All Elspeth of Sunnandune wanted was to go to the convent.  After watching her mother die in childbirth, she remembers her mother's last request that she stay away from men.  However, her father has other plans for her and has promised her in marriage to a handsome knight.  Elspeth quietly agrees, after a strong protest in front of her soon to be husband (without her knowledge he was in the room), because she at least wants to be free of her father.  She hopes that her husband will take what he wants from her and then allow her to go and live in peace as a nun.

 Hugh of Jerusalem, born in the land of the Messiah, has no intention of letting his wife go.  He will use every power known to him to try and win his Lady's heart.  Against spiritual and physical obstacles, he slowly begins to work his way into her life.  However, understanding of just how resolved she is to being a nun, Hugh wonders if all is for naught.  Can he win her heart or will he let her go?

After reading A KISS TO DIE FOR, I was very excited to get this latest release, THE TEMPTATION, from Claudia Dain.  However, I was very disappointed in the heroine.  I found her to be annoying most of the time, with her constant remembering of the promise made to her dying mother, to stay away from men and all they entail.  I also found that the ending seemed too quick for her turnaround in her thinking.  The setting and characters were very well written, and I felt as if I were actually there most of the book.  Ms. Dain is a wonderfully talented writer, I just wish she had done more with Elspeth than make her a devout want-to-be nun with little thought process of her own other than what she's been told to do by people in her life.