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Justice Hustlers #3
The Accidental Mistress
Two gorgeous sisters. One plays by the rules. The other lives her wild-card dreams on blast. But in this sizzling, twist-filled tale, they must help the exploited by putting their troubled relationship--and very different lives--on the line.
Sisters from Trinidad, Violet and Lily have never had much in common. Stunning Lily arrives undocumented in New York and makes her way as a stripper. But Harvard-educated Violet is this close to the perfect assimilated life, thanks to a prestigious job, and her rich bougie fiance. . . . Until she aids a woman in trouble, and is mistaken for a notorious strip-club mogul's mistress. And when she's wrongly accused of helping him embezzle millions of his workers' earnings, Violet loses everything--except the determination to get her life back.
Now Violet's on his track with the help of his vengeful ex-wife and the Lower East Side Women's Health Clinic's resourceful crew--which includes Lily. But a dashing longtime friend hungering for Violet's love, along with the mogul's all-too-real psychotic mistress, put the group's killer schemes at risk. And as Violet and Lily struggle to finally understand each other, they have only one shot to get justice for those who need it most.
Sisters from Trinidad, Violet and Lily have never had much in common. Stunning Lily arrives undocumented in New York and makes her way as a stripper. But Harvard-educated Violet is this close to the perfect assimilated life, thanks to a prestigious job, and her rich bougie fiance. . . . Until she aids a woman in trouble, and is mistaken for a notorious strip-club mogul's mistress. And when she's wrongly accused of helping him embezzle millions of his workers' earnings, Violet loses everything--except the determination to get her life back.
Now Violet's on his track with the help of his vengeful ex-wife and the Lower East Side Women's Health Clinic's resourceful crew--which includes Lily. But a dashing longtime friend hungering for Violet's love, along with the mogul's all-too-real psychotic mistress, put the group's killer schemes at risk. And as Violet and Lily struggle to finally understand each other, they have only one shot to get justice for those who need it most.
304 pages, Paperback
First published May 29, 2018
29 people are currently reading
96 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews
July 12, 2018
Actual Rating: 3.5 stars
This was a pleasant surprise! The Accidental Mistress is kind of an adult romance, but what's interesting is that the romantic relationships are actually tangential to the main relationship of the story- one between two sisters. Violet and Lily are estranged sisters from Trinidad living in New York City. Violet has an Ivy League college degree and a wealthy fiance, while Lily works as a stripper and hops from relationship to relationship, with both men and women. Cue conflict! But when Violet is framed as being the mistress of a criminal strip club owner who has skipped town with investment money, the sisters are thrown together in an effort to track him down.
This is a very quick read, but one that is full of important issues. A lot of scenes deal with race, identity, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiment. It also takes on the issue of prejudice toward strippers and other sex workers in pretty thought-provoking ways. While there are romantic relationships and a handful of explicit sex scenes, this is really a book about family, identity, and acceptance. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to! Oh, and also there are some interesting side characters who I imagine will show up in spin-off novels. There is even one pretty badass transgender woman who ends the book with a burgeoning romance.
This was a pleasant surprise! The Accidental Mistress is kind of an adult romance, but what's interesting is that the romantic relationships are actually tangential to the main relationship of the story- one between two sisters. Violet and Lily are estranged sisters from Trinidad living in New York City. Violet has an Ivy League college degree and a wealthy fiance, while Lily works as a stripper and hops from relationship to relationship, with both men and women. Cue conflict! But when Violet is framed as being the mistress of a criminal strip club owner who has skipped town with investment money, the sisters are thrown together in an effort to track him down.
This is a very quick read, but one that is full of important issues. A lot of scenes deal with race, identity, racism, and anti-immigrant sentiment. It also takes on the issue of prejudice toward strippers and other sex workers in pretty thought-provoking ways. While there are romantic relationships and a handful of explicit sex scenes, this is really a book about family, identity, and acceptance. I enjoyed it a lot more than I thought I was going to! Oh, and also there are some interesting side characters who I imagine will show up in spin-off novels. There is even one pretty badass transgender woman who ends the book with a burgeoning romance.
August 3, 2020
This book was just ok. I definitely preferred the second in the series (The Boss) but I think this was better than the first (Uptown Thief) since the plot was much tighter--the book drew me in a little better and made me eager to finish it, and I really cared about Violet and Lily. I was happy to see Violet taking so much agency and working so hard to get her life back. She's a complicated character, and she has a complicated relationship with her sister (although I did spend a good third of the book annoyed with her for refusing to see that Lily is delightful). Oh, and I could always use some more Tyesha.
