Oh, I know you say that in the end Mayne loves Josie but I can’t really tell at what point that the “love” meter was moved from Sylvie to Josie in Mayne’s mind. I practically suffered whiplash from his switch from Sylvie to Josie, if there ever really was a switch. To say that his turn about is quick is an understatement. He spends half of the book internally and externally proclaiming his great love for Sylvie, cataloguing why he loves her. He is described as looking at her the way that Rafe gazes at Imogen. He proclaims that he is in love with her. The problem is that for most of the story (right up to the point that he proposes to Josie), Mayne is affianced to Sylvie de la Brodierie, a well set beautiful French woman. Yet, once again I have come away wondering whether there was an equality of feeling between the main two characters and bewilderment over the pairing of the secondary couple. Loving scenes, tender scenes, funny scenes, and heartbreaking scenes. Josie, after being thought of as the least desirable Essex sister, needed the love of a famous connoisseur of women to show that she was beautiful and luscious in her own way. I thought that Mayne, after years of dissipation, needed the love for life that Josie had. I was not bothered by the May/December aspect of Mayne and Josie’s relationship. You engage in a little writer cheat here as in previous stories, Mayne was 34 in Your Wicked Ways which took place two years earlier than Pleasure for Pleasure. For the readers’ benefit, Mayne is 34 in this book and Josie is 18. I tend to think that Josie could have carried this book on her own without Mayne as she is just so delightful. She’s a little bit of each of her sisters: a bit of a pragmatist (Tess), a bit of a dreamer (Imogen), a bit of a fatalist (Annabelle) but she also wholly her own creature. Josie has been a favorite of mine since the very beginning of the Essex sisters. I particular love how you show that women are a community of individuals rather than separate and alone. You have an immense talent and I love your writing style. Jane Book Reviews / C Reviews Category / C+ Reviews Eloisa-James 9 Comments NovemREVIEW: Pleasure for Pleasure by Eloisa James

Eloisa james the taming of the duke