A Well Pleasured Lady [Mass Market Paperback]

Christina Dodd (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1997

Prim, plain, desperately virtuous Lady Mary Fairchild stared at the seductive gentleman and wondered -- did he remember the elements of the night they met? Surely not. In the ten years since, she had abandoned her youthful impetuousness and transformed herself into a housekeeper -- disguising her beauty beneath a servant's dour clothing determined to conquer the passions of the past.

But Sebastian Durant, Viscount Whitfield, did recognize her as a Fairchild, one of his family's bitter enemies. When he demanded her help recovering a stolen diary, she dared not refuse him. When he proposed they masquerade as a betrothed couple, loyalty forced her to agree. And when the restraint between them shattered and pleasure became an obsession, Mary had to trust a powerful man who could send her to the gallows ... or love her through eternity.

 

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Powerful Sebastian Durant, Viscount Whitfield, has good cause to hate the Fairchild family, so when his godmother requests Sebastian's help in regaining an incriminating diary she believes to have been stolen by the Fairchilds, he welcomes the opportunity to exact revenge. Lady Mary Fairchild, though estranged from her family for 10 years, is loath to aid the Viscount. Unfortunately, her loyalty to his godmother, and the knowledge that Sebastian is privy to the dark secret she hides from the world, compels her to cooperate. The handsome Viscount and the beautiful Lady Mary pose as engaged lovers, and their charade soon becomes reality as they untangle a web of lies, theft, and betrayal that threatens their very lives. Christina Dodd has once again written a historical romance filled with her trademark humor, wit, and steamy sensuality, giving readers yet another not-to-be-missed novel.

From Library Journal

Comfortable in her fugitive life as the efficient housekeeper, Mary Rottenson, Lady Guinevere Mary Fairchild is dragged back to reality when the mesmerizing, but vengeance-driven, Viscount Whitfield blackmails her into posing as his fiancee?and she is forced to return to the dissolute family she never wanted to see again. The vividly depicted, bawdy Georgian setting is the perfect backdrop for this highly sensual story of intrigue. It features not only a large cast of diverse characters but also a unique heroine who is both heiress and murderess. Dodd (A Knight To Remember, Harper, 1997) lives in Stafford, Texas. [Note: A sequel, A Well Favored Gentleman, will be issued by Avon in 1998.]
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Avon (August 1, 1997)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380790890
• ISBN-13: 978-0380790890
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 4.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (34 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #777,672 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #40 in Books > 4-for-3 Books > Romance > Authors, A-Z > ( D ) > Dodd, Christina

More About the Author

Chat with Christina via Facebook and Twitter, and even better, join her mailing list to have her news delivered right to your inbox! http://christinadodd.com/lists/?p=subscribe

Readers become writers, and Christina Dodd has always been a reader. She reads everything, but because she loves humor, she likes romance best.

A woman wants things like world peace, a clean house, and a deep and meaningful relationship based on mutual understanding and love. A man wants things like a Craftsman router with attachments, undisputed control of the TV remote, and a red Corvette which will miraculously make his bald spot disappear. So when Christina's first daughter was born, she told her husband she was going to quit work and write a book. It was a good time to start a new career, because how much trouble could one little infant be?

Ha! It took ten years, two children and three completed manuscripts before her first novel, CANDLE IN THE WINDOW, was published. In the twenty-two years since, her novels have been translated into 25 languages, won Romance Writers of America's prestigious Golden Heart and RITA Awards and been called the year's best by Library Journal. Christina Dodd herself has been a clue in the Los Angeles Times crossword puzzle (11/18/05, # 13 Down: Romance Novelist named Christina.) Publishers Weekly praises her style that 'showcases Dodd's easy, addictive charm and steamy storytelling.'

Christina's 2011 releases include TAKEN BY THE PRINCE, #9 in the Governess Brides series, and in the tradition of Nora Roberts, a new romantic suspense series starting with SECRETS OF BELLA TERRA and REVENGE AT BELLA TERRA.

Christina Dodd is married to a man with all his hair and no Corvette, but many Craftsman tools.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Well-Pleasured Reader, June 17, 1998

By A Customer

This review is from: A Well Pleasured Lady (Mass Market Paperback)

This book is a wonderful read. The heroine, Mary, spent years hiding as a housekeeper to Lady Vale'ry. Years ago she has shot dead a man who was trying to rape her brother. And now Lady Vale'ry's relative Sebastian Durant seeks her help to seek a diary stolen by her relatives. And Sebastian was the one witness to her shooting of the panderast years ago.

What makes this book a good read is the taut sexual tension between those two, so taut you can cut it with a knife. Sebastian is a complex man - hardened by years of poverty, ruthless in getting what he wants, he wants Mary. Mary spent years encasing her heart in ice, becoming an utterly practical but ultimately frigid woman. These two are totally wrong yet so right for each other. I admit I had to wince at some of Sebastian's antics, but then again, that was Sebastian. Ms Dodd couldn't write him - and I wouldn't want him to be - any different.

Clever dialogue, humour, and scorching sensuality. A volatile mix too good to be missed by any romance reader.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars average, slightly disappointing, May 29, 2000

By 

S. Kim "ck000" (Chicago, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Well Pleasured Lady (Mass Market Paperback)

i had heard that this is an excellent book, but was disappointed when it turned out merely average. the plot was weak. example: Sebastian's plan to pretend he and Mary were betrothed had a flimsy reason behind it that i couldn't take seriously. i didn't understand why Mary stayed and kept pretending she was betrothed to him even after she found out she was an heiress. and oddly, after a short while they acted (and thought) as if they truly believed they were betrothed. why? i have no idea. the worst scene was the near rape of Mary. Some might call it a seduction, but i call it disgusting. and i hate it--HATE IT-- when a heroine gives slight resistance but falters under the hero's "scorching kisses." PLEASE. if a jerk was treating me like that, no matter how good of a kisser he is, he would have gotten a knee to the crotch. instead, mary melts in his arms. gag me.

otherwise, this is a fairly good book. i don't know if i will try Dodd again, but the newer romance reader will probably enjoy it.

20 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, August 8, 2003

By 

Jennifer French (Garland, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Well Pleasured Lady (Mass Market Paperback)

Christina Dodd is one of my favorite romance authors. I read everything new she puts out. I decided to start reading her older books, thinking they would be just as wonderful as her newer stuff. With "A Well Pleasured Lady" I was disappointed.

Mary Fairchild, the heroine, barely stands up for herself against her hero, Sebastian. This is unusual for Dodd's heroines. After being forced from her home, after she murders a nobleman when she's a teenager, Mary works as a housekeeper in Scotland. Sebastian, the godson of her employer, wants to use Mary to inflitrate her family to obtain a stolen diary of his godmother's. To do this, they pretend to be brothed. However, from the time they arrive at the Fairchild Manor, the two never pretend to be betrothed. They act like it in reality. Since the whole premise of them infiltrating the Fairchild Manor was pretense, I would imagine that storyline being kept a little longer than one chapter.

The love scenes between the hero and heroine are forced. Sebastian first forces Mary to kiss him, and ultimately forces her into intercourse on a wall in a jealous moment. This is not a romance, in my opinion, and GREATLY retracts from the novel. Once Mary said "No" and "Don't" several time, Dodd should have called her hero off, and redeemed him in the eyes of the reader. Instead, Sebastian once again forces his heroine into marriage, so that he can ultimately control her. Not a great hero, in my eyes.

Never in this book do I get the feeling that the heroine is truly in love with the hero. I believed that the hero was obsessed with the heroine, but is that love? Thw whole point of reading books like this is to escape into a world of two people falling in love. It is hard to do that in this novel, when the two people do not really show signs of even liking each other.

I would discourage anyone from reading A WELL PLEASURED LADY. If you are reading Dodd for the first time, you might get turned off of her better material, such as the Governess Series. I will not be keeping this novel in my collection.