Review: The Mistress' House

The Mistress' House by Leigh Michaels

Publication Date: February 2011
Publisher: Sourcebooks
Genre: Historical Romance
ISBN-13: 9781402241352
ISBN: 1402241356

(Received for review from Sourcebooks)

Purchase: Barnes & Noble, Book Depository, IndieBound

Leigh Michaels on the WEB: Website, Facebook, Twitter

Gotham Writer's Workshop

Excerpt from The Mistress' House

Synopsis (Book Blurb):

The rules are made to be broken...

When the handsome, rakish Earl of Hawthorne buys the charming house across the back garden from his town house, he never expects the lovely lady he installs there to ensnare him completely...

Again and again...

After Lady Anne Keighley marries the earl, it seems a shame to leave the house empty, so she offers it ot her childhood friend Felicity Mercer, who discovers that the earl's gorgeous cousin is precisely the man she's been waiting for...Finally, feisty Georgiana Baxter moves into the house to escape an arranged marriage, and encounters th earl's friend Lord Julian Silsby late one night in the back garden. The handsome soldier is more than willing to give her the lessons she asks for...

Th house's ownership, proximity to the earl's townhouse and the beauty of its successive inhabitants leads to plenty of gossip, scandal and torrid speculation, while behind closed doors, passions blaze...

Thoughts:

Leigh Michaels is an author with over 80 books to her credit. Her latest novel, The Mistress' House is her first historical romance and readers will be captivated by her sophisticated style and immense knowledge of Regency, England. The Mistress' House weaves three intertwined love stories together to create a novel that will leave readers wanting more. Full of love, scandal and mystery, This Mistress' House is an engaging story with an interesting plot.

Three women, three love stories, one house. When the Earl of Hawthorne decides to buy a quaint house adjoining the back garden to his London townhouse, he can't imagine how it will change his life. He intends to use the house as a place to install his mistress'. When Lady Anne Keighley moves in, he is quickly smitten and falls madly in love. When Anne decides to loan the house to her childhood friend, a quiet young woman from the country, she has no idea that once again the Mistress' House will be a place of love when Felicity meets the Earl's cousin. Georgiana is the Earl's ward, he moves her into the Mistress' House when she is trying to escape an arranged marriage. When she meets a soldier and friend of Earl, Julian, love along with a healthy dose of scandal again blooms in the garden of the Mistress' House.

This was a very interesting concept for a book. Basically, the reader gets three loves stories woven together in one novel. The book is not divided or separated by each story, they all intertwine and it makes for a very interesting read. The author has a knack for blending the background and back story's of the characters in a way that makes the book feel natural and believable.

Micheal's knowledge of the Regency period is obvious, her research impeccable. It is apparent from the writing of the book that the author was very conscientious about getting the small details right. I have read a lot of books set in this period and occasionally become a little disheartened by author's who don't think the reader will notice a little slip here and there. Michael's did an excellent job making sure she had her i's dotted and her t's crossed, so to speak.

The characters were developed quickly as the pace of the novel was fast and made it necessary for the stories of all three couples to be laid down quickly. The Earl of Hawthorne's character was very well done and I felt like I knew a lot about him in the end. If I have one fault with the book, it was that I wanted to know more about the other characters. I liked what I found out about them, but I wanted a little more. Why would a beautiful widow, like Anne want to proposition the Earl? Why did Felicity decide to leave the country, where she was happy and content? Why did Georgiana not want to marry the man her Uncle chose for her? These questions were talked about in the book, but I still felt like there was so much more to know about them.

The is a novel that is driven by a theme, love. This theme overshadows the whole book and is the driving force of the plot. Romance readers generally read romance to escape and find the happy-ever-after ending, in this book, they get three great love stories, with three great endings. I am looking forward to seeing if the author keeps up this three in one idea with her next novel. I liked the concept and believe other historical romance readers will as well. It was different and refreshing for the genre and I think it has a lot of potential.

The Mistress' House is available NOW from your favorite bookseller.

I'm giving this one 4 out of 5 apples from my book bag!