I would definitely recommend this book; I had only read one other Elizabeth Thornton book and it was a while ago, but I thought I would get DANGEROUS TO HOLD as it looked interesting and I'm running out of HR authors to read! The story definitely has some twists and turns (one literally had me exclaiming out loud and I had to take a few seconds before I could continue reading!) and the underlying storyline is one of those mystery/suspense ones; it IS essential to the novel, though, and not annoyingly superfluous as you sometimes find.

Setting: Spain and England, early 1800s
Sensuality rating: 6 (underlying tension was consistent and good, progression of the relationship was appropriate)

PROS:
(1) Catherine (the heroine) and Marcus (the hero) are likable, accessible, and well-defined
(2) Their relationship felt authentic and the sexual tension was good
(3) There are some cute moments of jealousy (not that many)
(4) It wasn't one of those books where it's just misunderstanding after misunderstanding until you want to shout out in frustration; the issues or emotions that come up are actually dealt with nicely and relatively promptly and I was very thankful for how mature the characters are and how understanding they are of each other
(5) Supporting characters are good and are also well-defined and just add to the cast
(6) There is a secondary romance that occurs but it only adds to the novel, it doesn't detract

CONS:
(1) There was a lot going on and after I finished the book and sat back and thought about it, there were maybe a couple loose ends and I would have liked there to be an epilogue
(2) *Kind-of-spoiler* You do kind of have to suspend belief, as part of the mystery/suspense storyline seems ... well, not really authentic; I don't want to give away too much, but I guessed the "bad guy" pretty quickly and the measures he took to achieve his aim and that whole premise were overly-dramatic and not very plausible. Also the heroine's role in the whole mess doesn't seem like it would have actually occurred, BUT the book is very good and so despite these minor issues, I still really enjoyed it

CONCLUSION:
A great read that I would definitely recommend; worth buying, so read and enjoy!

(Written July 9, 2007 on Amazon.com) ( )