Customer Reviews

Contest of Wills (Black Lace Series)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This was my first Louisa Francis book and it made me crave more. She's my favorite writer of erotic romance novels. Her female characters are feminine but strong and are not afraid to take advantage of their sexual urges at every opportunity. Men find them irresistable and they don't disappoint.

This Black Lace novel had a lot of good things going for it. There was a strong plot, which isn't always the case with erotic novels, and the characters are developed. There is one big problem with the book. None of the characters are likeable. I wanted them all to end up unhappy.

The supposed heroine is Melanie, a young woman who married a man old enough to be her grandfather. This book pretty much ducks the issue, but an earlier book has her bragging about marrying for money. In the first chapter her husband dies while she is in the midst of having sex with a man she's just met. She inherits the old man's money, to the dismay of his grandson, Ric, who had been the old man beneficiary before Melanie's brief marriage. However, it's hard to sympathize with Ric, who had not bothered to visit his grandfather in over 25 years, despite pleas from the old man. Ric disguises himself in order to trick Malanie into marrying him, so he can get his hands on the money. Meanwhile, Pieter, a former lover of Melanie's begins to woo her, but what are his motives? Add in Deli, Ric's amoral sister, and you have a whole cast of unlikable characters who actually deserve each other, but not in a good way. Who will Melanie choose, and will his love be true. Who cares?

Which of course makes it difficult though not impossible to review from a man's point of view ....

I have noticed that in the Black Lace series of erotic literature the eroticism is more broad based and sensual than the classic Vitorian erotic literature that was generally if not exclusively written by males .... It delves into the mind of the female characters of the book making the love and sex scenes that much more erotic ..

Needless to say, this book and plot contains some very very strong women who are not hestiant in putting their finger, if other things, on what they really want and usually get.

The story is set in 1870's Australia which is interesting since one could hardly accuse Austrlians of being a matriarchal society making women such as Melanie and delie that much more interesting ...