The Ruthless Marriage Proposal

by Miranda Lee

A RUTHLESS BEDDING, A PROMISED WEDDING ...

Australian billionaire Sebastian Armstrong thinks he knows his housekeeper well. Emily's prim, proper and dedicated to her job. Outside she's a plain Jane, but inside she's a passionate woman desperate to break out --- and to forget that she's fallen in love with her handsome boss.

When Emily quits, Sebastian refuses to let her go. Instead he devises a ruthless plan designed to keep Emily by his side, at his bidding and in his bed!

Genres: Romance, Harlequin, Harlequin Presents, Contemporary Romance, Ebooks

179 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Maureen Mary was born on 1945 at Port Macquarie, a popular seaside town on the Mid-North Coast of New South Wales, Australia, and is the youngest of four children. Her sister was the novelist Wendy Brennan (Emma Darcy). Her father was a country school teacher and brilliant sportsman. Her mother was a talented dressmaker. When Miranda was ten, her father was transferred to Gosford, another coastal town in the countryside, much closer to Sydney. After leaving her convent school, she briefly studied the cello before moving to Sydney, where she embraced the emerging world of computers. Her career as a programmer ended after she married, had three daughters and bought a small acreage in a semi-rural community. Following this, she attempted greyhound training, as well as horse and goat breeding, but was left dissatisfied.

Miranda yearned to find a creative career from which she could earn money. When her sister suggested writing romances, it seemed like a good idea. She could do it at home, and it might even be fun! It took a decade of trial and error before her first romance, After the Affair, was accepted and published. At that time, Miranda, her husband Tony, and her three daughters had moved back to the Central Coast, where they could enjoy the sun and the surf lifestyle once again. Not long into her writing career, Miranda committed herself to writing a six-book series entitled, The Hearts of Fire, with a deadline of just nine short months. Bravely, her husband left his executive position to stay home and support Miranda’s writing career. He learned to cook and to clean, two invaluable household skills. Numerous successful stories followed, each embodying Miranda’s trademark style: pacy and sexy rhythms; passionate, real-life characters; and enduring, memorable story lines. She has one credo when writing romances: Don’t bore the reader! Millions of fans world-wide agree she never does.

Miranda was the sister of the late author, Emma Darcy.

Reviews

[Danielle The Book Huntress · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started out to be a pretty decent book, that I thought I'd enjoy. I did enjoy it for the most part. But towards the end, it kind of went downhill.

It's a personal thing. I couldn't get past the fact that Emily's father's blithe explanation for his committing adultery on his dying wife. He claimed he wanted to 'feel alive.' And how Emily accepts that after being estranged from him for almost two years. I don't like how that seemed to make everything okay. How about his wife dying and suffering from cancer? Did she get to feel alive when her husband couldn't even be faithful to her while she was sick? Why didn't focus on taking care of her instead of his own selfish needs? Frankly, I was disgusted by this. I realize that he felt bad about it, later. But, to dismiss what he did this lightly in words negated that he felt guilt about his actions. I mean, who cheats on their dying wife? Really!

Then it was the fact that Emily leaves Sebastian when his ex-girlfriend comes back and brags about him having sex with her on her wedding day. She goes crying back to her father, and he explains that men can be unfaithful because they don't equate sex and love together, and it was just something she had to accept about men. Letting men off the hook for their natures, allowing them not to be faithful and to sleep around, while woman aren't allowed, that is a big pet peeve of mine. I can't imagine a man giving his brokenhearted daughter that advice. To be honest, I can't imagine a daughter being that open with her father about her sex life at all!

Of course, I was pretty sickened by Sebastian having sex with a married woman on her wedding day, even if he only did it for a few seconds. I know he was disgusted, but he should have been disgusted enough not to do it in the first place. He knew he didn't love Lana. His pride was just hurt that she left him. He didn't even like or respect her. He just wanted her. Bleh.

This is why Miranda Lee just doesn't work for me, most of the time. She has to put these objectionable things in her books, that make it hard for me to feel positive towards the characters. Emily having had a full sexual past wasn't even the issue for me. I was okay with that. But the sexually callous attitudes shown by these characters towards the end of this story were a deal-breaker for me. I have a bad taste in my mouth just writing this review. Too bad. It started out a pretty good read. I think this one's going on the trade pile.

