Wicked Widow Amanda Quick by Amanda Quick 9780553574111, 0553574116, B00317G724 instant download after payment.

Setting: London, Regency period
Sensuality Rating: 7

Award-winning author Amanda Quick weaves a tale of a man and a woman who understand just what it means to be haunted. Artemis Hunt, the mysterious master of a secret society, has been obsessed by the knowledge that he was unable to protect his mistress from a brutal death, and has spent the last five years plotting her revenge. Madeline Reed Deveridge, known as the infamous Wicked Widow by polite society, is rumored to have murdered her husband. But now Madeline is afraid that her dead spouse has returned from beyond the grave to terrorize her. In fear for her life and that of her beloved aunt, Madeline blackmails Artemis into aiding her by threatening to expose his ownership of the Dream Pavilions, London's premier pleasure garden--an association, if revealed, that would destroy his reputation and put his long-held plans of vengeance at serious risk. The two are drawn together at first by necessity, but Artemis soon finds himself intrigued then intoxicated by the confident woman known as the Wicked Widow. Madeline, who is inclined to distrust men after her disastrous marriage, falls prey to the unfamiliar feelings Artemis inspires in her. Their burgeoning passion may save them each from an empty future--if their secrets don't kill them first. Another Quick masterpiece! --Alison Trinkle

Odd's teeth! Is this the same pen that gave readers the delicious Mischief, among many other entertainments? The multifaceted Jayne Ann Krentz's pseudonym for her Regency romances, Amanda Quick has been a reliable label, guaranteeing witty dialogue between strong-willed lovers and offering genuine suspense laced with erotic thrills. Alas, the present offering falls short. Virgin widow Madeline Reed Deveridge is maddeningly befuddled about men. Dubbed the Wicked Widow ever since she was obliged to shoot her husband, scoundrel Renwick Deveridge, in self-defense, she now seems to be haunted by Renwick's ghost. Worse, she requires an eternity to realize she loves (and is loved by) Artemis Hunt, whose help she enlists when her maid is kidnapped from the Dream Pavilions, London pleasure gardens secretly owned by Hunt. Artemis is gruff and bossy, rather than exquisitely arrogant in the traditional model, and he commands little sympathy in an obsessive plot to avenge the death of his actress love, Catherine Jensen, five years before the main story takes place. Much space is devoted to the Vanzagarian Society, an arcane cult of which Artemis is a master--Madeline's father belonged to the society too, and Renwick tried to turn it to his evil purposes--but we never know its particularities or feel its power. Sex scenes are perfunctory. The occasional flashes of vivid writing, as in the descriptions of fog-bound pursuits through London's seamier neighborhoods, provoke nostalgia for Quick at her best. (Apr.)
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