My new best friend, by way of Rosario...

Today I discovered a new author. Well, she not new, she's been around a while, but I've never read anything by her. Terri Brisbin.

This morning I read Rosario's review of The King's Mistress. Anyone who knows me knows I'm a huge medieval fan, add to that an unusual story line, an atypical heroine and an interesting hero and I'm going to search for the book ASAP. And then I reached the end of the review to find this...

I'll definitely be reading more by this author. Any recs? My interest was caught by The Duchess' Next Husband, but then I saw that the hero keeps a mistress while he's already married to the heroine, and that's a bit of a deal-breaker for me, so maybe I should start with something else. Suggestions are very welcome!

Then I read Ms. Brisban's comment...

About THE DUCHESS'S NEXT HUSBAND -- I would suggest (trying not to spoil it for you) that you could safely read it even with your concern about a mistress while married. It's loosely based on the old Rock Hudson-Doris Day movie -- Send Me No Flowers -- and you know Doris would never stand for a mistress!

OMG, I love that movie. I knew I'd be hitting the UBS to search out this one in particular. I have a confession of sorts to make. While other's find cheating husbands a deal breaker, I'm absolutely fascinated by historicals featuring couples that are married but not in love.

So instead of spending the afternoon nagging the school's office staff into helping me pick out graphics for the new website, I went to the UBS. Found several of Terri Brisban's backlist including The King's Mistress and The Duchess's Next Husband. And couldn't wait to get home and start reading. And I would have been reading promptly at 3:15 if I hadn't promised to spend the afternoon coloring eggs with 2 five year olds. The kids had a great time, we had pizza for dinner, got home around 6:30, put the child to bed by 7:30 and I started reading by 8:00, by 10:30 I was done (thank God the hubby tapped LOST) and I'm here to tell you....
I LOVED IT

The Duke of Windmere receives word that he’s going to die, and tries to get his affairs in order—which includes finding his wife a new husband!

But as the duke's efforts go awry and he starts to fall in love with the duchess again, dare he hope they will find true happiness together -- before it's too late?

Adrian is the current Duke of Windmere, but when he and Miranda married he was actually the "spare" and she wasn't quite good enough for the then Duke (Adrian's brother), but her dowry certainly made her good enough for the back-up. The unexpected death of his brother turns their lives upside down, a contented marriage turns into a society one and 5 years later, they're basically living separate lives. Add to this Adrian has chronic asthma and it's getting worse. After meeting with his doctor's and eavesdropping on a conversation he's left believing he'll be dead before the year is out. He needs to get all his ducks in a row, and that's what drives the story.

Miranda is an interesting character, after 5 years of being under the Dowager's thumb she's more than ready to ditch the old lady and try to make something of her marriage. She's dumbfounded by Adrian's behavior changes, but wants a happy marriage and a loving husband. Adrian is somehow endearing with how he wants to make sure Miranda will find some sort of happiness without him. First he feels the desperate need for an heir, when he realizes that may not happen, he needs to set her up financially, without an heir she may be left penniless and when he realizes he's in love with her he doesn't want her to be alone and starts introducing her to potential husbands. Doing all of this without ever telling her he's "dieing".

At times humorous, at times sad, even knowing he wasn't "dieing" I still cried when he finally tells her.

My only complaint, the "big misunderstanding" near the end, caused by his evil mother, the conclusion of which is very reminiscent of the one in Judith McNaught's Whitney, My Love.

Character driven, with well developed characters and a nice writing style and voice. I can't wait to read the rest of her backlist.

*edited* to correct "dying" to "dieing", the poor man thought he was near death not changing colors--LOL