A Notorious Proposition

Winter Garden #3

by Adele Ashworth

From bed partners...
Two years ago, while on assignment for the Crown, darkly handsome Garrett Burke left Lady Ivy Wentworth sleeping naked in his bed as he went in search of the missing Martello diamonds. After apprehending the dastardly thief, he intended to spend the rest of his life in the arms of the auburn-haired beauty. But when the case came to a shocking and dangerous end, Garrett was certain he'd been betrayed...

To partners in crime

Ivy once loved Garrett with a virtuous heart, but these days she can barely stand him. Arriving at a deserted estate on a mysterious errand, she never expected to see him again, nor feel the same ecstasy she once did at his touch. Now, joined with him in the search for the legendary jewels, she is willing to risk everything. Everything, that is, except her heart...

Genres: Romance, Historical Romance, Historical, Mystery, Regency, Espionage, British Literature

375 pages, Hardcover

First published April 29, 2008

About the author

Adele Budnick was born in 1963. She has always felt she's led a rather dull life on her road to becoming a romance author. Unfortunately, she's also often been wrong.

From the first time she stepped onstage to sing Petula Clark's "Downtown" for a crowd (at the age of three in a Juarez, Mexico, hotel restaurant, dancing on the table at the urging of the Spanish-speaking waitresses), she knew she was destined to be a singer. Her first miscalculation.

At the age of six, as she watched one of the Apollo rockets take off on live Saturday-morning television, interrupting the most important TV shows of the decade—The Monkeys and Scooby-Doo—she decided she would become a diplomat. Much to her mother's chagrin, Adele was caught in a heated discussion with a telephone operator who insisted it simply wasn't possible to put a six-year-old child through to President Nixon at the White House just to make a complaint about important programming interruption. Diplomacy clearly wasn't for her.

In elementary school, Adele, being a voracious reader, decided she would be a defense attorney just like Nancy Drew's father. (One knew at any age that one couldn't make a living simply by being a mystery solver like Nancy, but solving crimes as an attorney seemed practical.) After three years of knowing she was destined for Harvard Law School, Adele finished every published Nancy Drew novel (53 of them at the time) and moved on to reading romance. Thus ended her dreams of solving crimes. The idea of law school seemed far less enjoyable after immersing herself in Victoria Holt at the age of twelve.

The Song Bird Years

Adele continued to pursue her singing into her teen years, deciding she was either going to be an editorial reader for a publishing company (because all she loved to do was read) or a Singing Superstar. She figured becoming a Superstar was probably an easier goal to achieve, and so, between reading romances (and in the late 70s there were very few to read), she practiced her art, training her developing coloratura soprano voice with private lessons from one of the best operatic instructors in the city of Albuquerque. Through numerous All-State Choir rehearsals, Jr. and High School choir practice, and various musical productions, she knew she was destined for stardom.

And then at the age of fifteen, her private vocal instructor told her the cold, hard facts: To really make it as a Broadway Singing Superstar, one not only has to read music well, but be able to act and dance and live on pennies. Adele does not dance (unless you count nightclubs in college and that time in Mexico when she was three…) and the "living on pennies" bit seemed highly questionable. Since her acting and music reading talents were also suspect, she decided Broadway might not be for her. Reality sure can be a shocker.

On the Career Path

In college as a journalism major (only because she had to major in something that might get her a paying job), she continued to pursue private vocal instruction with the University of Utah's finest, while performing in various musicals and college recitals. Having directed her through the lead in Cinderella, her drama teacher urged her to try out for local beauty—ahem—scholarship pageants. That was it. Adele was destined to be a singing, reading, reporting, Miss America.

Unfortunately, reality struck again. Not only was Adele a bit lacking in genius (to put it bluntly), being five feet and two inches tall, and possessing quite possibly the shortest legs in the history of womanhood left Adele doing well in talent portions of the contests, but lacking other…necessary attributes. Aside from being crowned Miss Sandy City and Miss Salt Lake County, the pageant thing never went anywhere. Alas, the Singing Beauty Queen future was out.

But Adele worked very hard at her favorite pastime and, by her senior year in college, she'd read just about every Kathleen E. Woodiwiss, Victoria Holt, Shirley Busbee, Laurie McBain,

Reviews

[Christa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lady Ivy Wentworth and Garrett Burke shared a brief, intense relationship when they were called in to work together on a case by the British government. The relationship ended in mistrust on both sides when matters went awry in the case. Two years later they are both in Winter Garden where they must work together again.

