From Publishers Weekly
A case of mistaken identity fuels the plot of George's (The Mating Game) wholly unbelievable Victorian-era romance. When Dominick Carlisle is seduced by a masked beauty whom he believes is Annabelle Sutherland, he proposes. But upon discovering her flagrante delicto with his brother, he quickly rescinds his offer and enlists in the military, leaving behind his one true love, Annabelles sister Parris, the real masked beauty. Eight years later, Dominick and Parris come face to face again after she has been jilted at the altar by another. Their attraction remains strong, but Parris, hurt by his having abandoned her, doesn't want anything to do with him. Add the scheming Annabelle, who wants Dominick for her own now that he is a duke, and you have a hopelessly twisted love triangle that fails to excite or even amuse. Fortunately, the action picks up when Parris, aka Lady Scruples, and her cousin Gwen disguise themselves as barmaids to catch Jason, the earl of Stratford, compromising a lady's virtue. Gwen's description of Jason is one of the books many cliches, "[H]is stomach! It was like he had swallowed a washboard." Though romances are often explicit, this novels extreme focus on physical perfection and steamy sex scenes will leave readers longing for something with more depth.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
In 1842, Dominick Carlisle has memorable sex at a costume ball with a mysterious virgin who is his long-loved childhood friend, Parris, in disguise. After she disappears, he finds a monogrammed handkerchief with her sister's initials and feels honor-bound to offer marriage to Annabelle, not knowing that she is the wrong woman until he finds her flagrante delicto with his brother. After eight years away in the army, Dominick returns to find that Parris has turned into a stunningly gorgeous, if aggrieved and resentful, woman. When he goes to a pub to help a friend fend off the mysterious Lady Scruples, who has all of London in an uproar with her attacks on prominent men for their seduction of innocent women, he discovers that this avenger is none other than Parris, but still he fails to connect her with the mystery woman he's never forgotten. George's tale has the barest trappings of history, but the sex scenes are great, the secondary characters interesting, and the resolution satisfying.
Mary K. CheltonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
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