The Lesson Plan.....Humpday rules!

I love my friends for countless reasons! They make me laugh, they cheer me up, they sing my praises and they put up with my chronic (and not always my fault) lateness...Sid is here this week and for that I am both thankful and joyous as it means we are together (and that is dangerous) and fun times abound - even if we are just sitting around reading, watching Tudors and drinking wine! I don't want you to think I am the world's worst mother, but I do appreciate the little breaks I get when I am no longer defined by anything besides my fabulous self! (Please don't fall on the floor laughing!) Ok, on a more serious note - who's hungry? Eye candy snackage anyone????

This week brings a new author, a new friend to Guilty Indulgence Blog and now a new favorite author...with little further ado:

The Lesson Plan (A Lords of Lancashire novella), Jackie Barbosa, Circe Press, December 2011

Sometimes, love is the hardest lesson of all...
Freddie escapes the trauma of every season by dressing as a boy and gallivanting about the countryside in her brother's cast off clothes. (As a self-professed (former) tomboy, I can't say I blame her.) Finally captured at twenty one, forced to undergo her debut, Miss Winifred Langston has no interest in trying on expensive ball gowns, learning intricate dance steps, or perfecting the sole tune she knows on the pianoforte. Rather than waste the last few days of her freedom on such pursuits, she invites her two closest friends to join her in one final caper.

When Lord Conrad Pearce learns of Freddie’s plans, he decides it’s past time to intervene. Planning a kidnapping to teach a well-deserved lesson, Con can’t resist the sensual beauty hidden beneath the maddening tomboy’s exterior. What begins as one sort of lesson becomes quite another, as Conrad embarks on a comprehensive erotic tutorial of his surprisingly enthusiastic and adept student. Can an affirmed bachelor and an affirmed tomboy old maid find true love and happiness?

The Lesson Plan is one of those clever, witty historical romances that contains enough brains to make the staunchest historical buff swoon and enough brawn to make the rest sigh with pleasure! The outrageous adventures of Freddie and her cohorts e make the story light-hearted and the romance and wooing between Freddie and Conrad, both in secret and in public make the reader squirm with delight! I always enjoy the storyline of the old-fashioned male who believes a woman would never appreciate or enjoy a "sexual awakening" - certainly Ms. Langston's virtue is no great loss when she has a lover who challenges her with pleasure and shows her "what all the fuss is about".

Well written, clever and sexy, The Lesson Plan feels like a much longer story. The characters are strong, fresh and the love scenes quite steamy. Of course, it leave the reader wanting more but that is often the way with novellas....Fans of Kate Pearce and Monica Burns will surely love this story with it's sexy, historical romantic elements and smoking hot love scenes!

RATING: Five Chocolate-Dipped Strawberries and a glass of whatever cold beverage will help you cool down!

This book was given to us by the author. Many thanks.