The Mistress

By Susan Wiggs

Most days Kathleen O'Leary is a penniless maid. But tonight she takes a risk and masquerades as a glamorous heiress, thanks to a borrowed gown and her friends' sense of adventure. To her surprise, the ruse succeeds—even Dylan Kennedy, Chicago's most eligible bachelor, seems enraptured.

But like Kathleen, Dylan isn't who he says he is. And before their true identities can be revealed to one another, fire erupts, sending rich and poor alike running for their lives. Now, though virtually strangers, Kathleen and Dylan must rely on each other for survival.

And when the embers cool, they'll find that the greatest risk has been to their hearts… .

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperCollins UK
• Release date: Sep 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781408904497

Susan Wiggs

Susan Wiggs is the author of more than fifty novels, including the beloved Lakeshore Chronicles series and the recent New York Times bestsellers The Lost and Found Bookshop, The Oysterville Sewing Circle, and Family Tree. Her award-winning books have been translated into two dozen languages. She lives with her husband on an island in Washington State’s Puget Sound.

Reviews for The Mistress

[nadre.wiggill · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I absolutely loved this book! This whole series, in fact... I can't get enough, so please don't stop what you're doing, Tiffany!

[bookaholiccat · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Review to come closer to release date.

[agarcia85257 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Mistress, book #4 of the Original Sinners, by Tiffany Reisz is far more than an erotic novel though it delivers on that level in so many powerful ways. It is, as the prior novels before it in the series, even more about the people than the acts themselves. To put a finer point on it, you will be over 100 pages into this book before you come upon the first truly graphic sex scene. Nora Schreiber is missing. Taken actually. Kidnapped from her fiancé's arms and stolen into the night. Her friends and lovers search in vain but slowly the truth of who has taken her becomes clear. Because Nora is far from a normal woman. A member of an exclusive dominatrix group and writer of erotic stories, Nora is loved and hated by many. Her master Soren, manager Kingsley, and fiancée Wesley soon learn who has Nora and why. Soren's long dead wife and Kingsley sister Marie-Laure is back from the dead and has Nora in her grip...."Damaged, my brother called my husband. Broken. Lies, obviously. He wasn't broken. He was stronger than anyone I'd ever met. So I thought perhaps he was too strong to love me. Love makes one weak, makes one vulnerable. Perhaps he didn't love me because he would not allow himself to be so weak. But he was weak." "Soren is not weak. Not now. Not ever."... Reisz does much more than write exciting BDSM. She writes about the people who live these lives and how they think and feel. How for them, there is no other life. Theirs is the reality while the others who only live with safe sex are "vanilla". It is a glimpse deeper into not only the sexual practices they enjoy but their very souls as well....Dominants with boring day jobs earned respect with the power they created out of their own dignity and desires. Exquisite submissives - male and female - who laid themselves out on the altar of sacrifice and sexuality in order to find themselves at someone else's feet. Wesley always accused the people of her world of putting on costumes and playing dress-up. He had no idea that the suits and the ties and the beige pumps and navy slacks her people wore during the day were the real costumes that they shed when they came out after dark... Under Marie-Laure's control, Nora is forced to explain her love for Soren. To tell the most intimate details of their lives. To explain how their sexual appetites drive them. Like a modern day Scheherazade, she tells the tales of her sex life with Marie-Laure's husband to keep herself alive one more day. To by time for Soren and Kingsley to find her. Marie-Laure's anger and judgment is only matched by her curiosity as to why her husband Soren did not want her but wanted Nora instead. How the love of a wife could not satisfy him....Look, I don't give a damn about a wife or a mistress. I am who I am. I don't need paperwork to prove Soren loves me. I don't need paperwork to prove anything." Paperwork...good word. It's the only thing that separates you from me. A wife is nothing but a mistress with paperwork. At least he loved you. He never even gave a damn about me..." The Mistress is another exciting and incredibly well developed novel by Tiffany Reisz. The fact that it's erotica is just a bonus.

[mlsimmons-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is a very hard review for me write. I literally just finished this book. I've read comments from others who were on one side or the other. They were either calling for blood because they were so upset at this book. There have also been people who have been yelling praises for how great this story was. I finally quit reading them because it was making it difficult to read, even though I never did see a single spoiler (thanks for that people).

There are two things I bothered me about this book. There are too many POVs. I don't think Grace and Laila really needed things told from their POV. I really think that the story would've been better if their story was told from someone else's POV. Second, there are some aspects to the ending, or really one part in particular that I didn't like. Other than those two things, I think it was a fairly good story, but not as good as I would expect after reading the first three books.

Here's the thing that gets me, why did Grace have Soren's baby? Why did Soren give in and have sex with her? She is not the first person who would've "sold their sole" to have one night with him. Did he somehow know that the reason Grace and Zach hadn't had a child yet was more on Zach and Grace and wanted to give them the child they wanted? That would be something I could see Soren doing. I don't see him having sex with anyone besides King or Nora for any other reason.

I will say that I was very happy for Wes, I think Laila is the right/better girl for him. It is also good for Laila, because I do think that Soren was going to prevent her from ever having sex if he could.