Lady Julia Winterset is a woman who is out of options. Despite what it will do to her reputation, she must sell the memoirs of her scandalous great-grandmother, Lady Hermione Middlebury, in order to support herself and her mentally unstable grandmother. Her friends, Veronica and Portia, offer funds of their own to shore up Julia's sickly financial future, but Julia's pride won't allow them to help. Soon Julia finds herself overwhelmed with suitors and not sure which way to turn. What's a straight-laced widow who's always done the proper thing to do when inviting scandal in is the only way out?

Harrison Landingham, the Earl of Mountdale had leadership of his family thrust upon him at an early age when his father became ill. Harrison always does the right and proper thing, no matter what, and his family has never suffered a scandal, so when he gets wind of that an explicitly steamy biography featuring his father's youthful exploits is to be published, he must do everything he can to stop it. Harrison will stop at nothing, and sinks lower than he ever thought he'd go, to prohibit the tale from going to press. Although he suspects that Julia might be cut from the same cloth as her outrageous great-grandmother, he begins to spend time with her...and begins falling for her in spite of her ancestry.

The Perfect Mistress is a rollicking story of the pleasure that can be taken from falling from respectability. Harrison and Julia are pretty uptight people, and live their largely uneventful lives following society's dictates, until, of course, the attraction flares between them and cause them to see things a bit differently. Add in teasing snippets of the memoirs as well as visitations from Lady Hermione and friends, and this story gets really busy, really fast. I felt the plot was a bit too packed together at times, but the author rallied to tie up the story at the end. I especially enjoyed the side-story that emerged featuring Julia's grandmother. Four Angels.

Reviewed by: Michelle B.