

With her upper-class breeding, her impeccable style, and her father’s bequest, Angélique creates Le Boudoir, soon a sensational establishment where powerful men, secret desires, and beautiful, sophisticated women come together. Unable to secure employment without references or connections, Angélique desperately makes her way to Paris, where she rescues a young woman fleeing an abusive madam-and suddenly sees a possibility: Open an elegant house of pleasure that will protect its women and serve only the best clients. To survive, she will need all her resources-and one bold stroke of fortune. Angélique has a keen mind, remarkable beauty, and an envelope of money her father pressed upon her. But when he dies, her half-brothers brutally turn her out, denying her very existence.

At eighteen she is her father’s closest, most trusted child, schooled in managing their grand estate.