[boogenhagen]

ML does a throw back to the 1970's of HPlandia with this one. In it we learn valuable vintage HP lessons like:

Men cheat, but that doesn't mean they don't love their wives.

(We learn this after the h's father cheated on her dying mother for two years and the poor woman was left to suffer not only cancer, but with the knowledge that "til death do us part" means nothing.)

Men always separate sex and love, which means that they can have a purple passion moment with their ex-lover on her wedding day and it only really means that they are really disgusted they got dumped by the aforesaid ex-lover.

(Which we learn when the H's ex-lover shows up to loudly proclaim she had sex with the H 40 minutes before walking down the aisle to marry another man.)

We finally learn that it is perfectly okay to marry a slime slurping, cheating nematode who uses sex as club to beat any woman who displeases him - after all it is just what men do. BUT ONLY if they are really rich and can afford to by a new estate and all new furniture.

(We learn this one after the h's father explains to her the facts of life of marrying a man just like him when the h finds out the H and his ex had lurve club events all over the H's house - including the dining room table the h is expected to host dinner parties at.

The h's skeevy father also indicates that since the h likes having a comfortable life style, she shouldn't mind selling herself to maintain the high finance meal ticket the H offers.

She also gains valuable knowledge to look the other way when the H's attention strays-after all, he is willing to actually buy a whole new house and dinning room table - tho he insists there wasn't really a mojo on moment on the ACTUAL table. )

Now if old skool, stereotypical man motivations vs woman motivations mumbo jumbo is something you might take an historical interest in, you might have found a kinda interesting HP outing.

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

What sets this predictable story of a billionaire marrying his "mousey" housekeeper after his long-term mistress marries another is how tacky it is.

ML is known for her tacky scenes (Brazilian wax in The Billionaire's Bride of Innocence, I'm looking at you). So tackiness is not shocking in one of her books - in fact I enjoyed stumbling on the cringey scenes and dialogue as I soldiered through this story.

I won't bother you with the details of the plot - I'll just describe some of the tacky scenes (since they are the only parts of this I'll actually remember)

Hero stumbles across the heroine skinny dipping in the pool and stares at her breasts. (The idea to marry her is born! True love)

*The heroine requests that she marry him only after a test run in the sheets. Hero - with great sensitivity - suggests they book a hotel room since his room smells like his former mistress.

*After a few weeks of H/h's engagement, former mistress shows up (from Italy!) for a booty call since the rich count she married is gay. Heroine discovers her naked in the hero's bed while hero is out of town. OW tells the h that she and the H had goodbye sex before the ceremony while she was wearing her wedding dress.

Hero returns early from his trip, finds them both in his bedroom, and defends himself by claiming he stopped himself before they went all the way.

Heroine runs to her philandering father who reassures her that sex and love are two separate things for men. He cheated on her mother but always loved her.

Heroine must really want that quarter of a million dollar engagement ring (yes, she asked the price and he told her - tacky) because she goes back to the hero.

And yeah - that's it. A tacky HEA for our H/h.

[Naksed · Rating 1 out of 5]

He ran after his ex-girlfriend (who had dumped him for another man) all the way to another continent. He had sex with her, while she was in her wedding dress, half an hour before her wedding ceremony. When she proceeded with her wedding to the other man, he got drunk, took a flight home, then the next morning, made a sudden marriage proposal to his housekeeper, who he had paid no more attention to than his furniture up until then. Let's not forget the perfume of the ex-girlfriend had seeped in not only to his mattress but his carpet and pretty much every room in his house including the garage LOL. Maaaaaan, these people were more wacked than Joe Pesci in a Martin Scorsese movie!

[Vintage · Rating 1 out of 5]

For whatever reason, I really did not enjoy this book. Odd issues for a H romance: abrasive heroine, cheating groom, no chemistry.

He finds her skinny dipping in his pool and it's actually boring.

[Jena]

Self note
H almost cheats on their wedding day wtf!. He said he stopped himself from going all the way, same difference to me = cheater.

- also mousy plain housekeeper h and rich gorgeous H falling for each other = total fantasy 🙄.

