Elizabeth Berkley Books

This is a pretty much run-of-the-mill American Regency with no distinguishing features. The premise is a little odd: Letty loves Lord Denham, so when he proposes, naturally she turns him down. There are a great many sillinesses, such as the adult and independent Denham letting his mother tell him what to do, Letty eloping with her sister's beau and Denham suddenly realising - without any indication of what brought him to that realisation - that he was in love with Letty.

What made the book even more disappointing is that the synopsis, as presented on this site and on the book's cover, is entirely misleading. The statement by Letty that 'I would rather be your mistress' does not form part of the book's plot at all; she only says it on the last page, by which time it is evident that the 'will-they-won't-they' is resolved.

Additionally, it is irritating to notice throughout the book examples of period inaccuracies; Mansfield is usually better than many American Regency! ! authors at avoiding these. Most obvious is the way in which the characters address each other; in the late 1700s it would have been completely unheard of for men and women not married to each other to address each other by their Christian names - and often unheard of even after marriage! When aristocrats wished to indicate a close friendship, they called each other by their titles or family names - so Lord Denham would have been Denham or Agneau (he is the Earl of Agneau) to his friends. But rarely would an unmarried woman friend have enjoyed such intimacy; it would have ruined her reputation. So Letty would never have called Denham 'Roger' as she did through much of the book.

So much of what's in this book has been proven untrue (Charles was virgin when he got married? The Queen Mum liked Diana?) that I regret wasting my time with this book. If you want to know the "authorized story of the royal family" and a whole lot of political background which has astonishingly little to do with the story of Elizabeth and Philip, this is a great book for you!

So much of what's in this book has been proven untrue (Charles was virgin when he got married? The Queen Mum liked Diana?) that I regret wasting my time with this book. If you want to know the "authorized story of the royal family" and a whole lot of political background which has astonishingly little to do with the story of Elizabeth and Philip, this is a great book for you!

The definition of "bawdy" is indecent, lewd or obscene... the stories in this book do not qualify as any of those. I was hopeful that this book would spice up our evenings , but quickly realized that I would get more spice from watching late night television than reading this book. The stories were dull, the romance and erotic scenes were lack luster, and it didn't hold my attention in the slightest. I found myself yawning about halfway through each story... and actually forced myself to read all of them just in case I might miss some jewel - which I didn't. There are much better erotic stories compilations out there - I would highly recommend you look elsewhere for the that which qualifies as "bawdy".