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    The Secret Mistress
    The Secret Mistress
    The Secret Mistress
    Audiobook10 hours

    The Secret Mistress

    Written by Mary Balogh

    Narrated by Anne Flosnik

    3.5/5

    ()

    About this audiobook

    NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

    While Lady Angeline Dudley's pedigree dictates that she must land a titled gentleman, the irrepressible beauty longs for a simple, ordinary suitor. So when Edward Ailsbury, the new Earl of Heyward, defends her honor with unmatched civility, Angeline thinks that she has found true love. Persuading the earl is another matter entirely. From her unconventional fashion sense to her hoydenish antics, Angeline is the last woman on earth for Edward. And yet a stolen kiss awakens something primal within him. Naturally, being a gentleman, he does the right thing after compromising a lady: He offers marriage. The proposal is born of duty, but will Angeline cause Edward to forget about decorum behind closed doors, where sensuality and seduction play wicked games? For a proper wife by day can become a husband's secret mistress by night, when delicious desire rules.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherBrilliance Audio
    Release dateJul 12, 2011
    ISBN9781455818884
    The Secret Mistress
    Author

    Mary Balogh

    New York Times bestselling, multi-award-winning author Mary Balogh grew up in Wales, land of sea and mountains, song and legend. She brought music and a vivid imagination with her when she came to Canada to teach. There she began a second career as a writer of books that always end happily and always celebrate the power of love.

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    Reviews for The Secret Mistress

    3.5/5

    199 ratings17 reviews

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    • 3/5
      I am shocked that this book is in the same series as More than a Mistress.I read a lot of romance novels, but this had to be the most bland hardback I've read in years. I've read hundreds of straight to mass market paper back regency romances that are so much better and 1/3 of the cost.The time spent in Angeline's head was tedious. And other than her adolescent insecurity, there was not much to her character.Lord Heyward was just as bad. He was frightfully boring, since his sole characteristic seemed that he was staid.Not only were the characters flatly drawn, the romance moved so slow and there was almost no conflict. I think because the whole book was plotted around Angeline's sophomoric machinations and there was no subplot. In a book with so little plot, the romance has to be fantastic. Angeline and Heyward's "romance" was unconvincing and shallow. Tresham calls Heyward a "dry old stick." I thought this book was beyond dry and definitely not worth $24, but at least I got it from the library.

      1 person found this helpful

    • 3/5
      Lady Angeline Dudley is a high-spirited debutante who burbles and babbles and has garish tastes in hats. The Earl of Heyword has always tried to be the most sensible and staid of men, in reaction to his older brother's rakish boistrousness. They meet by chance at an inn, and then their families decide that (given their respective titles and wealth) they should make a match of it. Unfortunately, Angeline is sure that the earl is in love with his bookish bff Eunice, and the earl is sure that he is as well--after all, how could he possibly love someone as bold and loud as Lady Angeline?

