Setting: Regency England
Sensuality Rating: 8

Lady Edwina Bollash is a talented linguist, but she may have taken on more than she can handle when she accepts the challenge of transforming handsome commoner Mick Tremore into a gentleman. She only has six weeks to accomplish the daunting task, but Mick proves to be a quick study. Unfortunately for Edwina, Mick is also utterly irresistible. Edwina soon finds herself loving everything about the brash charmer whose approach to life is so less restrictive than her own. But she's a lady and he's a commoner--or is he? And Lady Edwina can't possibly have a future with this handsome, impossible man--or can she?

The classic Pygmalion tale takes on a new twist in Ivory's version with a plot that springs some surprises on the reader. With a villain one loves to hate, a hero and heroine that are so much fun to watch spar and spark, and a cast of secondary characters that add texture, The Proposition is pure delight. Don't miss the fun. --Lois Faye Dyer


From Publishers Weekly
When her father dies, Lady Edwina Bollash is ousted from her ancestral home in Regency London by her greedy cousin, the new Duke of Arles. To support herself, Edwina gives elocution and deportment classes to country folk and foreigners eager to enter polite society. She becomes so successful that twin lords Emile and Jeremy Lamont challenge her to turn Mick Tremore, an ill-mannered, uncouth Cornish rat catcher, into a gentleman and pass him off as a viscount at her cousin's annual society ball. Intrigued by the subject's accent and eager to exact some personal revenge, Edwina agrees to the wager. Little does she know that her life is about to be turned inside out: she discovers that Mick is a virile, handsome, incorrigible man. His wicked propositions boggle her virginal heart but stir her womanly passions. Through skillful writing, Ivory (Beast) captures the subtle sensual pleasures of her colorful characters, creating a sexy varitation on My Fair Lady. (Dec.) Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
In a creative reversal of the traditional Pygmalion plot, Ivory takes aristocratic linguistic tutor Edwina Bollash, pairs her with street-wise rat-catcher Mick Tremore, and gives them a seemingly impossible challengeAto turn the unpolished but oh-so-charming Mick into a gentleman in just six weeks and pass him off as a viscount at an upcoming ball. They succeed beautifullyAbut in the process fall totally, and inappropriately, in love. Well-done protagonists who become more endearing with each chapter; several memorable secondary characters, including a ferret named Freddie; and shimmering sexual tension and page-singeing love scenes recommend this beautifully written romance, which gently but effectively points out some of the inequities women faced during the late Victorian era. Although the social dilemma is too conveniently resolved, this fairy-tale ending does not detract from the book's overall appeal and should not disappoint Ivory's growing list of fans. Ivory's Sleeping Beauty was just named one of the ten favorite romances of the year by a popular vote of the members of the Romance Writers of America; she lives in Miami. Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.


Amanda Quick
"Judith Ivory writes lush, lyrical romance that seethes with passionate intensity."


Minneapolis Star-Tribune
"Ivory's writing is exceptional."



"Judith Ivory writes lush, lyrical promance that seethes with passionate intesity."



"Ivory's writing is exceptional."


Book Description
No man, gentleman or otherwise, has ever looked at Lady Edwina Bollash the way the brash, handsome man standing before her is doing now. Edwina has accepted the challenge to transform incorrigible Mick Tremore into a gentleman in just six weeks. And although the linguist is sure she can rise to the task, she isn't at all certain she won't swoon under his frankly sensuous gaze before her job is done.

Mick has lived outside of London society long enough to know that appearances can be deceiving. Edwina might look all buttoned up-the perfect English lady-but there is unleashed passion existing just below her placid facade (not to mention a great pair of legs!). And as she prepares him to take his place in society, Mick prepares Edwina to take her place in his heart...and in his bed.


About the Author
Judith Ivory's work has won numerous awards, including Romance Writers of America's RITA, Top Ten Books of the Year, and Romantic Times Reviewer's Choice. With two degrees in mathematics, Ms. Ivory never expected to make her living writing novels. "How did this enormous stroke of luck happen? To live off imagination and invention? You'd think something so much fun would be illegal or at least fattening. I can't figure out what went so right."


