Jo Goodman
A Season to be Sinful (2005)
Author: Jo Goodman
Genre: Romance (Historical Regency)
Plot Summary:
When Viscount Sheridan decides that he must rescue the injured street tramp that saved him from an attack by an assassin, he had no way of realizing he would soon be sharing his home with a beautiful woman and the three boys she calls her students. Slowly, Lily Rose, Sheridan’s rescuer, and the three “scoundrels,” Pinch, Dash and Midge, begin to become ingrained in Sheridan’s life as he finds himself falling for “Miss Rose.” However, Sheridan and Lily are connected by more than their affection for each other. Lily has a tragic past that she is trying to hide and Sheridan is more than just a member of English aristocracy. As Sheridan accepts the mischievous boys and their teacher into his life, Lily and he begin to share their secrets, which are both sad and dangerous. SPOILER: Lily is hiding the fact that she has escaped from an English “gentlemen” who has held her hostage as a sex slave for the past five years. Sheridan is hiding his past employment as an assassin for the British Crown. In the end, it is discovered that Sheridan’s mentor is the same man that held Lily captive and the one who tried to have Sheridan killed. This novel ends happily with Sheridan killing the villain, marrying Lily and taking in the boys as his ward.
Geographical Setting: England
Time Period: 1810-1815
Appeal Characteristics:
This novel unfolds in a leisurely, yet suspenseful, pace. The story line is character centered, presented in episodic moments of deep character interaction or contemplation, interspersed with the action, usually sexual in nature. The love scenes are slow and intense. Framed against the background of Regency era London, this novel is densely written, with extensive details provided on fashion and setting. The true natures of the characters in this novel are slowly revealed. Surprisingly, for all the suspense and tragic circumstances of character’s past, the overall tone of this novel is upbeat, with liberal amounts of humor provided by the battle of wits between the hero and the heroine, as well as the mischievous activities of the three boys.
Read-alikes: If you like A Season to be Sinful, you may want to read Goodman’s companion to this novel. One Forbidden Evening is the story of Viscount Sheridan’s sister Cybelline. This story picks up after Cybelline’s husband has committed suicide, leaving her a single mother of her infant daughter. Dealing with the lonely gap left after her husband’s death, Cybelline attends a masquerade ball dressed as a “ravishing Boudicca.” There she comes to the attention of an earl with a rakish reputation. After one night together, the earl pursues this mysterious woman and romance ensues. This novel also contains intense sexual encounters and suspense, along with the humor and wit, that can be found in A Season to be Sinful. If it is the “hot” sex scenes and mysterious characters that you enjoyed while reading Goodman’s A Season to be Sinful, you may want to read Elizabeth Boyle’s historical regency novel Brazen Angel. In this novel the heroine, Lady Sophia D’Artiers, the daughter of a French aristocrat, risks her life by posing in multiple disguises. In the personae of The Brazen Angel, she sets up and robs the wealthy English, using the money she gains to save her family from the guillotine. When a friend of Giles Corliss, the Marquees of Trahem, becomes one of the Angels victims, Giles becomes obsessed with her and vows to avenge his friend’s death. Unknown to Giles is the fact that the Angel is also his "supposedly" sickly and homely fiancée, Lady Sophia D’Artiers. Containing similar wit and humor found in the Goodman novels, this book is one of the nine Boyle novels that have been nominated for a Romantic Times Award. Catherine Coulter, a well-know author of Regency romances, writes novels varying levels of sensuality, from a subtle handling of sexual encounters to the “hot” scenes similar to Goodman’s novels. One of Coulter’s historical Regency romances with a less explicit sexual encounters than Goodman’s books is The Deception. In this novel, the heroine, Evangeline, is forced by the Bonapartists who have kidnapped her father to pretend to be a widow so she can become a governess to the Duke of Portsmouth’s child. While she tries to hide her identity as she spies for her father’s captors, Evangeline finds herself genuinely caring for little Edmund and falling in love with the Duke. Full of good-natured humor and double entendres, this novel also supplies a suspenseful plot that surrounds the each interaction between Evangeline and the Duke. Anne Gracie’s The Perfect Waltz revolves around another woman whose introduction to the man she will grow to love is the result of the man’s need to provide a caretaker for the children of his family. In this novel, however, Sebastian Reyne is not looking to employ someone for this position. What he believes he needs is a wife to help him raise his orphaned sisters. Believing he will have to settle for a marriage of convenience to Lady Elinore, Sebastian surprised to find the girls thriving while under the care of a family friend, Hope Merridew. Trying to stay true to Elinore, Sebastian finds his attraction to Hope growing and battles with putting his family’s needs ahead of his own. Containing scenes that are both tender and passionate, this romantic couple slowly develops into interesting and compassionate characters. Jacqueline Nevin’s Meet Me at Midnight, another historical romance that has a similar sensual level as Goodman’s novels, builds the heroine and hero’s relationship from an unusual back-story. Raphael Giscard is a cynical, disillusioned bachelor. Believing there is no such thing as love, he sets out to prove this to his band of scoundrel friends by wagering he can break up any couple claiming to be in love with each other. Julia Brodie claims that she and her fiancée have never been happier. When Raphael endeavors to seduce Julia, he is surprised to find her to be more than the “simple girl” her beau and mother believes her to be. As the various plot twists unfold, Julia and Raphael evolve into quirky, but likeable characters.
Red Flags: Sensual rating: Hot. Explicit sex scenes.
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