Hot air balloon fiascos. Famous mistresses. Brooding Viscounts. Private isles. Railway wreck recovery. Lorraine Heath has written an absolute banger of a historical romance and yet again proves why she is a master of her craft.

We open the story with the dashing Viscount Langdon standing on a cliff over the sea, storm roiling around him, as he’s having an existential crisis. Langdon led a charmed existence - he is the heir and son of the couple from Heath’s previous book In Bed With the Devil - until his life was irrevocable changed by a traumatic railway accident. Unable to tell his loving family the truth, he retreats to an island to sulk, drink a bit too much, and hope his problem magically disappears.

Meanwhile, down below on the sand, Marlowe has found herself with a different sort of crisis. As London’s most infamous courtesan, she’s got a reputation, but her true bold and daring spirit comes out when she is in her hot air balloon. Even though Marlowe was an experienced pilot, the storm was able to sweep her far off course, eventually causing near disaster and depositing her onto Langdon’s isle of solitude.

When he gets done yelling at the wind, he eventually spots her on the sand, carries her to the fortress, and tenderly brings her back to fine flirting shape.

Marlowe’s role as a mistress makes her a fallen woman, and that’s a problem for a Lord and heir like Langdon. A regular theme in Heath’s books is love between the commoner and high society. Sometimes it goes further than that, into people who have been actively shunned and character growth comes from choosing love above public perception, comfort, gossip, or an easy path. This is another case where I found the resolution deeply satisfying, even if I was unsure how these two would resolve their external conflict as the story went along.

Because Heath is such a passionate researcher, I’m always delighted when I discover the most unusual details are based in fact. In this case, how many women were taking to the sky in hot air balloons near the turn of the century. Lorraine’s author’s notes are never to be skipped.

Beyond just her ballooning antics, Marlowe was a fascinating character. She was so unashamed of her desires and experiences. Her fearlessness was a perfect balance for Langdon as he found himself for the first time unmoored. Here was a man who believed he needed to be perfect according to society’s rules to be loved and is then confronted with proof that he need only be himself to earn the love of the ones who matter.

I think Heath is saying some interesting things about the nature of mistresses as well. In so many historical romances, the role of mistress is automatically the antagonist, to be judged harshly and shamed. Here is a reversal, where we see that Marlowe made the best choice she could for a woman in that age and situation. She does not deserve to be treated as anything less than equal to anyone in the ballrooms of the ton.

It was interesting, as her relationship with her benefactor was also not in any way portrayed as predatory. If anything, in modern times, she and he would have been friends with benefits until they found their actual love matches. It was clear they truly cared for each other, but simply weren’t in love.

The moment of reconciliation between Langdon and Marlowe was swoon worthy, with just enough of that patented Heath angst to turn up the heat before the happily ever after. The love scenes between these two are scorchingly hot and make the somewhat slower burn worth the wait.

A Tempest of Desire is the new installment in the older Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series, but it is clear that Heath is not going backwards because she’s interested in safe, well-worn story paths. While the world may be familiar, the tangled webs they must unknot on their way to forever are thornier than ever. Overall, any fan of Heath’s past works will find much to love in A Tempest of Desire.
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Thank you to NetGalley & Avon/Harper Voyager for the Advanced Reader Copy. Expected publication date: Dec 24, 2024

Like every Lorraine Heath book, A TEMPEST OF DESIRE has two vital ingredients: a saucy, smart, beautiful heroine and a dark, sexy hero who’s a member of the aristocracy. Oh, and one more thing: a fabulous romantic plot.

Marlowe ( 1 name like Cher!) is an infamous, well, a kept woman. A mistress. A courtesan. The backstory of why she has made herself one is so good I don’t want to give it away. She is also what the book describes as an aeronaut – a hot air balloon flier. One day, she receives unexpected news, is distraught, and takes her balloon up for a spin to clear her head. Unfortunately, she hits bad weather and her balloon plummets to the sea.