Excerpted from The Proposition by Judith Ivory. Copyright © 1999. Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved
Chapter OneThe most highborn lady Mick had ever been withthe wife of a sitting member of the House of Lords, as it turned out -- told him that the French had a name for what she felt for him, a name that put words to her wanting his "lionhearted virility" -- he liked the phrase and. remembered. it."'A yearning for the mud,'" she told him. "That's what the French, call it."Mud. He hadn't much liked the comparison. Still, from the moment he heard it, he hadn't doubted the phrase's clear sight or wisdom. Posh ladies who took a fancy to him had to make some sort of excuse to themselves, and this was as good as any. He was a novelty at best. At worst, a bit of mud to play in for ladies whose lives'd been scrubbed clean of good, earthy fun.He lay now on the floor, dirtier than usual, truth be told, his palm and belly flat to the floorboards of a dress shop in Kensington. Three silky ladies stood over him -- they stood very far over him, one on a chair seat, one on a countertop, and one on the last inch or so left of a shelf taken up mostly by bolts of fabric. These three watched him, breathless, while Mick, his ear turned to the floor, listened.He was a big man -- he took up a long length of floor. He had wide shoulders, a hard, muscular chest, long, weighty limbs. Handsomely made, he didn't doubt it. Vigorous. Five minutes ago, he'd been out back, using this, very fact to flirt with the seamstress's assistant. He'd made her laugh, his first triumph, and ,had just stepped a little closer, when the seamstress and her customer inside the shop had begun screaming, "Mouse! Mouse!" The only man nearby. he'd been pressed into service.Now, when scared, mice had a nasty habit. They'd run up anything, including a person's leg. The nightmare for a lady was that a mouse'd scamper into the understructure of her dress -- her petticoats, dressimprovers, and half-hoops -- where it could run, around indefinitely in a maze of horsehair and steel wires.Hoping to avoid a mouse circus inside their dresses, the seamstress, a patron, and now her assistant had climbed as high as they could in the room, pressing their dresses to themselves, frightened out of their wits. Mick could've told them it wouldn't do them no good. Mice could get onto tables and chairs easy. But he didn't mention it. He didn't want to frighten them more.He lay quiet, scanning the floorboards, palms flat, elbows up, toes curled to support some of his weight, ready to spring up if a mouse came into sight. Then he spied it, and it was sort of a letdown. A little thing, it was more scared than the ladies, shaking over in a comer at the base of a sewing machine in the shadow of a press-iron. Barely more than a baby. He could catch it in his hand. There were no others, no noise under the floor, no activity."Is there a nest?" whispered the seamstress, her voice hushed with worry. "Are there more?"Now, right here, Mick should've said no and stood UP. But he didn't. He got distracted.He turned his head, to use the other ear, to listen again and make sure. And there, through a doorway into a back room, under a painted screen, in a mirror he saw a pair of legs, a second customer. There were four women, not three. This one'd been trying on dresses, he guessed, when the commotion broke out. She was trapped in the dressing room.. In the mirror he could see she'd leaped on top of something, maybe a trunk. Anyway, with his position, her having moved up and out of the protection of the screen, and what with the angle of the mirror, he' was looking right at. a pair of devilish long legs. Bloody gorgeous, they were.He lay there, caught in his own admiration. She was on her toes, dancing a little, nervous, the long muscles of her legs flexing beneath pink stockings with a hole at the knee. Long. Hell, long wasn't the word for these legs. They went for yards and yards -- she had to be a tall one, this one. And shapely-her legs were poetry. Balance, muscle, motion. They gave new meaning to fine.Now, normally, Mick was a polite man. He would've protected a woman caught off guard by turning his head. Or at least he thought maybe he would've. But these were the damnedest legs. "Sh-h-h," he said in answerthe ladies above him drew in their breaths, trying to calm themselves, to allow him to hear any skittering or chewing or other nasty mouse sounds. One, of them murmured, "This is so heroic of you, Mr. -- " She was asking for a name."Tremore. Sh-h-h."Oh, yes, heroic. The hero lay on his belly, getting his eyes as low as he could so as to stare- across the floor into a mirror at -the prettiest legs he'd yet seen in thirty years of living. If he'd been standing up, he'd've seen to maybe just above the ankles-the screen in front of her came within a foot of the ground. That alone would've been an eyeful, since her ankles were narrow, her foot pretty with a high arch and instep, the Anklebone showing -against the soft leather of her shoe.But when he got his head just right, he could see in the mirror: from the toes of high-buttoned shoes I up long, neat shins, plenty of curvy calf, past the, knee...