[Kiki · Rating 1 out of 5]

The funniest thing is that the problem isn't with the MCs.
It's with the h's moralless father.
He hasn't only decided to justify his need to cheat throughout his marriage. Claims it's still possible to cheat and still LOVE your wife. Claimed, love and sex is not the same thing for men, and cheating makes them feel alive and is a form of experiment that brings excitement to life. Mind it, it's all for male. So he justified his cheating. He is claiming that he loved his wife all along. Isn't sorry for his behaviour and not only that, he implies that he wouldn't have a problem if his son in law strays a bit and neither should she.
He somehow made his daughter believe that she's a bimbo who'd enjoy the materialistic items Seb can offer so she should overlook the fact he had sex with his ex just a week ago and also shouldn't care that Seb and the ex had sex EVERYWHERE in the house which the ex vulgarly presented to her. Since he's a billionaire, she should be happy about the sexual past because it means experience and she should ignore those vulgar details because it's an expensive house.
The whole thing basically gave me a picture of a pimp!
He basically told her men cheat, men need sex with OW for variety, but they love one woman, that's different from sex, she should overlook it, he's a keeper because he didn't jump the OW in front of her, and he's rich. And because she might be carrying his child.
That was his fatherly pep talk painting a pretty picture of matrimony to his baby girl!

[Melanie♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. This was a 4 star book right up until the end. I felt the strange scene with her father took away from the story.

[Jacqueline J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty decent. I liked the reality of showing his relationship with the ex lover. I liked that she was not only not a virgin but had had several physical relationships before the hero.

Pretty well written and the plot made sense.

[Tmstprc · Rating 2 out of 5]

The death knell of this book is boredom. I think the author tries to include tried and true HP tropes, but fails. The ex-boyfriend’s a louse, the OW is nasty, her dad is a cheater and he had crappy parents. She does a poor job of trying to pull it all together. Points for having a 33 year old, non virgin heroine and a rather nice hero who only slut shames the OW.

Part of my “how bad can it be?”, not really bad, just boring.

[Roub · Rating 4 out of 5]

i adore it ! and the book's description is wrong she's not a plain jane !! she disguised herself like that to get the job as the housekeeper as sebastian did not want an attractive one as housekeeper. she even went as far as dyeing her blond hair mousy brown LOL. and also, what i like about the book emily was not one of those virgins (virgin heroine which is so common in harlequin) nor one who had not had good sex. she had had a normal sex life and she enjoyed sex before sebastian

[Debby · Rating 2 out of 5]

There is nothing ‘ruthless’ about his proposal. He is not an alpha.

This is a modern book with a modern h. She is sexually experienced and she talks about her sex life with her dad. She tells her dad she and the H had sex in the garage without using protection.

The emphasis on the h being blonde or not became annoying. I didn’t like it when the H said the h would look better with blonde hair.

According to Miranda Lee, only a blonde woman can look glamourous and attract men. I guess Miranda Lee is a blonde woman herself. 🙄

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

A new favourite

I fell in love with this book. This story is about two people who fall in love. One doesn't recognize the feeling, the other doesn't think they are worthy.

This is the story of their journey. Quite a steamy read for HQN but it all goes together.

[Joy · Rating 2 out of 5]

A billionaire discovers his housekeeper is hawt (as well as good at keeping a home) and decides to marry her, wooing her with lots of sex and a very expensive ring. Only his jealous ex could throw a wrinkle into this match made in a swimming pool. I decided after reading this that I just really don't like this type of book as much as I had hoped I would, again, no harm to Lee for writing one.

[Christine · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really loved this book. The characters, the plot, the drama and romance and higher steam level than is the norm for a HQN.

[Nightwitch · Rating 1 out of 5]

Every time the hero thinks something complimentary about the heroine, he then favorably compares her to his “whore” of an ex-girlfriend. This doesn’t come across as charming, it comes across as gross. Later we learn that he had sex with said ex-girlfriend a week before he proposed marriage to the heroine. The heroine then goes to her father for advice - her father who traumatized her by cheating on his dying wife, her mother, with a significantly younger woman - who tells her, among other things, that “a man of [the hero’s] age and wealth will have had any number of women. I doubt this Lana [the ex] is the first female he’s had in a garage. Or on a stupid dining table… I know you, Emily. You like successful men. You like it that they know what meal to order and what wine to drink. And how to make love properly. Even when you were a teenager your boyfriends were always several years older than you. They all dressed well and drove flashy cars.” WTF. This is wildly inappropriate paternal commentary. (And it gets creepier: the last lines of the book are “Emily’s father never remarried. He became a close friend of Sebastian’s, a devoted grandfather and an even better doctor.” I… why is the sexual purity of the heroine’s father so important to this book?) Basically, every other woman who shows up in the narrative is a slut or a whore (Emily literally calls the ex “Miss Slut Bag” at one point), and men are controlled by their lusts for said evil women and you really can’t blame them for it and OMG what is this nonsense even. I will also note that we later learn that the hero’s father caused the car accident that killed both parents because “when drug addicts are off the weed, they have an anger management problem.” Direct quote from the hero. I just - what?

It's a shame the sexual politics of this book are so disgusting, because I really liked the premise and the fact that the hero wasn't a complete jackass about what he wanted from the heroine.

[Raffaella · Rating 1 out of 5]

Yuck. Ok the thing was not the worst I’ve read recently but it gave me creepy vibes. There is so much chauvinism in here that it looks like I’ve time traveled in the Victorian age.
The heroine is not a virgin and she has experience even if not very good, so she decided to be hired as a housekeeper to a playboy shallow billionaire, the hero. She has disguised herself willingly because he’s a hot blonde and so she painted her hair black, put on heavy glasses, dresses as her granny and gave false age because she wants to look older and unappealing.
She works for the hero and they become close, even if he has a stable girlfriend, a similarly shallow model who eventually dumps him to marry a gay billionaire. Ouch.
The hero is not hurt,only in his pride, but as soon as he sees the heroine naked in his swimming pool he gets so hard and determined to have her that when she resign he proposes a marriage. Just like that.
I didn’t like it at all.
The heroine gets mad because he almost had sex with his ex while she was getting married to om, and her father explains that boys are boys and they do cheat but they do love their wives. Yeah, and I’m Santa. A lot of trite old bs from an author I wouldn’t suspect being able to spew them. I still remember those wonderful books she wrote where the hero goes through a lot and has to grovel and crawl and he doesn’t know why but he does anyway because he doesn’t want to lose the bitchy heroine.
Where has all this gone? Anyway, I hate when heroine is second choice and the hero ignores her for years screwing around then, when it’s convenient for him he wakes up and proposes.
Now go fugg yourself hero, and no, I didn’t enjoy this book at all.

[MJ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoyed this book for the most part but one conversation at the end ruined it for me. After an argument, Emily leaves Sebastien's house and meets up with her estranged father. They're estranged because he cheated on her mom who was dying of cancer. The whole conversation was weird. She openly spoke about her relationship with Sebastien including their sex life and his ex-gf.

Emily: We had sex in the garage. He had sex with his ex-gf in the garage too!
Emily's Dad: He had sex with her. He made love with you. He's a forty year old man. He has experience. You like experienced men.

Barf. Imaging regaling your father about where and who you have sex with.

Her father also spouts some nonsense explaining why he cheated on her mother. Poor Emily realizes then she shouldn't put men on pedestals. Yes, this is true but one can and should be upset when one parent cheats on another who's dying of cancer. It was an ongoing affair with a younger woman.

The couple get their HEA shortly after this convo but it was just really really weird to me.

[Meghan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I did enjoy reading the Ruthless Marriage Proposal but I have to admit I liked the last few chapters less and felt they weren't as romantic. I liked both characters and found Emily loving Sebastian since she became his housekeeper very sweet. Although it was a bit odd that he didn't seem to take interest in her before she tried to leave. The book offered plenty of romantic and steamy scenes. My dislikes were mainly due to Sebastian sleeping with Lana before her wedding and some of the things Emily's father said although I am glad they were able to patch up their relationship.

[Nikki · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not great. Think if the book was longer it would have been better. The last sentence reads like a tag line at the end of a movie. “Whoops forgot this so here is some extra info.” I’d say skip.

[Marcy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I only read this because I came across it in a free little library. It was ridiculous, and focused on how the heroine looked, and just absurd.

[Martha B. · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh, the heroine downplayed her looks to play a housekeeper because of course she was sexually very attractive. Where did I read that?

[Remina's Galaxy · Rating 1 out of 5]

A protagonista é extremamente misógina. Só pode ser femcel. Fui reler estar salva no meu computador e não lembrava de nada porque li quando era adolescente. Foi uma perda de tempo.

