Smitten by Books

THE LESSON PLAN

Author: Jackie Barbosa
Pub. Date: December 18, 2011
Retail: $1.96
Pages: 108

Sometimes, love is the hardest lesson of all…

Despite her imminent debut, Miss Winifred Langston has no interest in trying on expensive ball gowns, learning intricate dance steps, or perfecting the one piece she can play on the pianoforte. Freddie would rather don a pair of breeches and go target shooting, fishing, or horseback riding—astride—than be anywhere near a ballroom or high tea. Rather than waste the last few days of her freedom on such pursuits, she invites her two closest friends to join her in one final caper.

When Conrad Pearce learns of Freddie’s plans, he decides it’s past time to teach his younger brother’s partner-in-crime a well-deserved lesson. But when he intercepts her, disguised as a highwayman, to demonstrate how dangerous and ill-advised her stunts are, he can’t resist the sensual beauty hidden beneath the maddening tomboy’s exterior. What began as one sort of lesson becomes quite another, as Conrad embarks on a comprehensive erotic tutorial of his surprisingly enthusiastic and adept student.

Now, he only has to convince the irrepressible Freddie to trade her breeches and madcap ways for the gowns and domesticity she despises.

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REVIEW

Winifred Langston wears breeches, rides astride, and smokes cigars, but she still has a woman’s heart. Conrad Pearce may be her best friend’s brother, and her brother’s best friend, but she’s been infatuated with him for years. When a mis-hatched plan to curb her wayward behavior goes awry, she has a chance to befuddle and bemuse the incorrigible Con.

Jackie Barbosa has a fantastic historical voice and weaves a love story that had my heart racing from the early pages. This novella was absolutely fantastic, and Ms. Barbosa is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. It’s incredibly difficult to write believable historical erotic novellas, but The Lesson Plan is exactly that. Much like Eliza Knight or Vonda Sinclair, I have a feeling that Jackie Barbosa’s subsequent historical erotic novellas will be consistently fantastic.

With all the craze over Fifty Shades of Grey lately, the anticipation of erotic novels or novellas with domination plots has waned on this lowly reviewer. However, I picked up this book with only the slightest sense that it contained any D/s relationships at all, and by the end, all I wanted was more. More of Jackie Barbosa’s writing, more of the Lancashire families, more of the D/s relationship that Con and Freddie created… more of it all.

I generally avoid self-published books like the last inch of warm backwash in a beer bottle. But it’s writers like Jackie Barbosa that give self-publishing credibility. Her editor is to be praised, as well, because minus the constant references to “pistols at dawn”, there was nothing obtrusive or repetitive about the writing and the near-perfect grammar and punctuation made me wonder if I was reading a New-York published book.

I genuinely look forward to more of Jackie Barbosa’s books, no matter who publishes them, and if she can manage to make even the D/s elements seem organic (which is as difficult to find today as it was to find an interesting and unique story about vampires last year), she will be on my must-read list from now on.

Rating: 4.5 (Excellent)

Heat Level: 5 (Scorching)

 

Reviewed by Camryn