A Woman Made for Pleasure

Sinclair (Tempting the Highlander) sweeps three aristocratic maids from bucolic Dorset to the hectic London season in this inadvertently hilarious X-rated Regency romance. At age 12, petite, raven-haired Millie Aldon made her friends, dainty blonde Aimee and red-haired bluestocking Jennelle, swear off marriage. At 20, things look a little different. Aimee’s hunky older brother, Chase, a future marquess and a “self-controlled, serious man,” awakens Millie’s protective instincts and raging hormones when he’s pursued by seductive Selena Hall. Chase and Millie’s on-again, off-again mating dance is counterpoint to a facile fictional political intrigue, while Millie’s diaphanous wardrobe and anachronistic sexual hunger periodically turn Chase into a “whimpering mess.” With infelicitously overheated language and unconvincing plot twists, this rambling tale never achieves the elegance of the gowns it so lovingly describes. (Aug.)