Lynne Connolly‘s review of His Bought Mistress by Emma Darcy
Contemporary romance released by Harlequin Presents 1 Jan 05

Mistress – faugh. Doesn’t suit this book, unless it’s meant ironically.  Meant ironically, it works better, because Angie so doesn’t want to be a bought mistress. 

The heroine, Angie, is a successful businesswoman and the hero, Hugo, employs her to decorate a new block of luxury flats he’d just built. Both Angie and her business partner Francine are keen to find husbands, with their biological clocks ticking madly. While I recognized the urge, it wasn’t a particularly flattering one, but I quite liked that. Refreshing honesty. They weren’t prepared to throw everything away for a partner, but they did want someone to share their lives with. Where I take exception is when the heroine’s job is viewed as a kind of hobby, something for her to do until the hero comes along.

Hugo doesn’t always behave well, but I quite liked that, too, because he was prepared to admit his mistakes and apologize. And he isn’t beastly to Angie. Not something I like in my heroes.

The story begins when Francine, tired of fruitless attempts to find a man to love, has her picture put up on a billboard by Sydney Bridge. Only it isn’t her picture, it’s Angie’s. It’s only up for a day, before the company acknowledges its mistake, but it’s enough to make Angie’s current boyfriend, Paul, dump her, and for Hugo to see the picture and be attracted by it.

Angie agrees to go to Tokyo for the weekend with Hugo. I did think that a 9 hour flight was a bit much for a weekend, but hey, this is a fairytale. Long flights tend to put me in bed for half a day afterward, but these are romance heroes and heroines and not subject to our rules. They have a great time, bond, but Angie’s not sure if she’s getting into another physical only relationship, with no real lasting feelings. She feels the uncertainty of falling so hard, so fast.

I enjoyed our glances into Hugo. He isn’t the perfect hero and at one point he succumbs to his baser instincts, but his grovel redeems him. I don’t think he’s as fully realized as Angie, I would have enjoyed more of an insight into him, and the confrontation between Hugo and her ex, Paul, wasn’t entirely satisfactory, mainly because both men were in the wrong.

But I do appreciate Ms Darcy’s attempts to bring a more modern outlook to the Presents/Modern line and the more assertive heroine. I’d love to see more of those.

Grade: B

Summary:

The instant Australian billionaire Hugo Fullbright sees Angie Blessing, he knows he has to have her. There’s no doubt about the instant, sizzling sexual attraction between them! So why, at first, does Angie refuse his offer?

Angie cannot tell Hugo the real story. But finally she succumbs to his powers of seduction and agrees to join him on a weekend trip to Tokyo..not realizing that he’s a man used to paying for what he wants, and that she’s been bought–and brought–for his pleasure!

No excerpt available.