*Slight spoiler*
I wished the book's ending had focused more on her career, however. She's a talented artist and I'd have liked for the ending to focus on that. The ending was mostly about her romantic life and I just feel that Violet has worked too hard for her "happy ending" to be reduced to "which guy will she make out with"....
*Major spoiler*
...Especially since both of her options are gigantic dillholes!! Quentin is a cheater and a liar and he clearly doesn't really love her, and Nigel is jealous, possessive, and temperamental. Neither of them even close to deserves Violet. Maybe if Nigel made a sincere effort to reform, maybe went to anger management, and really showed her he had changed, I could buy their "happy ending", but the book does not show any of that work. It just has Lily (completely out of character) basically say "all Jamaican men have bad tempers! It's not like he HIT you." Come on, Aya. If Lily saw a man treating her co-worker that way, she would body slam him out of her champagne room and ban him from the club.
*Slight spoiler*
I wished the book's ending had focused more on her career, however. She's a talented artist and I'd have liked for the ending to focus on that. The ending was mostly about her romantic life and I just feel that Violet has worked too hard for her "happy ending" to be reduced to "which guy will she make out with"....
*Major spoiler*
...Especially since both of her options are gigantic dillholes!! Quentin is a cheater and a liar and he clearly doesn't really love her, and Nigel is jealous, possessive, and temperamental. Neither of them even close to deserves Violet. Maybe if Nigel made a sincere effort to reform, maybe went to anger management, and really showed her he had changed, I could buy their "happy ending", but the book does not show any of that work. It just has Lily (completely out of character) basically say "all Jamaican men have bad tempers! It's not like he HIT you." Come on, Aya. If Lily saw a man treating her co-worker that way, she would body slam him out of her champagne room and ban him from the club.
January 25, 2019
It took me a minute to get into this book. It was a slow read in the beginning. The storyline was good but it didn't heighten until over half of the book. I will probably read another book by this author. Especially if it has an island vibe like this one.
January 14, 2021
Oh boy. This book was a hot mess. I loved the first two books in the series, but this frustrated the hell out of me - yet there was still plenty of endearing bits, because an Aya de Leon book that is an utter hot mess is still an Aya de Leon book.
1. Violet was such a bizarre choice of protagonist for a book in this series, with her whorephobia for most of the book and her class differences from basically every other character in the series. The plot contortions needed for her to meet those other characters and then the further contortions needed to give her anything to do in a heist novel when all the pre-existing and more skilled characters exist made the heist plot a huge mess.
2. Violet's whorephobia means the heist plot winds up being mostly a case of wronged strip club middle management plotting to save the day (with token and kind of out of character cameos from Marisol and Tyesha), and mostly ignoring the existence of the more-wronged strippers' union from the previous book so middle management can have their moment in the sun and save the strippers along the way. This took the series in such a strange direction. The heroes of Uptown Thief were full service sex workers, then they mostly got sidelined for the strippers in The Boss, and then they got mostly sidelined while strip club middle management (and a whorephobe) saved them in this book. It's like the books were going up a sex worker respectability hierarchy in the kind of direction that might next have wound up with a bunch of white burlesque dancers running a "rescue" for sex workers. I feel like de Leon realised this was getting a bit weird, considering that the protagonist of Book 4 is a character from and not seen since Uptown Thief.
3. Serena. de Leon has always seemed like someone who wants to do representation right. Five years ago she wrote a blog post talking up the representation of her then-bit trans character Serena. Serena finally gets a much larger role in this book - and dear god, de Leon stuffs it up like it's 1995. I thought it was weird when her transness seemed to be erased in the first half of the book despite her prominence in the story - and then it was brought up and de Leon rapid-fire cycled through basically every cliche of a trans woman written by a cis person in history. She's deadnamed and we hear all about her completely stereotypical pre-transition story, she's targeted with a really lazy transphobia scene, we still don't hear about the more interesting parts of her story hinted at throughout the series, and then she's forgotten about until a quick and lazy jab at a happy ending. Clearly, no trans woman saw this before it was published, and it kind of made me wonder if de Leon has ever met one. She stuffed up this so badly that it kinda makes me doubt her attempts at representing groups I'm not part of.
