London and France - Present Day

Amelia Weatherbee has always felt inferior to her glamorous, accomplished sister, but having her longtime boyfriend tell her that she’s dull and boring is icing on the cake. So, when she runs into a handsome man on the streets of London, she’s flattered by his compliments and agrees to go out with him that night. Returning to her sister’s flat, though, Amy sees a tabloid and realizes that the man she accidentally bumped into isn’t a stranger, and their meeting wasn’t an accident.

He is Comte Remy de Fournier, and he and his mother have been trying to buy back the vineyard Amy recently inherited from her aunt. Amy’s aunt had been the second wife of the former Comte, Remy’s father, and now Amy owns the vineyard that has been in the de Fournier family for a century. Hurt at first by the realization that Remy’s interest most likely was an attempt to convince her to sell the vineyard, Amy eventually decides to see Remy anyway, and makes a decision. She’ll agree to sell, if Remy will teach her to be sexy. Amy’s sure that the knowledge of Remy’s playboy reputation will keep her from losing her heart, but what if everything she’s read about him isn’t as accurate as she’s assumed?

Though MISTRESS FOR A MONTH starts off with an interesting premise, it didn’t quite reach it’s potential. The reason Amy gives for starting a relationship with Remy is to build her self-confidence and make herself feel sexier, but whenever they are in public, she quickly falls back into her old thought patterns, believing that Remy can’t possibly be interested in her. Remy is the tortured hero, a former Formula One racecar driver who retired after his car spun out of control during a race, and the ensuing accident killed his best friend. Tried and convicted by the press, he is dealing with self-inflicted guilt and doesn’t think that he deserves a woman as good as Amy.

The relationship between them starts off as a purely sexual one, and readers don’t really get a chance to watch a romance develop, we are just told that it happens. Had the characters and the storyline been fleshed out a little more, MISTRESS FOR A MONTH could have been a truly enjoyable story.

Jennifer Bishop