I know it’s hard to believe, but not all of my books are verified hits. While I’ve only had a couple that were certifiable flops (we won’t talk about those …), I have a handful of books that I really enjoyed writing that somehow never caught my audience’s eyes. Maybe it’s the covers, maybe it’s the blurbs, maybe they’re just a little too weird and off the mark, but these books languish in the middle of my list, occasionally finding some readers but more often than not sitting quietly, patiently, hoping to be discovered.
One of those books is Dido Reclaimed, the story of a would-be movie star’s journey of self-discovery. I wrote it between Dorothy’s Stocking Stuffer (a certified holiday hit) and Beach Volleyball Rematch! (which does respectable numbers), in an effort to try something a little longer, with more character development and a hint of plot. At just short of 40,000 words, it’s not my longest book (that would be The Heart’s Hunger), but it’s one of the heftier in my ouvre, such as it is.
And it is sort of an odd duck of a book. There’s plenty of steam in it (Dido has a strong breeding kink, and the story ends with a gangbang orchestrated by Vicky Viper from A Family Condition), but there’s also a strong romance angle between Dido and her co-star on a summer camp movie. And yet it’s really not a romance, and I would never dare market it as such (if you see a “romance” tag on any of my books, you can be sure of the HEA/HFN ending; this one is much more ambiguous).
I suppose I’ve done a poor job of selling you on this book …
The other thing it is, though, is the key to the entire CorneliaVerse. Well, maybe not the whole thing, but a good chunk of it. Much of it takes place on Lake Makanogin, where quite a few of my stories (The Night of the Storm, The Contours of Desire, Cassie Keeps the Curfew) are set. It has cameos from characters who feature in the Passion Behind the Scenes books, and features callbacks to the Winning With the Wildcats series. It follows the CorneliaVerse erotica arc (“that’s weird and wrong” -> “that’s also quite intriguing …” -> “actually, I’m totally into this”) while mixing in some romance tropes.
Anyway. Since you’ve read all the way to the end of this hand-waving about one of my less successful but most loved books, why not grab a copy of Dido Reclaimed for FREE and see what you’ve been missing? It might inspire you to dig deeper in the CorneliaVerse’s back catalog for more hidden gems …
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