Elizabeth Boyle's His Mistress by Morning is the first book in her Marlowe series. This is the 5th book in the Winter of the Wallflower read-a-long hosted by Kelly and Dana for their Seasonally Booked Up club.
Oh this book. I struggled through most of this book. The blurb grabbed me and I waited until after February 1st to start this since it had fantasy elements (and I can use it for FaRoFeb). The basis of this book is that Charlotte is a painfully shy spinster in love with her best friend's older brother Sebastian. He doesn't even notice when she's in the room a lot and can't quite seem to remember her name. She gets a ring as inheritance from her aunt, and surprise! it grants one wish. She wishes to be the woman that Sebastian loves.
At 41% I really wanted to DNF this book, but I pushed myself to continue (granted I started skimming and speed reading) both because it's for the club, and I loved the first little portion before the wish. I did not like anything about the "alternate reality" and had a lot of issues of how things were going to reconcile when she came back to "reality." First off, at 41% I was ready for the wish to be over and get back to normal to see how Charlotte would deal with everything she learned. Instead, we didn't get back to the normal timeline until about the 70% mark. The alternate reality portion lasted way too long for my taste. I wish that more time was spent on them becoming a couple in the real world.
So, in this alternate reality Charlotte is not a spinster lower noblewoman, but a courtesan/mistress. When she wakes up in this new reality, she has no memories of what this other "Lottie" has gone through and experienced. I did not like this choice at all by the author. I feel like Charlotte should've had more access to her memories and that she didn't wake up the arms of Sebastian. She went from being a sheltered spinster to waking up in the arms of a man (after clearly having a very lascivious night). I also didn't like that (and I know this was not the intention and not meant at all to come across this way) she basically became a different person to get the person she loved to love her back. I understand that the point was for Charlotte to find herself and become more confident, but it felt too drastic a change. I also feel like it also felt more out of character for her when she ended the wish and starting coming on strong to Sebastian.
Why the 3-stars instead of the two I was expecting throughout most of this book? Basically it comes down to the parts outside of the alternate reality and Elizabeth Boyle's writing. She writes really well and I enjoyed her prose. I really, really wanted there to be more of the "he finally sees her" feeling without Charlotte having to act completely wanton and out of character. As I said before, it felt like too much of a drastic change. I think if she had more internal insecurities that we the reader saw, it would've felt more natural and not as "she's magically cured of her shyness." What I wanted out of this book, especially going with the wallflower trope, was not what I got. Now I want to (re)read a historical that give me an HEA and a journey I ca
I most likely will not read the second book in the series, and might pick up some of her other series. I think before I do though I'll check out some reviews before.
Have you read His Mistress by Morning?
Bookishly Yours,
Stasi🍎
STATISTICS: His Mistress by Morning, Elizabeth Boyle, 3-stars, 2 days, eBook, 384 pages, Published 2006
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