The French Mistress by Susan Holloway Scott

The French Mistress: A Novel of the Duchess of Portsmouth and King Charles II - Susan Holloway Scott

I still find myself unable to focus on anything overly complex. I'm slowly working my way through The Mirror and the Light but find myself only able to read about ten or so pages at a time. I blame the kids. They're every where. I'm tired of people telling me this is just like summer vacation. It is nothing like summer vacation.

 

Anyway, this book made for a good filler. Honestly, if I had been looking for anything more complex, I probably would have hated this book. Louise was a little stuck up. She cried all the time. Nothing about her personality made her very likable. Of course it is made very clear to the reader early on that we aren't suppose to be interested in her personality. 

 

Louise aside, the pacing of the book was off. The author drags us through three years of "will they, won't they" for nearly 300 pages. Then suddenly it's a "As you know Bob" in the last 100 pages to cover 14 years of the reign of Charles II. 

 

I see the author has two other books covering two of Charles' other mistresses (Barbara Villers and Nell Gwyn. The book about Barbara I'm interested in. The book about Nell Gwyn? Well if she's the same Nell Gwyn we meet in Louise's story, I'm going to pass. 

 

Dates Read 4/20/2020 - 4/23/2020

Book 29/75