Absolutely wonderful book that deserves a higher average rating. I’ve read it four or five times now and can never put it down and always find myself weeping.

We have a heroine, Verity, who is given pretty much the most miserable background ever. Despite this and her young years she is spirited and brave and capable of immense love and generosity.

Then we have the most glorious, heroic, dark and brooding hero, Max. He’s very much in the vein of Darcy in many ways, certainly setting a standard for the perfect, if troubled (until the heroine’s love saves him) rugged alpha Regency male.

Now some people dislike endless misunderstandings but for me it created endless, wonderful tension as these two suffer and suffer still not realising that they’re both desperately in love with one another. So what if they’re idiots when it comes to love, it makes for a wonderfully melodramatic plot. So of course when they do realise it (hardly a spoiler – this is a Romance after all!) it’s all the sweeter.

Many other reviewers have complained about it being a cliché and following a formula. But that’s true of most romances ever written pretty much. The difference with His Lady Mistress is how beautifully it’s done, how likeable the characters are, how desperate you get as the reader for them to finally “find” one another.

I’ve read most of Elizabeth Rolls’ works and found them all highly enjoyable, but His Lady Mistress stands out to me as the perfect Regency Romance.