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.

Rating: 4.5/5
Heat Level: 3.75/5
Publication Date: June 25th

ARC REVIEW (thanks NETGALLEY!)

Sex lessons?! Sex lessons the man needs?! Hell yes! I was A little skeptical reading since I havent Read the rest of the series but this can easily be read as a standalone. Thaïs is a whore (don’t worry it doesn’t hurt her feelings calling her that) and Alistair buys her in an auction for a month to get better at sex so he can find a wife. Alistair is a shy cinnamon roll 2 pump chump. Thaïs is kind of over being a hooker and would love nothing more than a husband and babies. I loved The banter between the 2 and how crass Thaïs was, everything she said made Alistair blush and it was hilarious. I really Wish there was more of an epilogue (I’m not sure if this was the end of the series) I just Wanted to see where they ended up living since their whole time in the country they lied and said they were brother and sister

this. book. is. incredible.

holy slowburn spicy batman. i couldnt get enough of this book. i was absolutely enthralled with this story. how did scarlett write a cooking scene that had me blushing? seemingly innocuous situations became full of heat and i couldnt have loved this book more. like im literally still chasing this high 3 days later....

This is the most emotional and sweet of the series, and is a big hit for fans of historical romance! The main characters are both written well and complexly, with the isolated setting and circumstances acting only to intensify the emotions and the conflict. Overall a wonderful wrap up of a series that played so well with conventions of romance!

Part of a series, The Mistress Experience closes out Scarlett Peckham's series of scandalous ladies, and for me the third times the charm. I actually loathed the first book, The Rackess, because the heroine wasn't even close to a Rackess, but a Fake (and very annoying) Rakess. The second book was not remotely my cup of tea. While I had to suspend more than the usual disbelief to accept a very sex-forward courtesan as the heroine (always thinking of the odds of some STDs and the occasional pregnancy! Plus the fact that she somehow manages to only sell a relatively few days a year of her favors), I thoroughly enjoyed the very cinnamon-y roll hero. Lord Alasdair Eden was one of the more original romance novel heroes I've ever read, and this is a compliment. He is a stand-up character: progressive, kind, a little stern, and completely, utterly awkward in bed. So awkward that he's basically abstinent to spare women his poor performance. But he wants to get married, and he needs to get over this. The solution: He hires Magdalene by proxy. From there, the story goes on, as these two opposites get to know each other and the two characters slowly unfurl their real selves to each other.

95% of the romance novels I read are almost instantly forgettable, the plot points plunking there way to the required happy ending, the characters little more than stereotypes. This was in the other 5%, and I'm happy to recommend it.

Five star.

An ARC was provided by NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions are my own.

Hot, hot hot. Such a well written book in typical Peckham style.

Thais is a sought out courtesan who is put into trade at a very young age, but has made her way and set her own rules. Her time is auctioned for one month to raise money for a women's school.

The winner is Alastair Eden, a upright, shy politician with very little sexual experience. Thais is to teach him how to please his potential wife.

Over the month the relationship between. Thais and Eden develops beyond the physical. Thais teaches Eden to appreciate his body and hers and how to connect with his partner. Eden breaks down Thaiss walls and she starts to fall for him. She wants a home, family and children. He is too uptight and upright to offer her that despite being in love with her. Eden makes mistakes, but he definitely grovels to get back into her heart and take the final step to marry Thais.

Ok so I wasn't fond of the last book in this series and honestly didn't know this one was actually part of that series before I started reading it. However I did like this one better than the last one. It was maybe a little "tamer" than the last and I loved who the main characters took the time to fall in loved before they jumped into bed (much to our heroine's dismay). It was a sweet story and while it did the typical "3/4 split" troupe it was still fun.

This hit the spot. Eden was such a delight! I found myself putting my hand to my chest and sighing reading his POV at times. I liked Thais as well but admittedly I liked Eden’s POV more. I loved how their relationship progressed and how they both grew over that month. This was the first Scarlett Peckham book I’ve read and I didn’t feel like I was missing anything having not read the others in the series. Can’t wait to dig into the rest!

I adored this book! All the moreso because the author's previous one, which had been one of my most anticipated reads after the incredible first entry in the series, surprisingly ended up being a DNF for me. I know she's probably done with historical romance now after getting a half a million dollar advance for her next book--a contemporary romcom under a different name in the vein of Emily Henry, naturally--but I'm so glad she finished out this contract, because at least I'll always have this and THE RAKESS (and her previous self-published historicals). Also the cover is a banger and I would have been so mad if they'd gone with anything other than the same traditional bodice-ripper look for this third book in the trilogy, so thank you to the Avon cover design team for staying true to the imprint's roots and the earlier packaging.

The cover reminded me of the paperback covers I’d see on drugstore paperbacks from my 80’s and 90’s youth, and the synopsis really appealed… I wasn’t disappointed.

