In Bed With the Duke is Christina Dodd's first historical in four years -- and her pleasure at being back is obvious, as she plunges into a swashbuckling adventure in which Robin Hood meets The Scarlet Pimpernel. The romance is set in an exotic little country called Moricadia, where Miss Emma Chegwidden has been hired as a lady's companion to the horrible Lady Lettice, who sits "like the queen toad on her lily pad with her suitors swimming like guppies around her." Emma's adventures include being fired by Lady Lettice, sharing a house with the handsome Michael Durant, heir apparent to the Duke of Nevitt, and encountering the masked and menacing Reaper, who gallops about the country engaging in obscure but worthy deeds, while scaring the pants off proper young ladies. Three stars for guessing the Reaper's relation to Michael Durant! Dodd has a wonderful time depicting the dashing Durant, the malevolent Prince Sandre, the intrepid Emma -- yet in the midst of wolves, ghosts, and evil henchmen, Michael and Emma's love affair has all of Dodd's trademark combination of sweetness and sensuality. You may not quite believe in Moricadia, but you will surely succumb to this hilarious, over-the-top, deeply passionate tale.