Enter our hero, the fabulous Oliver, Lord Langdon. Ollie’s back story is filled with drama too. He was recently in a railway accident and has lost the ability to decipher numbers – something he needs since he will be managing the accounts of his family’s estates.

When Marlow winds up on the shore of Ollie’s secluded island, he doesn’t know what to do. The one thing he knows he can’t do is give in to the desire he has for the amazing woman.

Or can he? And does Marlow return his desire?

What unfolds is a romantic, sexy story of two people from different worlds who discover the best of themselves in the other.

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for a sneak peek at this wonderful addition to the Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series. 5 stars from me. Brava!

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for an advanced copy of this book.
As always with Lorraine Heath, I enjoyed this immensely. However, without getting into specifics to spoil this review, there were a few lines early on that I felt like foreshadowed a plot twist that never happened. I was left wondering what she meant by them.

Thank you netgalley, the publisher, and Lorraine Heath

I have never read a book by Lorraine Heath that I didn't love. This one was absolutely perfect. I loved Marlowe and Langdon's story they were perfect for each other! There were many things in this story that I have never read in any other historical romance that made it unique to me like her flying a balloon and him not being able to remember numbers. I also adored Hollie, to begin to with I expected to hate him but he was so nice. I can not wait to see what she writes next. I hope there are still many stories to come.

Seven years ago, Lorraine Heath's books came into my life while I was battling cancer. Her writing provided an escape from my reality and I make it a point to look for anything new that she produces and I am never disappointed.
The Tempest of Desire is no exception. Langdon and Marlowe are two characters that are so much more than one would think. Marlowe has survived by using her wits and yes, her beauty to provide for her widowed mother while paying back the debts her father left them with. Her reputation in London has been well crafted but she remains unavailable to the many men who would have her as their mistress. Langdon, the Earl of Claybourne, seemed to blend in with the carefree aristocrats but we know from the beginning that he is deeply troubled by earlier events in his life.
There is a humorous element to our protagonists' first real meeting, (her reputation and beauty precede her.) Their forced isolation allows us to gain a hint of their true selves. But mutual attraction is not enough and the reader can appreciate the depth of these characters.
I dare not say much more for fear of spoiling this tale. Know that the author has crafted a story that unfolds with enough restraint to keep the reader engaged. I would like to think that there were women in the Regency era that defied the standards in high society and achieved their HEA's.
Thank You Lorraine Heath for yet another wonderful distraction.

After surviving a horrific train crash, Viscount Oliver Langdon has somewhat exiled himself from London society on a tiny island of the Cornish Coast. While walking the shore in a storm he is shocked to find a woman passed out on the beach. When he gets her inside he is shocked to find Marlowe, the famous courtesan mistress to his friend. Marlowe is less than thrilled to be trapped with Langdon as on their previous encounter he had declined to interact with her. While the storm rages the two grow comfortable with each other and share things they have both kept private and the attraction grows. Of course once the storm calms they can return to London, but society’s rules make things complicated and they must figure out how to remain together.

I LOVE LORRAINE HEATH!!! This book scratched every single one of my historical romance itches. He’s brooding and emotionally scarred, she’s bold and practical, both are resistant to love and trapped in a rundown castle with only one bed (seriously I think this book was written especially for me). I absolutely devoured this book. I loved everything from the setting to the characters to the tropes to the internal and external conflict. The chemistry between the two was palpable and every I truly felt every single one of their emotions from joy to devastation. It was a book where you know everything is going to end in a HEA but you can’t quite see how it’s going to get there which is how you know it is a great romance novel. I highlighted so many passages and will be rereading. For fans of Lorraine’s books, Langdon is the son of Lucian and Catherine of In Bed with the Devil, and many of Lorraine’s other characters make their appearance once the characters arrive in London. And now I must go and reread everything Lorraine has written.

Thank you to NetGalley and Avon for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

4.75/5. Releases 12/24/24.

The Vibes:

—stranded on a remote island (and there's only one bed)

—sex worker heroine

—the kind of emotional twist that is in theory not a big deal but in actuality absolutely! heartbreaking! I gasped!