FROM THE PUBLISHER

No man, gentleman or otherwise, has ever looked at Lady Edwina Bollash the way the brash, handsome man standing before her is doing now. Edwina has accepted the challenge to transform incorrigible Mich Tremore into a gentelman in just six weeks. And although the linguist is sure she can rise to the task, she isn't at all certain she won't swoon under his frankly sensuous gaze before her job is done.

Mick has lived outside of London society long enough to know that appearances can be deceiving. Edwina might look all buttoned up—the perfect English lady—but there is unleashed passion existing just below her placid facade (not to mention a great pair of legs!). And as she prepares him to take his place in society, Mick prepares Edwina to take her place in his heart...and in his bed.

SYNOPSIS

"Judith Ivory writes lush, lyrical romance that seethes with passionate intensity." --Amanda Quick

"Ivory's writing is exceptional."--Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Judith Ivory "accidentally" acquired two degrees in mathematics, then sold her first novel in 1987 and closed up the math books for good. She lives in Miami. Florida, with her two children, two cats and a dog.

FROM THE CRITICS

Romantic Times

Judith Ivory's polished writing carries the story along with aplomb and will appeal to those who wish a luch, artistic romance.

Minneapolis Star-Tribune

Ivory's writing is exceptional.

Publishers Weekly

When her father dies, Lady Edwina Bollash is ousted from her ancestral home in Regency London by her greedy cousin, the new Duke of Arles. To support herself, Edwina gives elocution and deportment classes to country folk and foreigners eager to enter polite society. She becomes so successful that twin lords Emile and Jeremy Lamont challenge her to turn Mick Tremore, an ill-mannered, uncouth Cornish rat catcher, into a gentleman and pass him off as a viscount at her cousin's annual society ball. Intrigued by the subject's accent and eager to exact some personal revenge, Edwina agrees to the wager. Little does she know that her life is about to be turned inside out: she discovers that Mick is a virile, handsome, incorrigible man. His wicked propositions boggle her virginal heart but stir her womanly passions. Through skillful writing, Ivory (Beast) captures the subtle sensual pleasures of her colorful characters, creating a sexy varitation on My Fair Lady. (Dec.) Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

Library Journal

In a creative reversal of the traditional Pygmalion plot, Ivory takes aristocratic linguistic tutor Edwina Bollash, pairs her with street-wise rat-catcher Mick Tremore, and gives them a seemingly impossible challenge--to turn the unpolished but oh-so-charming Mick into a gentleman in just six weeks and pass him off as a viscount at an upcoming ball. They succeed beautifully--but in the process fall totally, and inappropriately, in love. Well-done protagonists who become more endearing with each chapter; several memorable secondary characters, including a ferret named Freddie; and shimmering sexual tension and page-singeing love scenes recommend this beautifully written romance, which gently but effectively points out some of the inequities women faced during the late Victorian era. Although the social dilemma is too conveniently resolved, this fairy-tale ending does not detract from the book's overall appeal and should not disappoint Ivory's growing list of fans. Ivory's Sleeping Beauty was just named one of the ten favorite romances of the year by a popular vote of the members of the Romance Writers of America; she lives in Miami. Copyright 1999 Cahners Business Information.

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING

A perfect fairy tale for grown-ups. I loved it! — Susan Elizabeth Phillips