If you’ve spent any amount of time on BookTok or BookTube recently, you’ll probably have stumbled across a series of erotic villain-led Disney retellings. Yep, you heard me. Erotic villain-led Disney retellings. With the emotional stakes and the mother-son bond that made No Return so unforgettable, Desperate Measures sees Rowan step up to try and pay off Finn’s staggering debts after he was manipulated into a drug deal. Already struggling to pay off those of her absent father, Rowan seems to have no other option but being involved in a heist. The target in question? The same bank she works at, of course. But any price is worth paying if it keeps Finn alive, she reasons. Is Desperate Measures based on a true story?

The trilogy, A Fair Prospect, is outstanding. I give it a 5 star rating, as well as 5 stars to each volume. I am still amazed at the way Cassandra Grafton is able to get into the minds of her characters, and make me feel with them every moment of despair, agony, sadness, elation, joy and relief.Thrillers are often far fetched, and Desperate Measures is no exception. Pittman is in his bath, gun between his teeth, depressed beyond reason, when an old colleague calls up and asks him to do him a favour and give him a few days work. What tempting proposition could persuade Pittman to abandon his suicide attempt? Writing obituaries for a magazine about to fold. How could he resist? Through an unlikely set of circumstances, this leads to him getting into all sorts of trouble. Being one continuing story, I was worried that it would be too long, and drawn out, but most of the time that wasn’t the case. The story flowed well. I was getting a little frustrated in this book, Desperate Measures, with how long it took Darcy and Elizabeth to get together. However, the build up of frustration and disappointment, in my opinion, added to the incredible feelings I felt when they finally did come together. I felt the heartache when Lizzy thought she was saying good-bye to Darcy for the last time, and the high when they were honest with one another - finally professing their love! It was a beautiful thing!

From the time Pete first met Nat, Nat had tried to locate Barney and his mother. He told Pete that he thought that they had moved out-of-state to get away from the stepfather and he couldn't locate them. Pete decided to quit looking. Barney had told him that he would find Pete when he was 16 and Barney would be 19. Pete was now 17 1/2 and he still didn't know where Barney was. He decided that Barney would have to find him now. Pete was through looking. Nicholas and Serena: Two original characters crafted by Ms. Grafton were added to this story. Both who have a long history and close familiarity to our heroine. I adored these two characters, they were wonderfully well-drawn and triggered some interesting developments to the plot. Especially since they have their own sets of conflicts and bring more conflict as Darcy makes some assumptions about Nicholas’s relationship with Elizabeth!Matt Pittman’s life is one full of sorrow. His son died of a rare form of bone cancer called Ewing's Sarcoma (the same kind that Morrell's son died from) and his wife left him shortly after, and unable to cope with his pitiful life any longer, he decides to commit suicide. He has the barrel of a gun in his mouth, ready to pull the trigger when the phone rings and he is tasked with an assignment from an old friend; write the obituary for a dying diplomat. And because his friend helped him so much when his son was dying, he felt obliged to do him one last favour before he takes his own life. Pittman finds himself outside of the dying diplomat, Jonathan Wingate’s house, peeping through a glass door. Then he notices everyone leave the room while Wingate gasps for breath. Pittman enters the room and resets the man’s oxygen tubes, but unfortunately, the road to hell is paved with good intentions. Due to his fingerprints conveniently being on the tubes, it was too easy for the other diplomats to frame him for the murder of Jonathan Wingate. I think the good things about Desperate Measures are the dynamics that are created between Jasmine and Jafar. It was a great relationship and I loved the moments they shared, especially when there was raw emotion with them dealing with it all. I love how Jasmine questions a lot of what was going on and whether it was right for her. It was great to see the ending go in a completely different direction. I appreciate the effort that was made. Please note: this is one story told across three volumes and there is, therefore, no conclusion to the storylines in the first two volumes. This story is rated PG)

It's so amazingly written and catches the tone of the original yet adds aspects which gives it a bit more spice, wit and romance - almost unbelievable considering how marvelous the original was already.Volume III, Desperate Measures, concludes the story begun in Disappointed Hopes (Vol I) and continued in Darcy's Dilemma (Vol II). Desperate Measures is based on Aladdin. We then follow Jasmine when Jafar has overthrown her father. Although the politics are similar the setting is city based instead of the desert. I really love how they write Jasmine and her curiosity of the world around her. The city added a roughness to her encounters and fits the overall feel of the book and sexual encounters with Jafar. I really wish there had been more development of her in the outside world and with other people other than Jafar and within The Underground.