The Playful Lady Penelope

A Kasey Michaels Classic Alphabet Regency

You've heard about them, "those perfect little books" USA TODAY and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Kasey Michaels penned in the 1980s, known to her many fans as her "Alphabet Regencies." These are classic Regencies, not Regency historicals, and they center on the foibles of the day, the eccentrics that populated the drawing rooms (and there were many of these silly people, especially when Kasey is the one telling their stories). The love scenes fade to black with the reader encouraged to use her or his imagination to fill in the blanks — oh come on, you know how to do that, right! Classic, traditional Regencies are sophisticated, lighthearted character studies if you will, and a fine introduction to the Regency Era.

They're also a lot of fun.

Being Kasey, she didn't start with the letter A, and then move on to B, C, etc. No, she started with B...and then danced up and down the alphabet, in 1988 landing on P, for THE PLAYFUL LADY PENELOPE. Why? Because nobody told her she couldn't, that's why. That's the beauty of being a writer — when it hits you, it hits you, and you run with it.

Lady Penelope is a rather singular miss in that she wants nothing to do with a London Season, and nothing to do with marriage. Lucien Kenrick, Earl of Leighton, shares those same sentiments, so when the two are thrown together, there should be no problems, with neither of them in the least marriage-minded.

Then again, there's always that thing about best-laid plans...especially once both, through design and accident, end up residing under the roof of one Lucinda Benedict.

Lucinda Benedict, you see, speaks only in quotes. Other people's words. Really. And if you think an author can't have a lot of fun with a character like that, well, you haven't yet met Aunt Lucinda! In fact, Kasey was so taken with her in THE TENACIOUS MISS TAMERLANE that Aunt Lucinda went on to appear not only in THE PLAYFUL LADY PENELOPE, but for a third time (as a ghost, no less!) in THE HAUNTED MISS HAMPSHIRE.

Thanks to the wonders of technology, Aunt Lucinda is back, along with Penelope and Lucien, and all the other eccentric characters that make up Kasey's delightfully farcical THE PLAYFUL LADY PENELOPE, of which Rave Reviews said in 1988: "Ms. Michaels really outdoes herself in this magical concoction of wit, humor and sensitive romance. No wonder her books disappear off the racks at the speed of light – this one will take off like a rocket."

Be sure to search out THE TENACIOUS MISS TAMERLANE and THE HAUNTED MISS HAMPSHIRE, and more of Kasey's Alphabet Regencies, soon available in e-book form.