The Accidental Mistress (Mistress Trilogy, #2) by Tracy Anne Warren #review

Pages -  370 

Publisher -  Ballantine Books

Published -  November 27, 2007

Sold by -  Random House LLC

Kindle -  Amazon Link

Series -  Mistress Trilogy

Genre -   Historical, Victorian

Language -  0/5

Sexual Content -  3/5

He will expose her masquerade, but she will expose his heart.
To escape an arranged marriage, spirited Lily Bainbridge has staged her own death, and, disguised as a boy, she fled to London and a life of freedom. Yet her plans to live masquerade as an independent widow are thwarted by an encounter with a powerful and dangerously attractive marquis who wants to make her his mistress. Lily is afraid that if she gives him her innocence, he’ll steal her heart.
Having agreed to a marriage of convenience to honor his family duty, Ethan Andarton, the Marquis of Vessey, has no intention of abandoning his rakish ways. Then fate intervenes in the guise of an impetuous young lady–a woman bold enough to scheme her way to London, who tempts him with her mystery and her sensuality. Kiss after kiss, caress after tender caress, Ethan vows to discover all of Lily’s hidden secrets. For beneath the layers of her clever ruse lies a burning passion that will ignite a tempestuous love neither of them can deny.

Well, it's been awhile since I read this, but as I browsed other reviews, it started to come back to me.

At least well enough to write this review.

As most concurred (reviews at Amazon and Goodreads) the story had such promise and started out great -- the heroine so terrified of the awful man her heartless stepfather has chosen for her that she concocts a plausible scheme to 'die' -- and once accomplished, she dresses like a 'boy' and hitches a coach to London.

It is during this journey that she meets the H (Ethan, Marquis of Vessey) and while he easily sees through her scheme, he's intrigued enough to let her carry on so that he has something to pass time waiting for the story to unfold.

Lily meets with her family attorney in London, claims she is a widow, and receives a very large inheritance set up by her long-suffering mother's father.

Lily then sets out to find a place to live and a decent wardrobe to enter 'society' in.

Now, according to a majority of the negative reviewers, this is where the story starts to fall apart, what with Ethan behaving like a cad, wanting to make Lily his mistress all the while intending to marry the woman his mother has chosen.

Being a virgin, Lily seems to string Ethan along, letting him kiss and fondle her but always backing away at the last second (blue-balls) for fear of his discovering her 'secret'.

Implausible, because back then some girls were wed to fossils likely incapable of having sex, so for her to still be pure isn't as far-fetched as we tend to want to believe.

She could have used that as an excuse and Ethan likely would have bought it.

However, Lily also knew that while she was growing fond of Ethan, that Ethan had wicked intentions and also planned to marry another.

She wasn't stupid in that regard, but I had to fault her for leading him on for so long.

Which brings me to the other flaw.

She concocted a lie to save her soul, which is believable and, in her case, commendable.

But, for her to keep up the pretense for as long as she did while also berating Ethan (and others) for telling fibs or not being forthright and honest just didn't sit well with me or a lot of the reviewers who brought it up.

Overall, the story had merit and promise, the characters were well-developed, believable, and worth reading about, and with little in the way of GPS issues.

However, the author did mention two things that weren't the least bit Victorian: blueberry muffins and marshmallows.

She also described taffy as being 'gooey', Ethan as having a 'long, athletic frame', and actually used the phrase 'shagging on the sofa'.

After which, they 'spooned'.

Whether or not and beck and call (beckon call) irritated me as well.

Someone will need to explain this to me: applied the address and the Vessey frank, because all I'm getting is Frank Vessey when I Google it.

There are two more novels of this type (Mistress Trilogy) but are not listed as being in a series at Amazon, which just means they are stand-alone.

And, yes, I would still recommend this one if you are the type who seeks complete escape when you read.

I don't believe the author missed the mark with this plot, but I will warn that the middle seemed drawn out and overly sexual with little in the way of true romance as it seemed lust turns to love with little in the way of getting-to-know-you along the way.

Just remember you chose to read ROMANCE and I think you'll overcome a lot of the issues other reviewers had with this novel.