Casada a los quince años y viuda a los cuarenta y nueve, Frances Hart sólo ha conocido lo que significan los deberes de una esposa y madre, nunca las alegrías de una mujer. Decidida a tener una vida nueva, se embarca en un solitario viaje a Londres.
El abogado James Whitcox, también viudo, ha hecho de su vida una constante responsabilidad, pero nunca ha experimentado lo que es la verdadera pasión. James, se ha asociado al selecto club "Los Hombres y las Mujeres" donde se discute sobre las relaciones sexuales, pero hablar de placer no es lo mismo que experimentarlo... hasta que Frances aparece en una reunión ilustrando a los presentes acerca de las necesidades de una mujer — y tentando a James para llevar a cabo todas sus teorías eróticas.

This was another one recommended by RUSQ in their romance genre study article.
I was expecting kind of a generic historical, but, um, not quite!

It's about a 49-year-old woman around the turn of the century, and how she explores her sexual identity with a barrister she meets when she accidentally walks into a meeting of a club for discussing sex-related topics...

There's a very definite feminist theme, and well, I was reading it in the doctor's office and had to stop because it was becoming a little TOO scandalous for public consumption!

I didn't totally love this, there was a little too much talking about sex instead of having it (though there's no shortage of that either) and the writing wasn't exactly inspired. Still, I'd recommend it if you like that sort of thing (and who doesn't).

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The story of a 49-year old grandmother, recently widowed, who leaves her family's coountry home and travels to 1880's London. While there she happens upon a meeting of the Mens and Womens Club, a group devoted to the discussion of sexual matters of interest to both men and women. However, the discussions are not as titillating as it would seem, the group having fallen into the habilt of more academic conversations. When she interupts the lecture in progress, the speaker, a 47-year old widowed barrister whose topic is English law and divorce, is mesmerized and asks her several pointed questions, such as "Do women experience desire, do women desire men, are women repulsed by a man's desire", to the embarassment of the rest of the group. She proceeds to become better acquainted with the man, and joins the group. As a result, the group's discussions actually do become very frank and explicit, and the relationship between the man and woman quickly progress to something equally explicit. Her family, meanwhile, do not approve of her behavior, and begin to interfere.

I thought story line was very good, but could have been told in about 100 fewer pages. With a Brava book, we expect an erotic story. However, the sex scenes in this book weren't any steamier than a modern mainstream romance - just more plentiful. Likewise, the conversation between the two main characters was more clinical than sexy. I would have liked this book better if it were published as an historical romance, edited to spend a little less time in the bedroom (and kitchen and office and carriage and park) and more getting acquainted with the secondary characters. ( )

bilim kurgutarzında aşk romanı..