—don't call me kid/don't call me baby etc etc, this is character work illicit affair stuff

Heat Index: 7/10

The Basics:

Viscount Langdon is hiding out on his family's remote island, licking his wounds after a railway accident upended his life and identity. When a random woman washes ashore, he's stunned. He's more stunned when she turns out to be Marlowe, London's most infamous courtesan—also, she arrived via hot air balloon crash. As they wait out the storm together, Langdon and Marlowe realize they have a lot more in common than they thought. But what kind of future can they possibly have together?

The Review:

I will, it must be said, read anything Lorraine Heath writes. As far as I'm concerned, the woman is a master of her craft, and I can't imagine many authors who do historical romance better.

Here, she's picking up her Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series for the first time in a few years (I believe it was originally planned as a trilogy, but a while after book #3, a surprise fourth happened... and now we have a surprise fifth, and, as it appears, a surprise sixth on the way!). I absolutely love her interconnected world; the series that preceded Scandalous Gentlemen, The Scoundrels of St. James, is my favorite of hers. So while I've adored dipping into the Trewlove stories and the Stanwicks and the Chessmen (and wouldn't mind returning to any of them, AT ALL, to be clear) there's something so delightful about seeing the St. James crew again.

James Swindler is still solving crimes (and his son sounds hot, so maybe.... some of that... Lorraine...?)! Dr. Graves is still solving every medical ailment known to man! The Langdons have laughed off the whole "he is a murderer" thing! The Lovingdons are still super hot together! So happy to see them again.

Viscount Langdon always lurked in the background of the other books, and he seemed like a happy dude; I mean, to the point that I wondered if we'd never read his story. He seemed GOOD. And I mean... if a character is raised by a couple, you as a writer sort of have to rock their shit to make them interesting. Which is something I've complained about struggling with when reading some second gen series. I get why a lot of writers are hesitant to mess with the kids of their beloved leads, but... you have to. Lorraine actually discusses this in the author's note. She truly Gets the work.

So yeah, Langdon is a little fucked up by everything that's happened to him prior to book. He's stalking his island drunk. He's yelling at God to give him a woman because he's sad and horny. In other words, he's fabulous and hot and I loved him. He's a perfect example of how you write a hero who's genuinely a good guy, but is not a Nice Guy. He's got his issues, he needs to do some work on himself, and some of his problems really aren't his fault and he sort of needs to be ushered into love. I found him romantic and tender without being overly sweet. He was respectful without being too polite. In some ways, he reminded me of a favorite gentleman hero of mine, Joanna Shupe's Duke of Lockwood.

Langdon gets his time and his trauma and his character development. However, I'd say this is a somewhat more heroine-forward novel. Which is great, because I loved Marlowe even more. I mean, how could I not love a famous courtesan who pilots her hot air balloons everywhere, whose tragic backstory also features a hot air balloon, and who tries her best to be pragmatic... when in reality, she really just wants and needs to be held? She's not quite as sharp-edged as a lot of courtesan characters (she's quite young for all that she's taken on, which I found both sad and, well, real) but she tries very hard to be.

I just so wanted her to have everything she deserved in life. I loved that she wasn't quite ashamed of her profession... but did struggle with where it put her in life. As someone who fully supports destigmatizing sex work, I also appreciate a story where it's treated like a valid profession... and not one every sex worker wanted or wants to continue. It's not a horror show, it's just not what she wanted from her life.

As a sidebar—really loved how Lorraine handled Marlowe's protector, Hollingsworth. Who of course stands as another wrench in the gears for Marlowe and Langdon, but also doesn't function quite like he would in a lesser book. His relationship with Marlowe is both straightforward and complex. He's flawed, but he's not a villain.

Here's the thing: not a lot of Plot Plot happens in this book. You get conflict, to be sure. But there isn't some big villainous twist. You don't have to worry about people possibly dying. This is truly a character piece. Over half the novel is spent on Langdon's island, which I frankly found incredible. (The pseudo-gothic vibes are immaculate. This is a perfect rainy day book.) A lot of time is spent on Langdon and Marlowe just getting to know each other. Talking. Flirting. Doing Things, eventually. The sexual tension crackles off the page from the jump (this is... a very horny book) and you know they want each other so badly. But you also know that they genuinely like each other as people. There's friendship as well as passion.