      This book is adorable. The tension between the characters is as thick and heady as anyone could wish, and the dialog is witty without feeling unnatural.
    • 4/5
      I listened to this on audio book, and at first I found the reader's voice a little annoying, but it later grew on me. This book was interesting but not in the 'can't put it down' class. I've definitely read better ones by Mary Balogh. It just did not seem to have enough plot or action. In the story, Angeline Dudley is going to London for the first time for her coming out season. She hopes to find a man with two specific qualities. First he must not be a rake like her father and brothers were, and second he must want to marry her because he loves her. She knows that Edward Alisbury fills the first requirement, but she is not certain that he wants to marry her because he is in love with her. In fact, Angeline is certain he is in love with another woman, and even plots to bring these two people together. All of her plots seem to backfire on her though, and several couples unsurprisingly end up with one another at the end of the story.
    • 5/5
      When Edward Ailsbury’s, the Earl of Heyward, path crosses with Lady Angeline Dudley he decides she is the last woman he would ever marry. She, however, falls deeply in love with him and imagines a future together. When they kiss, Edward does the honorable thing and proposes to her. When she realizes he doesn’t love her she refuses. It takes the manipulations of their friends to get Edward to realize that he needs Angeline in his life and to repropose. The best thing about this story is the heroine. She is extremely likable and not a typical heroine. She is not Cinderella, down on her luck, super smart or a feminist prototype. She’s unique, funny, and a bit silly. As the hero finds out she is easy to care for.
    • 3/5
      I really enjoyed this book, for the most part. I liked the heroine (though I wasn't entirely sure that I would), and I especially liked the reluctant "hero" (he seems to be my type, LOL). Balogh writes expertly about this world, with its strict social strata and hierarchy, and she writes strong characters. Angeline isn't afraid to make fun of herself. She knows she's not the fashionable sort of beautiful, but she marches to the beat of her own drummer. She doesn't let the haughty world of the Season intimidate her, and when she sets her cap for Edward, she goes after him with everything she has.Edward, for his part, is warring within himself. He is very dutiful and honorable, but also reluctant. He was never meant to be the Earl of Heyward - his older brother died in a senseless accident and left behind only a young daughter - and he struggles with how the title has changed his life, his plans, his future. But, he's determined that if he has to court a woman and take a wife, he's going to do it the proper way.The courtship is just beautifully written - Balogh has an enchanting way with words. I read this book mostly over my lunch hour at work, and I was both reluctant to stop reading when the hour was over, and eager to look back at some of my own stuff. She writes in a way that inspires me to write. I relished the slow build of the relationship between these two, and it was really nice to read about the first flush of love that felt like the sort of puppy love we still experience in this day.The only way this book let me down, really, was the fact that the blurb up there lies. You'd suspect that at least part of the book (perhaps up to half of it) would be dedicated to this idea of the "proper wife/secret mistress" thing, no? That Angeline would spend at delightful amount of time convincing her erstwhile husband that he hadn't made a mistake in marrying her? I thought that sounded like a fun read, which is why I bought this book.Unfortunately for me, it's not exactly that.I was totally on board with the way the story was going, up to the (what turned out to be the first) marriage proposal. Everything was ticking along exactly as I'd anticipated, and it had been a fun read - the build of the relationship, the way the characters interacted not only with each other but with the supporting cast, etc etc etc. And then things went a bit pear-shaped. Because, you see, that (first) proposal is already halfway through the novel, and as its rejected, the courtship must continue.This new direction was interesting in and of itself - Angeline makes friends with the woman she believes Edward really loves, and is determined to bring them together because she knows that Edward does not feel the same way about her as she does about him, so she might as well make him a match with his "perfect" mate. And the friendship between the ladies is genuine and warm - no backstabby or sketchy stuff there. Of course, it all turns into a big contrivance - everyone conspiring to match Edward with Angeline, unbeknownst to him - and that sorta soured me on the whole deal. Edward realizes he's fallen into the casts' respective traps, and it angers him. I was angry for him, because it felt like his choices were taken away from him. He was forced to become someone he wasn't, to do something against his character, in order to "win" his ladylove's hand.Change can be good - and it was nice that he was pushed in the right direction - but it all felt a bit deflated in the end, because it rang false. The "courtship" went on for about twice as long as it should have, and the pair don't marry until the final chapter...so not much time to explore the "secret mistress" angle of their relationship.Balogh is not known for her explicit sex scenes - she tends to be more of a fade-to-black kind of writer, which I can appreciate. There is one scene here - it feels quite obligatory - and it is...awkward, to say the least. Definitely not the way I would've described what is supposed to be a sweet/tender/passionate first time, but *shrug* It sufficed well enough, I suppose.
    • 4/5
      Edward Ailsbury is going to have to marry and is heading to London to try to find someone suitable, he definitely doesn't want the girl he met at a tavern on the way, who turns out to be Lady Angeline Dudley and he's finding that he's measuring others against her.Meanwhile she's trying to find a way to convince him that they suit and would be a suitable couple. Life is complicated.Fairly predictable, title a bit misleading.
    • 3/5
      Lady Angeline Dudley is on her way to London for her first season. While waiting at an inn for her brother the Duke of Tresham to fetch her, she finds herself in an unpleasant situation and is rescued by an unknown gentleman. It is love at first sight, but will she ever meet him again?An ordinary romantic story with ordinary characters - no spice. Not what I expected from this author.
    • 4/5
      This story continued to lure me in even though is was a typical regency romance with some trivial details and a bit of ruminating. Lady Angeline is on her way to London for her first season when she encounters Edward the new Earl of Heyward and a true gentleman.
    • 2/5
      The book kept jumping back in forth with the characters. If a reader was not really paying attention they would get very confused. The book was bland. It did not have a lot of excitement. It was on the boring side.
    • 4/5
      Third in the Dudley family trilogy. Now we find out how Angeline wound up married to Heyward - the "dry old stick" in the other two books. Angeline is a vivacious, impulsive, younger sister of Ferdinand and Tresham. On her way to London for her "come out" she inappropriately is by herself in the taproom. When she is accosted by a rake, Edward, the Earl of Heyward, and a perfect, if rigid, gentleman steps in. And she glimpses that he's everything her brothers are not and falls madly in love with him. She suspects that beneath his "dry as a stick" persona, is a rogue, just waiting to burst free. And she's right.
    • 4/5
      This book was whimsical and fun. Some sections had be laughing out loud. The characters were well written and the dialogue was enjoyable. This was a sweet romance novel. Not hot and steamy, but definitely a nice light read.
    • 5/5
      Did you ever wonder what life might be like for the sister of a rake? That's what Lady Angeline Dudley is -- the sister of not one but two handsome, charming, and utterly incorrigible rakehells, the Duke of Tresham and Lord Ferdinand Dudley. Moreover, her late parents were famous for their many indiscreet affairs, and she has decided never to marry a man who is anything like her brothers or father.

