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The Improper Governess
Entranced by lovely actress Lissa Findlay, Lord Ashe offers her a position as a governess to his nephew after she rejects his amorous advances, and as a drama involving money, scandal, and love unfolds, Lord Ashe loses his heart. Original.
251 pages, Paperback
First published April 1, 1998
30 people are currently reading
138 people want to read
About the author
Carola Dunn
92 books891 followersCarola Dunn is the author of more than 30 Regency romances, as well as 16 mysteries (the Daisy Dalrymple mystery series is set in England in the 1920s). Ms. Dunn was born and grew up in England, where she got a B.A. in Russian and French from Manchester University. She travelled as far as Fiji before returning to settle in California. After 30 years in the US, she says she still sounds as if she arrived a month ago.
Prior to writing, Ms. Dunn’s various jobs included market research, child-care, construction--from foundation trenches to roofing--and writing definitions for a dictionary of science and technology. She wrote her first novel in 1979, a Regency which she sold to Warner Books.
Now living in Eugene, Oregon, Ms. Dunn has a son in California who has just made her a grandmother, and a large black dog named Willow who takes her for a walk by the Willamette River each morning. (www.belgravehouse.com)
Prior to writing, Ms. Dunn’s various jobs included market research, child-care, construction--from foundation trenches to roofing--and writing definitions for a dictionary of science and technology. She wrote her first novel in 1979, a Regency which she sold to Warner Books.
Now living in Eugene, Oregon, Ms. Dunn has a son in California who has just made her a grandmother, and a large black dog named Willow who takes her for a walk by the Willamette River each morning. (www.belgravehouse.com)
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Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews
January 1, 2012
Lissa has a good education but no access to money or connections. She supports her young brothers as an opera dancer, but they're rapidly running out of money. Literally starving, she agrees to have supper with the notorious Lord Ashe--but swiftly decamps the room when he suggests they move on to more physical entertainments. He runs into her brothers later, and is so impressed by their deportment and her high standards that he offers her a position as his nephew's governess instead of as his mistress. They fall in love and, after a few wacky hijinks and a near-death illness, confess their feelings to each other.
Sweet, well-written, and I liked both the main characters. I love Dunn's work because it's everything I like about Heyer but without the extremes: there's just a little slang, no one is a gem of the highest water or the richest man in town or whatever, the children are neither falsely stupid nor precocious...just overall, a good afternoon's read.
Sweet, well-written, and I liked both the main characters. I love Dunn's work because it's everything I like about Heyer but without the extremes: there's just a little slang, no one is a gem of the highest water or the richest man in town or whatever, the children are neither falsely stupid nor precocious...just overall, a good afternoon's read.
September 30, 2013
This is a light, frothy story which requires little or no mental exertion (I finished it in less than a day).
I enjoy a simple, light-hearted regency romance - especially if I'm tired or maybe a bit under the weather. Georgette Heyer is by far my favourite author and I haven't yet found any to match her.
The Improper Governess was a pleasant read, which thankfully did not descend into soft porn, like many others I've come across... probably trying to make up for their literary shortcomings.
I enjoy a simple, light-hearted regency romance - especially if I'm tired or maybe a bit under the weather. Georgette Heyer is by far my favourite author and I haven't yet found any to match her.
The Improper Governess was a pleasant read, which thankfully did not descend into soft porn, like many others I've come across... probably trying to make up for their literary shortcomings.
March 24, 2022
3.75 stars
Carola Dunn is a new author to me, and this book was def promising. I would love to read more from her.
I love meself a down-on-her-luck h and the aristo H who wants to make her his mistress. It's a done-to-death trope, but it never fails to grab me!
However, I feel like this book could have been even better if it wasn't so focused on Ashe's sister, her son and all his problems. I would have loved a better telling of the MCs path to love, which seemed to happen by accident almost, for all the attention that was given to it.
Carola Dunn is a new author to me, and this book was def promising. I would love to read more from her.
I love meself a down-on-her-luck h and the aristo H who wants to make her his mistress. It's a done-to-death trope, but it never fails to grab me!
