A Utah author says a schoolteacher plagiarised her Christian romance novel, added graphic sex scenes and passed it off as her own.

Rachel Ann Nunes, author of A Bid for Love, filed a federal lawsuit in August against Tiffanie Rushton, a third-grade teacher in Layton who wrote an electronic book called The Auction Deal.

Both are about competing art dealers who fall in love.

Nunes says Rushton copied her characters and plot, as well as some lines in the work, but added sex to appeal to a more mainstream audience.

She is seeking $150,000 in damages.

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