Harry Harmon is tired of leading a double and sometimes triple life.  A master of disguises, he uses his unique talent to keep England safe as a master spy.  One of his assignments is to attend a large house party at a country estate, chock full of the ton’s elite and their mistresses.  Poor Harry is a loner, so he must hire a mistress to attend the party to keep up his disguise while he searches for a blackmailer, among other enemies of England.

Simone Ryland and her young brother were orphaned with no guardian in sight, let alone with the means to eke out a living.  To keep her brother from giving up his chance at an education to support her, this feisty redhead hatches a plot to become a courtesan.  She has nothing left to sell, except her virginity, of course.  Simone seeks assistance from a local madam and is ultimately hired to act as Harry’s mistress at the house party.  Simone first views her arrangement with Harry as a job, just a means to an end.  However, she eventually comes to realize that she wishes she truly were his mistress!  Harry is too much of a gentleman to ruin her, and tries his best to avoid the sin brewing in his heart and his loins!

The Scandalous Life of a True Lady was an interesting love story to read.  However, I felt that it took a substantially long time to really draw the reader’s interest.  In all honesty, I’d begun to read this book and then set it aside in favor of several other books, picking it up again when I had no other books left to read.  The dialogue wasn’t overly witty and the competition at the house party between the ladies was at times very uninteresting.  It would have played better had there been fewer competitors.  As it was, it took nearly half the book to even get to the house party, which was the most interesting part of the book.

There were several times during the book where I felt that an editor had edited out far too much information.  It seemed that the dots just were not connecting for me at all.  I still don’t know how or where Simone knew Lady Gorham.  It seemed like there were several inside jokes that would have made a lot more sense had some key passages not been edited out.

As for romance, I think that many readers who prefer a little bodice ripping will be feeling a bit let down.  There were no steamy sex scenes and too much was left to the reader’s imagination.

June 6, 2009