And yet, underneath the mess, there was enough that was good that I was always going to finish the book even as it was frustrating me. I felt like if de Leon had tried to write a standalone novel about a Violet character that didn't try to contort the story to fit into this series and didn't attempt to write a trans character, this would've been a book I'd have really quite enjoyed. I'll be picking up Book 4 when I've had an opportunity to get a bit less irritated after this book.
1. Violet was such a bizarre choice of protagonist for a book in this series, with her whorephobia for most of the book and her class differences from basically every other character in the series. The plot contortions needed for her to meet those other characters and then the further contortions needed to give her anything to do in a heist novel when all the pre-existing and more skilled characters exist made the heist plot a huge mess.
2. Violet's whorephobia means the heist plot winds up being mostly a case of wronged strip club middle management plotting to save the day (with token and kind of out of character cameos from Marisol and Tyesha), and mostly ignoring the existence of the more-wronged strippers' union from the previous book so middle management can have their moment in the sun and save the strippers along the way. This took the series in such a strange direction. The heroes of Uptown Thief were full service sex workers, then they mostly got sidelined for the strippers in The Boss, and then they got mostly sidelined while strip club middle management (and a whorephobe) saved them in this book. It's like the books were going up a sex worker respectability hierarchy in the kind of direction that might next have wound up with a bunch of white burlesque dancers running a "rescue" for sex workers. I feel like de Leon realised this was getting a bit weird, considering that the protagonist of Book 4 is a character from and not seen since Uptown Thief.
3. Serena. de Leon has always seemed like someone who wants to do representation right. Five years ago she wrote a blog post talking up the representation of her then-bit trans character Serena. Serena finally gets a much larger role in this book - and dear god, de Leon stuffs it up like it's 1995. I thought it was weird when her transness seemed to be erased in the first half of the book despite her prominence in the story - and then it was brought up and de Leon rapid-fire cycled through basically every cliche of a trans woman written by a cis person in history. She's deadnamed and we hear all about her completely stereotypical pre-transition story, she's targeted with a really lazy transphobia scene, we still don't hear about the more interesting parts of her story hinted at throughout the series, and then she's forgotten about until a quick and lazy jab at a happy ending. Clearly, no trans woman saw this before it was published, and it kind of made me wonder if de Leon has ever met one. She stuffed up this so badly that it kinda makes me doubt her attempts at representing groups I'm not part of.
And yet, underneath the mess, there was enough that was good that I was always going to finish the book even as it was frustrating me. I felt like if de Leon had tried to write a standalone novel about a Violet character that didn't try to contort the story to fit into this series and didn't attempt to write a trans character, this would've been a book I'd have really quite enjoyed. I'll be picking up Book 4 when I've had an opportunity to get a bit less irritated after this book.
July 5, 2018
A very interesting story about the two very different lives of sisters. Violet had the perfect life. She was working in her dream job as a make up artist assistant to very wealthy people, and about to marry her very rich college sweetheart, Quenton. But that all changes when she allows unbeknownst to her, the mistress of Strip club owner Teddy Hughes to use her phone. His wife, Etta, because of mistaken identity, destroys all that Violet holds dear. Not only that, but Violet is the FBI's prime suspect in crimes committed by Teddy. When Etta discovers her mistake, vows to help Violet Clear her name. Lilly, Violet's wayward sister is a stripper at one of Teddy's establishments, but they fear shutdown when Teddy runs off with all the money and records. With the help of their stripper's union, and Etta, they're able to keep working. With a team that includes characters from the previous books in the series, Etta, Violet and Lilly, they all work together to right the wrongs that have taken place.
There were a lot of surprises throughout the story, and I really enjoyed reading the story. I especially enjoyed the flow of the story as well as how the characters worked so well together. Thank you to Net Galley for this exciting and interesting read. I have not read the first two books in the series, but you will only need to read them if you want to know the history of some of the secondary characters in my opinion.
There were a lot of surprises throughout the story, and I really enjoyed reading the story. I especially enjoyed the flow of the story as well as how the characters worked so well together. Thank you to Net Galley for this exciting and interesting read. I have not read the first two books in the series, but you will only need to read them if you want to know the history of some of the secondary characters in my opinion.
November 25, 2022
I think this is going to be my last de Leon book. I had stuck with the series hoping it would pick up and I now think it never will.
My problem with the series is that it doesn't deliver what it promises. The title, Justice Hustlers, tells me there will be hustles involved. But any hustling in the series is mostly secondary to the life stories of the various women protagonists and is a copy of a copy of a copy of something the author seems to have seen on TV or in a movie once. For example in this book the main character learns to crack safes in a matter of days, and not only that the villain uses an old-fashioned tumbler safe which doesn't seem realistic.
