Rating: 
Summary: Fun, entertaining...and deliciously scandalous!
Review: 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.
Rating: 
Summary: Never again
Review: 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.
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