Official Review: Secure Desire by RL Dunn

Ginnamassa19 · Post by **Ginnamassa19** » 19 Jun 2018, 05:44

[Following is an official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Secure Desire" by RL Dunn.]

1 out of 4 stars

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When Navy SEAL Ian Chase meets charming art historian Cassiopeia “Cassie” Ellis at a fundraiser one evening, it’s love at first sight. Unfortunately for the both of them, things change forever that night, and when they meet again six years later, Cassie is a broken woman with a past she can’t even remember…

That’s my elevator pitch for R.L. Dunn’s Secure Desire—a novel chock-full of drama, mystery and romance set in the shadowy world of espionage. With an average of 4.3 stars on Amazon and a summary that suggests its author might just be the next Nora Roberts, who could resist picking this book up for a read? This reviewer, at least, couldn’t.

Intrigued? Here’s a sneak preview: six years after Ian Chase first meets Cassie Ellis, he bumps into her again—and this time, she’s working for the FBI. His old attraction flares up once more, but Cassie is too broken to even think about entering a new relationship and her rejection leaves him bewildered. Unable to let things go, Ian probes deeper into Cassie’s horrific history; realising that the ghosts from her past still haunt her, he decides to throw himself into protecting her. With an exciting storyline that builds towards a rather unexpected plot twist, Secure Desire is an interesting read for anyone who can stomach darker themes (e.g. sexual abuse and harassment) and explicit sex scenes (it is a romance novel, after all).

Having said that, I must admit that I didn’t enjoy this book.

Let’s begin with the writing. While Dunn clearly had a good idea of what she wanted her plot to be, I personally felt that her execution of that vision left a lot to be desired. For one thing, the writing in this book is choppy—the sentences are short and disjointed and Dunn constantly switches between the perspectives of different characters, sometimes within the same chapter. I personally found this pretty hard to get past; it was hard to ignore to focus on the story! At the same time, a lot of the dialogue is utilised as a tool for info-dumping; having to wade through entire paragraphs of medical jargon during one particular surgery scene rather irritated me and really distracted from the plot itself. Also, while we’re on the topic of writing, Dunn uses phrases like “velvet steel shaft” to describe penises—which is not a particularly appealing description, at least to me. It’s safe to say that this reviewer was not impressed by the writing.

Moving on, however, another one of my issues with this book had to do with the plot, which was not entirely logical to me. Ian falls in love with Cassie over a five-minute conversation and loves her for the next six years without ever contacting her, for one thing. Also, one of the main characters is half-dead in an operation room at one point, but all her family members seem to care about is telling her boyfriend about her sex life and attitude towards men. (Somehow, this doesn’t seem entirely appropriate…)

I also found it rather annoying that new characters seemed to be introduced in practically every other chapter; readers are given very little information about them and there often seems to be no reason for their appearance. I kept having to reread parts of the book to remember who the characters were, which was incredibly distracting and definitely took away from my immersion in the story.

Finally, my biggest issue with this book is that readers never actually see the process of Ian and Cassie falling in love. While I accept that this is a love-at-first-sight situation, their story never actually convinces me that I should be rooting for them to get together—most likely because of Dunn’s tell-not-show tactic when it comes to the narration. This meant I spent most of the book not particularly minding if they did get together, which I really don’t think is the aim of any romance novel.

Overall, I would rate Secure Desire 1 out of 4 stars. While I thought the plot was interesting, the execution really pulled the score down for me. I will concur, though, that this book does get at least one thing right: it contains very few editing errors, which leads me to believe that it has been professionally edited.

I'd recommend this novel to fans of thrillers and romance—if only for the plot. Secure Desire has a lot of potential, and I fully believe that with a little more work, it could be an excellent read.

******
Secure Desire
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Helen_Combe · Post by **Helen_Combe** » 20 Jun 2018, 07:11

Great review. The book sounds a bit of a disappointment though. The hero has an ’out of sight, out of mind’ attitude to women. I also had a bit of a snigger at the thought of me lying on my deathbed while my family dis me to my partner.

gen_g · Post by **gen_g** » 20 Jun 2018, 10:30

Thank you for the amazing review! "Velvet steel shaft" makes me cringe; I'll definitely pass on this one.

