Madame’s Deception
This is the middle book in a planned trilogy; the first was A Lady’s Pleasure, and a third is planned for spring 2008. Central to the books is The Crimson Belle, a benign, almost educational brothel run by enlightened souls who nurture girls while allowing them to provide sexual services to the London Regency aristocracy. If this kind of unlikely history bothers you, be warned, but if you enjoy scenes evoked by released repression, the setting works quite well. The innocent Jocelyn hurries from boarding school to her supposedly proper dying mother’s side. There she is persuaded to take over the “Belle,” establishing herself seamlessly as the new madame. The fun begins when the handsome Lord Colwick offers her an exclusive contract and she takes it: she yearns for romance, and he has no idea she is a virgin. There are some mystery elements and other characters make brief appearances, but the main question is: how will this clandestine relationship work out for the lovers?
