There are several classic romance situations and one of my favorites has always been a romance between a teacher and student.  Perhaps it is that we can all relate to such a situation since we've all been students at one point or another. I know I myself have had a crush or two on my professors so it was easy to relate to the romantic encounter Ramona Hilliger presents in Dangerous Desire.

Amy Anderson's writing classes are just the escape she needs from her frustrating marriage to Keith. The sparks that used to fly between them have long since disappeared and the only romance she has in her life is in the stories she writes for her creative writing class.

Of course it isn't hard to come up with material for those stories when you have a handsome teacher like Jamie Whitton. Amy had never gone for the bad boy type, but for cycle-riding Jamie, she's willing to make an exception.

When a few critiquing sessions turn into a regular date for coffee, Amy finds herself more than a little interested in her mentor and if she isn't mistaken, she may just be teacher's pet. But she's married and a brief fling with an exciting younger man is not reason enough to compromise her marriage vows, or is it?

Jamie Whitton knows passion when he sees it, and Amy Anderson most certainly has boatloads of it hidden away underneath those beautifully tailored business suits. One of his star pupils, Jamie picks up on her talent for story telling and finds that she is a willing student when she agrees to meet to review each other's work.

Jamie can only imagine the kind of student she'd be if he taught her how to let some of that passion loose. Unfortunately she has a husband whom she says she loves, and Jamie isn't the kind of guy who will seduce a married woman if she wants to stay married, or is he?

In Dangerous Desire Romona Hilliger has chosen to give us a story containing both the classic student/teacher romance plus she has created our leading man in the irresistible bad boy image.

Ms. Hilliger has done a nice job of building her characters and providing them with the opportunity to develop a romance. As a reader, I liked both Amy and Jamie and while reading secretly wished I had a teacher like Jamie to distract me from time to time.

Unfortunately, Ms. Hilliger leaves the story of their developing romance incomplete. We move from Amy's first hesitant acceptance of Jaime's offer of meeting for coffee to the couple meeting on a daily basis and already being close friends and perhaps more. Dangerous Desire suffers because the reader is not there to share the characters deepening feelings and the conflict that most certainly would come with it.

The other problem with Dangerous Desire is the fact that despite the enjoyable characters, the story line is predictable and time worn. This teacher/student, bad boy/good girl romance doesn't bring anything new to the table for romance readers.

For me these two flaws overshadowed the well crafted characters to such an extent that I hesitate to recommend this book. But because I did like Jamie and Amy so much, I am going to suggest that you try Dangerous Desire for yourself since perhaps you will not mind the tired story line or the missed development of the relationship as you get to know them. 
 
Reviewed By Sabine Maurier
© July 2008