Usually I like Hunter's books, but I did not enjoy this one. It's plodding and kinda boring, and I didn't feel much chemistry between the main characters. Actually, I didn't like them all that much individually either. The hero was an ass for the first half or so (and then magically transforms into husband material overnight apparently), and the heroine is supposed to be a free-thinking strong feminist, but repeatedly she waltzes into trouble and has to be rescued by the hero (one time it's from an honest to goodness *tower*, it's hard to find a more cliched damsel location) and even her strongly held beliefs largely come down to just what she'd been taught as a child, so it didn't end up feeling very 'free-thinking' either. There's kind of a 'battle of the sexes' aspect, but of course the hero ends up holding most of the cards, and he's really kind of creepily determined to make her submit to him. But no worries, because apparently this strong feminist has just been waiting all along for some random guy to come subjugate her... Ick. And not just in a 'they're both actually equals but are choosing to play some power games for fun in the bedroom' kinda way. Repeatedly she has strong oppositional feelings toward him but then he kisses her and she just melts into a puddle. =/ Like I mentioned, the hero gets a lot better the second half, but then it's just the heroine standing in the way of her own happiness for several more chapters. So overall quite unimpressive. Road trip, forced proximity, and enemies to lovers tropes. ( )

This is an interesting book, but it could have been more. Touching on some interesting issues, it kind of skirts around them at the end, and left me a bit intellecutally unfulfilled. Generally, I'm not a fan of books with overly independent women - it's anachronistic to the extreme, and they generally tend to be Mary-Sueish. This is not true with Phaedra, the daughter of a famous free-thinker. Phaedra suffers for her mother's philosophy, and while she accepts her mother's beliefs as her own, it is clear that she has suffered for them a great deal. When later in the book she discovers that her mother had not been as true to these beliefs as she thought, it causes her a great deal of soul-searching. I wish this had been examined a bit more than it was - it seems that she built it up and then kind of left it. But other than that, this was a fairly decent book. Well written, with good characters (although it is not the first in the series, and I've yet to discover which one is), it catches and holds the reader's interest. An entertaining read. ( )

Amazon received

This book surprised me. It is deep, well-written and deals with a modern woman's dilemma: how does one who has been brought up on "feminist" ideals actually find a healthy balance between an innate, and perfectly natural, need for a serious, loving relationship with a strong, decent man and still retain one's independence of being?

Phaedra is not your usual romance heroine and there were times when she took her struggle for independence too far. But she evolved from her experiences, and at times her inner struggle was poignant and profound. I came to care for her, and could feel sympathy for her fears.

Elliot was simply a 5 star hero. Ms Hunter's skill at keeping Elliot an alpha-hero, and yet also having him grow as a man, overcoming his own personal fears of dominance and control, without losing the essence of his masculinity, was a marvel to read. His characterisation is impeccable.

My one complaint about the book is not unique to Ms Hunter's books, but one I have for many romances these days: the unfortunate use of gynaecological descriptions during the erotic scenes. Why, oh, why, in the middle of a steaming scene, do we have to have a bucket of cold water thrown in our faces with the use of highly unromantic words describing female genitalia, no matter how medically or technically or politically correct they are???

Ultimately, though, this book is well-plotted, with all loose ends neatly tied up; it has a satisfying and believable ending and it has kept me thinking days after I finished reading it: no mean feat for a romance these days! ( )

It has been years since I read a historical romance novel. A lot of people have been saying good things about this novel and it’s author, Madeline Hunter. Personally, I wasn’t impressed with Lessons of Desire. My first impression of the book was that it was going to be a senual, elegant, hi-class type book. But the first time the main characters made love, ( if you want to call it that. I refer to it as being more like “mating” ) was on a bed of straw while they were trapped in a tower. I thought that was cheesy.What I did enjoy about the book was the surroundings. I think Madeline Hunter did an excellent job researching the book. It was well written, but I just wasn’t into the plot, or the characters. ( )