A Well Pleasured Lady

July 31, 1997
Set in England and Scotland in 1793, Dodd's (Once a Knight) Georgian romance is bawdy, brainy and ultimately beguiling. The heroine, Mary Fairchild, is a housekeeper who, like the fastidious butler of Kazua Ishiguro's The Remains of the Day, strives to follow the code of a good servant: "A competent housekeeper never shows emotion." However, Sebastian Durant, Viscount Whitfield, the wealthy and handsome godson of her employer, tries to (and eventually does) subvert her best intentions--the source of much of the book's good humor. Using his knowledge of Mary's former days as a flighty member of the aristocracy and suspected murderess, he coerces her into posing as his betrothed while they search for his godmother's potentially damaging stolen diary. Together they confront comical fops and pompous villains in this thoroughly delightful and decidedly erotic romp.

August 1, 1997
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.]