A Passion for Pleasure

Based on the title, one might expect Rowan’s second Daring Hearts Victorian (after A Study in Seduction) to be raunchy, but it’s more romantic suspense than erotic romp. Young widow Clara Winter wants to get her seven-year-old son out of her father’s clutches. Sebastian Hall is a pampered scion of aristocracy whose blossoming career as a pianist was cut short by a devastating hand injury, leaving him desperate for cash. Their mutual salvation may be to find the plans for an encryption machine Sebastian’s diplomat-brother is seeking—and to marry. Rowan’s characters are at best angst-ridden and at worst amoral sociopaths; they lie, manipulate, and maneuver their way through a fraught plot that includes synesthesia, property law, automata, cryptography, and the Crimean War. Anxiety is Rowan’s métier; the erotic tension is hot, but the emotional development is minimal. Agent: Kimberly Witherspoon, InkWell Management. (May)