Review: His Lady Mistress

His Lady Mistress by Elizabeth Rolls

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This book had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. But I liked it nonetheless.

This book followed the conventions of the romance novel more closely than most I've read in recent years. The structure of the plot was very simple:

1. Protagonists meet under extreme circumstances
2. Years later, protagonists meet again. The heroine, Verity, recognizes the male lead, Max, but he does not recognize her. Verity has remembered him fondly from that first meeting, and she has a warm spot in her heart for him.
3. Max feels drawn to Verity, and offers her the role of his mistress. He believes she is a mistreated servant, probably raped by her employer (he's seen the son of the household accost her), and he's offering her his protection.
4. Misunderstandings ensue.
5. The misunderstandings are resolved, and before the protagonists can experience more than a few hours of happiness, they misunderstand each other again.
6. Repeat steps 4 and 5 as necessary.

Rolls tried to find every way possible to create misunderstandings and confusion between Max and Verity, constantly finding ways to delay the gratification of their union. If I'd been seriously invested in these characters, I would have probably found that annoying, but I didn't care enough to invest in them. Instead, I simply enjoyed the romp through Regency England. I don't know if I'll bother to read more by this author, but if Barnes & Noble were to offer anything else by this author as a free download (which is how I got this copy in the first place!), I'll gladly add it to my nook.



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