What do you think?
Rate this book
A Reluctant Mistress
Natalia's new neighbour was virile, protective, and generous, but nothing would lure Natalia into his bed - until the night Clay arrived to rescue her and keep her safe. Life with Clay would be wonderful, but how long could she remain his mistress when she only wanted to be his wife?
288 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1999
7 people are currently reading
83 people want to read
About the author
Robyn Donald
448 books149 followersRobyn Elaine Donald was born on 14 August 1940 in Northland, New Zealand. She was the oldest child in her family, and as a child, she thrilled her four sisters and one brother with bloodcurdling adventure tales, usually very like the latest book she'd borrowed from the library.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
Robyn owes her writing career to two illnesses. The first was a younger sister's flu. She was living with her husband and Robyn and spent most of that winter acquiring, suffering, and recovering from various infections. One day she croaked that she had read everything on Robyn's bookshelves, so would Robyn please buy her something cheerful and sustaining. Robyn found three paperbacks- one Mills and Boon Modern Romance novel and a couple of other romances. Robyn read them, too, of course, and so enjoyed them she spent the next couple of years hunting down more Mills and Boon books. This was much more difficult then than it is today, so she decided to write her own, and for the following busy 10 years she wrote and hoped that one day she would finish a manuscript good enough that was good enough to send to a publisher.
The second illness was her husband's, and it was bad a heart attack. He was so young it terrified them all. While he was recovering, he suggested that Robyn finish the manuscript she was writing and send it off. It wasn't a perfect manuscript, but the doctor had said to humour her husband, so she finished the manuscript, edited it as best she could, and sent it off. Three months later, she was astounded to read a letter from the editor saying that if She made a few revisions they would buy her novel Bride at Whangatapu.
Published since 1977, Robyn sees her readers as intelligent women who insist on accurate backgrounds, so she spends time researching as well as writing.Robyn Donald sometimes thinks that writing is much like gardening. It's a similar process creating landscapes for the mind and emotions from the seeds of ideas and dreams and images. Both activities can also lead to moments of extreme delight, moments of total despair, and backache.Now Robyn lives in the Bay Islands. She continues writing, and also finds time for a very supportive husband, two adult children and their partners, a granddaughter and her mother, not to mention the member of the family that keeps her fit - a loud, cheerful, and ruthlessly determined "almost" Labradordog.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 9, 2019
Re A Reluctant Mistress - Robyn Donald takes us on a very calm HP outing with this one. The H is a man on a mission to stick it to his evil stepbrother and the h is a non-unicorn grooming pepper farmer trying to payback her dead father's debts.
When the story opens, the H is preparing to buy his adopted mother's old family farm. Tho the H loved his adopted mum very much, he can't help but resent that she left her father's farm to his despised stepbrother - who pretty much made the H's life miserable for the ten years they lived together growing up.
The H's bio mother was an abusive cow as well, so the H doesn't really have a good opinion of ladies for the most part.
He sees the h, who is laughing with his new farm foreman, and he is told that the h is a gold digger who was having an affair with the H's vile married stepbrother, before the stepbrother's wife sued his hiney for divorce.
Since the only reason the stepbrother is selling the land is to raise enough cash to pay for his very expensive divorce, the H doesn't know if he should irked or glad about the h's supposed activities. He does know that he is extremely attracted to the h.
As this is HPlandia and RD HPlandia at that, everybody knows everybody and the H and h soon meet. After a vicious wasp attack and some interesting banter and conversation, the h becomes the H's lover after her expensive greenhouse computer system is stolen and the little pepper plants are all destroyed.
The h is devastated, because while she never wanted to take over her father's greenhouse legacy, her father died leaving a tremendous loan to be repaid to the elderly couple that lent him the money. If the h doesn't find a way to repay it, the benevolent older couple will be left destitute.
The H steps in with an offer to pay off the h's debts and he also asks her to come live with him. After some moral inventorying and the H making it clear that he is not paying the h to play, but helping because he likes her, he is rich and she worked so hard to succeed and then was sabotaged, the h agrees to shack up with the H.
(The H might also have had a smidgen of guilt because his farm manager destroyed the little pepper plants in a jealousy fit that the H won over the h - tho the h never thought of the young man as anything other than a friend and did not take up with the H in a purple passion moment until her plants were destroyed.)
The h and H are living it up and having a lot of boudoir bouncing moments when the evil stepbrother makes his ugly slink up from the depths of the lowest sub sewer system. He and the H get into a confrontation which ends with the H kicking him to the literal curb.
