Ariel Atwell: The Mysterious Mr. Heath

 Who is Laurence Heath?
London solicitor Laurence Heath protects the secrets of the realm’s most powerful lords and ladies. But Heath is living a life of dangerous deceit, haunted by lies told more than 40 years ago. And now the mysteries of his past are threatening to destroy the only love he’s ever known…. 

From the author’s pitch to me: “The Mysterious Mr. Heath is a novella featuring minor characters from my first book Seven Days, a very sensuous Regency which was published by Loose-Id in March of this year.  Whereas Seven Days was definitely NC-17, Mr. Heath is more like a PG-13 or R—a bit of mystery and a bit of fun as well.”

So, if this is PG-13 (really, its more R) I can’t imagine what NC-17 in Atwell’s world looks like.  What starts off as an intriguing concept quickly becomes a sex-capade dressed up in Regency clothing.  The intimate scenes are great, exciting…everything they should be.

The characters are interesting…so much that I would have loved a bit longer story.  This was definitely on the short side of novellas.  And so I didn’t connect with the hero.  I liked the heroine, she was a unique older woman with some strong backstory game.  But too, I felt rushed towards her character arc because of the limitations of the word count.

The historical research was a bit lacking and there were are a lot of anachronisms, so don’t expect much of a sense of the Regency.  However, if you have an active fantasy about some serious sexy time in Regency wear, this very well might be the ticket for you.

 3 out of 6 Short and full of hot, spicy action.  Interesting concept.

Content Rating/Heat Index
Mature Content
Adult language and subject matter.
Intimacy
Not the raunchiest I have read, but definitely full of spice, action and body parts.
Violence
Not really.

Overall
Hot and spicy for mature audiences.

* A review copy was provided by the author.  No other compensation was provided.