      Lady Angeline is on her way to London for her first season and is to meet up with her elder brother at a coaching inn in Reading. When she finds herself alone in the inn's tavern and is approached by a strange man, another stranger comes to her defense. He leaves without introducing himself, and Lady Angeline falls for him on the spot.

      How could one not fall instantly in love with such a man, Angeline asked herself as she stared at the door after they had both left. In a few short minutes he had shown himself to be her ideal of manhood. Of gentlemanhood. He seemed perfectly content and comfortable with his ordinariness. He seemed not to feel the need to posture and prove his masculinity at every turn, preferably with his fists, as most men did in Angeline’s admittedly rather limited experience. He was, in fact, more than ordinary. He was an extraordinary man. And she had fallen head over ears in love with him. Indeed, she was going to marry him—despite the fact that she would probably never see him again.
      Her savior is Edward Ailsbury, the new Earl of Heywood, who has succeeded to the title after his brother's death in a curricle race against said Duke of Tresham. Of course, he and Angeline are destined to meet again and again, and while she falls ever deeper in love he finds her to be all that is improper and unappealing in a lady. While his many female relatives urge him to court Lady Angeline, the season's most eligible young lady, he has determined to marry Eunice Goddard, the shy, bookish daughter of his favorite Cambridge don. They had agreed years earlier to marry at some point in the future, and Edward looks forward to a very proper future with Eunice.

      As the season progresses, Edward finds himself repeatedly in the company of Lady Angeline and feels a reluctant attraction to her. His determination to marry Eunice, however, does not wane, although Eunice believes that he must marry higher in society now that he is an earl. She rejects Edward's proposal and urges him to marry Lady Angeline. But when he proposes to Lady Angeline, she rejects him as well, because he does not love her. Indeed, he doesn't really believe in romantic love.

      Edward is perplexed, but like the true gentleman that he is, he carries on with his duty to find a suitable wife and set up his nursery. I won't go any further with the plot so as not to spoil the surprising developments. Suffice it to say that the last third of the book is romantic and funny at the same time and reminded me of something Georgette Heyer would have concocted (only a little steamier).

      Mary Balogh does an excellent job of creating many secondary characters and weaving their stories into the main plotline. And while Lady Angeline is a singular young lady -- tall, dark, not demure, and wearer of loud, attention-getting bonnets -- it is Edward who is Balogh's most original creation. He is nothing like the standard HR hero. He is not tall and broad-shouldered. He doesn't cast smouldering looks at ladies. He doesn't gamble or drink to excess. He's never fought a duel or placed a wager at White's. He doesn't have a mistress, nor does his mighty wang spring to attention at the sight of every desirable woman. His father and brother were careless, self-centered men, but Edward bears few inner scars and is certainly not "tortured."