After it, the H does the only tacky thing in the book - he questions the h's word when she claims that she and the stepbrother went out a few times, but were never intimate. The H claims he is suspicious because the h was not a virgin.
The h explains that the stepbrother showed up on what is now the H's land next door to her greenhouse, asked her out a few times and she broke it off when she found out he was married.
She pointedly doesn't ask the H how many trips to the lurvely lady buffet he has had, but she does point out that she had a serious boyfriend at 18 and they were together a few times before her father died and the h had to move to the back country to clean up the mess and her boyfriend couldn't come.
This apparent lack of faith on the H's part, coupled with his seeming indifference to anything but the lurve club events in their relationship, convinces the h that she should dump him and move on to a new life elsewhere - otherwise she really will be a pay to play kinda girl and she thinks better of herself than that.
So the h packs up her stuff, leaves the H a letter and takes herself off on the bus. But as the bus is going along the farmland near Auckland, the h notices that there are a bunch of people trying to sandbag the river to prevent a flood in the current torrential storm that is thundering about.
The h jumps off the bus to help the sandbaggers. She isn't a farmer anymore, but she feels their plight and she is hoping the physical labor will overcome the emotional heartache she is experiencing.
Sadly, the sandbagging doesn't work and everybody's efforts were in vain, but the H does see the h on TV and he comes to drag her back to him. After some initial wariness, the H and h both confess their very deep and true love for each other and we all figure out that the H's adopted mother really did love him.
The H and h reason out that the H's adopted mother knew the family she married into hated the H and would have contested everything they could. Since his mother had money in an untouchable trust, she left the money to him and left the run down, (and badly in need of an infusion of revitalization capital,) land to the evil snot snarfer stepbrother.
The adopted mum wanted the H to be free to follow his own dreams and not be mired in trying to resurrect hers of the derelict family farm, as opposed to what the h's father did to her by forcing her to give up her art studies to take over his greenhouses and recoup his losses.
Now that the H realizes that he does have good luck as well as good taste with the ladies in his life, he proposes to the h and they marry.
We get a cute little epilogue where the H and h are living on the H's adopted mother's family land and the h explains that she wants to start a family as the ultimate expression of her freedom to live her life as she chooses with the H, for a very sweet and very nice RD HPlandia HEA.
This one was very well done, but this H was super duper nice for an RD H. He does have one tacky moment, but as this is an HP outing and unicorn grooming is the still the standard at this point in the HP timeline, RD probably felt an explanation was necessary.
If you like RD's old skool nematode bully H's, this is not the HP voyage for you, but if you would a like a well crafted story and nice little break, you can't go very wrong with this little outing.
When the story opens, the H is preparing to buy his adopted mother's old family farm. Tho the H loved his adopted mum very much, he can't help but resent that she left her father's farm to his despised stepbrother - who pretty much made the H's life miserable for the ten years they lived together growing up.
The H's bio mother was an abusive cow as well, so the H doesn't really have a good opinion of ladies for the most part.
He sees the h, who is laughing with his new farm foreman, and he is told that the h is a gold digger who was having an affair with the H's vile married stepbrother, before the stepbrother's wife sued his hiney for divorce.
Since the only reason the stepbrother is selling the land is to raise enough cash to pay for his very expensive divorce, the H doesn't know if he should irked or glad about the h's supposed activities. He does know that he is extremely attracted to the h.
As this is HPlandia and RD HPlandia at that, everybody knows everybody and the H and h soon meet. After a vicious wasp attack and some interesting banter and conversation, the h becomes the H's lover after her expensive greenhouse computer system is stolen and the little pepper plants are all destroyed.
The h is devastated, because while she never wanted to take over her father's greenhouse legacy, her father died leaving a tremendous loan to be repaid to the elderly couple that lent him the money. If the h doesn't find a way to repay it, the benevolent older couple will be left destitute.
The H steps in with an offer to pay off the h's debts and he also asks her to come live with him. After some moral inventorying and the H making it clear that he is not paying the h to play, but helping because he likes her, he is rich and she worked so hard to succeed and then was sabotaged, the h agrees to shack up with the H.
(The H might also have had a smidgen of guilt because his farm manager destroyed the little pepper plants in a jealousy fit that the H won over the h - tho the h never thought of the young man as anything other than a friend and did not take up with the H in a purple passion moment until her plants were destroyed.)
The h and H are living it up and having a lot of boudoir bouncing moments when the evil stepbrother makes his ugly slink up from the depths of the lowest sub sewer system. He and the H get into a confrontation which ends with the H kicking him to the literal curb.
