Reviews

The Mistress Experience by Scarlett Peckham

nicolemoon's review

medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

becfund's review against another edition

5.0

This book was everything I want in a historical romance! It’s my first by this author and I will now be reading everything else they’ve ever written. I really really loved this one.

I loved the characters and their back and forth, I felt like they were both making each other braver as time went on. Very much an opposites attract match but I thought they were so sweet. I also loved the underlying plot of Thaïs and her friends building their home for educating and helping women. Thankfully, I didn’t feel I was missing much by not having read the previous two books in the series, everything was explained enough. (Though I will be reading them asap bc I loved the bits of the other couples we saw in this one!) This premise was so fun to me and not something I’ve read before, it also lead really well to the ultimate conflict between them without feeling super cheesy. 

I really enjoyed this and look forward to reading a lot more from this author! Also, this series has stunning covers I can’t wait to have on my shelves.

Received as an ARC via NetGalley

fringebookreviews's review

4.5

✨The Buttoned-Up to Completely Undone Earl Experience✨

Well this is by far my favorite book in the series!! It was really everything the summary stated it would be: A buttoned-up earl getting sex lessons from a notorious courtesan. He was so bumbling and earnest with his sexy spectacles and cooking abilities!! And she was a city girl trapped in the countryside trying to loosen him up. 

I do love an alpha hero, but Alistair has got to be my favorite hero type. I had so much fun seeing his embarrassment slowly turn to confidence. Thaïs had a heart of gold and I loved her so much. She was so bright and fun. I think it could’ve been a bit steamier—hello, Chekov’s sex toys!!—but it was definitely a hot read. Sex lessons will ALWAYS hit different. 

I will say, I do think Peckham phoned it in with the epilogue. It was more so an epilogue for the series as a whole rather than for the couple. Like it gave me a bit, but I wanted to see them at least a year out!!! It was practically expected from what we learned throughout the books and their wants for the future!!!

The third act hurt, but in a good way. I do think we needed like one more chapter??? Just to ease the heartache a bit and see them happy with nothing having over their heads. Also how did the scandal go??? This clearly seemed like the final book in the series, but hopefully Peckham will continue to write stories for some of the side characters. 

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️.5/5 🌶️🌶️.75/5


P.S. She better have gotten a kitten!!!! These are the things I need to know!!! Chekov’s kitten!!


I received an eARC from the publisher via NetGalley. All opinions are honest and my own.

jennanaps's review against another edition

emotional funny hopeful inspiring lighthearted relaxing medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

triviareads's review

4.5

This is a gorgeous, sex-positive, feminist romance that answers the perennial historical romance reader question: "how do all these heroes come by their sexual prowess?" The answer here is sex lessons. 

Thaïs is loud, proud, and unabashed about being a sex worker, and her bawdy sense of humor kept me laughing throughout the book, and kept our hero perpetually blushing. Alistair is starchy, charmingly sweet hero— a cinnamon roll, if you will. Where he deviates from most HR heroes is that he has performance anxiety, a bit of a hair-trigger dick, and he's been celibate for a long time. Enter Thaïs, who agrees to teach him by way of sex lessons. I'm a huge fan of this trope, and the fact that it's a sexually-experienced woman teaching a less-experienced man is something I really enjoyed reading. 

One of my pet romance theories is that when you have a main character who has much-higher-than-average sexual experience, the novelty for them tends to be the emotional rather than physical connection with their love interest, so the author needs to build on that convincingly while not sacrificing the heat (because love can absolutely impact sexual chemistry). And I thought Scarlett Peckham did an amazing job of this; I adored all these lovely moments of growing intimacy between them— Alistair cooks for Thaïs and helps her with her correspondence because she can't read or write very well, and there's so much laughter and tenderness and teasing just because of how different they are. And then there's the hugs; listen, if you'd told me hugs can be written erotically a few months ago, I'd never have believer you, but now I'm a believer. 

And as this intimacy builds, they both unwittingly start to torture one another with reminders of exactly what will happen once their month together ends: Thaïs insists on judging every one of the dossiers compiled on Alistair's potential brides even as she becomes increasingly hurt over them, and in a particularly heartbreaking scene, they roleplay his future wedding night, which NEVER ends well because feelings are always caught, AND YET. Alistair is hellbent upon doing the Right and Proper thing, namely marrying an upper-class virgin, and Thaïs doesn't figure into his future plans. I thought the class difference conflict, and the portrayal of stigma against sex workers, were both handled well. 