This book started a little slowly for me, but once it caught my interest, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I found both the heroine and the hero to be very sympathetic characters, and I enjoyed the relationship between them as it progressed, as well as the building of trust. I enjoyed the appearance of the two main characters from Ashworth's previous novel, Winter Garden. The story was interesting, as the characters worked to solve a mystery, but for me this book was all about the relationship and interaction between the hero and heroine.

[Sharyn · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this series completely out of order. Now I think I will read it again in order, as characters came and went. This story had a lot of misunderstandings, but they didn't bother me as much as that usually does. I really liked all the characters (and loved seeing Madeline again) and Ian of course. I don't like the title as it has nothing to do with the plot. But it was a good mystery and I can't wait to read "The Duke's captive again, now that I know the back story. But the books really should be read in order!! Now I need to find all the other Ashworth books!

[Desi · Rating 2 out of 5]

.....apenas y si le doy dos estrellas

Eeeehh, nop.... me resultó una trama algo complicada o enredada, no sé cuál pero no fue bueno.... fue muy confuso, era tantos personajes tantos datos que te perdías y eso hacia densa la lectura

Los primero capítulos fueron aburriiiidos, casi abandono el libro por eso, pero luego se puso algo interesante con el secreto de la verdadera identidad de Garret y quería saber como se enteraría Ivy y cuál sería su reacción (lo que debo decir que me decepcionó bastante)

Y también lo digo porque Garret no me agradó, apestó como manejo su relación con Ivy y sabiendo que ella podría quedar arruinada.... y que además cuando se da cuenta que ella no tuvo nada que ver con lo que le sucedió hace 2 años cuando lo atacaron y que ella no sabe nada de las diamantes y así con todo eso no es capaz de confiar en ella y decirle quien era realmente.... me fastidió mucho, no me creí tanto que la AMARA, ya que si hubiese tenido la deferencia de ser honesto con ella (EN NOMBRE DE ESE AMOR QUE DECÍA SENTIR POR ELLA) quizá nada de lo que le pasó al final hubiese sucedido.
Y que lo perdonara así tan fácil, ugh, mujer... había que hacerlo sufrir un poco por lo menos!!

Y ese final tan soso no me gustó tampoco!!

El libro que le sigue, que es el ultimo, ni lo leeré... vi unas reseñas por ahí y es espantoso lo que trata y como pretende la autora normalizar o romantizar cosas horribles :S

[ReadWithE · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow this did not work for me. It was so slow, and the emotions seemed so inauthentic. Suddenly 90% of the way through you conveniently get a bunch of other perspectives but that just complicated things in a weird and bad way. Also she was barely psychic and there were no ghosts.

[Lucimar · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,7
Romance que pendeu mais para suspense e mistério.
Garret escondia muitos segredos de Ivy, que também escondeu os motivos pelo qual aceitou ir para Winter Garden.
Suspense se situou numa mansão que pertencia ao misterioso Lord Rye que era uma rota de contrabando de ópio, bebidas, etc
Outro segredo repousava na tiara que continha o diamantes Martelo, que pertencia a Lord Rye...
Quando o irmão gêmeo dela desapareceu, ela recebeu um carta ameaçadora sobre ele. Ivy, que era uma sensitiva, tinha visões do irmão; porém, não conseguia visualizá-lo onde se encontrava e achava que a charada se encontrava no castelo.
Romance: se baseou nas noites de paixão... e nas diferenças que tiveram quando Garret abandonou-a dois anos atrás
Suspense: em quem era o raptor de Ian, o irmão...
Mistério: Qual dos personagens rodeava pelas escuras passagens secretas do castelo...
Aqui, os personagens de Jardim de Inverno, aparecem, porém ser a forte impressão que me causaram no segundo livro. Madeline Dumais, teve mais destaque que Thomas, uma sombra do incrivel personagem que achei na história dele...
A história ficou um pouco lenta no final, perdendo um pouco do meu entusiamo inicial...

[Melodie · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like the romance and would give the novel a higher rating if not for the confusing mystery. I like a bit of mystery and suspense in a romance novel but this is a bit too much. I was tempted many times during the beginning to read another book but continued on because I wanted to know what happens when Garret reveals his secret. I wasn't very satisfied because I constantly feels like there is a piece of the story missing. Maybe it's because this is a series and I haven't read the previous book?

I was excited during the climax of the story as I anticipated the culprit's identity, but the results seems melodramatic and too unexpected. The mystery seems well planed out--albeit a bit too complicated for me to figure it out--but the ending seems to have been wrapped up hastily and clumsily.

[Chasidy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was the first book I picked up by Adele Ashworth. I found the plot extremely interesting and although there were a few things I could not grasp I found the relationship between the hero and heroine quite satisfying. A little game of cat and mouse if I do say so myself. I can't wait to pick up the next installment in the Winter Garden series.

