The Maid's Lover

by Amanda McCabe

Anne Percy lived for her secret trysts with Robert, Viscount Langley, heir to a wealthy earldom and star of Queen Elizabeth's court. Only then could she forget her life as a poor orphan at the mercy of her noble relatives and lose herself in the delights of his body. Every time they came together, it was just as passionate and wonderful as their first encounter. But even though Robert seemed to want her as much as she craved him, marriage appeared to be one thing they couldn't share.Now the lovers are reunited at the Queen's Christmas feast--where Robert vows to show Anne they should never be apart...and to give her a very sensual Christmas Eve surprise.

Genres: Historical Romance, Medieval, Romance

53 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

aka Laurel McKee (Amanda Carmack)

Amanda wrote her first romance at the age of sixteen--a vast historical epic starring all her friends as the characters, written secretly during algebra class (and her parents wondered why math was not her strongest subject...)

She's never since used algebra, but her books have been nominated for many awards, including the RITA Award, the Romantic Times BOOKReviews Reviewers' Choice Award, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers Choice Award, and the Holt Medallion. She lives in Oklahoma with a menagerie of two cats, a Pug, and a very bossy miniature Poodle, along with far too many books.

When not writing or reading, she loves taking dance classes, collecting cheesy travel souvenirs, and watching the Food Network--even though she doesn't cook.

Reviews

[Gwen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fun category- one star deducted for the surprise mdom

Edit after reading the Winter Queen- wait the timeline of this doesn't make any sense, it's out of order with the book. The skating scene happens after the duel in the WQ, which was published first, but in this, they go skating, then duel???

You know what though, I had more fun reading this than WQ so on vibes alone it can stay at 2.5

[Maura · Rating 3 out of 5]

The title is somewhat misleading...one is led to think the heroine must be a maid, cleaning houses. Nope. She's a Maid of Honor, one of the Queen's ladies in waiting. So the two are at equal class levels and I think it takes a way from what could have been a very interesting premise. Instead, we have Anne, an impoverished and orphaned lady living with her uncle. She's been secretly trysting with her love Robert. But because he's an earl and she has no dowry, she knows he won't marry her. He claims that he will, but that she needs to be patient. She isn't, so she breaks up with him. She goes to court to find herself a new man. Several months later, he shows up and tempts her all over again.

This is a short story, even for a novella, so naturally the character's aren't terribly well fleshed out and the plot is very simple. But, it felt like a complete story and nothing felt like it was missing. Anne, the heroine, was very childish - it never really said how old she was, but she acted like a teenager. Especially after their little tryst in the woods and the hero explained that he wanted to marry her but that she needed to be patient. Then she basically broke up with him right then and there and stomped off. Not a mature move. Robert was pretty immature himself, flirting with women at court to make Anne jealous and baiting her to make her angry. I wasn't a fan of the characters so much. Their story was pretty average, I didn't love it, but I didn't dislike it either.

[Harlequin Historical]

linked to The Winter Queen

[Mnms · Rating 4 out of 5]

A passion-riddled short story. I was surprised by how engaged I became by the characters and their story considering how brief the acquaintance was.