MADreads

Merry widows three

November 1st, 2007 Kathy K. - Central

The Merry Widows Trilogy is a set of witty, passionate and sexy regency romances about a group of widows.  Together these friends form the Benevolent Widows Fund to assist widows and their children.  That means getting together to plan fundraising events.  During these meetings they not only plan the events but also talk about their lives, including their sex lives.  In fact, they make a pact to be “merry widows”.  That means two things: one, to stay widows because it allows the freedom to be in charge of their own lives; and, two, to take lovers because they deserve to feel passion in their lives.  In her latest novels Candice Hern tells of three of the Merry Widows.  Each can be read independent of the other.

In the Thrill of the Night is the first in the series.  Although Marianne Nesbitt adored her late husband, she wonders if she has missed something after hearing about her friends’ passionate sexual experiences.   So would taking a lover help her discover what she’s been missing?  She asks Adam Cazenove, an old friend and notorious rake, to school her in the art of seduction and to help her form of list of potential lovers.

This request turns Adam’s world upside down.  He cannot believe that his best friend’s widow wants to take a lover.  In fact, he would fulfill her wish himself if he wasn’t already engaged.  Yet that doesn’t stop him from sabotaging Marianne’s plans.  But one night of unintended passion changes everything.

This is a sexy and romantic tale of two friends who discover love and passion.

Just One of Those Flings is the second one.  Beatrice couldn’t imagine taking a lover as her Merry Widow friends advised.  She’s too busy helping her niece to find a husband.  Yet while chaperoning her niece at a masked ball she behaves quite unlike the widowed and proper Lady Somerfield.  Her Artemis has a passionate and anonymous garden tryst with a man dressed as a maharajah.  He turns out to be the most eligible bachelor of the ton, Gabriel Loughton, the Marquess of Thayne.

Thayne is searching for his “Artemis” and wants to continue what they started.  Whereas Beatrice is appalled; particularly when she discovers that her maharajah is the same man that she is pushing into her niece’s arms.  However, the attraction is too strong and they have a private fling.  Thayne comes to realize that he wants more than a fling, but Beatrice isn’t so sure that she wants to get married again.

A host of misunderstandings and family issues, plus the fact that their private fling has become a public scandal turn both of their lives upside down.  It takes them both a while to realize how special their love is and, of course, love triumphs in the end.

The third one Lady Be Bad begins with a bet.  The notorious ladies’ man, John Grayston, seventh Viscount Rochdale, makes a bet that he can seduce the Bishop’s widow, the prim and proper, Grace Marlowe.  If he doesn’t bed her in three months he loses his best horse.  Rochdale is confident that he can win the bet.  So he begins wooing the strait-laced Grace.

At first Grace is both apprehensive and flattered.  She knows that he is a rake and does not want to risk her reputation.  Yet the more she gets to know him the more alive she feels, although this conflicts with her view of how she should be behaving and feeling.  Likewise, Rochdale is also struggling with his conscience.  His attraction to Grace is strong and he begins to see the kindhearted and passionate woman behind that proper facade.  As they spend more time together he becomes concerned about Grace’s reputation.  A simple wager has become much more complicated when Rochdale realizing that he is falling in love.

In this third of the trilogy, Hern has written a sensual, witty romance where both characters grow and each makes the other a better person.

Entry Filed under: Historical Fiction, Romance