      What I found most fascinating was Angeline's romantic dreams of her perfect man -- so unlike the typical HR hero:
      I have sworn and sworn that I will not marry a rake, even if it means marrying a dull man instead. Better to be dull than to be so unhappy that one is forced to take lovers. * * *

      I did not know for sure until then that there were gentlemen like you. I had experience only with gentlemen like my father and my brothers and their friends. I did not want to marry anyone like them, for whoever I chose would not remain faithful for long, and how can there be marriage and parenthood and contentment and friendship and happiness and growing old together unless there is fidelity? * * *

      I want you just as you are. I want you to live your dull, blameless life of duty and responsibility. I want you to be a very proper, perhaps even stern husband. I want you to make me feel you care. I want you to be a father who spends more time than is fashionable with his children. It is not unusual in HR to see the rake, reformed by marriage, become like the man Lady Angeline describes, but typically the heroine is simply hoping that life will turn out that way. In The Secret Mistress (and the title won't be explained until the very end), Angeline is determined to rely on something other than hope; she will control her own destiny. And Edward will learn that his destiny is not nearly so dull after all.
    • 3/5
      That was fun. Loved the second couple and I was glad their story was not completely off stage. There was a lot of joy in this story.
    • 2/5
      Meh, predictable and not all that racy.
    • 3/5
      While the story is a little slow-moving and there's not much conflict, the perspective on the typical Regency is refreshing. Angeline Dudley, daughter and sister of dukes, grew up in lonely privilege, tutored by a series of severe governesses. She's looking forward with eager anticipation to her first season in London. Angeline wants to shop, see the sights, make friends and find a husband who's different from her rakish brothers and father. So when she's defended from insult by the new Earl of Heyward, she falls in love on the spot. Her brothers think the Earl is stuffy and boring, and she discovers that he may be in love with another woman, someone his family may think is unsuitable to his exalted new position as the Earl. Angeline decides to be noble and promote his romance with the other woman and mix-ups ensue.
    • 4/5
      The sweet, charming story of two people finding happiness together despite everything. Make that four people: there's a bonus couple. The title's a bit misleading, though.
    • 5/5
      I reviewed this book for Romance Reader At heart website.RRAH's THOUGHTS AND PONDERINGS: THE SECRET MISTRESS is actually a prequel to the Mistress (or Dudley) series and Angeline’s story. I honestly think that this series would have never been quite complete without this tale.In previous two books, MORE THAN A MISTRESS (Duke of Tresham’s story) and NO MAN’S MISTRESS (Ferdi’s story), we were allowed only a glimpse of Angeline as she comes in and out of their brothers’ lives. We see her as someone who’s a bit eccentric, but nevertheless a lovable and very much loved sister. By going back in time, Ms. Balogh has given us a gift of pure unadulterated joy.From the first page...no, let me rephrase that....from the first paragraph, we know that we’re in for a sweet and humor-filled ride.Reading the book blurb above, you’ll get the gist of the story, but reading the book, you’ll be touched by Edward’s and Angie’s great chemistry. Ms. Balogh is one of those authors with the rare ability to create a relationship that I can actually feel developing as the story develops.Angeline was such a refreshing heroine. In spite of her insecurities, I thought her a strong and genuine real person, full of innocence, with enthusiasm and energy to burn. We finally get to know the reasons behind all those bonnets she wears, and we get to care for this quirky, yet sharp heroine.Edward was her polar opposite, yet such a perfect match for her. He was ice to her fire, ying to her yang. Ms. Balogh took this character and made him so real, a so ‘regular’ kind of a guy who personifies the word Gentleman. He takes himself and his duties very seriously and honor is sacred to him. I never took him for a ‘dried stick’, as her brothers refer to him, but more as a somber kind of fellow; yet, every time I was inside his head, I saw a man who had so much passion and humor that I was brought to tears by laughing. The tension between the two was very realistic; their relationship felt believable and added to the excitement of the story, which was fast-paced.Ms. Balogh gives the story just the right mix of humor (in this case, bordering on silliness), wit, and playfulness, that a person would have to be made of stone not to break down and laugh-out-loud every ten pages or so!I loved the supporting characters, Lord Windrow and Eunice Goddard, just as much as our hero and heroine, and I found myself rooting for their happiness as well.THE SECRET MISTRESS is a fun, exciting, and sweet love story with plenty of passion. If I had this much fun reading this book, I can only imagine the fun Ms. Balogh had in writing it. Can you tell how much I loved this story? This is a laugh out loud, hold your sides, and roll on the floor read. I had to stop at times, just to make sure that this is Mary Balogh’s book. This is so unlike anything else I’ve ever read from her, and I’ve read plenty.BTW: Just prior to sending this review in, I checked Ms. Balogh’s website and guess what? She’s written a short story that sort of wraps up all three books with some scenes that are NOT to be missed, in eBook format (Kindle only) called NOW A BRIDE. It is a must buy for all fans of this series!Melanie