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Make no mistake — it’s a debut giveaway!
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It’s another banner day in Romancelandia! Another dear friend is celebrating her print debut. Today’s toast is for Maggie Robinson. I met Maggie online over three years ago now, and I’ve been a fan of her writing from day one. She’s since signed contracts with two different publishers, and the world’s going to be treated with several of her smart, sexy stories over the next few years.
I’m so excited to spread the word of her first novel to release, Mistress by Mistake, which is in stories today. In the words of Anna Campbell, it is “a marvelously sexy romp!”
Here’s the blurb:
Charlotte Fallon let her guarded virtue fall once—and she’s paid dearly for it ever since. She swore she’d never succumb to men’s desires again. But even a village spinster’s life miles from temptation can’t save her from a sister with no shame whatsoever. Or a heart that longs for more, whatever the cost…
Sir Michael Bayard found more than he expected in his bed when he finally joined his new mistress. He’d fantasized about her dewy skin and luscious curves, assured her understanding that what passed between them was mere dalliance. But he didn’t expect the innocence and heat of her response in his arms. Nor her surprisingly sharp tongue once she was out of them…
A few days of abandon cannot undo the hard-learned lessons of a lifetime. Nor can an honest passion burn away the restraints of society’s judgments. Unless, of course, one believes in nonsense like true love…
I was lucky enough to read an advance copy of this book, and this is part of the babbling, gushing fan letter I sent Maggie when I was through:
Maggie, it’s wonderful. I loved Bay and Charlie so much. They felt so real to me, and their physical and intellectual chemistry was just palpable on every page… Your prose is just so stunning. All those beautiful details of setting and the senses, and the dialogue is just sparkling… I could feel you having fun writing it, and I had so much fun reading it.
Don’t you want to have fun reading it, too? Of course you do!
So, it’s a contest! Comment to enter; two lucky people will win copies of Mistress by Mistake. Entries are open until midnight EST, Thursday.
Since Mistress by Mistake begins with the hero, Bay, mistaking the heroine, Charlotte, for his newly acquired mistress–the topic is mistaken identity. Name a favorite book or movie that deals with mistaken identity (mine’s While You Were Sleeping!), or if you have one, tell a real-life story of mistaken identity.
Here’s mine. Once, many years ago, I was out at a crowded club with my then-boyfriend. He’d been standing just behind me, and slightly to the side. I took a step back and laid my head on his shoulder…only to hear some strange voice say, “Uh, you got the wrong guy.” Yes, my then-boyfriend had moved away to look at something else, and I’d unwittingly cozied up to a complete stranger. If the embarrassment wasn’t bad enough, this guy had the nerve to act offended about it. “Dude,” I wanted to say,”come on. You could do worse.” 😀
Let the mistakes begin!
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I guess the best ‘mistaken identity’ I can think of is Holly Black’s Tithe when the heroine herself doesn’t realise she’s a changeling- a fae masquerading as a human; how can you top that? lol She didn’t even know WHO or WHAT she was. Fantastic plot and very well written too.
I was thinking, is is mistaken identity if the hero planned for everyone to think of him as someone else? like his brother? Bonnie Vanak’s The Lady and The Libertine is great.
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Yay to Maggie!!! I loved this book, too. I’m so excited that it’s here and everyone else can see how lovely Maggie’s writing is, too.
My favorite mistaken identity—although in thiscase it’s mistaken gender—is Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. I really think that may be my favorite Shakespeare play.
Obviously don’t enter me in the contest. 😉
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Can’t wait to read Maggie’s book; everyone’s waxing lyrical about it!
I think my favourite movie dealing with mistaken identity has to be Disney’s Mulan (maybe there’s something else that tops it but I can’t recall right now). How she could have pulled off that façade for that long is mind-boggling (though when that literally happened ironically she got found out after getting injured in battle), but vastly entertaining. At least this mistaken identity led to an entire nation being saved. Now how often does that happen! There’s a “mistake” to be damn proud of.
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Hmm this is a tough one. For some reason I’m thinking of The Crying Game. Why is that? Wild.
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The book sounds wonderful.
