"Hot, sizzling Victorian Erotic Romance"

Merry Vance is being pushed to marry her friend, Ernest Althorp and she isn't at all happy about it. All Merry really wants to do is stay single, run a stud stable of fine horses and live life as she wants. Ernest's father is blackmailing Merry's mother Lavinia. If she doesn't convince Merry to accept his son Ernest's suit, he will tell her husband and polite society about their affair.

Merry decides the best thing she can do is run away and become a fallen woman. By doing this she will avoid marriage and show her parents that she won't be married off to someone she isn't in love with. She only decides this after her Mother and Father tell her if she doesn't accept Ernest's proposal of marriage, they are going to sell her horses and pension off her maid, who has been with the family for years and years. Merry can't let that happen, so she comes up with a plan to become Nicolas Craven's latest mistress.

Nicolas Craven is a famous painter and is considered one of the worst rakes in polite circles. He is handsome and loves women, all women.

Merry succeeds in capturing Nicolas's attention and quickly agrees to move into his house and become his model. Only Nicolas doesn't know who Merry really is, he thinks she is a housemaid named Mary Colfax. He thinks he is doing her good turn and in the process he will be able to seduce the sexy little Mary.

Merry has convinced her dearest friend Isobel to take a packet of letters with her to Wales and mail the letters to Merry's family every couple of weeks. So her parents won't know that she has really ran off with a rake. Her family will think she is safely in Wales, thinking over the ultimatum they have given her regarding marriage to Ernest. Then she will come home and anounce her fallen state. Needless to say, her plan is found out and all hell breaks loose.

Emma Holly has written a lively tale set in Regency England. The story is fast paced and with some of the most erotic love scenes I have read in a long time. This is a story of falling in lust and it turning into love. Merry and Nicolas strike sparks off each other and those sparks make for interesting conversation and erotic love making. This book deserves its place in the top line of romances. Titillating, erotic and fun.

Reviewed by Judith Saul
Posted July 9, 2002

Summary

Merry Vance has made it clear she has no interest in marriage, but that hasn't stopped her long-suffering suitor from proposing, or her parents from getting more furious each time she refuses. Merry is forced to concoct a scandalous solution: to pose nude for Nicolas Craven, famous artist and infamous libertine.

But Nicolas has his own plans for the spirited young woman. In Merry's plain face, he sees uncommon beauty. In her soft eyes, he sees sparks ready to burst into flame. And, best of all, he's certain the masterpiece she helps him to create will tantalize the ton . . .