[Trenchologist · Rating 2 out of 5]

September Readathon

I was trying to decide two or three stars and then the complaints kept piling up so, two it is.

-- Another series title where it almost works to read standalone, but really doesn't, and that's frustrating (as is pubs' continuing habit of packaging and promoing books this way).
-- The heroine is supposed to be a seer and uses it not once! to any benefit! Her gift is utterly useless. There's a few watery visions and she can't even focus on them to glean details or work out clues. Zilch reason for her to be a seer aside from needing her to be Special and also part of the very vague "home office crime team."
-- And wait a minute, why does the Home Office care about diamonds stolen from a private entity? This could be explained in the other books as part of a bigger plot, with spy stuff and danger to the crown and all, but for the scope of this book it didn't make sense for them to be agents of said rather than just hiring detectives.
-- Heroine does the "kiss me, don't kiss me, I hate you, I'm hopelessly drawn to you, kiss me, I hate you" dance until we get 3/4 into the book, and then suddenly she gives in, loves him utterly, and knows they're meant to be...
-- ...lol j/k, that is until hero makes a reveal *he warned her about and begged she trust him during* and she still gets outraged and feels betrayed and runs off.
-- This only in service of her being imperiled and to move the villain and mystery plot along. Otherwise it's dumb, and in fact betrays the heroine's character, and cheap tricks are frustrating.
-- But then at the very end she's still Furious with him; get over it, he's yearned for you for two freaking years and stayed loyal, although I haven't been sold on why. She's hurt/ betrayed/ unforgiving far too long, particularly after he explains in great detail what happened. Maybe she's supposed to seem strong and independent but it doesn't track.
-- And, adding to that, the heroine thinks a few times, with pointed clarity, that her gift allows her to know if someone is trying to deceive her. But the whole time the hero is professing love and truths she's like "methinks you attempt to deceive me, I cannot, shall not, believe it." Harrumph.
-- This caused the few sex scenes to feel very out of sync with the relationship arc and rote.
-- More cheap tricks, the inclusion of random POVs nearing the end of the book, and during the final big confrontation and action scene. Either salt these through the entire book or work harder to tell this information via clues and sleuthing and idk, our heroine's dang supposed abilities, rather than reaching for the quick fix of "here's two pages of this random character you don't know for the sake of exposition / building tension."
-- WAY too cluttered with random characters. Sisters, daughters, ex-fiancees, friends, not friends, ladies from the village. And none fully drawn to care about them, but there to spin their cog and exit again.
-- Which, the "mastermind" villain (spotted earlyish, which is fine that's not a complaint) took care of themselves, so the leads never had to contend with them in any way other than "well! that's done, then."
-- We spent more time in and learning about the secret tunnels than we did learning about the couple, their pasts, connection, their future, etc.
-- I cannot get over how close the imperiled brother was; it's insulting she couldn't intuit even that.
-- I did not quite get the dual diamond theft plot/purpose. It does not bear scrutiny that a gone-mad villain wouldn't search the pockets of the incapacitated object of her obsession, find the diamonds, and hie off.
-- Repeated physical quirk description of characters rubbing their thumbs together in their lap.
-- Title has nothing to do with the story.

Hero is pretty great and sympathetic; he earned the whole second star. I wanted better for him than a somewhat ninny heroine who could never fully trust him, not even by using her seer's talents that didn't work.

[Libby · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ivy and her marquess get happily ever after. This was one convoluted son of a gun. Where to start? Ivy and her brother share a psychic connection. Ivy and Garrett meet, have sexy times, he leaves, gets whacked on the head, gets amnesia, loses some diamonds. Two years later Garrett still has amnesia, asks Ivy to use her psychic powers to help him find the diamonds, her brother gets caught and imprisoned in a dungeon. There are so many sisters in this one. There’s the sister who was used and discarded. Then there’s the ex fiancée. And the Baron. And then maybe another bastard son of the Baron. Or, hold on, maybe it was Ivy and Ian the jewelry finding psychic twins who were Baron bastards. Geez this thing was a mess.seriously, the story line was so convoluted with so many characters, there was no way to show everything that was thrown into the pot. Instead, we get long boring passages of telling. Sometimes the telling was so convoluted I felt like I needed paper and pencil to graph it out. There were Ivy, Ian, Margaret, Penelope, viola, Hermione, Desdemona, Benedict, Burke, Madeleine , her guy, Isabella, the Baron’s tunnels, secret rooms, dungeons, spiders, dead bodies, amnesia, misunderstandings, hidden identities, betrayal, theft, espionage. HOT MESS.

