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The well-toned male torso of sexy hero Ambrose Wells that emblazons the cover of Amanda Quick's latest novel, LIE BY MOONLIGHT, is sure to make it another New York Times bestseller. The classical statuary image used is as seductive as any modern-day Australian Gold Tanning Product poster. Quick knows what attracts her fans and LIE BY MOONLIGHT delivers passion, lust, adventure, and a suspenseful murder mystery along with a thoroughly modern perspective on one Victorian lady's view of the relationship between the sexes.
The privacy of the palms in the warm and richly scented conservatory cast in moonlight creates the perfect spot for a sizzling rendezvous between lovers that showcases Quick's mastery at creating a steamy, sensual, and satisfying romantic scene. This kind of writing is what has attracted millions of readers to Quick's historical novels, as well as the contemporary novels she writes under her own name, Jayne Ann Krentz. The pure male cover guaranteed that lust would be found between the pages of LIE BY MOONLIGHT, but the conservatory scene is one you'll read more than once.
"I thought you intended to ravish me" are hardly the words one would expect from Concordia Glade, a teacher in Late Victorian England in charge of four orphaned young ladies at Aldwick Castle. In her late twenties and raised by parents who fell in love at first sight and made some scandalous decisions to be together, Concordia boldly pursues her feelings for Ambrose Wells, the knight in shining armor who arrives unexpectedly at Aldwick Castle just in time to help her and her students escape a fiery castle and a scheme to sell orphaned girls for brothels.
Courageous, smart and independent, Concordia has an unconventional and liberal view of the relationship between the sexes and social rules of the day, even allowing one of her students to wear pants inside the elegant mansion in which they are taking refuge. Concordia encourages her girls to read novels, including "sensation novels" and exposes them to a broad range of subjects that would allow them to pursue careers of their own --- shocking teachings for this period of history.
Intrigued by the small flower tattoo above Ambrose's left pectoral and inflamed by her instant attraction to him, Concordia Glade trusts Ambrose with her safety and that of the four girls --- Hannah, Phoebe, Edwina and Theodora. Working together, Ambrose and Concordia unravel a trail of scandal and blackmail to identify the "gentleman" and other so-called respectable members of London society who are secretly behind many unexplained deaths and deceptions.
Despite the ways of the secret society Vanza, to which professional thief turned "private inquiry agent" Ambrose Wells practices, he no longer is "master of his passions" in the presence of Concordia Glade. Concordia threatens his self-mastery and he doesn't care. Ambrose openly admits to her, "There is no hope for me, is there?" When Concordia gives herself to him for the first time, she has no regrets and tells him, "You were the right man." Unconventional to the core, Concordia's proposal of marriage to Ambrose defies the decorum of the period, speaks volumes for women's liberation and suggests that men like Ambrose Wells were not threatened by the freethinking women who were present in Victorian London society --- but then what man wouldn't welcome a woman who would "lie by moonlight?"
--- Reviewed by Hillary Wagy
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