Thursday, July 28, 2016

The Latest Oz Reading

Well that didn't take long! (To be honest, I was just about done with the next book when I posted my entry yesterday, and finished this morning.) In my readings of her non-Oz works, Satan's Mistress by Rachel Cosgrove Payes is a return to torrid (but surprisingly chaste, especially considering that this was published by Playboy Paperbacks) romances. Fiona McQuade is a Scottish orphan who moves to London to work in her aunt's millinery, where her eye for fashion quickly lands her a new position at the home of the Duke and Duchess of Lawton. But she does not take kindly to the duke's attempts to seduce her, and in revenge she finds herself as a victim at the infamous Hellfire Club! Much of the rest of the book chronicles her attempts to not only keep her honor and dignity intact, but also gain revenge on the Lawtons and others who have wronged her. Pretty typical for this kind of book, actually, but Payes does draw a vivid picture and really gets into the heart of the mid-eighteenth century English aristocracy. Samuel Rogers, a politician running for Parliament who takes Fiona under his wing, was interesting enough that I actually looked him up to see if he was a real historical figure (it appears not). Definitely not my usual reading, but fun nevertheless. Between Oz, science fiction, and romances, Payes shows just what a versatile writer she was.

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