If alpha males came in a supersize package (“I’d like mine Extra-Virile, please!”), Christina Dodd’s usual heroes would be toting an extra-large drink as they rolled into town. So if you don’t enjoy reading sex scenes with a struggle for power and men who act and behave like men, you most likely will not enjoy Dodd’s latest. Scandalous Again is the first in a duo featuring two cousins: one, a titled lady, the other, that lady’s companion. The two switch places and the first book tells the story of Lady Madeline de Lacy, who becomes a companion in order to salvage her future.

Madeline is a marchioness and, through a quirky rule regarding female succession in her line (shades of the second Duchess of Marlboro?) is the future Duchess of Magnus. Just returned from abroad after a four-year sojourn following a romance gone dreadfully awry, her father drops a bombshell – he’s wagered her in a card game and lost. She is to be married to a Mr. Knight, who is presently waiting for her in London. Madeline is a take-charge, managing woman who believes she’s left the past behind. She believes that her future as the Duchess of Magnus, with all the position and holdings that title entails (including a magnificent tiara bequeathed to her family by Elizabeth I), will more than compensate for the foolish mistakes she made when affianced to Gabriel Ansell, Earl of Campion.

While shocked that her father has lost her, Madeline, isn’t terribly surprised; her father cannot resist any kind of card game and is selfish and scatterbrained. It’s his behavior that has made Madeline into the competent, sensible woman she prides herself on being. While en route to London to try and persuade Mr. Knight that they won’t suit, she learns of “The Game of the Century” that is to take place during a house party at nearby Chalice Hall. Terrified since she knows her father would not miss the opportunity for gambling and because the thing of value left in his possession is her tiara, Madeline insists that she her best friend and companion, Eleanor, switch places. While Eleanor will head for London to try and stall Mr. Knight, Madeline will go to the house party to persuade her father to back out of the game.

In order to accomplish her goal, Madeline takes a position as a young lady’s companion, which requires her to try and subdue her natural bossiness and at the same time overcome her inability to iron, dress hair, or be agreeable. Upon her arrival at the house party she sees Gabriel; though he recognizes her he does not give her away, and within a few hours she is panting with lust for him, although she doesn’t trust him or want to be with him. Lust apparently overcomes not only four years of separation, but pride and an essential sticking point (Gabriel gambles; she will not abide gamblers).

As for Gabriel, he’s at Chalice Hall to avenge his brother and is tricked into a card game with Mr. Rumbelow, the party’s host, whom he quite rightly assumes is up to no good. Gabriel has always known he will reunite with Madeline, although he is adamant that it be on his terms. He is determined that she will never manage him as she does everyone else in her life. Naturally enough, Madeline doesn’t agree with him on this point.

Nevertheless, Gabriel succeeds in bending her to his will through sexual persuasion, but it takes a lot of persuading, which leaves Madeline in a highly frustrated state. Gabriel is a mega-male, a man who thinks things like, “If somebody was going to hurt Madeline, he wanted it to be him. Like a greedy lad, he wanted all her attention focused on him.” That pretty much spells out his character: arrogant, solipsistic and sexually dominant. No wonder he wants to have Madeline under his thumb (and other things), since he is unaccustomed to being ordered around by anyone.

While the two are panting and heaving for each other, they are also trying to extricate the tiara from Rumbelow’s possession, discover what their evil host has planned for the house party, and, of course, settle their differences. Gabriel promises to recover her tiara in exchange for one night of passion, but what he really wants is her complete surrender. He doesn’t get that without a fight. Madeline’s refusal to knuckle under his aggressive onslaught is admirable – until you consider that she’s still desperately in love with him and that it was only one gambling transgression (that he won!) which caused her to break the engagement and run off to the Continent. Despite all his arrogance, Gabriel understands Madeline better than she does; he realizes her trust issues stem from her father’s behavior even though she does not.

Madeline and Gabriel are two very forceful characters, but once their sexual relationship resumes, it’s hard to get a feel for them outside their mutual attraction. The sub-plots involving Rumbelow, the tiara, Gabriel’s brother, his grumpy old Scottish valet, and Madeline’s incompetence as a companion are only marginally interesting. More interesting is the lady to whom Madeline is a companion. Though Dodd spends little time exploring her situation, she proves to be young woman with a surprising depth of character.

Reading Scandalous Again is a guilty pleasure. A very un-P.C. attitude pervades the book, yet it’s hard not to hope that Madeline succumbs to Gabriel’s forceful will. The love scenes are very hot as Madeline is swept up in passion despite herself. Unfortunately, plot and characterization are rather flimsy; if you’re looking for historical detail, well-developed characters, and deep emotional commitment, look elsewhere.