A Proper Mistress (The "Proper" Series) [Kindle Edition]

Shannon Donnelly (Author)

Book Description

Romantic Times Top Pick - 4½ Stars
Bookseller's Best Award Finalist
Golden Quill Finalist
Orange Rose Finalist

"With its excellent characterization, polished prose, and humor, Donnelly's latest Regency is a supremely satisfying, deftly plotted delight." – Booklist, American Library Association, John Charles

"...delightfully offbeat romp with an engaging set of young lovers...highly enjoyable" – Romantic Times Top Pick - 4½ Stars - Teresa Roebuck

"I highly recommend A PROPER MISTRESS...." — Five Roses - Escape to Romance, Marlene Breakfield

He needs to buy a woman...

Just for a few days, and only to get his brother back in their father's grace by getting himself into an even worse scrape. A low-born strumpet for a bride, seems the perfect plan, until his father refuses to act as he should. Theo soon finds he wants more than he paid for, and his sweet Molly Sweet is far more than he ever bargained for. His proper mistress is anything but...

She wants to be her own woman...

A cook in a bawdy house, and an orphan with a zest for live, Molly Sweet dreams of one day owning her own inn. She'll do almost anything to achieve that, including acting like a woman for sale. But it proves more difficult than expected when the lines between pretending love and the reality blur.

She can't bring herself to sell her body, but she cannot avoid giving away her heart. The only question now is will it land in accepting hands?

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

To convince his father to disinherit him and reinstate his older brother, Terrance, Theodore "Theo" Winslow decides to come home with a totally unsuitable bride. When hiring an actress to play the role of his grasping, vulgar new fiancee proves too expensive, Theo turns to Sallie Ellis' brothel to see if she can spare one of her "girls" for a few days. Without telling Theo, Sallie convinces her cook, innocent, cheerful Molly Sweet, to take the job, because all Molly will have to do is pretend to like Theo in public. At first both Theo and Molly agree that their relationship is nothing more than a business arrangement, but as Theo gets to know Molly better, he finds he now hungers for something a bit more personal with his sweet Molly. With its excellent characterization, polished prose, and humor, Donnelly's latest Regency is a supremely satisfying, deftly plotted delight. John Charles
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

"...a delightful, sometimes heartrending tale...a terrific tale of love and discovery." -- Jani Brooks - Romance Reviews Today

"...delightfully offbeat romp with an engaging set of young lovers and a good cast of supporting players...highly enjoyable" -- Romantic Times Top Pick - 4½ Stars - Teresa Roebuck

"I highly recommend A PROPER MISTRESS, and can't wait for Ms. Donnelly's next book...." -- Five Roses - Marlene Breakfield, Escape To Romance

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• File Size: 680 KB
• Print Length: 221 pages
• Page Numbers Source ISBN: 0821774107
• Simultaneous Device Usage: Unlimited
• Publisher: Cielito Lindo Press; 2 edition (December 18, 2010)
• Language: English
• ASIN: B004GNFXU4
• Text-to-Speech: Enabled
• X-Ray: Enabled
• Lending: Not Enabled
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #111,566 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

34 of 37 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Pure Regency Delight March 30, 2004

By M. Rondeau VINE™ VOICE

Format:Mass Market Paperback

Theodore "Theo" Winslow is a second son. A young man who hero worships and does his best to emulate his elder wastrel of a brother. Their father uses threats and intimidations to keep them in line by disinheriting and then re-inheriting the elder as a means of control. Theo, thinking to put an end to their father's controlling tactics sets out to have himself disowned in order to have his elder brother reinstated. His plan is to bring home a thoroughly crass and totally unsuitable `bride' and so goes to Sallie Ellis' brothel where he negotiates for one of her `working girls' to pose as his intended. Sallie, not having any `working girls' to spare, coerces her cook, the very young and beautiful virgin - Molly Sweet to take on the position. Molly, born a lady but through a twist of fate, found herself employed in the brothel as a cook had a dream of one day buying and cooking in her own inn. Sallie knew this and used that knowledge as a bargaining chip. So with the tempting offer of fifty pounds for a few days work - Sallie convinced Molly to think of the next few days as a holiday `posing and dressing' as a doxy without having to do any of the physical requirements.

Initially, both Theo and Molly agree to this as nothing more than a business arrangement, but as Molly began slipping in and out of a doxy -like character, Theo finds he is beginning to want a few more liberties. His sweet Miss Sweet is beginning to worm her way into his devil-may-care heart and he finds he just may want to get a little more personal. And, after a few of Theo's kisses, Molly who'd never been kissed before, wouldn't have minded a few more of those kisses herself!

