphrodisiac elixir,