Also, can we talk about this cover?? it's so lush and beautiful and harkens back to old romance clinch covers in the best way. 

The sex:

This book felt honest about a lot of aspects of sex in a way not many romance novels are. Alistair's performance anxiety is real and the book doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to portraying it, but I want to clarify, Scarlett Peckham managed to make even this hot. There's a particularly steamy moment where Alistair is washing the mud out of Thaïs's hair and like, giving her a head massage. All it takes is her returning the massage favor (which... was honestly so romantic??) and a kiss, and the man is cumming in his breeches. 

I also thought it was kind of great that he built up his *sexual stamina* by masturbating a multiple times a day— you don't get a lot of male masturbation scenes in HR, so I do appreciate this. And once it clicks for Alistair, there is no stopping this man. Near the end of their lessons, they're going at it 4 times a day, on the desk, on the floor, on the dining table, in the rain, etc. etc. He's insatiable. 

Thaïs is an experienced courtesan and tends to disassociate during sex, and she feels like this is even more critical as her feelings start to grow for Alistair. Because of this, she also doesn't necessarily orgasm every time earlier in their sexual relationship. But once again, once Alistair is able to figure his stuff out (and by figuring out, I mean eating her out), and Thaïs lets go, there's no going back. 

Overall:

I can't tell you how much I appreciate Scarlett Peckham for writing a historical romance that falls outside the norm in so many ways, and yet feels true to the subgenre in the way it merges certain realities with the romance of it all. I had so much fun reading The Mistress Experience, and I'd absolutely recommend it to any HR reader. 

Thank you to Avon Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

Heat Level: 3.75/5
Publication Date: June 25th

jessicabeel's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

blushinbluestocking's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

difficultwomanreads's review

emotional funny medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

vibes: courtesan-ing, sexually inexperienced hero, TRUE opposites attract, people with secret hearts that they don’t want to unveil but oh no now they’re in love

Heat Index: 7.5/10.

Thais Magdalene is a famous, coveted courtesan, known for spending no more than one night with each client. She enjoys her job, and she’s great at it, yet she holds a secret desire to settle down with a man who loves her and have a family. To support a charity for women’s rights, she auctions off 30 days in her bed. Shockingly, the buyer is Alistair Eden, a polite lord known for following all the rules. But Alistair has a secret: he’s inexperienced in bed, and doesn’t know how to please a woman–an issue he wants to correct before he marries to have an heir. As Thais and Alistair spend their month together, they both know it’s meant to end forever as soon as time is up. Yet in one another, they find their true selves…

uGH I LOVED THIS. It’s so good. So emotional, so funny, so hot, so different from your average historical romance. One thing I love about Scarlett Peckham is that she clearly loves and fully embraces historicals and their tropes, while also seeking to explore them in fun, original ways.

Here, she hits on several things you don’t often see in the genre: a sex worker who really isn’t traumatized by her profession; a hero who isn’t a virgin but also really… doesn’t know what to do in bed; and feminism that feels quite honest, and doesn’t preclude the heroine longing for a somewhat traditional family life. There’s a lot of hugging in this one, and I felt hugged by the book.

Also like. Hot.

Quick Takes:

–I knew I’d love Thais–I so enjoy a bawdy, sex-positive heroine who’s secretly hiding a wounded heart–but Alistair was more of a question mark for me. I think I very much expected a Soft Boi uwu type hero, and while those can be done well… They often aren’t.

To me, Scarlett did a great job of making Alistair vulnerable, caring, and sweet… while keeping his backbone and his flaws. Alistair is stuffy! He is a snob! He needs to get that stick out of his ass! And yes, he does make a grovel-worthy misstep at one point (and I did love the outcome).

The story would’ve been a lot less interesting if Scarlett had used “sexually inexperienced and genteel” to equal “has no flaws and is a little baby man”. Because also? Alistair is pushing forty. This is a grown man, and I appreciated that the story treated him like a grown (hot) man.

–Another thing I appreciated was how the book handled sex positivity. It’s extremely sex positive. However, there is never a sense that Alistair should fuck more people to make up for lost time (he’s not a virgin, but he hasn’t slept with many people and it’s been a long time for him). As clear as it is that there’s nothing wrong with Thais having a high body count, there’s also nothing wrong with Alistair being the type of guy for whom intimacy is important during sex, and who really doesn’t need to have sex with a lot of people, so much as he needs to have sex with the right person.

Going back to his age, I also liked the sense that it’s like… never too late to learn how to be good in bed. And he does have to learn. But more on that later.