[Cherise · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ok read though for some reason seems pretty short to me. The whole story takes place in more or less 2-3 days including some apart time.

The sex scene is pretty hot though all through this I find it a bit strange. H never noticed h in a sexual way (though knew her for 1.5 years and treated her like a friend or relative) until the beginning of the story in her birthday suit. Then the very next day they are at it like rabbits. Both h and H also seem to be highly sexed, while not a bad thing per se, I don't know how much love there is, especially when story didn't tell us more about their relationship out of bed.

Again I get this wth moment when the L word was slung around and I wonder if I had missed something. I know when H cannot wait to get home in the beginning and his reluctance to let her go meant something, but the ending seems to have truncated and parts that should have made this a very satisfactory read were missing. Felt a bit cheated.

Also a bit gross regarding the H's behavior with his ex and h being around all along, hmm..again a bit weird to me, also makes him a bit of a nympho, quite not in control of himself and at odds with his character...though to be fair I don't know why she is getting her knickers in a knot as that happened before they got together except that again he seems to be a nympho with a weak mind.

All in all I expected more as I did like the book halfway through but not the other half.

[Mattie · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hated this one. Hero's ex was so prominent in every single chapter and just about every page in the book with comparisons, complaints and memories of things she did and said.

He literally had sex (apparently he stopped within seconds of starting to) with his ex (in her wedding dress) less than a week before proposing and sleeping with heroine. It felt like his pursuing heroine was a reaction to his ex breaking up with him and marrying another man, especially with how sudden it all was.
He didn't have any attraction to heroine before going home and seeing her naked in his pool.

I absolutely hated how much he thought about his ex and thought about his past sexual history with his ex. I also hated how heroine was constantly thinking about his ex and comparing herself to the ex.

I don't particularly like the housekeeper troupe for the fact that heroine for 18 months had to wash his sheets after sleeping with the other woman and serve her breakfast all while heroine pined for him.

Him chasing his ex and having sex on her wedding day makes anything he says and does for heroine mean nothing, because he chased after an ex that he claimed to not love and didn't even like as a person and yet he chased after her.
Grand gestures and pursing across the globe should be reserved for heroine's not the OTHER woman. P.

[Ivy Deluca · Rating 3 out of 5]

HQP of Australian billionaire and his housekeeper. She’s about to quit because she’s realized that she’s in love with him. He just broke up with his hot but gold digging girlfriend and he doesn’t want to let his housekeeper go.

The Good
More like the ok - this is a standard romance that doesn’t reinvent the wheel. A bit melodramatic, which I don’t mind, reminds me of an old fashioned soap. The heroine’s “transformation” into a hottie, and the hero sitting up and realizing what he’s had under his nose all along, was just what you expect from an HQP.

The Not So Good
The overuse of exclamation points was a bit distracting, but that’s just a stylistic issue. I had a bigger issue with a heroine who doesn’t fight for her love and I never really connect with her reasons why.

The Bottom Line
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t overly memorable.

[Tressa · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Ruthless Marriage Proposal was an over-the-top story. I'm not sure that the relationship between Emily and Sebastian was that healthy, but it was difficult to consider them in a realistic manner due to their actions, their personalities, and the scenarios. I just found the entire story amusing.

I thought it was hilarious that Emily had dyed her hair to a mousy brown to acquire her job. In fact, whenever there was a mention of her hair or clothing, I thought it was very funny. I don't know if the author, Miranda Lee, had intended to make me laugh regarding those items, but I did. The Ruthless Marriage Proposal was a fun diversion.

[Marianne · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Ruthless Marriage Proposal is Australian author, Miranda Lee’s third romance novel in the Ruthless! series. Emily Bayliss has decided to tender her resignation as housekeeper to mobile phone magnate, Sebastian Armstrong, as she knows she will never find what she wants (a husband and children) whilst in this job, especially as she’s in love with Sebastian. But when she tenders her resignation, the ever tenacious Sebastian has an unexpected proposal for her. Lee’s characters have some depth, the plot is original and this novel has an especially local feel as much of the action takes place nearby (Wollongong!!). Another great Miranda Lee offering.

[Kai · Rating 2 out of 5]

I found this book ok. Found that the plot was a bit over the top though. I carried on with the story as thought it would get better but found the scene with the daughter and father very strange. It was an ok read but do not think I will read it again. xxx

[Sylvia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Modern