Since her first romance went south, historian Sara Pennington has given up on men. So when she agrees to vacation in eighteenth- century London via a virtual-reality computer simulation of her favorite novel, The Scarlet Pimpernel, her only thought is to spend two weeks with Sir Percival Blakeney, the novel’s hero, who can’t betray her because he doesn’t really exist. Instead, she finds herself acting as life coach to Percy’s wife, Marguerite, a coquettish socialite who couldn't care less for Sara's advice. Marguerite wants only to get this meddlesome stranger out of her head, but Sara refuses: she’s having too good a time playing the most beautiful woman in Europe.

Sara has a personal agenda as well. The man she loved and lost the year before has taken the role of Sir Percy—and he just might be willing to start over again. Can Sara repair Marguerite's marriage in time to give her own love life a chance?

Stay tuned for publication information on The Not Exactly Scarlet Pimpernel.

For an excerpt, click here.

Write to me: cplesley@cplesley.com.