Sara Bennett Rules of Passion

Rules of Passion

Sara Bennett

Avon, Oct 2005, $5.99, 384 pp.

ISBN: 0060796480

The three Slater sisters are ecstatic over meeting their long lost biological mother Aphrodite Greentree (see LESSONS IN SEDUCTION), who they were separated from years ago when they were small children. Aphrodite runs a successful brothel, so must be discrete with her beloved now adult children, so as to not hurt their chances for a good match. Her oldest child stalked her beloved in Aphrodite's brothel. Now her middle daughter Marietta wants to become a courtesan, just like her natural mother was, and asks her to train her in the art of seduction

Madame Aphrodite hopes to persuade her daughter that this is not a way of life for her, but feels she must do so with stealth, as she herself has had a good life as a courtesan. Thus she promises to take Marietta on as an apprentice, but first her daughter must survive a test of fire. She must seduce the poster boy of scandals Max Valland, a morose and disinherited aristocrat. Max accepts his dissipated role, but he finds he cannot have enough of the tyro; she in turn breaks the courtesan's maxim of never falling in love with the bill payer.

The second Slater saga is a fabulous Victorian romance starring the wildest of the three sisters, and an outcast aristocrat anticipating a tryst that turns the three RULES OF PASSION, as both understand them now, upside down when their hearts enter the equation. "Naughty" Marietta and "mad" Max are an enchanting pairing, while the support cast brings out the worst in both of them, to the delight of readers. Fans will look forward to the tale of the youngest sibling, as Sara Bennett livens up the sub-genre.