However, I feel like this book could have been even better if it wasn't so focused on Ashe's sister, her son and all his problems. I would have loved a better telling of the MCs path to love, which seemed to happen by accident almost, for all the attention that was given to it.
December 7, 2019
Nice, very nice. The only black spot in this charming regency romance was that the denouement was much less than the reader expected. In fact, there was no denouement at all. The tension rose throughout the story, and I waited with bated breath for the final confrontation, but it never happened. At the very moment of climax, it appeared that the heroine shouldn’t have worried after all, that all her struggling and suffering was for naught. The alleged villain didn’t care a fig about her and wouldn’t lift a finger to interfere in her life in any way. There was no fight, no malice, no evil scheming, just indifference. A disappointing conclusion to the otherwise warm and beautiful tale.
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March 23, 2017Putting this back on the shelf for now. Read the sample and not sure I want to continue. Found the opening where our hero wants to make the heroine his mistress (she is forced to become an opera dancer to support her two brothers and he assumes since she is an opera dancer that she is like the rest and will be his mistress), and wanting to "try her out" first, gross. While I liked the writing and heroine and am curious to find out more about her story, I don't know if I can put up with a creepy hero. Didn't make a good first impression at all.
December 23, 2021
Can't quite say why I like this sort-of-Cinderella tale as much as 4 stars, but I do. Our Heroine is desperate, trying to raise her younger brothers on no-farthings-at-all, and then gets a break, a chance to be a governess for a lonely, sickly boy.
She's observant, so notices that drinking milk hinders his breathing, so she changes when he gets milk to drink; and he gets better. Then London smog happens, and he becomes seriously ill; taking him to the country helps, a lot.
Complications ensue. HEA eventually happens.
She's observant, so notices that drinking milk hinders his breathing, so she changes when he gets milk to drink; and he gets better. Then London smog happens, and he becomes seriously ill; taking him to the country helps, a lot.
Complications ensue. HEA eventually happens.
May 16, 2024
A lovely old-fashioned Regency with all that entails. Yes, it has some weaknesses, like an implausible premise, a hero with a penchant for mistresses and a romance that comes to the boil only in the last paragraph, but I thoroughly enjoyed it nevertheless.
Here’s the premise: Lord Ashe is in the market for a new mistress after setting his last ladybird loose, and there’s an opera singer who’s a bit different - she do nicely. But supper with the lady makes him realise that she’s more different than he had guessed - not only young and innocent, but also caring for two younger brothers. He decides not to press her, giving her the remains of the supper for the boys and taking her home, where the boys turn out to be surprisingly well brought up. Lord Ashe is intrigued and concerned by some of the information Lissa and the boys let slip, so when his widowed sister has trouble keeping a governess for her sickly son, Ashe proposes Lissa for the job. She’s suspicious that he’s just using that as an excuse to seduce her, but when another potential seducer circles close to her, she reluctantly accepts the offer.
From here on, there aren’t too many surprises. Lissa turns out to be an excellent governess, her two brothers make good playmates for Ashe’s nephew, Colin, and Ashe behaves impeccably. It’s an odd thing, but rakes in Regencies always do behave impeccably once the story gets under way, although Ashe does at least have believable moments of still hankering after Lissa. Colin turns out to have what sounds like asthma, but a bolt for the country and Ashe’s own estate restores him to health, and the three boys enjoy a healthy outdoorsy existence.
There’s bound to be a fly in the ointment, however, and here it’s Colin’s mother, a clothes-obsessed social butterfly and her noble suitor, who let the cat out of the bag regarding Lissa’s former occupation as an opera singer (regarded as no better than a prostitute). All sorts of ructions ensue, but in the midst of the mayhem, Ashe, having long resisted looking into Lissa’s mysterious past, now sets out to discover who precisely she is. More ructions ensue, and really, he should have known better. He knew perfectly well that they were escaping from a violent home, so it would have been much better to leave well alone. Or, since he was very much in love by this point, he could have gone to Lissa and said: ‘I want to marry you, but to keep you and the boys safe, I need to know just who you are.’
