An Innocent Mistress (Four Brides for Four Brothers) [Mass Market Paperback]

Sophia and Jarrod are wonderful characters. They have chemistry from the get go, even though Sophia doesn't understand her reaction to him at first. She is too busy trying to keep her "mask" in place.

Jarrod first meets Sophia 20 years before when he is 15 years old. Jarrod is hungry and needs food. Sophia being around 8 years old, gives him fruit. Jarrod comes to her gate for the following 3 weeks. Each time he gets a sack of food from Sophia. Not once did either utter a word to one another.

Jarrod being the oldest of four brothers set out to find the secret service agent that has sent his youngest brother to prison for a minor crime the younger brother committed when he was only 10 years old.

Sophia is the secret service agent. She refuses all offers to help Jarrod find the agent. She can not expose herself. Jarrod resorts to kidnapping to get her cooperation. After all, Jarrod believes Sophia is the mistress of the agent.

Sophia learns a few hard lessions in the book. She learns first hand what years of hate and vengence can do to someone. Her conscience takes a beating for the things she has done to hurt people based on her need to hate. When she humbley apologized for the hurt. I felt her remorse and sorrow. She was not afraid to admit that she was wrong.

Both characters did some growing up. I was cheering on both characters from the beginning. They are very likeable characters. I can't wait to read about the other three brothers in the next books in this Four Brides For Four Brothers Series.

Sophia LaRue is cunning and bold enough to repeatedly try to thwart him, but she too discovers that she's based much of her life on false assumptions. Their relationship is full of strong emotion and intense longing. Very, very satisfying.

The discovery of the truth about their pasts is extremely well done. Wade does what few other authors do--she actually allows one of the important secondary characters to continue to suffer. That, supposedly, will be dealt with in another book. Unfortunately, it doesn't happen.

The most troublesome aspect of this otherwise engaging book is that Wade seems to have stopped writing. "An Innocent Mistress" was to have been the first in a series of 4 books. In this one, the reader gets to know and like all four brothers, but no other books of any kind have been published from Wade since this one. I found that most disheartening, as I was really looking forward to the rest of the series. That's the main reason for the 4 stars.