From Publishers Weekly
Brockway's uneven second Regency in her Rose Hunters trilogy (after My Seduction) suffers from a plot whose twists too often come from nowhere, but the attraction between Miss Helena Nash, lady's companion, and Ramsey Munro, swordsman extraordinaire, has an undeniable appeal. Helena, sister to Kate (introduced in the previous book), finds herself pressed into service as a go-between for Flora, the addlepated niece of Helena's employer, and Oswald, a bankrupt gambler who clandestinely married Flora despite being unable to keep her in the style to which she's accustomed. Helena passes notes between the lovers, secretly relishing the opportunity to drop her icily correct demeanor for a bit of adventure. When she runs into trouble on a dark walk at Vauxhall, Ramsey steps in to rescue the maiden in disguise. Helena's determination to help the irritatingly stupid Flora and Oswald grows dull quickly; scenes in Ramsey's fencing salle are far more engaging. Despite the sexual tension between hero and heroine, the love scenes are marred by decidedly unsexy lines like, "He closed his eyes and mated her with his tongue" or "[she paused] at his flat, leathery male nipple to touch her tongue experimentally to the hard kernel at its center." Brockway has many followers, and the trilogy is attractively packaged thus far, but the pleasure promised in this novel's title is slight indeed.
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Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
Booklist
After their family's fall in fortune sends the three Nash sisters in different directions, Helena Nash becomes a companion to Lady Alfreda Tilpot. Working for one of the ton's most demanding harridans is a constant exercise in maintaining her composure, but Helena stays the course to play cupid between Lady Tilpot's sweet niece, Flora, and the love-struck but feckless Oswald Goodwin. While delivering a message between the young lovers, Helena encounters rakish, sexy-as-sin Ramsey Munro. Four years earlier, Ramsey, now one of London's most celebrated swordsmen, had been one of three young gentlemen who promised to come to the aid of the Nash sisters. At first Helena tries to pretend to be someone else, but when her fears that she is being stalked become a reality, she must turn to the one man she knows can keep her safe. The verbal fencing that goes on between the heroine and hero in RITA Award-winning Brockway's newest addition to her Rose Hunters trilogy is just one of the many delights in this luscious historical. Rich in subtle characterization, expertly spiced with danger, and generously imbued with a rapier sharp sense of wit, My Pleasure is simply superb. John Charles
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Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
