Lola Montez and the Poisoned Nom De Plume

Kit Brennan's frothy, sexy second in the Whip Smart Series opens with the gorgeous, ever-headstrong Lola Montez careening around Europe, on the run from the haunting memories of Spain and the wild adventure that nearly cost her life. It is 1844. Lola encounters celebrated pianist and composer Franz Liszt at a concert near Dresden, and he encourages her to set her sights on Paris to establish her dancing career. And this she does with further assistance from the famed writer, George Sand. The night that Lola performs her racy Spider Dance at the Paris Opéra, she meets quite possibly the man of her dreams: Henri Dujarier, co-owner of La Presse Newspaper and best friend of novelist and playwright Alexandre Dumas, whose recent novels about three musketeers and a certain count of Monte Cristo island are running concurrently in newspaper serialization. Lola seems on the verge of breaking Victorian tradition and actually having it all, but forces are at work to keep Lola and Henri apart. Deadly threats and rumours turn into reality, as shadowy figures stop at nothing to sabotage Lola's new endeavor (unheard of for a woman): to pen an adventure novel, using a nom de plume, about a feisty female character. In the heady nights of Parisian writers, artists and courtesans, with reckless duels fought over every small slight, and where knowing who is enemy or friend is virtually impossible, will Lola survive to find true love and the career of her dreams? She may be too whip smart for her own good.