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Eloisa Reads from Potent Pleasures

Join Eloisa from her home as she reads from her very first-published novel, Potent Pleasures.

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The Potent Pleasures excerpt that is posted on EloisaJames.com is pulled from Chapter 4, but this audio excerpt that Eloisa reads from in this video is the very beginning! Listen to the book’s start, then either keep listening on the audio, or keep reading — whichever you prefer, you can buy your own copy in any format.

Want to get a bonus, exclusive sneak peek at the beginning of a brand new novella? Easy. Simply tell TeamEloisa about your Say Yes to the Duke preorder and in June you will receive the first 30 pages of the novella that Eloisa is currently writing: Lady Be Wilde.

Inside Potent Pleasures

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  • The Pleasures Trilogy should be read in this order: Potent Pleasures, Midnight Pleasures, Enchanting Pleasures.
  • This trilogy began as a duet: the tales of two girlfriends, Charlotte (Potent Pleasures) and Sophie (Midnight Pleasures). I started writing Potent Pleasures when I was on sabbatical from my job (being a Shakespeare professor). I worked on my academic book during the day and then wrote Potent Pleasures in the late afternoons, just before picking up my young son at daycare.
  • One of Charlotte’s many suitors in Potent Pleasures is the Honorable Peter Dewland. In Chapter Ten, Charlotte is one of a party that sets off fireworks to amuse Peter’s bed-ridden brother, Quill. Quill then became the hero of the third book in the Pleasures series, Enchanting Pleasures.

Mea Culpa, Potent Pleasures

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  • Monsieur Careme, Charlotte’s modiste, is male in the hardcover version of Potent Pleasures and female thereafter; this is due to my finding out, rather belatedly, that modistes in England during this period were all female.
  • Similarly, Alex wears pajamas in the hardcover of Potent Pleasures and goes commando style in the paperback; he attends a Hookers’ Ball in the hardcover and is relegated to a Cyprians’ Ball in the paperback.