"Can best friends become lovers without destroying their friendship?"

Actress Sabrina Selwyn has rebuilt her life from the ashes. The daughter of soap actor parents, she grew up on the soap that employs all of her family. A devastating fire when she was twenty years old left her alone and adrift to deal with reconstructive surgeries on her own. Sabrina has being doing much better the last few years, winning two Oscars, a Tony, and writing several books. Through the last three years, her friend Brian Richards has been by her side. So Sabrina is shocked when Brian acts as the go-between for her estranged family.

Financier Brian Richards has loved Sabrina for two years now, but she seems oblivious to him as a man. When Sabrina's agent asks him to try to convince her to return to the family soap opera to boost sagging ratings, he has mixed feelings about it. Sure, Sabrina needs to reconcile with her family, but Sabrina's ex-fiancé is an actor on the soap as well. If Sabrina returns to the soap, will she also return to David?

David wants Sabrina for reasons of his own, none of which have anything remotely to do with love. Will Sabrina see through his machinations to the control freak that he really is? What trickery does David have up his sleeve?

Sabrina has done a lot of growing up in the intervening nine years (or twelve, there's a timeline discrepancy here). No longer the spoiled prima donna, she sees that she pushed her family away after the fire. She rejected them before they could reject her. Sabrina agrees to rejoin the soap for a twelve-week run. While in New York for the shooting, she asks Brian to let her stay with him in his penthouse. With them in such close quarters, the sparks are bound to fly.

The heart of this story is touching and sentimental. Brian clearly loves Sabrina very much, even though she doesn't realize it. Luckily, there were no big misunderstandings even though there was potential for them on several occasions.

BURNING DESIRES is a sweet, romantic read. However, I found the constant flashbacks to be annoying. I think that they could have been better organized instead of continually interrupting the flow of the story. If flashbacks don't bother you, you may just want to pick up Ms. Hurn's latest novel.

Sensuality: Rated Hard R by the publisher. Explicit sex, unprotected sex; sexually explicit scenes: 10.

Reviewed by Denise Powers
Courtesy Sensual Romance
Posted July 13, 2003

Summary

Brian Richards' love for Sabrina has been simmering too many years. When she returns to work on her family's daytime drama, her former fiancé David makes it obvious he wants to resume their engagement. Brian seeks to arouse Sabrina's passionate nature and convince her that his love won't disappear. Sabrina still has scars from the fire that started the split from her fiancé and family to begin with...

But Brian wants her. And he won't take no for an answer.

Sexual Content: Hard R. Genre: contemporary.