This Regency novel by Shannon Donnelly's is a wonderfully satisfying, deftly plotted delight. The excellent characterizations of the lead protagonists are handled in a way that will endear the sweet "Miss Sweet' into the readers heart. The humor of the double entendres that Theo whips past Molly is really cute and superbly handled by this author. Molly is a sweetheart and under her tutelage Theo finally grew up! If I have any complaint at all, it is that it ended too soon as it was such a warm and fuzzy read one just wanted it to last forever. --- Marilyn, Official Reviewer for www.historicalromancewriters.com ----

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars What Happened to Editing? September 12, 2011

By Epitomes And Roses

Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase

I hate to give this such a low grade, because the plot was not bad and I liked the characters.

But there were two things that really really bothered me about this book. The first was the absolute lack of editing. I found both spelling and grammatical errors everywhere. And I promise, I was not trying to pick apart the book. But some of them were blatant, such as missing essential words due to typos, sentences that had disastrous subject verb agreement, and several fragments that weren't deliberate for tone. If this was self published then the author should hire a writer or go back over her work with a fine tooth comb. If it was published by a publisher then the editor should be in serious trouble.

My second problem was the accents. Putting the word "ducks" at the end of every sentence does not a Cockney accent make. And it came off as way more distracting than if she hadn't put in accent device at all. I like accents in novels, even when words are mispelled to accommodate them because it helps me "hear" it better while reading. But that did not read like any other Cockney accent I've ever read or heard in real life.

It is a shame when a good plot is murdered by details like this.

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A not so improper suggestion -- May 4, 2003

By kellytwo

Format:Mass Market Paperback

If you like reading a 'get 'em together and keep 'em together' type romp, this delightful example is sure to please any fan of the Regency romance genre, brimming as it does with smiles and laughter.

In a switch from the usual plot, desperate Theo Winslow hatches a plan to get himself disinherited by his curmudgeonly father. All he needs is a wife. An unsuitable wife, of course, one who is totally unsuitable for that position. Except that he really does not want to get married. So where will he find this a wife who isn't a wife? In addition to being somewhat unreliable, (actresses are prone to bow out at the last moment when a real acting job appears!) they're also too expensive. But then re realizes he knows the owner of a bawdy house, and so he appeals to Sallie Ellis for help.

By chance, considering his partiality for red hair, Sallie realizes she has the perfect nominee right in her kitchen! Although a working woman, to be sure, Molly Sweet is the cook for Sallie's employees while yet not being one of them. Molly's dream is to someday own an inn, and threfore is working to save up enough money to be able to purchase one. Molly is an orphan, knowing little of her antecedents or current family, although she's definitely not a girl of the streets. She knows that her father was with the Army in India, and after both her parents succumbed to cholera, an uncle took her in.

Unfortunately, he soon became ill himself, and one of his last acts was to ship Molly home to England and her family. These plans went awry, however, and Molly found herself alone on the docks. A bright girl, she set about finding work, which is how she ended up, some years later, in Sallie's kitchen.

After having driven away his older son by his roughshod tactics, Theo's father, who is a bully, threatens to do the same to Theo. The young man decides to precipitate such action by engaging Molly to be his pretend sweetheart, prompting his real disinheritance, thus leaving him free to live his own life.

As Molly and Theo discover more and more about each other, and the various incidents that have made them as they are, they find more in common than otherwise, to their mutual surprise. When Terrence (the previously disinherited older brother) comes home to see Theo's strumpet for himself, he unwittingly prompts Molly into giving the three Winslow men a good piece of her mind. She then leaves for London, and the familiar and warm kitchen at Sallie's house.

A Proper Mistress is a pleasant change of pace, about a young woman who has no idea of how to be a proper mistress, and a young man who decides that, after all is said and done, he doesn't want one, anyway. What he really wants is�a wife! Theo and Molly are engaging, well-drawn characters who'll tug at your heart as they fumble their way through the obstacles strewn along the path to true love. Their story is told with a gentle sense of humor by the author, who is also very capable of more serious books. Most enjoyable.

More About the Author

Shannon Donnelly's writing has won numerous awards, including a RITA nomination for Best Regency, the Grand Prize in the "Minute Maid Sensational Romance Writer" contest, judged by Nora Roberts, RWA's Golden Heart, and others. Her writing has repeatedly earned 4½ Star Top Pick reviews from Romantic Times magazine, as well as praise from Booklist and other reviewers, who note: "simply superb"..."wonderfully uplifting"....and "beautifully written."

Her books include the Demon & Warders Urban Fantasy series, Burn Baby Burn and Riding in on a Burning Tire, and the Urban Fantasy, Edge Walkers. She also recently brought out four Regency Noveallas, which are now available as ebooks. Her work has been on the top seller list of Amazon.com, and include Paths of Desire, a Historical Regency romance. Her other Regency romances can be found as ebooks with on all formats, and with Cool Gus Publishing.

She has also published young adult horror stories and is the author of several computer games. She lives in New Mexico with two horses, two donkeys, two dogs, and only one love of her life. Shannon can be found online at sd-writer.com, facebook.com/sdwriter, and twitter/sdwriter.