Big fan of The Return of Martin Guerre, the French film with Gerard Depardieu.
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Elyssa, I love Twelfth Night! I wrote my very first college essay on Viola.
For me, the mistaken identity thing has happened a lot. I have “familiar face syndrome” — no matter what I look like, I look like someone else, ha. So throughout my life people have told me how much I remind them of someone they know, but I’ve also had people actually mistake me for someone else. When a stranger waves to me in a restaurant, at least I know why. 🙂
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And silly me, I forgot to talk about MbM! I’ve heard so much about it that I’m really excited to read it, so fingers crossed!
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Mistaken identity stories—I don’t know if it counts, but I like almost any version of the Cinderella story. Sleeping Beauty (at least the Disneyfied version) also has a mistaken identity theme.
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So, my husband knew a guy at his job who was coming to work in the mail room at my job. He told me this, but we did not know when exactly. While he was working with my husband, we loaned him a book. I am in the hall at work, and notice a new mail room guy. I think, oh that must be my husbands friend. I walk up to him, never having met him, and demand he return my book. The poor guy looks at me like I am crazy. I laugh and explain my husband worked with him at his previous job. Now he really thinks I’m cracked. Uh, no. Finally I figure out this is the wrong guy. My husbands friend didn’t start for a few more weeks. ROFL! That poor kid avoided me there after. 😳
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Looks interesting. Love to read more.
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In Kathleen E. Woodiwiss’s Ashes in the Wind, the heroine is mistaken for a boy, which leads to all kind of fun antics. One of my favorite historicals!
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I’m fascinated by how many of these identity comments have to do with gender, particularly women disguised as or mistaken for men. That’s my specialty as a scholar, and I love it as a device in romance when done well.
My favorite literary example is She Stoops to Conquer, an 18th century comedy by Oliver Goldsmith. In the main love plot, the hero is very unsure of himself when dealing with women of his own class/station, but he’s very much at ease with women of lower class. He mistakes the daughter of the house where he’s staying for a servant and has wonderful flirting scenes with her, but when he is introduced to her as herself, he stammers and can’t even look her in the eye (and so fails to recognize her). So she continues to pretend to be the maid in order to get to know him, before revealing her identity so that they can be married. The contrasting scenes between the two of them are delightful.
I’m not sure I’ve ever been mistaken for anyone else, but I have had my national identity mistaken. I’m an accent sponge, due to years of dialect training for the stage, and when I was an exchange student in England in college, I very quickly lost my American accent. I actually had trouble convincing people that I was an American — they were convinced I was AT LEAST Canadian.
Maggie’s book sounds wonderful, and I can’t wait to read it. I love how all of you support and promote each other’s work!
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Just finished reading Karen Robards book Irrestibile, that was a wonderful story of mistaken identity.
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Tessa, thanks so much for doing this! I am bronzing your squee letter. 🙂
Speaking of Viola, I watched Shakespeare in Love the other day, and love GP’s deception—altho that mustache didn’t fool me.
When my girls lived at home, I’d answer the phone. Apparently their friends thought we sounded alike, because I heard way too many things I shouldn’t have in the first few seconds of conversation. 😉
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I have heard such great things about Maggie Robinson debut! I can’t wait to read it!
One of my favorite mistaken identity is Lisa Kleypas’ Someone to Watch Over Me
As for my own mistaken identity…I was shopping at the mall and of course went crazy and bought a bunch of stuff that was really heavy. My boyfriend was with me and had lagged behind which i didn’t notice since there was another person to my left. I pushed my bag at my BF and told him the least he could do was carry my bags like a gentleman. Well that wasn’t my BF and the poor guy was alittle scared of me and he did apoligize for not offering to help. My BF just laughed.
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Ditto to While you were Sleeping. Double ditto to She Stoops to Conquer! And I have to say, “Mistress by Mistake” is one of the best titles I’ve seen in a long time. Congrats, Maggie/Margaret!
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Sounds like a good plot. Can’t wait to read it.
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My favorite book with mistaken identity has to be Lisa Kleypas’ Suddenly You, I loved it when Amanda thought Jack was the man-whore she hired to take away her virginity on her 30th birthday!!
