A Perfect Mistress / Victoria Hamilton / 394 pages / R. T. Reviewer's Choice Award

Julia inherits her great-grandmother's memoirs, a racy, scandal-ridden book.  She has fallen on hard times after the death of her husband and in 3 months will no longer have enough to pay her expenses.  She meets with a publisher in hopes of selling the work to ease her financial burdens.  The spin-off publisher fails to satisfy her hoped for recompense.  Her 2 widowed friends convince her to approach personages and family members mentioned in the memoir to see if they would buy the book.  Her great-grandmother, now a ghost, weighs in on the dilemma. Romance ensues and the memoirs mysteriously disappear.