Meet the Mistresses by Midnight

by Anna Campbell

It's my great pleasure to bring back to the lair a writer who really gave the cabana boys a run for their money on her last visit.

Maggie Robinson is the author of the saucy and sexy and super Courtesan Court historical romances for Kensington. The stories are all set in Jane Street where the rich men of London house their mistresses - so you can imagine why I call these stories 'saucy'!

When I read Maggie's debut, MISTRESS BY MISTAKE, I said it "sizzles off the page. A marvelously sexy romp." By the sound of it, MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT is equally crammed with wit, mayhem and high society hijinks!

You can find out more about Maggie and her alter-ego Margaret Rowe on her website: http://www.maggierobinson.net/


So here's Maggie!


Thanks so much to the Banditas (especially Anna)…and the cabana boys…for having me back at the Lair.

I’ve brought two new mistresses with me from my latest Courtesan Court books, Laurette Vincent from this month’s MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT and Prudence Thorne from the novella “Not Quite a Courtesan” in last month’s anthology LORDS OF PASSION to keep the boys busy.

Both ladies—and they are, honest—are temporary residents of Jane Street, my fictional mistress row. Good girls gone bad.

And loving it!


Laurette starts off as a freckle-faced tomboy who has her sights set on the boy next door, who happens to be the Marquess of Conover. But fate intervenes, as they say in Romancelandia. A dozen years after they’re parted, Con’s determined to get her back any way he can. He’s not exactly obsessed—let’s just call him determined and prevaricate. Laurette can’t resist him forever, but she makes a valiant effort. It was such fun to flip back in forth from their teenage angst and lust to their…adult angst and lust.

MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT is a little more serious than the other books in the series, slightly Cathy and Heathcliffish without the cruelty, insanity or so many dead bodies. Have you ever noticed how Emily Bronte kills off everybody? Even poor puppies.

For lighter fare and absolutely no dead dogs, Prudence Thorne delivers in “Not Quite a Courtesan.” She begins her story as a buttoned-up veiled widow and ends it as a belly-button-baring veiled harem girl. Darius Shaw, a dealer in erotic art and antiquities, is the bad influence who makes Pru feel so good.

I’m so lucky to share LORDS OF PASSION with romance legend Virginia Henley and wonderful Kate Pearce. Writing a novella on purpose was a delicious experience. I say this as someone whose first “book” seven years ago turned out to be about 25,000 words and included an amnesiac heroine in a whorehouse. I’m so ashamed.

I revisit Jane Street twice more this year with “To Match a Thief” in August’s IMPROPER GENTLEMEN, and the last official Courtesan Court book, MISTRESS BY MARRIAGE in September. I’ve become so fond of the ladies who live there that I’m pretty sure some will turn up in 2012 one way or another.

To find out more about the books, please visit my website (and check out my naughtier alter ego, Margaret Rowe).

I’m giving away a copy of LORDS OF PASSION and MISTRESS BY MIDNIGHT today to one random commenter who completes this sentence:

A hero should always ___________and never_________.

Those stories sound absolutely delicious, Maggie! Bandita Buddies, get commenting!