–I’ve found that a lot of feminist historical romances really focus on like… the heroine wanting “more” than a family. And I get that. There’s a lot of books that have a more traditional route, you need to buck the system, you have to follow your heroine’s path. I’m childfree. I don’t think it’s necessary for heroines to want a more conventional life. In both of the other books in this series, the heroines didn’t really settle down into conventional family lives, and I enjoyed them.

However, I so liked that for Thais, both things could be true. She could have a life as a sex worker that, while certainly not without its bad points, wasn’t really like… her primary issue, exactly? Like, it was and it wasn’t, but you don’t see these grand depictions of violence and trauma I think you often see in historicals centering sex worker heroines. Anyway, she does ENJOY her job.

At the same time, she could want to marry and have three or four kids. She’s allowed to love babies and want, most of all, to be loved by her husband and raise her children. She can be a feminist and want those things. It made her feminism much more real to me, to be honest. Thais never felt like a heroine who was written to be Strong for the sake of being Strong. Her warm, gooey center is very clear to the reader from the front, and when Alistair begins to see through her front and recognize the real her… OH DUDE. READER. I COULD NOT.

–Because the book does have a lot of those moments, right? Moments where Alistair is falling in love with this woman, so hard, and sees what she’s really scared of. Moments too, when Thais sees into Alistair’s true vulnerabilities, his need to be perfect at all things holding him back from happiness (which… oof, real).

I’m not always down for super cuddly books, but these two are literally so cuddly. A through-line is them just like. Luxuriating in hugging one another. It’s so lovely and intimate without sex.

That said, there is a lot of sex, and dude. It is GOOD.

The Sex:

So, the thing with Alistair is a thing I hardly ever see in romances AS AN EXPLICITLY CALLED OUT CONTINUOUS ISSUE. However, it’s a thing that absolutely works for me as a reader. He just gets too excited, guys! And then went it Happens too soon, he’s so bummed and angry with himself! It’s a vicious cycle!

I actually really loved how this book dealt with the pressure some men (in fact, some of the legitimately decent men who care about their partners’ pleasure, too) feel to be these amazing lovers. Especially in a romance hero, who is inherently supposed to be this amazing lover. Like, Alistair just wants to impress people and be good at everything, and he is naturally good at everything except for this one thing.

However, being kinda shitty in bed doesn’t mean you have to STAY that way, and yay for a novel that shows that sex is something you learn! Listen, I’m down for the well-done virgin hero books wherein the guy is immediately amazing at it. Some of my favorite books feature that. But this is a refreshing change of pace.

The novel also gets into like… How sex is sometimes enjoyable without an orgasm, and how much orgasms can be connected to your mental presence? There’s just some really interesting stuff done here regarding how Thais in particular experiences pleasure, and the difference between a Thais that lets go and a Thais that doesn’t.

Getting into the brass tax: you get a good amount of p in v, handies, oral on both sides, different positions, the works. I kinda wish there had been some butt stuff, as I feel Alistair could’ve used a bit of that…. but Scarlett makes up for that by including One Thing You Don’t Usually See in Romance. I think I’ve read one other book that DEFINITELY featured it, and it was a dark romance.

Anyway, I really loved this book and totally recommend it. A very sweet, very sexy, very romantic story about lovers coming to truly know each other, with a great “BABY I MISS YOU” moment on top of it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avon for providing me with a copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

mandyandlo's review against another edition

4.0

I enjoyed this book! I thought it was quick read! I liked the reserve teach me troupe! 

Thank you for arc!

booksandteatime's review against another edition

emotional funny lighthearted medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

The Mistress Experience is such a funny and sweet romance story! I have read all three books in Scarlett Peckham's The Secrets of Charlotte Street series and I loved them all. While I definitely plan to read the first two in the Secrets of Sirens series, I could not resist jumping to this one first when I received the arc. 

Thais is such a vibrant and lovable main character and I think starting with her story endeared me to the friend group in such a special way as I was able to view everyone through her perspective. She is so fiery and passionate and I love her zest for life. 

Alastair is so gentle and compelling. I enjoyed reading his perspective and watching him work through his anxieties and childhood traumas that have impacted his adult life. 

Their romance is adorable and of course very spicy! Definitely a 4/5 on the spice scale. 

I highly recommend this for historical and contemporary romance readers alike. If you like to laugh and swoon, this is the author for you! 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Murder, Sexual content, Domestic abuse, Adult/minor relationship, Death of parent, and Medical content