"Sizzling Sensual Romance"

While Ms. Holt is rapidly achieving fame in the romance genre, it is clear that her sensual romances are not merely an abundance of love scenes with a little plot added. In her latest, she very credibly integrates romantic interludes between an unhappy viscount and a deceased vicar's daughter with the caring nature that also binds the two in friendship.

Though Emma Fitzgerald decides to ask John Clayton, Viscount Wakefield, to rescind his eviction notices, she never thought she would agree to sexual interludes with him in exchange for his rescission powers and his visits to the tenants. But agree she does, and the two soon learn that there is more to their relationship than the sensual promises of the bedroom. And while Emma is a thoroughly refreshing heroine in a subgenre where most young virginal females are submissive, she is no simpering miss, as she barely earns her keep for her invalid mother and young sister caring for neighbors and delivering babies in the village.

With sensual love scenes between John and Emma amidst their verbal sparring, the plot continues at a fast pace, as John must determine the nature of their relationship before he returns to his mistress in London. Though the new local vicar's sensual proclivity for young girls seems a little over the top, the ever evolving romance between the two lovers is as entertaining as it is steamy.

Reviewed by Sheri Melnick
Posted September 14, 2003