There's a famous-ish historical romance I won't name that I couldn't help but compare to this novel in terms of the central conflict (Marlowe is a sex worker, and even aside from that she's not of Langdon's class; he is from the bluest of blood, and despite his family being built on love, he fears the societal repercussions of marrying her; she could be another man's mistress, but her deep feelings for him make her hesitant to be HIS mistress). I found that this novel held Langdon so much more responsible for his inner turmoil and its hypocrisy, while at the same time accenting his personality with a humanity that makes you Get It. The story Gets It. But it also says "Now, Get Over It if you're really in love". I feel like it makes him seem like so much more of a grown up, and it also feels way more aware of the fact that like... we know this dude's family isn't gonna throw him out for being with the woman he wants to be with. There's MORE to it. I felt less condescended to as a reader, less like I was just supposed to throw logic out the window. It's just smarter all-around, and it ensured I was still rooting for Langdon to find happiness with Marlowe. Whereas with the book I was comparing it to, I just thought the woman deserved better.

There was a moment in this book that made me gasp. Few other authors do that. It wasn't even that it was a plot shock, it was just one of those things that underscored how quietly awful Langdon's struggle is. And right after that, another moment made me gasp, but mostly because it was super hot.

The Sex:

This is definitely one of Lorraine's hotter books, I would say—a lot hotter in terms of content than In Want of a Viscount, a book I greatly enjoyed. It's not that there are way more scenes than she usually writes (I think there are four total on the page, which is good). It's that the way she writes them just feels... very much like these are two people who are fucking it OUT.

And I mean. That first scene? The one where it's all about her? Easily one of the best sex scenes Lorraine's ever written. Damn.

All in all, another standout release from a standout author. I'm really glad that her health is improving, and I send my sincere wishes that it continues to do so. Few people write emotion better than her, and this book is in fact, pure emotion. Go read it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

What a wonderful story! Marlowe is a courtesan who was raised to believe she was the daughter of an Earl. Her father loved to sail in balloons.. One day, he left and never returned. When Marlowe and her mom traveled to London to discover his family, they found out he was a fraud. All of the bills he had accumulated over the years demanded payment. Marlowe got a job as a seamstress to repay the monies. While there, she met the Earl of Hollinsbrook who became her protector. Marlowe’s father had instilled the love of balloon flying and she continued to do that. Caught in a storm over water, where she was forced to abandon her vessel and she washed ashore at Langdon’s remote residence. He has his own past and nightmares he is trying to escape. But there is no escape for the love that blossoms between the two. An interesting journey to their HEA. Loved the book.

I just finished Tempest of Desire and it was classic Lorraine. It felt like a hug as we returned to the Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series, this time our hero is the heir of the Devil Earl who was conceived in the book that started this fantastic Victorian world she’s created. I always hoped Viscount Langdon would get a story as he has often floated in and out of scenes in many of her novels and his parents book, In Bed With The Devil is one of my comfort reads so I was very excited when this ARC was in my inbox this week. Langdon survived a horrific railway accident and is taking time to recover from his PTSD at his family’s ancient ruins on a small private island near Heatherwood, their estate in Cornwall when a storm drops London’s most notorious courtesan out of the sky and on to the beach. If driving a hot air balloon in a storm is a sure fire way to be stranded on an island with a swoon worthy hottie, sign me up! We have some forced proximity, her being another man’s mistress and class difference which make for wonderful conflict, hot air balloons, familiar old characters, carriage sex, and a grand romantic gesture where he says to hell with societal censure at the end that had me in tears as per usual.

Marlowe’s backstory was interesting and tragic but she makes the best of her situation. Her relationship with Hollingsworth, her protector was really well written too, he came off as so endearing and was a catalyst in pushing Marlowe and Langdon together because he wanted her to be loved and happy! It could have been so weird and messy that she was in love with Langdon while being another man’s mistress who she also loved in a different way as they were friends and lovers but Lorraine Heath, the master that she is, writes these complicated characters and relationships effortlessly and makes you love all of them.

This book comes out in December 24th so Merry Christmas to Lorraine Heath fans 🎄❤️ this is a good one. Thank you @avonbooks and @netgalley for the advanced copy! It was absolutely brilliant!

I love Lorraine Heath as an author since her books are simultaneously romantic, sexy, and heartfelt, and this one was no different.

Something unique about Heath’s books is that they’re emotionally resonant and poignant and romantic but they’re also just a bit unhinged and I mean that in the best way possible. In this one, the heroine and hero become properly acquainted on a deserted island after her hot air balloon goes down the wayside like I’ve never read a book with that particular plot and Heath managed to pull it off without getting remotely campy.

I liked both Marlowe and Langdon, and I believed in them both as individuals and as a couple. I really loved Marlowe’s backstory as well as her approach to being a courtesan and I appreciated how practical she was about the whole thing because that particular framing could have gotten extremely maudlin at the hands of a less skillful author. I liked Langdon too but I found myself wishing for more depth to him since it almost felt like besides his trauma from the railway accident, he wasn’t super complicated as an individual and he almost existed as a love interest for Marlowe. That said, he was a very good love interest and besides, women have long existed as side characters to men’s stories so that’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Also, oddlt enough, I also appreciated that Marlowe’s relationship with Hollingsworth and Hollingsworth himself weren’t demonized because it would have been an easier choice to make him an unequivocal villain. In a sense, it was a departure from other historical romances where the main heroine is the Effie figure, a shy, somewhat plain wallflower whose eventual husband has a beautiful mistress that he ends things with to be with the heroine. In this book, Heath basically flipped the classic historical romance trope and wrote a book from the perspective of the ~mysterious, beautiful courtesan that usually exists as a means to the hero and heroine getting together.

As for the love scenes, I liked the choice of making it a slow burn romance, because given Marlowe is a mistress, it would have been easy to start out the book with a bang so to speak. I thought it was sort of poignant that Langdon and Marlowe waited to be physically intimate even though she was practically throwing herself at him from very early on in the book. That said, when the sex scenes started, they were very well done, and honestly, it surprised me how long they were since while Heath writes open book romances (most of which I’ve read), the sex scenes are generally shorter and marginally less explicit. That said, I liked Heath’s rhetorical choices in this realm.

Anyways, all in all, a lovely book, and a solid 4-4.5 stars based on how important the internal development of men is to you (jokes).

L.H. hope you are better now!!! You did a great choice with this book about choices and love.

Circumstances make Marlowe cultivate a fame as a kept woman at 19. She has been with only one man, but society deems her unworthy. Behind this facade, likes a sensitive, loyal, sensual and beautiful woman.

And then Oliver Langdon comes into her life. He suffers from trauma after an accident and has been Marlowes admirer for long.

Passion simmers and then flares when they are stuck together on an isolated island. But it's deeper, more evocative than just physical love. Can they both make choices that with put them in the path of scandal but hea?

Well written, lots of push and pull, steamy and great relationship building

I loved this one!! I thought the hot air balloon thing would be dumb when I first read the description, but I actually loved it. Some parts were far-fetched (like her hot air ballooning sheister of a father), but ultimately they didn't pull me out of the story. Great for fans of forced proximity.

Lorraine Heath never disappoints, and the romance between Viscount Langdon and Marlowe is one to remember. The book's settings and secondary characters add much to the narrative. I am so glad that the author chose to return to her Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series and look forward to whatever comes next.

Heath has truly outdone herself with this one! The romance between Viscount Langdon and Marlowe is as tempestuous as the storm that brings her to his island. Their magnetic pull and the intense, secret-filled connection between them create a captivating read. And, Heath’s portrayal of their emotional and passionate journey is both thrilling and deeply moving. I was completely engrossed in their story, and the blend of romance and intrigue made this book an absolute delight.