Anna Campbell, Claiming the Courtesan

Claiming the Courtesan

Anna Campbell

Avon, Apr 2007, $6.99

ISBN: 0061234915

By 1825, Soraya had become the Ton's most notorious courtesan. Hardly anyone realizes that she started only a few years earlier when as an innocent fifteen years old she sold her body to save her impoverished family. All these years as a kept woman, she prayed after each taking that soon she will escape back to what she once was, Verity Ashton.

Soraya knows the time is right for her to vanish as she has the money and is falling in love with her current patron though she fears her kind wealthy benefactor the Duke of Kylemore will not simply allow her to disappear as the insult would be too great for an arrogant soul like him. Besides she believes Justin Kinmurrie would defy the aristocracy by making her his wife if she let him. When she runs off, he tracks her down and ignores her plea for his sake to forget her. Instead he abducts her to persuade his Verity that she would make a fine duchess of Kylemore although most of his peers would disagree, some violently.

Though CLAIMING THE COURTESAN may seem like a typical Regency romance, the relationship between the fully developed lead couple turns this into a must read for sub-genre fans. Soraya is the more fascinating character as she wants to turn back the clock to when she was a simple innocent Verity, but knows that is impossible to achieve; Justin believes that his kisses and his trust will ultimately convince his beloved that she is Soraya in his bed only, but Verity, the Duchess of Kylemore in public. That match-up makes for a terrific gender battle.

Harriet Klausner