[Amy Butterbaugh · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was awesome from beginning to end. It was full of surprises. I have never read this author before.
A couple who met two years ago and the gentleman took the woman's virginity and then left on the hunt for diamonds that truly belonged to him but he was keeping a secret that the girl didn't know about.
Now she's on the case to find out what is going in the house. But the man that hurt her leaving here without a goodbye was in town as well. but they were going to work together and see if the diamonds would turn up.
She was still in love with him and he was still in love with her but he still had his secret and no memory of what happened two years ago after her left the room and went hunting for the diamonds.
When she finds out his secret will she still be with him the way she truly wants or will she go on her way and never look back?

[Nancy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lady Ivy will never forgive Garrett Burke for seducing her and then rushing out on a mission in which he was injured and didn’t return. He suspected she had a hand in his betrayal, while she felt abandoned. When they are thrust together two years later to search for the Marquess of Rye’s stolen diamonds at an estate riddled with secret passages, they have to overcome their mistrust to work together. His touch still has the power to inflame her senses, but she has to resist him if she’s to have any hope of saving her missing brother. How can she rely for help on the one man she despises? And what is his true purpose for being there? I always like a mystery with the history and this tale fits the bill.

[Rose · Rating 4 out of 5]

Garrett Burke and Lady Ivy Wentworth were working together on an assignment for the Crown. Something went really wrong and Garrett was attacked. Garrett and Ivy both believe they were betrayed and used by each other.

Two years have passed and Garrett is still searching for the missing diamonds. He arranges for Lady Ivy to be brought to Winter Garden where they both end up working together to find the missing diamonds and figure out exactly what happened that fateful night they were last together.

This was a really good story with a lot of twists and surprises along the way. Great secondary characters that add to the plot and twists in the story!

[hawk · Rating 3 out of 5]

I liked the settings and character building of the book, however there was alot of descriptive words that felt unnecessary in the book like when I’m trying to meet my work count for an assignment. It was a little hard to follow but I think that’s because I read this book first when it’s the third book in the series. However I liked the relationship between garret and ivy and I loved the hidden tunnels in the house. Overall a pretty decent book

[Cecilyn · Rating 2 out of 5]

It was ok but not memorable. It's kind of silly that the main character is a "seer" of some sort but rarely shows it. She's also supposed to be an investigator but spends weeks doing nothing.

The description of the passageways in the mansion was well done but could have been more fleshed out.

[Hannah Lang · Rating 4 out of 5]

The book definitely spent too long with them hating/mistrusting each other but once they started trusting each other again it got significantly better.

[Darbella · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars Ivy and Garrett. I like this entertaining story. In this one- the heroine has a twin brother as an important side character.

[Margerm, Pat · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/2 stars

[Veronica · Rating 1 out of 5]

Es sumamente aburrido y no te engancha para nada la historia.

[Betsy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good story, with a great surprise ending!

[Flea · Rating 3 out of 5]

I enjoy reading Adele Ashworth's novels because her characters and story lines are more complex than typical romance novels while staying true to the time period. I find it very frustrating when historical romances have characters behave like modern romance characters dressed up in historical clothing. Ms Ashworth creates characters that are flawed in ways we don't expect and takes a deeper look at social and relationship issues that occur regardless of the century rather than the oversimplified characters and dilemmas of traditional romance novels. My one caveat, is for some reason it takes me several chapters to really envision what is happening and get a sense of the characters perhaps because there is more dialogue and inner monologue and less setting of the stage in the initial chapters. I would like more background on the "Home office" and it's goals and the different roles people play and the changing roles of women. Maybe more about the mysticism that was becoming popular at that time. I would have preferred a prologue that starts after the lead character is hospitalized setting us on the brink of their betrayals

I sincerely enjoy books that take you through a cast of related characters bringing old ones back and introducing new ones allowing a series to develop and I am very glad Winter Garden is a series and I hope it will continue and branch into other series the way Lisa Kleypas has managed.

I read Wintergarden first and the learned about the previous novel Stollen charms afterwards. I'd have to reread stollen charms to get a better sense of it again but felt Wintergarden offered the better story.

[Patty McKenna Van Hulle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A Notorious Proposition

This book was a surprise for me. Adele Ashworth wrote this Winter Garden series and I loved the 1st book STOLEN CHARMS and I loved it. The next book WINTER GARDEN, I didn't enjoy and stop half way thru. But this book A NOTORIOUS PROPOSITION rocked. Garrett was a man on a mission for missing diamonds and he seemed at first to only care about them. As the story goes on, Garrett just wants that night he "made Ivy his" back in his memory. Lady Ivy is such a different character. She is a respected Seer. In 1850s, it is rare for a woman to have a career and also Seers being respected, even in 2014, is rare. Ivy wants to find her brother, who has been missing for so long. She can sense he is in trouble and she is also being blackmailed for the diamonds. Ivy doesn't know Garrett has no memory of their night and the last thing she needs is having Garrett breathing down her neck with his sexy lips. This story has secret passages, chained up man, steamy scenes, an evil presence, great mystery, diamonds and many twists and turns. I give this book 5 fingers up and 10 toes.