To me, hustles involve confidence games, finessing and trickery, but so far we have seen more heists than anything.
Where I think the series is more successful is in the relationships between women, the feeling of schadenfreude when the antagonists receive their comeuppance, and in the vividly imagined backstories of the characters.
The second thing this series promises me is some erotica. Many characters are involved in sex work or are sex work adjacent, but the sex scenes are very dry. The authors favourite verb seems to be thrusting, without much variation.
My problem with the series is that it doesn't deliver what it promises. The title, Justice Hustlers, tells me there will be hustles involved. But any hustling in the series is mostly secondary to the life stories of the various women protagonists and is a copy of a copy of a copy of something the author seems to have seen on TV or in a movie once. For example in this book the main character learns to crack safes in a matter of days, and not only that the villain uses an old-fashioned tumbler safe which doesn't seem realistic.
To me, hustles involve confidence games, finessing and trickery, but so far we have seen more heists than anything.
Where I think the series is more successful is in the relationships between women, the feeling of schadenfreude when the antagonists receive their comeuppance, and in the vividly imagined backstories of the characters.
The second thing this series promises me is some erotica. Many characters are involved in sex work or are sex work adjacent, but the sex scenes are very dry. The authors favourite verb seems to be thrusting, without much variation.
November 29, 2019
Love the Justice Hustlers series, especially the recall to protagonists from previous books (Marisol and Tyesha!). To me - unfortunately - this has been the weaker entry. I loved that it centers the relationship between Violet (who I find pretty insufferable - at least in her attitudes toward her sister) and Lily (who felt underdeveloped compared to Violet). I guess I found their reconciliation pretty unbelievable, which is a shame since the book sort of hinges on that. All the heist elements are excellent as always, and love that the One Eyed King clubs are now run as worker collectives! Still a sexy, sex positive novel - just wanted a bit more, cuz I know de León can deliver!
September 2, 2024
I love the worldbuilding, positive view on sex work and sex workers, and the cultural details.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 11, 2018
2 very different sisters leading very different lives. this has it all, murder, mistaken identity, drama, etc. Story flows seamlessly and keeps you turning the page. This is a book in a series, but can be read as a standalone in my opinion. Thanks to NetGalley, the author and the publisher for the ARC of this book. Although I received the book in this manner, it did not affect my opinion of this book nor my review.
May 12, 2019
Not as riveting as the first two (perhaps because the main character was annoying and un-likeable). But I did enjoy it.
September 21, 2019
This needs to be a movie
October 25, 2023
My first Aya book and I really enjoyed it.
September 1, 2024
It was a slow start. The author almost seems yo be trying TOOOO hard to remind everyone that the characters are Caribbean.
December 30, 2025
It was okay. 2 sister from Trinidad one was a sex worker and one mistaken as a mistress with a crazy woman trying to kill her.
January 4, 2021
Loved this Lit Hub essay and loved reading this book; it had been a long time since I’ve dipped into this genre.
July 5, 2018
A very interesting story about the two very different lives of sisters. Violet had the perfect life. She was working in her dream job as a make up artist assistant to very wealthy people, and about to marry her very rich college sweetheart, Quenton. But that all changes when she allows unbeknownst to her, the mistress of Strip club owner Teddy Hughes to use her phone. His wife, Etta, because of mistaken identity, destroys all that Violet holds dear. Not only that, but Violet is the FBI's prime suspect in crimes committed by Teddy. When Etta discovers her mistake, vows to help Violet Clear her name. Lilly, Violet's wayward sister is a stripper at one of Teddy's establishments, but they fear shutdown when Teddy runs off with all the money and records. With the help of their stripper's union, and Etta, they're able to keep working. With a team that includes characters from the previous books in the series, Etta, Violet and Lilly, they all work together to right the wrongs that have taken place.
There were a lot of surprises throughout the story, and I really enjoyed reading the story. I especially enjoyed the flow of the story as well as how the characters worked so well together. Thank you to Net Galley for this exciting and interesting read. I have not read the first two books in the series, but you will only need to read them if you want to know the history of some of the secondary characters in my opinion.
There were a lot of surprises throughout the story, and I really enjoyed reading the story. I especially enjoyed the flow of the story as well as how the characters worked so well together. Thank you to Net Galley for this exciting and interesting read. I have not read the first two books in the series, but you will only need to read them if you want to know the history of some of the secondary characters in my opinion.
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews