Deeper than Desire

February 15, 2004
In 1813, Lady Olivia Hopkins is at the home of the widowed Edward Paxton, lord of Salisbury, thanks to her twice-widowed Aunt Margaret, on a visit intended to get him to propose and thereby save the impoverished extended family. All goes awry from the outset when Olivia meets Edward's illegitimate son, Phillip, while reading an erotic book and falls in love with him, and he with her, while also introducing her to many varied pleasures of the flesh. Edward is instantly attracted to Margaret's cousin, Winnie, leading to several secret, frantic, yet ecstatic couplings, and Margaret's daughter, Penelope, is seduced by an impoverished, licentious hanger-on. Not to be thwarted, Margaret sends Winnie away, and arranges for Edward to be put in a compromising position with Olivia so that he will have to propose. How it all gets sorted out is great fun as Holt explores how one can avoid being trapped into a loveless, if lucrative, marriage, and enlivens a convoluted and implausible plot with lovingly detailed sex scenes.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2004, American Library Association.)