Customer Reviews

Mr. and Mistress: The Elliotts (Silhouette Desire No. 1723)

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This is the fourth book in the Elliotts series and the storyline is not as good as the others. This is the story of Cullen Elliott who lives in NY and who for the past 4 years has kept a mistress, Misty a former Vegas showgirl and five years his senior, in Vegas. After 4 years of supporting her financially, seeing her whenever he was in Vegas, while sleeping with other women inbetween trips, Misty discovers she's pregnant. Now Misty decides she must break off the relationship b/c she feels she's not good enough for Cullen. When Cullen finds out about the pregnancy he wants to do the right thing and marry her. Misty declines b/c he's only doing it out of a sense of duty. She decides that he can still see her and the baby but it would ruin him in the eyes of his very wealthy scandal conscious family and the media if he were to marry her. She feels being an ex lowly Vegas showgirl she's nowhere near in the Elliott's family league. At this point the author is trying to convince you that Misty's doing all of this b/c she's really been in love with Cullen all this time and that's why she's been a kept woman and why she's refusing to marry him now.
I found Misty's character to be unbelivable, unlikeable, selfish and for a 31 year old woman, the senior of the two, juvenile. It seems she'd rather Cullen's family and the press learn that Cullen is having a bastard child with his mistress, a Vegas showgirl, and he isn't going to marry her. Yeah! Such a better scenerio for both Cullen and the unborn child. She'd rather do that than marry a man that swears to take care of both her and his child and by the way a man she purports to love.

Cullen of course doesn't feel that Misty's inferior in anyway and wants to marry her regardless of how his family feels about it. He wants to be a part of his childs life. He just needs to convince Misty she should marry him. During the course of this convincing he seems to have convinced himself that he's really in love with her and has been for some time. Frankly, I think it was b/c Misty was so adament that she wouldn't marry Cullen that he wanted to marry her to begin with.
I didn't like Cullen's character very much either. I thought he was a nice guy and wanted to do the responsible thing. But I felt he didn't really know what he wanted. After 4 years of having exclusive access to Misty, while sleeping with any other woman that catches his fancy, he decides he's now so much in love with Misty. Based on this storyline I found his revelation unconvincing. There was really nothing in the story to negate that the only reason these two people were getting married was b/c of the baby. While I can commend them for wanting to raise their child within marriage, they should at least be honest about the reasons for the marriage. It seems the story was all about convincing themselves and the reader that they were really really in love all this time. If you the reader can believe that, then you will probably enjoy the book more than I did.

Misty Vale has loved Cullen Elliot for years. An ex-Vegas showgirl, she's been his secret mistress living in Las Vegas while he's lived in New York. A few years older than Cullen, she's always known that she has more invested in their relationship than him, but this hasn't stopped her from living for the moments that she spends his arms. But surprise pregnancy changes everything. Cullen is convinced that they should get married, however Misty knows that she's not the type of woman his high society family would accept, bringing into account the fact that Cullen doesn't love her, and she decides that marriage is definitely out of the question. As the years have gone by and he's spent more time with Misty, Cullen has found his feelings for her deepening. He's not sure what it is, but he knows that he's not ready to let her go, especially now that she's expecting his child. Can they make a marriage together work?

I've never read a Heidi Betts book that I didn't like, and Mr.& Mistress is no exception. I found it a little troubling that Cullen had relationships with other women during the early part of his relationship with Misty. And this knowledge detracted from the romance of the story for me. However I loved the fact that Misty was little older than Cullen and the passion between them smoldered from page one. While the pregnancy storyline is one that is used often, Heidi Betts, writes it so well, that I found myself unable to stop turning pages. Readers who enjoy Silhouette books will want to add Heidi Betts to their auto-buy lists, and I wouldn't be surprised if we see her soon with longer length novels in the very near future!


Melissa
Reviewed for Joyfully Reviewed