Delighted Reader

Adam Blackwood knew Evangelina is the woman for him the moment he lays his sexy eyes on her. But she is an older woman married to the local doctor. That doesn’t stop him from propositioning her. But above all Evangelina is a virtuous woman, or so she wants everyone to think.

Evangelina hasn’t had a wonderfully easy life. Married by a Lord and moved to England, her husband uses all her money and up and dies. Her stepson kicks her out and she must find a job and another husband to help support her. In the mean time she becomes the housekeeper of Adam’s father and agrees to pose nude so he can paint her. He assures her it is for his private collection. Shortly thereafter, Lina remarried the local doctor and leads a very lack, luster love life until he passes away.

Now Mr. Blackwood (the eldest) has passed away and Lina has a vision of it. She immediately thinks of the painting he has of her and wonders how she will get it back. Oh, yeah, she doesn’t wonder too long, because she has psychic abilities to see future events, although not on command.

So when Adam comes knocking, Lina knows exactly what he wants. An evening of pleasure in exchange for the painting. It is pointless to resist because she knows it will happen. Together they embark on a passionate night neither can forget. In the morning Adam leaves, but he also leaves his treasured timepiece.

What happens when Adam’s fiancé comes to town, leaving Lina with a broken heart and Adam with the burden of figuring out what he really wants?

This is a short story, a little over 100 pages, in a series of books by Jayne Fresina called the A Private Collection. A Private Collection is a group of books about three women who pose nude for the elder Blackwood for his private collection. Now that he has passed away, each of his sons are tasked with returning the paintings to the women. Love and passion ensue as each man finds the woman of his dreams.

I like this opening books in the series, but I had issues following it at times as Lina seemed to jump around. She wants to be virtuous living in this town, but follows the passion with Adam and everyone in town knows it. Adam doesn’t seem to bad of a guy. He does proposition a married woman. Not good. Then he blackmails that woman while he is engaged. Not good. But he was a likable guy otherwise. He loves Lina and tries to put it away because she won’t return his love.

While this is a series book, you don’t see the brothers or other women in this story. I don’t know yet if that is the case for the other books, but right off I don’t think you have to read them in order.

A delightfully light and fun book without too much drama.