Thanks for the opportunity to win this book!!
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A funny movie with a case of mistaken identity had to be Baby Boom. Diane Keaton was having a panic attack and thought a doctor was examining her. Instead, he was a veterinarian.
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I am hurriedly packing for my early-morning flight to RT, but wanted to pop in and say thanks for all the great comments!
Kim, I *love* the movie Baby Boom! Haven’t watched it in ages.
Jamie – glad I’m not the only one who has mistaken random men for my S.O. 😳
Also, I must read She Stoops To Conquer.
Maggie, thanks for making time to stop by! Congratulations on the first of what will be many wonderful novels in print! Hurrah!
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Ooh, I’ve hearing all over about this lovely book! My favorite story about mistaken identity is Meg Cabot’s The Boy Next Door (published under Meggin Cabot). Extremely funny and told through emails!
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🙂 I was at the grocery store with my husbands cousin. We are really weird and sing in public and such, we were looking at some stuff and she walked away then came back or so I thought. I started to sing lala lala and got in the womans ear and sang it. LOL I had to apologize and the lady kept looking at me weird. It was really embarassing.
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While You Were Sleeping! One of my favorite movies ever.
In real life, I have a twin sister, so we get mistaken for each other a lot. People who she’s friends with stop me and talk about I-don’t-know-what for I-don’t-know-how-long before they take in my blank look and I say “I’m not her, I’m her sister.”
“Y’all are twins! No!”
Sometimes they think we look identical (which we are), and sometimes they say “I don’t know how I thought you were her”, which I wholly agree with 🙂
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Not exactly mistaken identity here, but I love love love how Alanna in Tamora Pierce’s Song of the Lioness quartet passes herself off as her [male] twin brother so that she can become a knight, since women weren’t allowed to train for that. Alanna is my favourite of Pierce’s heroines, and this act sums up so many parts of her character so perfectly…
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LOL! I have to admit that the mistaken identity theme is a good one–the Stand In, by Kate Clemens is a contemporary where the heroine changes her identity on purpose, leading to some pretty entertaining hi-jinks 🙂 Because the hi-jinks are really part of why being someone else can be so funny… I always wanted a twin to pull some of those off, too, but don’t have one of those!
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Tessa, there are several film/tv versions of She Stoops to Conquer. The only one I’ve seen is the 1971 version with Juliet Mills and Sir Ralph Richardson, but there are more recent ones available. Thinking about it makes me want to watch one….
PS Don’t enter me in the drawing; I already have a copy of Mistress By Mistake on its way!
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As I’ve told my children, my favorite mistaken identity story of all time is Cinderella, fell in love with the prince in Disney’s version as a girl and I still cry today when I watch it. It counts though right? Everyone thought she was someone else and she was someone else for a night, well, until midnight anyway!
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It took me a few minutes but The Naked Duke by Sally MacKenzie has a slightly similar premise wherein the duke finds a girl in his bed and assumes she’s a working-girl, but doesn’t wake her up. So she wakes up the next morning with a naked guy in the same bed with her!
I don’t think I have any mistaken identity stories of my own, though.
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I love While YOU were sleeping.
One of my fav mistaken identities books is Suddenly YOU by Lisa Kleypas, but it’s a role reversal since it is the heroine who mistakes her new editor for the man she hired as a birthday present to herself. It’s an all time fav Kleypas!
I’ve been hearing so many great things about Mistress by Mistake that I can’t wait to read it. I so hope I win!!!
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While You Were Sleeping is one of my favorite movies ever! I own it and still watch it everytime it comes on tv.
My grandmother swears she can never tell my voice from my sister’s on the phone, but I don’t think we sound that much alike.
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I just love Peter Sellers when he played Chance, a simple-minded gardener who is mistaken for a political advisor because of the TV-inspired witticisms he says to clueless aristocrats in the film.
Congrats on your well-deserved win, Tessa!
Congrats again, Maggie!
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Have fun at the convention, Tessa!
My favorite mistaken identity is Irresistible. Hands down, Hugh is an all time hero favorite.