When Christian Allardyce left to fight on the continent, he left confident that Letitia Vaux would wait for him until he returned to claim her as his own.  However, during the twelve years Christian spent spying for the crown, Letitia married another man – an apparent love match, which shredded Christian’s heart.  But, when Letitia comes to Christian for help in solving her husband’s murder to exonerate her brother Justin, both Letitia and Christian receive surprises that will change how they see each other and their shared history.

But will actually knowing what was behind each others actions be enough to understand each other or will it drive further a wedge between their hearts?

In this seventh installment of the Bastion Club series, The Edge of Desire is a good conclusion to this sensual and suspenseful romance series and it whets the appetite for more by finally giving a significant clue as to who Dalziel really is!  This is the story of Christian and Letitia, characters that I found to follow the mold of the previous characters in the series while at the same time establishing some marked differences in their unique behaviors.  For one, the explosive passion between Christian and Letitia becomes a contest for power within the relationship, but in the end, they end up seducing each other.  Also, while making the environment more authentic, these characters show a more marked, yet unrepentant, class consciousness along with a sense of superiority that bleeds into their actions and reactions to other characters, a trait that had not been so strongly pervasive in the previous books in the series.  Christian comes across as a charming, yet insensitive rogue, a quality that is brought home to him when he realizes that at the moment of Letitia’s greatest need, he was unavailable.  Letitia, however, does not endear herself to the reader with her tantrums, which are readily dismissed as the famous “Vaux temper,” along with her manipulations within the “Ton,” which is imbued with so much power and presence as to, almost, become a character on its own.  That said, Stephanie Lauren has once again created a sensual story beyond compare with The Edge of Desire. It will wrap you up with every exchange and leave you eagerly awaiting for the hinted stories of interesting characters – like Dalziel.  Pick up The Edge of Desire for a fun and entertaining read, perfect for a lazy day under the sun.