I appreciated Thais as a character - her kindness and caring, and that she was a sex worker, with an affirmative attitude toward sex was fantastic.

Alistair was sweet, was quick to blush, and endearing. He cooked, taught Thais how to bake, and cared for her so sweetly while she was sick.

I enjoyed this one a lot - as the two fell in love, the development of both characters, and the underlying messages here.

The “lessons” here are so positive and fun to read.

This was my first book by the author - it definitely won’t be my last. I can’t wait to read more, and plan on reading the earlier titles of this series very soon 🙂



Thank you to Avon and NetGalley for the DRC

this book was PHENOMENAL. i just finished and i am still reeling over how absolutely perfect it was. i wasnt sure how i felt about the crass humor at first but came to love it in the end. i think i fell in love eden and thais as they fell in love with each other. i LITERALLY HAD HEART FLUTTERS. so perfect!!!

I can’t speak highly enough about this book. I loved Thais and how she was the dominant personality in the story. Often in historical romances the male takes the lead but this book challenged those stereotypical norms and the heroine was the confidant and knowledgable partner. Honestly, I wish there were more Thais’ in romance novels today across the board. Very wonderful book. I hadn’t read the previous books with the stories of the other characters but now I want to. I will be putting this on our most recommended list.

This book is radical, risky, and lands every punch it throws. I was enthralled from page one and loved every page after that.

Luscious, tender, and sexy. A shamelessly sex-positive historical romance that gives a sex worker the humanity and happy ever after she deserves.

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.

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

Thank you for arc!

This book was exactly what I have been looking for! I wanted an engaging story of a true nice guy who is inexperienced. Alastair, the Earl of Eden fit the bill perfectly. He buys a month with the most notorious Courtesan in England, Thais, so he could learn to be a good husband in the physical realm. Thais finds her job harder than expected as she tries to get Alastair to come out of his shy shell. He has no problem being around Thais in general, but he finds it hard to be intimate since his over excitement leads to issues. Since they don’t spend their first bit together in intimate ways, they are forced to get to know one another. They banter and grow a sweet friendship that leads to bigger questions for them down the road.
Thais and Alastair were both fun characters. Thais was a bawdy-mouthed, no-nonsense woman. She was a great actress and had no qualms with what she was. She was also complex in that she also desired to have a family of her own, but knew it would be hard due to her lifestyle.
Alastair was such a sweet man. Even though he was an Earl, he was kind, considerate, and quite domestic. He was just genuine and gentle, but not boring. He was so well written. Despite his gentleness, he was no less passionate. It was delightful. In a world of so many alpha heroes, (and I enjoy a good alpha) I am glad to see a worthy beta hero.
My only complaint is that the story ended a bit abruptly. There was so much time spent in the middle of the story that it almost felt like a let down to see things finish in a heartbeat. Nevertheless, I still highly recommend the book.

The cover is gorgeous. I loved that the hero was the one with less experience in the bedroom. It was a refreshing change in historical romances. I do wish he stopped his search for a bride earlier in the story though.

The Mistress Experience was a refreshing delight to read! An uptight starchy Earl rents an Airbnb in the Cotswolds and hires a bawdy talking harlot with a love for baby animals to teach him how to be a sex god. They catch feelings and society be damned they find a way to a HEA. It’s fantastic. I couldn’t put it down. 100% recommend! Best in this series in my opinion.

I am a sucker for sex lessons as a trope in general. Historical, contemporary, give me all of them please! What I fancied about this book was the role reversal and that the man was the one getting the lessons…bonus points for him being a buttoned up perfectionist of an Earl. Obsessed with those. Usually this trope is paired with a rake/wallflower, which don’t get me wrong, I love those like crazy but it’s always fun to read a different version of a classic. The class difference in this story made for an interesting conflict as well. There was an interesting role reversal here too, he cooks for her, dotes on her and treats her not only as an equal but often views her as superior to him even though he is an Earl and she is a courtesan. Their class difference isn’t an issue when they’re holed away in the countryside bubble together because they’re just two people who have insecurities and shortcomings and love each others company. Ultimately their class difference ends up being the primary obstacle preventing their happy ending until they realize society can go to hell.

Both characters are well developed with complex layers that as a reader keep me invested in their love story and I thoroughly enjoyed how her dirty jokes and his dry wit melded together and created hilarious yet heartwarming dialogue. They were a perfect complement to each other and reading their love story felt like a hug.

Wonderful book! Five stars!

Something about the writing just does not flow well. It feels very stiff. The dialogue is heavy and stilted. I kept struggling to try to understand what Thais is trying to say and I don't normally have that issue with historical romance. I think it had the potential to be a good story, but the writing needs some adjustments. Or maybe this author is just not my style, I'm not sure. Either way, it was not for me.