After it, the H does the only tacky thing in the book - he questions the h's word when she claims that she and the stepbrother went out a few times, but were never intimate. The H claims he is suspicious because the h was not a virgin.
The h explains that the stepbrother showed up on what is now the H's land next door to her greenhouse, asked her out a few times and she broke it off when she found out he was married.
She pointedly doesn't ask the H how many trips to the lurvely lady buffet he has had, but she does point out that she had a serious boyfriend at 18 and they were together a few times before her father died and the h had to move to the back country to clean up the mess and her boyfriend couldn't come.
This apparent lack of faith on the H's part, coupled with his seeming indifference to anything but the lurve club events in their relationship, convinces the h that she should dump him and move on to a new life elsewhere - otherwise she really will be a pay to play kinda girl and she thinks better of herself than that.
So the h packs up her stuff, leaves the H a letter and takes herself off on the bus. But as the bus is going along the farmland near Auckland, the h notices that there are a bunch of people trying to sandbag the river to prevent a flood in the current torrential storm that is thundering about.
The h jumps off the bus to help the sandbaggers. She isn't a farmer anymore, but she feels their plight and she is hoping the physical labor will overcome the emotional heartache she is experiencing.
Sadly, the sandbagging doesn't work and everybody's efforts were in vain, but the H does see the h on TV and he comes to drag her back to him. After some initial wariness, the H and h both confess their very deep and true love for each other and we all figure out that the H's adopted mother really did love him.
The H and h reason out that the H's adopted mother knew the family she married into hated the H and would have contested everything they could. Since his mother had money in an untouchable trust, she left the money to him and left the run down, (and badly in need of an infusion of revitalization capital,) land to the evil snot snarfer stepbrother.
The adopted mum wanted the H to be free to follow his own dreams and not be mired in trying to resurrect hers of the derelict family farm, as opposed to what the h's father did to her by forcing her to give up her art studies to take over his greenhouses and recoup his losses.
Now that the H realizes that he does have good luck as well as good taste with the ladies in his life, he proposes to the h and they marry.
We get a cute little epilogue where the H and h are living on the H's adopted mother's family land and the h explains that she wants to start a family as the ultimate expression of her freedom to live her life as she chooses with the H, for a very sweet and very nice RD HPlandia HEA.
This one was very well done, but this H was super duper nice for an RD H. He does have one tacky moment, but as this is an HP outing and unicorn grooming is the still the standard at this point in the HP timeline, RD probably felt an explanation was necessary.
If you like RD's old skool nematode bully H's, this is not the HP voyage for you, but if you would a like a well crafted story and nice little break, you can't go very wrong with this little outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 21, 2018
So, every time the heroine says ‘mistress’ I thought about Murray in ‘Flight of the Conchords’ saying ‘jesters,’ which sounded like ‘jisters.’
And then I wished I had a NZ accent rather than an Australian one.
‘Reluctant’ is the first RD I’ve encountered with actual hero POV. Clay gets to open the book observing Natalia through a window. He gets hard, and a creepy old guy starts telling him all about his soulmate’s sex life. All things considered he takes it pretty well.
Natalia is the Queen of Capsicums because her father had this dream and sunk a massive amount of money into it and then died, leaving his daughter to pay back his sweet elderly creditors. She’s part Russian so she’s rocking this kind of darkness in her soul drama and when she’s furious she swears in Russian. She’s adorable. At one stage I thought the hero was going to point out that old creditor couple would probably die soon so she should probably take it easy on the stress.
Clay is lovely. I can not believe I’ve hit a run of 3 decent RD heroes! What’s happened? Is he actually god awful like all of them and I’m so desensitised that any man who isn’t calling the heroine a tramp/slut on every second page comes across as the most amazing romance man ever?
Sure he starts out thinking she’s mercenary but quickly works out that she isn’t and even if she was, he doesn’t particularly care because she’s awesome. While that whole mistress thing is Nat being upset about her pride and her freedom, he’s just quietly going about his wooing with thoughtful presents and gestures and they are so lovely together. There are big drama moments but neither character was tiresome about it.
Oh, and Clay also gets to close the book in an epilogue that didn’t suck.
And then I wished I had a NZ accent rather than an Australian one.
‘Reluctant’ is the first RD I’ve encountered with actual hero POV. Clay gets to open the book observing Natalia through a window. He gets hard, and a creepy old guy starts telling him all about his soulmate’s sex life. All things considered he takes it pretty well.
Natalia is the Queen of Capsicums because her father had this dream and sunk a massive amount of money into it and then died, leaving his daughter to pay back his sweet elderly creditors. She’s part Russian so she’s rocking this kind of darkness in her soul drama and when she’s furious she swears in Russian. She’s adorable. At one stage I thought the hero was going to point out that old creditor couple would probably die soon so she should probably take it easy on the stress.