Anon_Reviewer · Post by **Anon_Reviewer** » 20 Jun 2018, 15:01

I had a great time reading your review! The book sure sounds like one big cringe fest. I probably wouldn't be able to stomach the explicit scenes, especially if the love story between Ian and Cassie is not well developed.

Irene C · Post by **Irene C** » 21 Jun 2018, 11:52

It seems from this considered and in-depth review that this novel has a lot of plotting and writing errors. I don’t have much experience with romance novels, and I don’t think I’ll change that with this one. Thanks for the review.

bclayton13 · Post by **bclayton13** » 25 Jun 2018, 20:16

Your criticism is definitely warranted; it's hard to root for a couple in a romance novel when you're not convinced they love each other. I definitely can't do 'love at first sight,' that's for sure. The process of falling in love is what draws the reader in. Why miss out on that?

Manang Muyang · Post by **Manang Muyang** » 25 Jun 2018, 20:31

Secure Desire might be a misnomer. Cassie is insecure, and there seems nothing to desire in the book. (But Velvet might be a good title. At least readers won't wonder why.)

I'm curious about what Nora Roberts has to say about her touted heir apparent.

Ginnamassa19 · Post by **Ginnamassa19** » 28 Jun 2018, 10:49

Helen_Combe wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 07:11 Great review. The book sounds a bit of a disappointment though. The hero has an ’out of sight, out of mind’ attitude to women. I also had a bit of a snigger at the thought of me lying on my deathbed while my family dis me to my partner.

HAHAHA. Yeah, I didn't enjoy this one too much XD For a book whose main character is female, there was way too much of the damsel-in-distress thing + objectification going on, in my opinion. Whoops.

Thank you for your kind comment!

Ginnamassa19 · Post by **Ginnamassa19** » 28 Jun 2018, 10:57

gen_g wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 10:30 Thank you for the amazing review! "Velvet steel shaft" makes me cringe; I'll definitely pass on this one.

It made me cringe, too.

(Also, there were quite a few more where that came from, I thought I'd spare you the details. XD) Thank you so much for your kind comments!

Ginnamassa19 · Post by **Ginnamassa19** » 28 Jun 2018, 11:00

Ever_Reading wrote: ↑20 Jun 2018, 15:01 I had a great time reading your review! The book sure sounds like one big cringe fest. I probably wouldn't be able to stomach the explicit scenes, especially if the love story between Ian and Cassie is not well developed.

Thank you so much!

Yeah, I was reading the explicit scenes as quickly as I possibly could, whoops. And I cringed so hard in the process.

Ginnamassa19 · Post by **Ginnamassa19** » 28 Jun 2018, 11:12

Irene C wrote: ↑21 Jun 2018, 11:52 It seems from this considered and in-depth review that this novel has a lot of plotting and writing errors. I don’t have much experience with romance novels, and I don’t think I’ll change that with this one. Thanks for the review.

Thank you for reading it!

Yeah, this *probably* isn't the best romance novel to get started with on your first forays into Romance

Ginnamassa19 · Post by **Ginnamassa19** » 28 Jun 2018, 11:19

bclayton13 wrote: ↑25 Jun 2018, 20:16 Your criticism is definitely warranted; it's hard to root for a couple in a romance novel when you're not convinced they love each other. I definitely can't do 'love at first sight,' that's for sure. The process of falling in love is what draws the reader in. Why miss out on that?

RIGHT? I'm always so sad when romance novels fail to *romance*, it feels like they're missing the point altogether.

Thank you for your comment!

Ginnamassa19 · Post by **Ginnamassa19** » 28 Jun 2018, 11:30

Miriam Molina wrote: ↑25 Jun 2018, 20:31 Secure Desire might be a misnomer. Cassie is insecure, and there seems nothing to desire in the book. (But Velvet might be a good title. At least readers won't wonder why.)

I'm curious about what Nora Roberts has to say about her touted heir apparent.

Ahahaha, I snorted reading this comment, so thank you for writing it! XD Cassie is *so* insecure, and the only thing I really desired was to finish the book quickly, whoops.

Also, the Nora Roberts illusion fell away about half a page in, so she's definitely still reigning supreme.