Lord Stanton's Last Mistress

Lord Stanton's Last Mistress by author Lara Temple is 3rd and last in her Wild Lords and Innocent Ladies Series and I must say I'm truly sad to see this series end! I absolutely loved each and every book but this one truly grabbed my attention and didn't let go! I caught myself picking up my Kindle throughout the day to finish another page or two... Alexander and Christina met 6 years earlier on the island of Illiakos when Christina helped Alex recover after he was severely wounded. Christina wore a veil at the king's request so Alex never actually saw her. Six years later our hero & heroine meet again... As I've said in all of Lara's stories, her characters are so much more than you first assume & I absolutely adored Alex and Christina. Such wonderful characters along with well written secondary characters made for an absolutely perfect story! I must say Lara did not disappoint in giving us a wonderful conclusion to this series! I highly recommend this book and the entire series!

Alexander, Lord Stanton, had been wounded near the Mediterranean island of Illiakos, where he was tended to by a mysterious veiled woman. He didn’t know her name, he hadn’t seen her face, yet years later he still remembered her with fondness. Christina James had been taken in by King Darius of Illiakos, and eventually Christina became governess and companion to his daughter Princess Ariadne. Christina, like every woman on the island, had been charmed by Lord Stanton’s good looks, and nearly accepted his rash offer, but Christina couldn’t abandon those she saw as her family and her duty. Alexander is a diplomat, and securing Illiakos is crucial for Britain, and King Darius is off to England with Ariadne and Christina. And the man Christina never dared hope she would see again is standing right before her. This is one of those stories that grabs you and doesn’t let go until the very last word: I read it in one sitting because it would have been impossible to stop, so lost was I in the absolute splendour that is LORD STANTON’S LAST MISTRESS. Lara Temple’s grasp of the Regency era is such that I felt transported in time; her glorious, eloquent prose conveys every detail in shimmering colour, every emotion is evoked with such clarity that I think I experienced every little moment. Never have I read such mesmerising descriptions of tears, the meanings behind some woodcarvings, the lushness of the greenery, the depth of grand passion and inescapable love, the apprehension of the unknown, the scars of the past. The dialogues are just as enthralling: the remarkably complex characters are endlessly fascinating and utterly alive, and their backstories are simply enthralling. There is little physical action per se in LORD STANTON’S LAST MISTRESS, and it is never static because the tempest takes place within Alex and Christina, and this is as intricate a story as you will ever find, as is the passion and attraction to each other that is as inevitable as that little tremor that provokes an avalanche, as the electricity in the air before a storm. Colours feature prominently in the narrative and the dialogues, and that thrilled me no end because, like Christina, colours also define how I perceive the world, and this was simply marvellous. LORD STANTON’S LAST MISTRESS is a dazzling and riveting character study, the brilliant anatomy of a love story, a tale of letting go of the past and embracing the present and the future and a delight for all the senses. Be still my heart, what a marvellous story!