Clay is lovely. I can not believe I’ve hit a run of 3 decent RD heroes! What’s happened? Is he actually god awful like all of them and I’m so desensitised that any man who isn’t calling the heroine a tramp/slut on every second page comes across as the most amazing romance man ever?
Sure he starts out thinking she’s mercenary but quickly works out that she isn’t and even if she was, he doesn’t particularly care because she’s awesome. While that whole mistress thing is Nat being upset about her pride and her freedom, he’s just quietly going about his wooing with thoughtful presents and gestures and they are so lovely together. There are big drama moments but neither character was tiresome about it.
Oh, and Clay also gets to close the book in an epilogue that didn’t suck.
March 23, 2025
"A Reluctant Mistress" is the story of Natalia and Clay.
Meh.
The hero's first introduction to the heroine is when his real estate agent is slut shaming her. From then on, he is entranced. The first half of the book is him coming on heavily and propositioning her at every chance he gets. Ofcourse, because he is hot. the heroine dislikes his audacity BUT feels the passion. There is insane amount of ex drama, seems every male in the book is obsessed with the heroine. Also the MCs are neighbors, but the hero is all for making most decisions for the heroine and giving her money?
I felt the heroine in this book was so desperate for affection, that she accepted every crumb, forgave easily, and was putty in the hero's hands and agreed with all his life changing decisions. OK so you got robbed- but you are happy to sell your land to him, move into a different country to be his mistress, accept his lies and gifts and go back to him??
HAVE SOME SELF RESPECT WOMAN!
Very not nice
Safeish
1.5/5
Meh.
The hero's first introduction to the heroine is when his real estate agent is slut shaming her. From then on, he is entranced. The first half of the book is him coming on heavily and propositioning her at every chance he gets. Ofcourse, because he is hot. the heroine dislikes his audacity BUT feels the passion. There is insane amount of ex drama, seems every male in the book is obsessed with the heroine. Also the MCs are neighbors, but the hero is all for making most decisions for the heroine and giving her money?
I felt the heroine in this book was so desperate for affection, that she accepted every crumb, forgave easily, and was putty in the hero's hands and agreed with all his life changing decisions. OK so you got robbed- but you are happy to sell your land to him, move into a different country to be his mistress, accept his lies and gifts and go back to him??
HAVE SOME SELF RESPECT WOMAN!
Very not nice
Safeish
1.5/5
November 22, 2022
3.5. I was in the mood for a RD reread and was glad to land on this one which I'd remembered from the opening scene where the H, Clay (agri millionaire per RD usual) is in a land agent's when he sees/hears the h, raven-haired Natalia, laughing with another man in the street outside and gets a punch of green-eyed instalust. The pursuit is nice and tingly. The family backstories create some of the obstacles and tension, together with poor Natalia's undeserved fame fatale rep and stalker exes, but it's not as harsh and angsty as RD can be. Overall I enjoyed it, but then I seldom don't like her stuff.
March 8, 2019
3.75 stars
July 26, 2022
Snooze fest. Skip it. So much fake drama tossed in at the end. The characters were find but boring.
December 23, 2022
Me entretuvo bastante
June 4, 2023
Rating it 2 stars because I managed to slog through despite this being excruciating boring.
January 24, 2026
A wonderful story
I loved this story. It had humor and romance.It was wonderfully told. This author is one of my favorites. I have lots of her books.
I loved this story. It had humor and romance.It was wonderfully told. This author is one of my favorites. I have lots of her books.
October 11, 2021
The hero was awesome. I loved him - he was an alpha, but also kind, sensitive and caring. It was the heroine who was tiresome, especially at the beginning. She was so brittle and bitter and full of defensive anger. Every time the hero tried to be kind and generous to her she would throw it back in his face with ugly, aggressive words. She got on my nerves. She was proud and strong but lacking any sweetness or warmth. I really did not get why the hero fell for her.
The story was well told but the beautiful prose that Robyn Donald is capable of was strangely absent.
Nice to see an epilogue in an RD story.
The story was well told but the beautiful prose that Robyn Donald is capable of was strangely absent.
Nice to see an epilogue in an RD story.
August 14, 2020
Natalia's new neighbour was virile, protective, and generous, but nothing would lure Natalia into his bed - until the night Clay arrived to rescue her and keep her safe. Life with Clay would be wonderful, but how long could she remain his mistress when she only wanted to be his wife?
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews