The first half of this novel involves only two characters marooned on an isolated island in the middle of a storm. Lord Langdon has been hiding as he recovers from a railway accident and Marlowe has crashed down in a hot air balloon. There's chemistry, forced proximity and a huge social divide - she's a courtesan and he's a Viscount - but there's very little action. It's obvious that both have secrets but each is holding their cards close to the vest. The pacing is extremely slow. Eventually the couple will return to London and society and will need to confront their differences. But not a whole lot happens in this book. I had to make myself finish this book, it did get more interesting in the second half.

This is just one of those Lorraine Heath historical romances where you have to suspend your disbelief and be like, yeah, sure, an air-balloon-flying courtesan who lands on a tiny island in a thunderstorm. I'm not here for realism, I'm here for yearning and happily-ever-afters. And in that regard, it did a phenomenal job. Marked down a tiny bit because Lorraine Heath loves a good cast of characters, and this title felt a little lacking (especially if you didn't read the series focusing on the generation prior).

Thank you to the publisher for the review copy! I just couldn't get in the mood for this one, but I do love this author!

I enjoyed this book overall. I really loved both the main characters individually. Marlowe is a courtesan who is also an adventurer (and who has a secret past). Viscount Langdon is popular, handsome, and from a loving family with a secret at present. Personally, I am not a fan of insta-love or insta-lust and it was hard to get past that with these two characters. While I think Heath eventually made the love make sense, it was difficult for me to buy the story at first. I do think both these characters are interesting and the story was a quick read.

I received a copy of #ATempestofDesire by #LorraineHeath through #NetGalley. It is an open door romance between Marlowe and Oliver Langdon. She is a courtesan and an aeronaut who crashes into the sea during a storm and washes onto Langdon's island. It mainly takes place on the island. Both people suffer from PTSD as Langdon had been in a RR crash where people died. Langdon hides from people his inability to do math as a result of a brain injury. It's unbelievable that a courtesan would be able to marry a viscount and I did find myself skipping descriptions, but some readers might like the pace.

I did not really enjoy the romance in this book. I liked both leads individually but had a hard time with them together, this could have been solved with a lot more scenes of them interacting off the island. I think the book's pacing felt mismatched as most of it happened while they were marooned. Sadly I ended up not completely buying their love story as one that would last.

Thank you to Avon/Harper Voyager for the ARC

This review may contain spoilers, so fair warning, upon reading the review. Also my tags may have spoilers in them so be forewarned before checking out full review.

Book Evaluation:
Plot: 🎞️🎞️🎞️
World Building:🌎🌎🌎🌎
Cover:📔📔📔📔📔
Hero: 🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻🦸🏻
Heroine:🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️🦸🏻‍♀️
Intimacy Level: 🔥🔥🔥
Relationship Building: 💒💒💒
Heart & Feels:💞💞💞
Witty/Banter/Reaction of Laughter: 😂😂😂😂
Page Turner Level:📖📖📖
Narration:🎧🎧🎧
Ending:🧧🧧🧧🧧🧧
Overall View: ✨✨✨.5


First Impressions
A Temptest of Desire is a continuation of a previous series and it was so fun to get back to this family and world. This is a cozy historical romance, with tones of caretaking, class difference and slow building yearning. It also has some unique notes of a sex worker and seeing some emotional trauma being handled in this story. This is a pretty slow paced story though so it might not work for everyone and I would have wished for a bit more swoon and engaging quality to the story.

First Line
while the howling wind tore around him and the rain lashed at his upturned face, he staggered to the edge of the cliff, braced himself against nature's wrath, and hurled the empty whisky bottle into the blackened abyss that contained monstrous waves thrashing against the rocky, sandy shore.

The Main Protagonists
The Hero: Viscount Langdon
The Heroine:Marlowe

Summary
A Temptest of Desire begins with our hero, Viscount Langdon, on a private island that his family owns, trying to overcome some emotional trauma in his past when strolling the coast, he finds a young woman that has washed up on his beach, and its an infamous courtesan who once was a woman he wanted but was unable to have, but to him was a true queen. Marlowe in some bad circumstances had to make some difficult decisions, and created her own life as a infamous courtesan, who is bold and daring. She knows who she is and is determined to maintain what she has built until she is rescued by a Viscount who is forbidden fruit to her. Through their isolation, they are able to build a connection to each other, but when real life gets in the way, Marlowe will have to decide if she is willing to dare the Ton and society scandal to be with the man who holds her heart...

What I Loved
A Temptest of Desire was such a cozy relaxing read. Its a story you can sit in your favorite reading chair and just relax into. Its not going to be super thrilling or engaging, so keep that in mind. I do think you will enjoy this book more physically reading it over the audio version of it, but that is just my personal recommendation of it. I found this story be endearing in the small quiet moments that these two have together. Although my favorite moments is the second half of the story. I loved the elemtn of the air balloon as you don't see that too often in historicals. But I found the heroine so refreshing. I don't get a chance to read a mistress/courtesan heroine too often, but I also love it when it happens. I found the way that the conflict is resolved to be so fascinating and the interactions that she has with his family was solid. I loved what we get to the characters from the series and definitely had its intriguing tones of delight, cozy intimacy and romantic moments that is very Lorraine Heath style.

What I Struggled With
Look I love Lorraine Heath, but like many historical romance authors, her stories aren't the most exciting anymore. Its kinda boring. Now I think part of my problem is I read part of this book in audio and I think the audio just wasn't good. Most newer historicals I can struggle with in audio, and I think part of the reason this isn't a higher rating is the audio made it feel so slow and I just couldn't feel the connection between these two. And don't read this book when you are tired, you want to make sure you have energy to withstand the slower writing pace. I was kinda disappointed the hero's past wasn't more focused on to be honest. It didn't have the emotional impact that I was expecting from it.

Narration
It's alright. Its not bad or anything, you just have to bad able to focus on the story and have it at a slower speed or it will easily take you out of the story.

Overall View
A Temptest of Desire is a endearing romance that bring in small moments of poignant emotion, cozy intimacy with a fun coastal setting and will bring together some forbidden elements to bring the right conflict to this pair to overcome.

Book Perspective
3rd POV

Relationship Conflict vs Plot Conflict
Plot Conflict

If you like these authors, I recommend This Book
Julie Ann Long
Julie London
Laura Lee Guhrke

Recommendation For Reading Order
You can read as a standalone, but for character connections, read series in order.

I wish I could have liked this more because I positively adore Lorraine Heath, but this one just never grabbed me. The plot of this book was entirely too slow burn. I did, however, like the characters very much, and the writing as usual was lovely.

I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

Lorraine Heath is such an incredible author. She is one I know i can return to time and time again. Her prose is lush and evocative and she has such an excellent way of building her romances that blends sensuality with heart stopping romance. I loved this one!

I loved this story. We have a man who likes to seclude himself hiding out from society when a woman falls on the shore, literally. Marlowe is an aeronaut who gets caught in a storm and winds up on the beach of Langdon's private hideaway. She's got a bit of a reputation, but you never feel sorry for her. She's done all that she could to survive by becoming a mistress. I love that her passion is flying in a balloon. For something that was apparently quite popular at the time, I've never read about a heroine who enjoyed this particular activity, so the deviation from the norm was welcome. The story spends the first half full of longing and desire. Once passions let loose, it's quite the steamy tale. If you love the stranded together trope, as I do, this will be a great story for you to dive into. We also have a strong heroine and broody, troubled hero to love.

Give me all the yearning and this book has it. Marlow (just Marlow no last name) is a well-known courtesan who crash lands on Langdon's island. I love how they handle Marlow's job in a positive way and talk about her lack of options. Langdon has a traumatic accident/repercussions which he hides from everyone. Both of them (in a short period of time) grow and learn to lean on each other (and fall in love).

A Tempest of Desire is the fifth book in Lorraine Heath's The Scandalous Gentlemen of St. James series, which is a spinoff of her series The Scoundrels of St. James. Now I've read all of the books in the previous series and loved them, but this is the first I've read in this follow-up one. I think I've adored all of Ms. Heath's books, especially her recent ones. However, I had a hard time settling into this one. I could put it down for days at a time before picking it back up. It may have possibly been because I started reading right after the holidays, and I always have a bout of the post-holiday. blues since I was a little girl. So I gave this book the benefit of a doubt and rounded my review up from 3.5 to 4 stars.

Viscount Langdon retreated to his small island to recover from a traumatic railroad accident and try to conquer the nightmares - and a mysterious issue - which still haunt him. After ranting in a storm and demanding that the seas provide him with a woman, well, guess what he got? A beautiful woman does wash up on his beach, but he wasn't expecting it to be Marlowe, London's most scandalous courtesan! She is known to be bold, but her most daring escapades involve flying in her hot air balloon. When a storm blows her off course, she discovers she is stranded with the only inhabitant of the island until the storm calms. The sullen and handsome lord tempts her more than anyone ever has, but Marlowe has secrets to keep, and giving into her desire would demand a complete surrender, so she cannot risk it. Langdon finds he is beyond tempted by this stunning woman, but he, too, cannot risk his secret getting out. Will this tempest of desire destroy the both?

I found this to be an entertaining story, and I adored the character of Marlowe. A beautiful, charming courtesan who can have any man she wants but chooses only one protector, and she also flies a hot air balloon solo? What's not to like? Her father disappeared on a balloon flight himself, and Marlowe found herself having to find funds to pay back his creditors, so this is the route she chose, though she would rather have love and adventure. And then we have Viscount Langdon... Now I love a romance with a grump for a hero, but Langdon was a bit too grumpy for my taste! Yes, he was a beautiful man that any woman would want, and he obviously had skills in the bedroom to match those of the courtesan he desired, but there was just too much brooding going on! I think the secret that Langdon was trying to keep was extremely interesting, but I think that should have been more a part of the story, instead of mainly desire between two beautiful people. And don't get me wrong, the steam factor between these two was off the charts here, and I think most people would need an ice bath after reading the steamy bits. But I wanted more romance. I loved visiting with Landon's mother and father, who appeared in the original series. I am enchanted with the idea of their progeny having their own series, and I look forward to catching up on what I missed. Is this my favorite Lorraine Heath book? Not by a long shot...but time spent on ANY book by Ms. Heath is NEVER a waste of time. She will always be a favorite of mine, and I look forward to her next release.

I received an ARC of this book courtesy of the publisher and NetGalley. I received no compensation for my review, and all thoughts and opinions expressed are entirely my own.

Honestly, this is a top-tier historical romance.

Admittedly, the premise is a bit hard to swallow: after a horrific accident on the railway he once loved, our MMC—Viscount Oliver Langdon—is traumatized and choses to live alone on an island off the Cornwall coast. During a particularly angry storm (and at a particularly low moment in his own journey), he discovers the FMC, Marlowe (a spitfire and misunderstood courtesan) clinging to life on his shores after a hot air balloon crash.

To be honest, I didn’t know how this was going to go. But I think Heath executes this PERFECTLY in that this all happens in Chapter 1. So, once you get past and accept the outlandishness of the initial set-up, this is a really special story. This kind of plot—FMC and MMC trapped together in a small space— is a difficult one to write because there aren’t side characters or Ton drama to carry the story. Instead, the two main characters are the actually that: the main event. And, let me tell you, Marlowe and Langdon are two of my favorites.

Here's what you can expect:

- Brooding FMC who’s pined for her for months
- He loves reading and hoarding books – hello!
- High-spirited, misunderstood FMC who doesn’t realize she deserves better
- Forced proximity/only one bed
- Character-driven romance
- Slow burn

Overall, A Tempest of Desire stands out among the many Historical Romances I’ve read recently. Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for an ARC this read in exchange for an honest review.

The first book in my Top 25 of 2025 list, this has all the elements I love in a historical romance novel — the signature Lorraine Heath angst and deft interwoven research; her awesome character-driven storytelling; the delicious slow burn of passion and love; the high stakes of the class difference between Marlowe, an infamous mistress, and Oliver, a viscount; and the defiant power of romance’s happily ever after.

Well spent hours of joyous reading.

This book is perfect Lorraine Heath: a bonkers set up that somehow makes sense in the context of the story, lots of pining, a seemingly insurmountable reason why the two main characters can't be together. Yet this book is surprisingly gentle, with a relative minimum of angst.

While I loved both Marlow and Langdon, I fear this didn’t vibe with me as much as I’d hoped.

Marlow literally washed up on shore of the island that Langdon is hiding out on. He’s hiding because he was in a railroad accident last year and he’s having some issues with his recovery. Issues that are quite a secret. Marlow is the most famous courtesan in london. They have a mutual pining situation going on because they do know one another. As she recovers from her balloon wreck the two grow closer. Then he has to return her to london. But she’s done with Hollie, her benefactor, and he now wants her as his mistress.

I don’t love “be my mistress” type of stories. She’s with another man for about half the book (nothing happens between them, but one of the things mentioned a lot is how devoted she is so said man).

I did like the trust they had for one another. They both open up about secrets and such. They are truly there for each other and I love that about them. I thought the ending was so so good.

Overall, this was fine. I liked the characters more than the story though.

Lorraine Heath always crushes, but this was especially good with bringing back some beloved characters and getting to see Langdon get his love story. I devoured this book and it was so fun, and an absolute joy to watch the hero and (Ballooning!!!!) heroin fall in love on the deserted island.

The next book will also be in this series which happens to be one of my favorites so I can't wait.

Thank you to NetGalley, the author and publisher for the arch. All opinions are honest and my own.

Heath's return after several years away is a fantastic and emotional read, with two strong, intelligent leads who must overcome their pasts and personal fears to come together.

I might come back to this later, but I am currently DNFing at 30%. ⁠
⁠
What's happened up until now in the book? This rich nobleman is all depressed, alone on his private island, because he can't understand numbers anymore. He's lonely and stuff so he makes a wish during a storm that a woman would wash up on shore ... and one appears! She's a famous courtesan! She was in a hot air balloon but was caught in the storm and she crash landed! And, most importantly of all, she is Not Like Other Girls. ⁠
⁠
She's soooo not like other girls, y'all. She:⁠
⁠
1. Took off her restrictive, heavy clothes so she wouldn't drown to death (the MMC implies that other ladies would prefer death to immodesty).⁠
2. She is interested in bugs (most other ladies would rather just ask the men in their lives to squish the bugs).⁠
3. She loves unconventional gifts (PUH-LEASE, all the other courtesans like jewelry and stuff).⁠
⁠
I've read rave reviews of this book, but I just can't motivate myself to read further. Does this get any better? Is Lorraine Heath not for me unless she's writing about Gorilla Twins?⁠?
⁠
This objective review is based on a complimentary copy of the novel.

I do love a good Lorraine Heath story and this one was so good.

I loved Marlowe and Langdon. They’re both lonely and good people and I really loved this take on a grumpy/sunshine of sorts. These two have loads of conversations and respect, not to mention chemistry. There’s a pretty big cast of characters here, but I think a lot of them were from the previous stories.

Plot wise, it’s a slow meandering and the main tension is the UST between Marlowe and Langdon. I loved getting a small bit of overlap in their thoughts, especially when it came to the night they first spoke. Reading how they both thought so differently about the other and then getting to read the actual confession was one of my favorite scenes.

Overall, this book had a lot of great characters who were easy to root for and it definitely has me wanting to go back and read the other books in this series.

**Huge thanks to the publisher for providing the arc free of charge**