Darker Than Love

by Kristina Lloyd

Book Overview

Clarissa is set to marry Lord Marldon, the depraved and gleefully cruel earl to whom she's been promised. When her friends try to scupper the proposed marriage, Clarissa, oblivious to their plan, falls in love with Gabriel, a beautiful Italian artist. Marldon hears of the blossoming relationship and kidnaps Clarissa, imprisoning her in his Piccadilly mansion and subjecting her to his darkest desires. When Gabriel attempts a rescue, he too is taken...

• Format: Mass Market Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0352332794
• ISBN13: 9780352332790
• Release Date: September 1998
• Publisher: Virgin Books
• Length: 272 Pages
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.7" x 4.6" x 7.0"

Customer Reviews

DOES LOVE CONQUER DARKNESS?

Not too much to add up to the excellent reviews before mine. This is Victorian London. Lord Marldon has been promised the hand of the beautiful Clarissa, but in the meantime, Gabriel and Clarissa fall in love. He is a painter e nice young man. In a blink of an eye, Lord Marldon feeling a lot of anger, abducts Clarissa. What a somewhat unusual main charaters, yes, they are for me. He is perverted and sexually initiates our heroine. We discover she's insatiable appetites, even suffering with the evil treatment of Lord Marldon. Her lust surpasses the love she feels for Gabriel who goes searching for her and is also captured. I agree with the other opinions about the nice couple, now talking about Clarissa and Gabriel. Their love seems not strong enough to convince us that they were made for each other. However, the book is very well written and highly descriptive with excellent supporting charaters. It is worth reading.

Dark, complex and sexy

This is absolutely a keeper for me. There are two reasons why I think that this is one of the very best Black Lace novels that I have read. First, Ms Lloyd's writing is Gothic, gorgeous and lush, with a darkly humorous tone. Her style is particularly suited to erotica - I could feel, see and taste everything. This is something that a surprisingly high number of "erotic" novels lack. Second, the cornerstone of the book is the utterly compelling erotic tension between the heroine (Clarissa) and Marldon (her captor). This was a very interesting and thoughtful exploration of the psychological complexity of lust. I thought that the book was not so strong in a couple of areas, although this was more than compensated for by the extremely high standard of the other elements of the book. Some of the elements of the storyline I found a bit weak. I agree that Clarissa and Gabriel (the hero) weren't particularly engaging characters; however I think these elements were necessarily sacrificed in order to make the complex captor/slave relationship between Clarissa and Marldon work. A word of warning - if domination doesn't interest you at all, you almost certainly won't like this book.

deep erotic historical romantic suspense

In 1875, young and naive Clarissa Longleigh is coming to London to meet her fiancé Lord Alexander Marldon for the first time. She has dreamed of him ever since she learned of the arranged marriage. She pictures him as dark because her father Charles said so and handsome as her personal Prince Charming should be as he loves and honors her. However, she is a bit concerned that her country ways may embarrass a city sophisticate like her Alexander. He fits are description perfectly as he is dark, handsome and sophisticated. However, she soon learns she may have wished for the wrong thing, as her Alex is also a sexual predator who is a sadist. Alex has plans for his beautiful fiancé to turn her into his sexual slave as he believes that the body is what binds people not some concept called love. Married, he begins his assault on her soul claiming that and her body belongs to him. When he learns she has befriended Gabriel the artist without his permission, he locks her away in the dungeon of his estate where he will educate her on forces much stronger and DARKER THAN LOVE starting with imprisoning the Italian painter who failed at his rescue attempt. This is a deep erotic historical romantic suspense that stars a debauched aristocrat, his naive spouse, and the painter who loves her. The triangle is cleverly played so the audience can compare the different ways Alexander and Gabriel treat Clarissa; thus the heated XXX moments from bondage to straight sex and more are key elements to the story line. Readers who appreciate a well written torrid tale in which love battles sexual deviation will want to read this superior sub-genre Victorian. Harriet Klausner

Certainly is a great story .....

however I couldn't give it the full five stars since I felt it was somewhat lacking on the eroticism scale since I think the author tried to hard to push the envelope ... The story evolves with a stock beautifull virgin, Clarissa, who has been betrothed to the dark and sinister (whatelse) Lord Maldon. Clarissa's recently married father takes off on his honeymoon with his young new wife, Alice, leaving poor, and let me tell you, frustrated but smouldering virgin, Clarissa behind, waiting to meet her, arranged marriage, husband .... The worldly Lord Maldon, who, by the way, owns several houses of ill-repute arrives in London early to do a tatse test of his upcoming nuptials .... the fact that Clarissa has fallen in love with a young Italian artist forces Maldon to kidnapp our happless virgin and put her through the paces .... Those readers that enjoy 'willing rapist' and some mild B & D will certainly rate the book at the 5 star maximum....

Lush, graphic sex in Victorian England ignites the reader.

This historical romance-type setting for erotica, provides many lush and graphic sexual scenes. The woman-dominated-by-man theme may initially be uncomfortable to modern, sexually liberated women but the intense sensuality of the encounters soon surpasses one's reservations. It offers a total diversion from real life with the plot resolving in a satisfying, sensual manner that is ultimately respectful of Clarissa, the woman controlled by her lusty appetite.