Jayne Shepard is an Atlanta librarian with a love of history, especially that which concerns the infamous Lord George Gordon Byron, the poet known for both his fabulous poetry and his scandalous love life. Jayne joins the three other women in her book club for a memorable trip to the Villa Diodati on the shores of Lake Geneva, Switzerland. A family connection of one of the club members provides the rare opportunity to stay for a weekend at the very location that inspired Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein when she stayed there with her soon-to-be husband Percy Bysshe as well as John Polidori and Lord Byron during 1816. Using the hallucinatory drink called absinthe called Lucid, the friends try to recreate the atmosphere experienced by the famous Gothic writers during their stay at the villa. Jayne, wearing the most historically accurate period costume, falls asleep and inexplicably and uncharacteristically has a torrid sexual encounter with a complete stranger with a British accent who is also dressed in period clothing who assumes that she knows his name...George Gordon Byron! Two more sizzling encounters with the literal man of her dreams convince Jayne that there is some mysterious time rift that allows her to influence and be influenced by the poet who has penned (or is about to) the lovely poem The Dream.

Lucid is a nice melding of modern and Romantic settings with some interesting historical facts applied to a very steamy weekend interlude with a notoriously well-known lover with a well-deserved reputation for sensuality. Just Fabulous.

Line: Exotika

Book Length: Quickie