Customer Reviews

Temporary Mistress (St. John-Duras)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(11)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(19)

 

 

I am a long-standing and ardent Susan Johnson fan, but the disappointing trend of her recent writing (Taboo, Golden Paradise, A Touch of Sin, To Please A Lady) continues in Temporary Mistress. The characters were one dimensional, the dialog was stilted, the plot lacked continuity or cohesion, and the love scenes lacked heat. I have read worse historical romance, but not by Ms. Johnson.

In 1802, Isabella Leslie inherits a fortune that her avarice uncle plans to possess. He informs his niece that she will marry his son. Instead of bowing to her relative's orders, Isabella flees and ends up in a brothel owned by Molly Crocker. The two women cut a deal that will ruin Isabella, but gain her freedom from her odious relatives.

Dermot Ramsey, Earl of Bathurst meets Isabella at the brothel and both are immediately fascinated with one another. He makes love to the virgin, but he still grieves the death of his wife and son several years ago. Though he hurts Isabella by throwing her out of his house and life , he realizes he loves her. Unless a miracle occurs and brings Dermot to his senses, Isabella will be free, but unhappy.

TEMPORARY MISTRESS is an entertaining historical romance, but readers need to realize that the story line is filled with many graphic sex scenes and profanity uttered by Isabella among others. The plot moves rather rapidly forward as the two lead characters and the supporting cast (her relatives and Mrs. Crocker) brings the Regency period alive. As usual, Susan Johnson continues to hold sway over the erotic historical romance sub-genre.

Harriet Klausner

I don't think there will ever come a time when I won't buy books written by Susan Johnson, but the time has come when I wish she wouldn't use the same characters in every book. I love Ms. Johnson's writing style; I love the edge of erotica she lavishes throughout her books; I love her strong characters; I love the tidbits of fact she teaches her readers - but the cloning needs to stop. "The stud of London..." has been written to death after "servicing the Ton" all these years. Give us some new characters to cuddle up with!

This was the first Susan Johnson book that I picked up, and after reading all the way through this one (no small feat, I assure you) I have to say that I don't ever want to read another one of hers again.

First of all, THE HEROINE IS A BRAT. She's suposedly this virgin, but when given the chance to sleep with Dermott, she gets all, "well, if I'm going to be sleeping with him, I have to be the best, because my grandaddy spoiled me and I have to be the best at everything". You just don't have any love for her, and despite the big sex drive/passion/whatever she has, I thought that she came off as really cold.

There was a chapter in there where I found some compassion for her family. If it weren't for the whole 'marry her off to our son and forget about her' bit, I would actually like them more than Isabella. I mean, I didn't exactly live back then, but, if you were known to be, as she put it "Bathurst's whore", you're not exactly going to be lauded as the new Seasons Incomparable deb, now, right? Sure, she had money and beauty (which we GET, not need to repeat the same trite phrases OVER AND OVER, Ms. Johnson), but the whole society's accepting her despite her stay @ a brothel just makes you kind of hate her more.

Secondly, Dermott was horrible. I did not find any resemblance between him and a human being throughout the whole book. You kind of get the feeling that the only reason he approaches the girl's family is to make sure that he continues to be the one sleeping with her. Not to mention that the end is completely thrown together and ends with a big PLOP.

Please don't buy this book. Go find something good by Johanna Lindsey.

I read this book a few weeks ago, and one of the first things that struck me as odd was that Ms. Johnson footnoted the book. In my relatively short life thus far, I have never, ever read a romance novel before this one that's been footnoted. But I humored my curiousity (and perhaps the author) by reading the footnotes at the back of the book whenever I came across a little subscripted number. The next thing that struck me as odd was the words describing sex and various body parts (obviously I won't use them here). Ms. Johnson seems to have degraded the sexual act for both the hero and the heroine. And the hero isn't much of a hero at all- he's slept with half of the females of England.
So, I recommend reading this novel with caution. If you are 'faint of heart' when it comes to the adjectives and descriptions of the sexual act, perhaps you are better off with something by Judith McNaught. And beware of the footnotes- most of them are historical background, and Ms. Johnson was an Art History major (the Latin/Art History teacher at my school would be proud).

But still hasn't reached the level of erotic romance that she achieved in her Braddock-Black series. I was beginning to despair of ever reading another of the author's novels that didn't resort to an overabundance of obscenity and purposeless sex, without a viable and entertaining plot to hold it all together. In Temporary Mistress, we have less obscenity, but the love scenes are like tepid bath water and the plot, while not completely without interest, is kind of blah.

We have Isabella Leslie, newly made heierss, attempting to elude her hideous relatives who have visions of golden eggs with Isabella being the goose. All they have to do is force her into marrying her cousin, something Isabella rebels against. She races headlong into the night, knocking on the first `friendly' door.

