REVIEW: As You Desire by Connie Brockway

Historical romances aren’t what they used to be. Just read this discussion here where the debate continues on the continued decline of the historical romance novel. However, Connie Brockway’s As You Desire has a wonderful hero and if your looking for a different setting, how does Egypt sound to you?

As You Desire is set in Egypt. It is one of the reasons why I never finished reading it when it first came out. I thought it had zero interest as far as location was concerned. After so many years later and much discussion on community boards about this book, I thought I’d give this novel another chance. Reading it the second time was somewhat of a struggle. I felt Brockway’s execution of the plot was a bit choppy. The book gets a recommendation for the hero alone - Harry Braxton. Harry’s unrequited love for Desdemona or “Dizzy” as he affectionately calls her is the main reason why I enjoyed this book.

Harry’s been in love with Dizzy for years but he has a secret that he fears will make her turn away from him in disgust. So he pretty much reconciles himself to just being her friend and being her protector. Often Dizzy gets into scrapes that Harry almost always gets her out of and this pretty much keeps him close to her. Harry’s exile from England allows him to prosper in Egypt. Where in England opportunities were closed to him, it is Egypt that allows him to fully thrive and prosper.

As a former child prodigy, Desdemona is able to read twelve different languages but she can’t speak them . Her parents took advantage of this, robbing her of her childhood and showing her off to other scholars from all over the world. After her parent’s deaths, she is shipped to her grandfather in Egypt and it is here that she is allowed to be free and live a somewhat normal life. Often she daydreams of a better life and a hero to sweep her off her feet.

Enter Harry’s English cousin who is handsome and wealthy. He offers her the opportunity to return to England and live happily ever after. However, Harry is who she dreams about the most, but he broke her heart once for which she never really recovers. The two protagonists deal with several different contrivances: the big bad secret, secret enemies and the slight misunderstandings. Character development could have been more solid. Dialogue was good, but the writing itself was a bit choppy to me. The writing just didn’t flow right in this book.

Harry and Desdemona’s characters were still somewhat one dimensional to me. We learn just enough about them to explain their motivations and actions in the story. We know that Harry wants Dizzy and that he has this big secret to tell her. I thought being miles away from England would have been incentive enough to tell her but I guess it wasn’t.

For me, the secret he had to tell her, should have been told to her much sooner because she didn’t grow up in his world so she wouldn’t have judged him as harshly as his aristocratic family. But that’s my opinion. I just didn’t buy the need for secrecy. The impetus in him telling her at last, was the threat his cousin represented to Dizzy in making her romantic daydreams come true. Thus he was forced to tell her to keep her rather than tell her of his own free will because he loved her.

In the end, As You Desire turned out to be a good book. I just don’t see what everybody loved about it unless what they loved was Harry because he was the only element in the book that made it a joy to read. The way he would drop whatever it was he was doing to go rescue Dizzy again or how hurt he would feel when she would think the worst of him made him such an adorable hero. One of the best heroes I’d read in a long time. If you enjoy a different setting, a beta hero and unrequited love, then this book is for you. I liked As You Desire. I just didn’t love it. My favorite Brockway is My Dearest Enemy and All Through the Night.

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