Cassiopeia Ellis, a charming and charismatic art historian, sweeps proclaimed billionaire, Ian Chase, off his feet during their first encounter. They spend an unforgettable evening together, and Ian is left love-struck and enamored by the mere thought of Cassiopeia. Six years pass and they meet again, but now Cassiopeia is Cassie Modine, a skilled and cold-hearted FBI Agent who doesn’t have time for love. Still, the chemistry between them is undeniable, so Ian becomes adamant to win Cassie’s heart once more – except he doesn’t get the chance. Catastrophe strikes from out of nowhere, someone wants Cassie dead, and Ian has no choice but to delve into Cassie’s life and discover secrets that have been kept in the dark for years in order to save her.
Secure Desire by R. L. Dunn is the first installment in the A Chase Group Story series. However, Cassie and Ian’s story ends here, and the next installment discusses the tale of another pair within the same universe. This is a very suspenseful and complex story of power, love, betrayal, and deceit. The plot discusses extremely heavy themes such as rape, sexual harassment, abuse, abortion and delves into such topics in full-detail too – hence why I believe the book could seriously trigger some people as much as it could educate others, and I feel the need to advise the readers against reading it without keeping the above warnings in mind.
The book was a bit slow-paced and confusing at first. There were many characters which weren’t properly introduced, and I had a hard time distinguishing some individuals from others because they held similar names, like Garett Whitman III and Garret Whitman Jr. However, when the plot finally began to kick in it definitely held my interest, and I couldn’t put the book down in many instances. Cassie’s secret is far more complex than I could have ever fathomed, but it was greatly enjoyable to get involved in every part of the journey towards solving her mystery.
The book’s biggest advantage lies in its strategic and calculated plot twists. I lost count of how many times I was left shocked and bewildered at the abrupt turn of events, especially when the author finally explained the grand scheme behind Cassie’s attack through the villains at the end. Also, I really liked the minor characters’ intelligence and personalities, especially Monique’s – who is Ian’s sister-in-law. She was incredibly enthralling, charmingly quirky, and I really loved her cunning nature and cleverness when it came to dangerous situations.
One drawback that I noticed about the book was Cassie and Ian’s love story and how lacking it was. To elaborate, Cassie and Ian met and talked for a total of three times before Ian realized he had deep feelings for her. After that, hardships began to fall and Cassie was left unconscious for a long time, during which Ian decided he fell in love with her. Even though he doesn’t really know Cassie – only her struggles and harsh life which he found out about through others – he decided she was the one, and I found that extremely unrealistic and very rushed. For the majority of the book, there were very few interactions between Cassie and Ian, and I really wanted the author to delve deeper into their relationship and give it more room to flourish.
To add to it, the author portrayed Cassie as a cold-hearted and fierce FBI Agent at first, however, that wasn’t the case for the rest of book. Ian did the majority of the work in finding the people who wanted Cassie dead, and only during the beginning and near the end do we see Cassie’s true capabilities which, to be frank, left me quite disappointed. Moreover, all that seemed to worry Cassie is that “ no man would want her” after what happened during the past and present – she didn’t care as much to gain justice for her family and make sure the villains rot in prison. She also relied on Ian to protect her for many instances, even though she didn’t know him that well and used to find it hard to trust other men before, especially after her assault. I just found Cassie’s personality to be very contradicting and inconsistent throughout the book.
I noticed one error and a few typos but other than that, the book seemed to be proofread and edited.
For the reasons above, I will rate this book 3 out of 4 stars. The plot as a whole is very rich, well thought of and intriguing – although it can be a bit confusing at times. The author has a great talent in capturing the audience’s attention from the beginning until the end, and I commend her apparent efforts in making the events within the story as realistic as possible despite the difficult plot. I recommend this book for ages above 18 since it contains explicit sex, rape, and gory scenes. I would also recommend it for lovers of a clever mystery book, but not for readers who don’t enjoy heavily complicated reads.
