Product Description

A house in Hampstead - Present-day: Behind a facade of cultured respectability lies a world of decadent indulgence and dark eroticism. Cassandra's sheltered life is transformed when she gets employed as governess to the Baron's children. He draws her into games where lust can feed on the erotic charge of submission. Games where only he knows the rules and where unusual pleasures can flourish.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #15391 in Books
• Published on: 2008-03-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 256 pages

Amanda Haffery, Romance Junkie Review, March 2008
CASSANDRA'S CONFLICT is without a doubt the most erotically enticing story I have ever had the pleasure to read.

Harriet Klausner's Review Archive April 2008
Fans will enjoy Fredrica Alleyn's intriguing heated contemporary while wondering whether Cassandra will triumph.

From the Author
I can't believe that 15 years have passed since I wrote 'Cassandra's Conflict'. It was very exciting for me to be invited to write one of the four launch titles, but also slightly nerve wracking. No one involved in the launch of Black Lace had any idea of how the books would be received, as the concept of 'erotic fiction, written for women by women' was an entirely new one. The erotic fiction market had always been written with men as the target reader, even though a considerable number of women did read them.

I researched my book by inviting groups of female friends round, plying them with wine and then asking them about their secret sexual fantasies. The results were very interesting, and one common theme cropped up again and again. This was the idea of a man coming into their life who would make them, initially against their will, explore their own sexuality in ways they would never have been willing to suggest themselves. This theme seemed to me to be an erotic version of 'Jane Eyre', and possibly explains, in part, that novel's enduring appeal to women!

I made sure that I included everything possible in it, catering for all tastes but with a main theme of bondage and domination. This resulted in one reviewer noting that it was the first book she had ever read where she'd had to flick through it to find the 'clean' parts!

When the first four books were published, there was an incredible reaction. The Sunday Times book cartoon depicted all four of the launch titles stacked in piles on tables in a bookshop. Queues of men were grabbing the books, all saying 'it's for my wife'. At the till one shop assistant was saying to another 'I don't know who's buying these books' and the second one was replying 'liars mostly.' This, although funny, was in fact totally untrue. Thousands of women were buying them, and filling in the questionnaires at the back to give the authors feedback.

I didn't get, or indeed expect, any good reviews from the media, who were fairly united in their condemnation of the concept. I remember one female reviewer said that she knew I wasn't really a woman as only a man could have written something like that. I don't know why she thought that, as I believe that many women greatly enjoy erotica, and if they don't then clearly they won't go out and buy erotic novels that focus on bondage and S&M.