His Mistress by Christmas

His Mistress by Christmas
Victoria Alexander
Kensington Books
September 27, 2011
Hardback
ISBN: 978-0-7582-5567-9
352 pages
$ 19.95

His Mistress by Christmas involves two characters who are magnetically attracted to each other. This is definitely loved at first sight. Sir Sebastian Hadley-Attwater is intrigued when he meets Lady Veronica Smithson and is determined to be married to her by Christmas. Veronica enjoys her life as a wealthy widow and is attracted to Sebastian but plans to be his mistress by Christmas.
Unfortunately, both of them confide in their close friends who tend to tell others of their friends’ intimate secrets. This does cause both of them grief when they decide to spend Christmas together and Sebastian’s family appears to meet his new wife and to celebrate with him. Veronica finds out that the family had expected them to be married while she planned to entice him to her bed.
His Mistress by Christmas is a typical romantic novel. The story is predictable but does have many twists in the journey to the happily ever after ending. The story successfully brings into the changing significance of women and their acceptance into exclusive men’s clubs.
The first hundred pages were fairly slow in the pacing. During these pages, the two main characters were well-developed. Unfortunately, there was not any story development except their romantic involvement.
Supposedly, His Mistress by Christmas is typical of the historical romance books by Victoria Alexander. The historical aspect though was extremely weak with only mentioning the changing image and acceptance of women as equals.
This novel is directed towards a female audience who believes in happy endings and loves the romantic genre.