From the Bookshelf of Around the World in 80 Books…

As You Desire

Connie Brockway

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

No group discussions for this book yet.

What Members Thought

Jun 08, 2012 Nadine in NY Jones rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: romance, spies, historical-romance, egypt, era-victorian

I was looking for a book to read during lunch today at work, so I downloaded this on my Kindle app, and ... IT WAS REALLY GOOD AND I COULD NOT STOP READING IT!!

This is an absolutely delicious romance and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Harry Braxton is a happy-go-lucky, unethical but deeply moral and honest Brit making his fortune in Victorian Cairo. He is a bit of a genius, fluent in a half dozen languages, but he cannot read (except heiratic) - he escaped England after being expelled from Oxford I was looking for a book to read during lunch today at work, so I downloaded this on my Kindle app, and ... IT WAS REALLY GOOD AND I COULD NOT STOP READING IT!!

This is an absolutely delicious romance and I enjoyed every moment of it.

Harry Braxton is a happy-go-lucky, unethical but deeply moral and honest Brit making his fortune in Victorian Cairo. He is a bit of a genius, fluent in a half dozen languages, but he cannot read (except heiratic) - he escaped England after being expelled from Oxford as a youth. Desdemona is a young Brit living with her grandfather in Cairo after her parents died - she is also a bit of a genius, with the ability to READ a dozen languages, but unable to really speak any of them (except English. Of course.)

I do love the Egyptian setting, I wish there were more romances set there. And I appreciated that Harry and Desdemona had known each other for years, going from school girl crush to denial to deep undying and undeclared love.

I liked how it kind of started in the middle of the story - at first you're not quite sure WHAT is going on - did I miss a few chapters? Is this a dream? Is the heroine an authoress making up a story? There was very little clunky exposition to knock you out of the flow of the story.

There are a few things that keep it from being 5 stars. First, there are quite a few unfortunate errors in the text, which probably only exist in the Kindle edition that I read, mostly random words and punctuation inserted into sentences where they absolutely do not belong.

The whole "dyslexic hero" thing does not feel fresh, although it probably was back in 1997 when this was first published. However, it is handled quite nicely, and I do like the twist that Harry learned to read heiroglyphics, but not English, since he could touch the ancient carvings and learn their shape with his fingers.

Plus, while I enjoyed the story, I wished there was more to it.

And in the middle of the story is a rather unfortunate error that really should have been caught by SOMEONE. It's a little thing, but the book goes on for PAGES about it, so it really took me out of the story: Desdemona accidentally smokes hashish, and the next morning she is completely hung over - headache, pale face, the works. And, that just does not happen. Hashish does not induce a hangover. Lethargy and stupidity, maybe, but not a headache, not from just a little bit. ...more

Like · see review