[Barbara ★ · Rating 3 out of 5]

After a wonderful week together ending in a romantic encounter, Garrett disappears from Ivy's bed and her life. Two years later they both turn up at a remote estate, once again working for the Crown and searching for the missing Martello diamonds.

Admittedly I was a little lost and confused as I haven't read either the first or second book in the series. I thought the plot was convoluted and could have been managed better. I also didn't really like the mis-communication thing. It annoys me when a slight misunderstanding is allowed to get so out of control when it's easy enough to explain what happened and hope for the best. I know this makes for great story telling but I find it irritating unless it is handled correctly. IMHO I don't think this was handled well in this book. When I find myself thinking "oh for Pete's sake", I know it's going to be one of those books.

I own the next book in the series and it's about Ian (my favorite character from this book) so I think I'm going to read it and hope for the best.

[L8blmr · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have had "Winter Garden" by this author on my "to be read" list for ages based on a lot of rave reviews I had read. I still have not gotten my hands on it, but found this one at a thrift store. I enjoyed the story of Ivy and Garrett but thought it could probably have moved a bit faster in the middle section and was probably a good 20 pages or so too long. The mystery was well written and had me guessing till nearly the end of the book, which is a good thing. I was disappointed in the heroine's reaction when the Big Secret was revealed, but she wasn't annoyingly TSTL. I also had to wonder why the hero waited so long to come clean and why he chose such a terrible time and place to do so.

I will keep looking for "Winter Garden" because I am fairly sure that it is the story of a couple who played a very small role in this story. This book, I felt, deserved something like 3.5 stars, so I rounded up, but am hoping for a full 5 stars from the highly recommended "prequel".

[Emily · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I found a copy of it at the Dollar Tree--of all places. I've never found historical romances there, but low-and-behold, A Notorious Proposition by author, Adele Ashworth was sitting on the shelf.

I read the book cover and decided that it was worth the $1. Oh my, best buy ever! I really liked the premise, plot, and characters. I also really loved the semi-supernatural element of "visions/dreams."

I definitely look forward to reading more by Adele Ashworth.It was a great story. She's a very talented writer,and a fantastic storyteller.

I definitely recommend this book.

Happy Reading, Y'all!

[Mitzi · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book takes up where the Winter Garden leaves off. It's good but not as great as Winter Garden. Garrett meets long ago 1st love Lady Ivy Wentworth at Winter Garden, he is on a mission to recover the Martello Diamonds, she is there due to request of new owner (one no one has ever scene) to try to use her unusual physic abilities to see if someone is haunting the house, and they both work for the crown. Madeleine DeMais and Thomas Blackwood from previous play a part in the book and it was good to see them again. The love scenes were good but not as hot a Winter Garden, but all in all I'll save it and read again another day.

[parthenos · Rating 2 out of 5]

The name means nothing to the story, it could easily be the title of another book. The story has lot of mystery, it started good, but the finish was so hasty and poor written. I normally do not judge any Victorian romance book, as they almost never bear much much substance. I read them only for the storytelling. And this book didn't deliver the story it promised on its first half. It could have been great and one of those rare romance books I would have been thrilled to have gotten my hands on, but they really disappointed me with the progressively weaker plot and poor ending,

[Joan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a complicated read. Why? Well, she had three different and complicated plots going on at once with little to any background on them. Characters were hard to keep track of and follow. That being said the two main characters were so fun! Great development, tension, mixing it up and communication. Why it had to be so muddled with all that was going on I don't know, one of those plots expanded would have rocked this book to great but anyhoo.
Still a fun read.

[Laine · Rating 5 out of 5]

september 8 - september 9, 2012

4 star rating

enjoyed reading this book. all the mysteries and secrets made this book exciting. loved how garrett is indeed very protective of ivy. despite what happened to him after his last mission he still does have feelings for ivy and that it never fades.

[Bonnie G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was so bored for about he first 60 pages I almost gave up, but after that I quite liked it. One point off for the excruciatingly slow start and one point off for ugly=evil. Otherwise a nicely written romance with a very appealing heroine.

[Kimberlee · Rating 3 out of 5]

Really good book- but a little hard to get started