Chosen Mistress

*2025 Grand Prize Winner of the Chanticleer International Book Awards—CIBA, for Romantic Fiction.

They were cousins by blood. Sisters by heart. And now … sharing a husband.

Charlotte Ashford would do anything for her cousin Lydia. Practically sisters, they grew up side by side in the heart of Victorian England, dreaming of a shared life and making girlish promises to always be there for one another. But when Charlotte’s path veers to America and Lydia marries the enchanting Nathanial Hammond, that dream fractures.

Years later, Charlotte is unexpectedly left penniless and alone. Learning of her cousin’s fate, Lydia doesn’t hesitate to invite Charlotte to return to England and live with her. But when Charlotte arrives, she discovers that not all is as idyllic as it seems for her cousin.

Bound by the promises of their past, Lydia asks Charlotte to embrace a role she never imagined—becoming her husband’s mistress.

As secrets surface and truths unravel, Charlotte is drawn into a web of duty and deception. Amid the fragile dance of desire and loyalty, the picturesque life Charlotte and Lydia once envisioned together now reveals a far more complicated plot—one that beckons them to defy convention, test the boundaries of love, and navigate the perilous territory of a shared life with one man.

A complex tale of two women, in early Victorian society exposing the underside of love, sex, and relationships.

For readers of Lady Chatterley’s Lover, The Piano, or The French Lieutenant’s Woman—a sweeping, romantic tale of loyalty, longing, and one impossible arrangement.

Elizabeth Conte is a novelist and a sketcher of poetry, "Creating Beauty for the mind." A native to California, she enjoys the year-round gardening weather growing roses, photographing flowers, walking her dog, Winston, or mixing up a cocktail. She prefers whiskey! Find out more at ElizabethConte.com.