Customer Reviews

A Well Pleasured Lady

5 star:		(15)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(6)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(9)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I normally enjoy Dodd's book, but this one I had to stop reading after the heroine was raped (I see it as rape- many people here call it "almost rape", but I am a firm believer that, even in fiction, no- especially when said that many times- really means no). I eventually went back to it, only to see if Dodd could somehow save the book, but the ending wasn't nearly worth that scene. I completely lost respect for the heroine, Mary, who, as a supposedly strong, sassy, and independant woman, could fall in love with the man who forced himself on her... and there was no way that I was able to view Sebastian as anything but an arrogant, domineering man who raped the woman he supposedly loves- and couldn't even bring himself to say I'm sorry because it was just that good. Not my idea of a hero. I don't need to read romantic fiction to read a rape scene like that, thanks, so I will stick with Dodd's other books.

I have enjoyed most of Christina Dodd's books, but this one was an extreme disappointment. The plot was weak, and the characters were confusing. Mary's obsession with the Guinevere/Mary thing is nearly schizophrenic. Also, the "love" scene (read, "rape") turned my stomach. Mary pleads with Sebastian to stop throughout almost the entire thing. I almost put the book down for good at that point, but I thought "Surely the characters will deal with this" and kept reading. But, no...what surely would have been a traumatic experience for Mary is practically ignored throughout the rest of the book. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

Lady Guinevere Mary Fairchild had been wealthy, impetuous, and a little spoiled as a young lady. But that quickly changed. First with the death of her parents, followed by the rejection of Mary and her brother, by their tyrannical grandfather. Then she had to kill a man to protect her brother. And there was one witness to the crime - Sebastian Durant, Viscount Whitfield, enemy of the Fairchild family. Now it's ten years later; she's known as Mary Rottenson, and she has left her Fairchild life behind. Prim, proper and emotionally constrained, Mary now concentrates on the efficient performance of her duties as housekeeper to Lady Valery. But her life is changed again when her employer's godson, Sebastian, returns to aide in the retrieval of Lady Valery's stolen diary. A diary which contains damaging secret information, elicited from several political leaders with whom she was "involved". Sebastian blackmails Mary into posing as his betrothed, to infiltrate the conniving Fairchild family, where he believes the diary to be. Danger lurks around every corner, but the greatest danger may be the growing intensity between Sebastian and Mary.

This is my favorite type of Dodd book. Full of humor, wit, intrigue and sexual tension that vibrates with the reading of each page. She proves herself once again a masterful storyteller. If I had to find something critical to say, it would be that Sebastian probably wasn't my favorite hero she's written, but all the other characters make up for it. The elderly Lady Valery was definitely the best supporting character here. Her own style of "investigating" the Fairchilds for her diary provided some of the funniest moments. As for the controversy surrounding their first time together, I don't feel this was rape. She was fiercely independent, and unwilling to give in to her passion for Sebastian. And I agree with a previous reviewer, she wouldn't have asked him to continue or had an orgasm if rape was involved.

This is the first of a two book series. Ian Fairchild's story, "A Well Favored Gentleman", provides the sequel and I highly recommend it as well. Both books definitely go on my keeper shelf!

This is a stellar, steamy read from one of the best romance writers out there. The plot is fun. The characters are quirky and real. And there is a love scene in a corner of a room that, I guarantee you, will peel the polish off your toenails. Bravo, Ms. Dodd! Another winner!

There are quite a few opposite opinions on the review of this book. Myself, I loved it!

Lady Guinevere Mary Fairchild had disappeared from the face of the earth and had hidden herself in the Scottish highlands assuming the identity of housekeeper for the elderly Lady Valery. As the story opens, Lady Valery's godson, Sebastion, Lord Whitfield, has come to help his godmother retrieve a missing tell-all diary. Let me just say here, that Lady Valery gives new meaning to the phrase of one having "frost on the roof but still fire in the furnace" - this secondary character alone rates the book a 5* review!

Lord Whitfield, could identify her as a murdress, as he was the only witness that saw her with dirt and blood on her dress the night she had committed murder. His request for her assistance and her devotion to Lady Valery who had been both her friend and employer these last 10 years convinced her to help them to retrieve the diary.

Both Mary and Sebastian had little reason to trust or even like one another. She being a Fairchild and he being a Durant. The Fairchilds had been the cause of his family's ruin and disgrace, and Mary, was on pins and needles waiting to be turned over to the authorities and hung. Yet, there was that attraction that both felt yet neither would admit.

Now, the cause of the big descrepancy here is whether Mary was forced, raped or a willing participant. I do not believe rape was an issue here, forced to accept her own passion yes, but rape, not! Does one swoon, and orgasm over rape - I think not.

The Fairchild family is a trip. The Uncles run the gamut from the most evil to the most benign as do the cousins. All in all a wonderful cast of supporting characters! This was another 5* effort by Ms. Dodd. You won't regret picking up a copy to read!

It took me quite a while to decide if I actually like the book or not. After the first reading I found it merely average. However, I reread it and I loved it - tremendously so. True, the characters seem strange and the plot resembles a stage play but this is also what I liked most. Thanks to Ms Dodds writing style you get the feeling that you are in the heads of the characters (this is probably why I found it so odd first) and it's amusing once you figure out that they are sometimes deceiving themselves - just like real people. Anyway, I can certainly understand that it is not everybody's cup of tea but once you get into the spirit of the book it's big fun.

As to rape and violence: I don't think that applies to AWPL. While reading the scene in question I never thought that Sebastian forced Mary. Hey, she makes not attempts to stop him and has no wish to do so - plainly spoken, she has a great time (and it's fiction anyway).

Decide for yourself if you like it or not, but it's a great book. In my opinion Ms Dodds best.

I have only recently read a few of Ms. Dodd's books. While I have found them somewhat entertaining they are not as tightly plotted as you would hope from a writer with mulitple books to her credit. I found her focus in this book on "forcing" her heroine to do specific unpalatable things particurlarily hard to take. There seems to be more violence and overtones of rape in the book then I am generally comfortable with. I found myself thinking the heroine needed a lawyer and a restraining order rather than a marriage to the hero.