In addition, while the customary hallmarks are in evidence-the breathless, drawn-out sex scenes the misunderstandings that almost ruin everything-these contretemps flow naturally from the characterizations and plot, and contribute to an engaging story. Her spritely tale takes on substance with a subplot about events in the Ottoman Empire. Eloisa James, the acclaimed author of Potent Pleasures, returns to Regency England with an unforgettable new heroinea genteel but naughty innocent who gets more than she bargains for when she finally says yes to love. James ( Potent Pleasures) proves herself a notable chronicler of the genre here. But each has separate, unspoken fears-she of his assumed infidelity, he of her early death from childbirth-that puts them at cross-purposes, until tragedy strikes. They find they can't resist each other, so they bed and marry. After Patrick adopts a disguise as a favor to Lord Saslow, the fiery pair are thrown together. Patrick is stunned-a little relieved, but mostly stung: the proud lothario has fallen for Sophie. She then accepts the proposal of his stodgy friend, Lord Slaslow. Sure that Patrick will always be a libertine, she turns him down when he asks for her hand. Sophie has determined never to marry, since her father is a notorious philanderer who constantly humiliates Sophie's mother with his flagrant pursuit of Frenchwomen. Yet she finds herself in love with a man she is dead set against loving: Patrick Foakes, a handsome rake. One of the most marriageable young women in Regency London, she's also secretly brainy. The daughter of the marquis of Brandenburg, Lady Sophie York is a beguiling and flirtatious innocent.
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