Sunday 2 May 2010

Review: Mistress by Mistake - Maggie Robinson

Mistress by Mistake by Maggie Robinson

Genre: Historical romance
Pages: 352
Published: April 2010

 Scandal is only the beginning…

Charlotte Fallon let her guarded virtue fall once—and she’s paid dearly for it ever since. She swore she’d never succumb to men’s desires again. But even a village spinster’s life miles from temptation can’t save her from a sister with no shame whatsoever. Or a heart that longs for more, whatever the cost…

Sir Michael Bayard found more than he expected in his bed when he finally joined his new mistress. He’d fantasized about her dewy skin and luscious curves, assured her understanding that what passed between them was mere dalliance. But he didn’t expect the innocence and heat of her response in his arms. Nor her surprisingly sharp tongue once she was out of them…

A few days of abandon cannot undo the hard-learned lessons of a lifetime. Nor can an honest passion burn away the restraints of society’s judgments. Unless, of course, one believes in nonsense like true love…

First I'd like to say that this perhaps more is a spicy historical romance, cos these two do spend a lot of time in bed, or in other places.

In this story Charlotte is left behind by her courtesan sister. The sister was supposed to be Sir Michael Bayard's new mistress but she got married and left Charlotte to explain. Bay comes home and finds a woman in his bed, and cos of some missing jewels she stays in his house.

Ok, first I must say that I liked her writing, and the story was good, and sure a lot of passion. But, it is the big but here, I was not too fond of how things came to be. 

Bay comes home and starts touching a sleeping woman (not happy about sleep-sex!), then he says that instead of her sister she has to stay cos of those jewels. And she stays, but there I feel that it is too forced, and she is an idiot for not running away. Yes ok the scandal if her sister had stolen the jewels but still. he is a beast. There are also some other things about what he does to make her stay and this episode with his crazy old flame but I feel are too much.

Half way through the book I leave that behind and try to move on since I do want these two to get a happy ending.

I can see that Bay desperately wants love, and poor Charlotte is living as a spinster with regrets about something that happened long ago. She needs love too. They are so perfect for each other but of course they can't see it cos he calls her things and she thinks he is a fiend. But then this is a book and a book needs drama.

So I did have problems with some plotlines, oh I am so picky! But for the rest of you, I am sure you would eat this story up, it is sexy as hell, while staying within that boundary and not moving beyond into other genres, and making it too hot to handle. But it sure brings some steam, and a bit more than your average HR.

It also had some nice side characters, like the other mistresses on the street. I would love to read more about those.

Blodeuedd'sCover Thoughts: Love it, and she does have a scandouls red dress.
Reason for reading. My own copy.
Final thoughts: A hot historical romance

25 comments:

  1. I heard that it was a steamy historical and for some reason Bay sounds like a very interesting male character. This one remains on my radar, I never mind reading a steamy historical romance :)

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  2. Can you believe I actually read a couple m/m Regencies this weekend?!

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  3. This sounds like a good steamy historical. Great review. I do agree...sleep sex is a no-no lol
    http://thebookworm07.blogspot.com/

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  4. This sounds good and I love the cover.

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  5. Leontine
    Steamy it was, there was some food playing for example ;)
    And I did start to like Bay, but then I like the hurt ones.

    Naida
    At least she half woke up, not in this other one that I was just NO!

    Chris
    Oh, really :D Those sound cool. I never say no to a regency

    Yvonne
    I know right, so lovely!

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  6. I didn't realize it was steamy *fist pump - yes!!* I've got it in my TBR. The cover is beautiful!

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  7. I think they had a lot of sex way back then..what else did they have to do to pass the time!! :D

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  8. Okay you have me wanting this book for these two reasons... "it is sexy as hell, while staying within that boundary and not moving beyond into other genres, and making it too hot to handle." and "Steamy it was, there was some food playing for example ;)"

    You are evil, lmbo!!!!! What a great review honey! I hope you had a great weekend!

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  9. Patti,
    She is a mistress for a reason ;)

    Staci,
    Haha, so true! You can't sit all day and drink tea now can you.

    Hi Cecile,
    *giggle* It's true, I am ;)
    Let's see, there was the playing with food, a bit of naked painting, and well you would just have to find out

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  10. Yeah - I agree with the sleep sex..I felt a bit weird for the heroine (plus, would she REALLY sleep through it??)

    But after that I found this a cute book :)

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  11. Awesome review! I love to see reviews of historical romances! I was curious about this one but now I think it may not be for me. I'm not really a fan of the hero forcing the heroine to stay with him for whatever reason. I'm like you, why doesn't she run away! I prefer a nice hero :) Thanks for the informative review.

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  12. I've seen this one around and wondered about it so its nice to get your opinion!

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  13. I love spicy historicals! I'll be adding this one to the wish list.

    Thanks for the great review and recommendation, Blodeuedd!

    Hugs, VFG

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  14. Mandi
    Sleep sex has been following me around, and it is kind of weird...
    But I did come to like these two in the end, of course they were stupid and made mistakes but they were honest at least

    Carrie
    He was so very upset, and I guess I didn't like that she melted in his arms later. But he does redeem himself later on

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  15. Lori,
    You're welcome :) it is always good to have a lot of different opinions.

    VFG
    I think it might just be up your alley ;)

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  16. I agree the sleep sex sounds like borderline rape to me -- not the way I like romances to be.

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  17. DC
    It is just weird, and especially when she hardly woke up, but did participate. Ack, sleepsex. Well they didn't do that again.

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  18. Blodeuedd!

    Oh I use to love historicals...this book sounds good!

    Awesome review, sweetie.

    Hawk

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  19. LMAO! I wouldn't be happy about a sleep-sex either! A little too kinky for my tastes:)
    Thanks for the fun review.

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  20. Yea, I'm not down with the sleep sex either. Creepy!
    however a steamy HF romance is always a good thing to read. I'll have to think about this one.

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  21. Hawk
    I do think you would enjoy it :D

    Lilly,
    Lol, you should have seen this other book I read some months ago, sleepsex all the time.

    Jenny
    It is just weird, but it was only once. They do it the regular way later :)

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  22. Steamy is always a plus in a good historical B. ;) lol

    Thanks for another great review! You have been really busy.

    I love this book's cover art.

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  23. Lea,
    Yup a busy little bee :)
    She has the dress in the book too, so there they managed well.

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  24. See that's the thing that drives me crazy about romance fiction - I get too picky. Either the writing isn't good enough for me, or the plot is goofy, or the characters aren't realistic, etc. In the past few years the only romance fiction I've found that I've loved is the Outlander series. Everything else just seems to pale in comparison.

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  25. Alyce
    I fear I have started to be like that too, picky, picky and never anything that I go wow about. Ok it was close in January but then the last 100 pages were like blah.

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