A Lady's Pleasure
Grade : B

A Lady’s Pleasure is a mix of Ye Olde Victorian Melodrama and Ye Olde Victorian Erotica. It’s kind of silly in spots, but darned if I didn’t find myself guiltily enjoying it.

Merriam Everett’s father called her “Merriam the Mouse”. Her late husband mostly ignored her, and concentrated on seducing the maids. Merriam is now comfortably well off and has so far lived a quiet, genteel and boring widowhood. At a party Merriam set eyes on Julian Clay, Earl of Westleigh, and was struck by a bolt of lust, but the first words she heard from him were “I have no use for whey-faced widows”. That insult emboldened Merriam and she determined to banish "the Mouse", seduce Julian, and leave him frustrated. Her venue for the seduction is Lord Milbank’s masked ball – an event where all kinds of licentious behavior takes place. Merriam goes to a madam for seduction lessons, finds out what costume Julian is going to wear, disguises herself as a sensuous cat, and arranges to meet him at the ball. However, she ends up mistaking Drake Sotherton, Duke of Sussex, for Julian. Her seduction goes too far and instead of leaving Drake frustrated, they have sex at the ball and both end up obsessed with the other.

Drake, determined to find the strange woman who thrilled him so, makes Lord Milbank tell him the names of the women who are most likely have been disguised as the cat. There are two of them, Lady Forsythe and Mrs. Everett. When Drake hears Lady Forsythe talk, he realizes that she is not his Cat, and the tempting seductress who has bewitched him must be shy, quiet Mrs. Everett.

Drake is under a cloud of suspicion and is known as the Deadly Duke. His wife was murdered several years earlier and Drake’s erstwhile friend Julian has fanned the flames of gossip ever since. Never mind that Drake was out of the country when his wife was killed, Society still looks at him and wonders if he might have done it. (Note to writers: It would have been better had Drake been at least somewhat nearer the crime scene. When he is in Scotland and the victim is in London, having him under a cloud of suspicion comes across as just plain silly.)

Drake moves in on Merriam with all his guns blazing and easily seduces her. The encounter is smokin’ hot - though the author's disconting habit of referring to bodily fluids as crème took me out of the moment - and while she is engaged with him she is, shall we say, wanton? However, in the cold gray light of the morning after, when she finds herself in Drake’s bed, she has second thoughts. But Drake comes after her again, with all his guns blazing and persuades her to become his mistress for the Season. Merriam puts up a token protest and submits. Pretty soon the quiet mouse becomes the elegant swan and pampered mistress. However, she knows nothing of Drake’s past and he isn’t about to tell her. Also, he has plans to use her to get to the man whom he suspects of murdering his wife, namely Julian.

Yes this book is overblown, but it reminded me of an old fashioned rose – all lush and blowsy. I liked Merriam very much. She wasn’t a shrinking violet, nor was she an anachronistic wanton. She was a loving, passionate woman who had been kept too long under the thumb of her father and her husband and reveled in the passion she felt for Drake. Even so, she is at heart a home and family loving woman who isn’t comfortable with the role of a mistress. She wants stability.

Drake is properly dark and brooding and quite the lusty lover. The love scenes in this book are many and passionate and give the lie to the assumption that all Victorians were repressed. Yes, Drake is too prone to keep secrets, but he isn’t cruel and he gives a wonderful grovel at the end of the book that quite redeemed all his faults.

Fans of erotic romances will want to check this one out. It’s a very good mixture of romance and erotica that I found engaging and enjoyable. There’s going to be a sequel next year and I plan to read it. Good job, Ms. Bernard!

Reviewed by Ellen Micheletti
Grade : B

Sensuality: Burning

Review Date : November 16, 2006

Publication Date: 2006

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