Molly Crocker, the good-hearted madam behind the door, takes Isabella in, listens to her tale of woe and offers a suggestion. I found Isabella's ready acceptance a bit hard to believe and the suggestion involves spending a week in the company of Dermott Ramsay, Earl of Bathurst, known womanizer and rake, in order to so sully her reputation that her relatives would no longer want her.

What follows was, to me, at times a bit hard to believe and at other times predictable. Isabelle take to Molly's tutoring of the sexual arts like a duck to water and Dermott take full advantage, adding his own unique spin in a series of love scenes so toned down they were almost sweet.

It will be interesting to see how all this translates into the author's next release; if she can once again weave an erotic romance in the vein of Blaze, Silver Flame and Forbidden.

Upon the death of her beloved grandfather, Miss Izabella Leslie becomes an heiress with a very sizable inheritance. And ulmost immediatly she falls prey to the greedy clutches of her relatives that wish to aquire her fortune for themselves by forcing her into an unwanted marriage. (Not an uncommon theme)

Izabella refuses to be victimized, so she runs into the rainy night to escape the villains in her pursuit...and stumbles into a very elegant, warm, welcoming.....brothel! Talk about from the frying pan straight into the fire!

However, the angels of mercy are found in the most oddest places...While recovering from her strange ordeal, Izabella meets a most kindred soul - Molly, the delightful proprietess of the brothel, who takes an extreme liking to the young, beautiful girl that is being hurt by the harsh, greedy world that she's only too familiar with.

Thus, Molly comes up with the scheme that will render Izabella ruined in the eyes of the polite ton and save her from the unwanted marriage to her portly cousin Harold.

Dermott Ramsay, the earl of Bathurst is a known libertine: a compellingly sensual rogue who charms his way into every woman's boudoir...However, a few people realize that this extremely handsome, sensual man has thrown himself into the depth of debauchery in order to escape the battle with the demons that haunt him, both sleeping and awake.

The moment he sees the strikingly beautiful Izabella Leslie, he loses all peace of mind. She awakens his most primal urges and he becomes most determined to possess this willful, seductive enchantress.

So, the earl of Ramsay's legendary skills come very handy in the "ruination" of Izabella. For who would be more qualified for the job???

And this is how their deliciously scandalous affair begings: Izabella becomes the temporary mistress of the illustrious earl of Bathusrt.

With the help of Molly's and a score of other ingeneous charachters' matchmaking motives, both Izabella and Dermott face the truths of their yearning hearts of more that just a temporary passion.

This story is fun and extremely sensuous....the humourous dialogue always infectuos... The love scenes will arouse your amourous imagination and the glib repartee' between hero and heroine leave a glowy smile on your face. I hope you enjoy this novel. I certainly did.

You see, I've been a fan of Susan Johnson since her days of Forbidden, Pure Sin, Silver Flame and all that. I don't understand HOW she managed to slide down and continue sliding down towards this tacky abyss, when all this time her books have been elegantly written, with smashing repartee and marvelous wit. Her books of late (To please a lady, for instance) are so badly written that I wonder whether the author IS really Susan Johnson, or maybe she's doing the Milli Vanilli act - someone else is doing the writing, she just takes credit from it. So it was with this amount of skepticism that I picked up Temporary Mistress, hoping, really hoping that this one is gonna pull Ms Johnson out from the down-spiral. Let's just say I'm EXTREMELY disappointed. The story completely lacks flavor. It's tasteles, tacky and horrid. I don't feel empathy for the heroine, in fact, to me she's spoilt and a brat, as one of the reviewers suggested. For someone who is supposedly endowed with brains, she does not seem to possess maturity or common sense, and instead pouts to get her way. For someone so brainy, she sure uses the usual 'women's wiles' to do whatever she wants. And Dermott. Lord, he just doesn't strike a chord in me. For a brainy woman, the heroine falls hook, line and sinker for the usual depiction of dashing handsome man. Come on, Ms. Johnson, don't insult your readers by giving garbage like this. Well, I guess I'm your fan no more, Ms. Johnson. From this day onwards I'm never going to pick up your books again. Now your name seems to symbolise tastelessness and tackiness. Enough said.

I enjoy Susan Johnson's work. She is not afraid to describe the passion between men and women. I enjoyed this book, but not as much as her other work. Susan always leaves you waiting for the next book. In this story Isabella Leslie was in dire straits to get away from her unsavory relatives, and meets up with a man who couldn't commit because of his lost love. I enjoy how she describes the passion between them, it almost makes you want to be there. I am counting the weeks, and months until her next book.

Although not quite as steamy as other Johnson books - for me this was still a very good romantic read. I like Isebella and Dermott as a couple - thought the chemistry was good. Always love the hero to have a tortured past and loosing your wife and son certainly make Dermott that kind of brooding rouge. I think the only thing missing was some of the steaminess we come to look for in Johnson books! I would totally recommend this novel!!