But of course everything comes right in the end, without very much effort, in fact, and Ashe finally says and does the right thing. This isn’t a perfect book by any means, but then what is? But it’s very well written, with a realistically evoked Regency era and no Americanisms or anachronisms that I noticed at all, and I enjoyed it so much that I can’t give it less than five stars.
Here’s the premise: Lord Ashe is in the market for a new mistress after setting his last ladybird loose, and there’s an opera singer who’s a bit different - she do nicely. But supper with the lady makes him realise that she’s more different than he had guessed - not only young and innocent, but also caring for two younger brothers. He decides not to press her, giving her the remains of the supper for the boys and taking her home, where the boys turn out to be surprisingly well brought up. Lord Ashe is intrigued and concerned by some of the information Lissa and the boys let slip, so when his widowed sister has trouble keeping a governess for her sickly son, Ashe proposes Lissa for the job. She’s suspicious that he’s just using that as an excuse to seduce her, but when another potential seducer circles close to her, she reluctantly accepts the offer.
From here on, there aren’t too many surprises. Lissa turns out to be an excellent governess, her two brothers make good playmates for Ashe’s nephew, Colin, and Ashe behaves impeccably. It’s an odd thing, but rakes in Regencies always do behave impeccably once the story gets under way, although Ashe does at least have believable moments of still hankering after Lissa. Colin turns out to have what sounds like asthma, but a bolt for the country and Ashe’s own estate restores him to health, and the three boys enjoy a healthy outdoorsy existence.
There’s bound to be a fly in the ointment, however, and here it’s Colin’s mother, a clothes-obsessed social butterfly and her noble suitor, who let the cat out of the bag regarding Lissa’s former occupation as an opera singer (regarded as no better than a prostitute). All sorts of ructions ensue, but in the midst of the mayhem, Ashe, having long resisted looking into Lissa’s mysterious past, now sets out to discover who precisely she is. More ructions ensue, and really, he should have known better. He knew perfectly well that they were escaping from a violent home, so it would have been much better to leave well alone. Or, since he was very much in love by this point, he could have gone to Lissa and said: ‘I want to marry you, but to keep you and the boys safe, I need to know just who you are.’
But of course everything comes right in the end, without very much effort, in fact, and Ashe finally says and does the right thing. This isn’t a perfect book by any means, but then what is? But it’s very well written, with a realistically evoked Regency era and no Americanisms or anachronisms that I noticed at all, and I enjoyed it so much that I can’t give it less than five stars.
September 18, 2021
The start of this book was perfection! Going on a date for the free meal, taking home the leftovers and running afterwards lol!
I don't think I would love the book as much as I do if the three precious boys were as perfect as they are. If the story was just abt Lissa and Lord Ashe, I think it would be a weak romance.
If you like children in your romances, this book is for you!
I don't think I would love the book as much as I do if the three precious boys were as perfect as they are. If the story was just abt Lissa and Lord Ashe, I think it would be a weak romance.
If you like children in your romances, this book is for you!
June 5, 2024
While sometimes skirting the edge of propriety, the story did remain clean. The fmc managed to keep her wits and stay out of trouble. I found myself wondering how she would continue in the face of the odds, and it made the story very interesting! I loved the happy ending!
March 10, 2018
Another highly enjoyable read. Carola Dunn never disappoints.
November 16, 2018
Cute story
August 28, 2022
Four stars (with the caveat that this was written in 1998 and you can tell).
August 29, 2022
A lovely English love story.
February 5, 2023
3.5
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Light on the romance and lord do the abrupt endings of 90s historical romances drive me crazy.
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Light on the romance and lord do the abrupt endings of 90s historical romances drive me crazy.
December 17, 2023
Great little read. Very clean. Slow burn romance with likable secondary characters including adorable, non-annoying children.
January 29, 2026
The title says improper but it's not improper (aka smut). An engaging read.
June 5, 2023
This one is interesting because I think in most romances with this kind of set-up (published recently), the heroine would accept the hero's initial offer. I couldn't fault her for accepting, to be clear, and I've enjoyed books with heroines who definitely would have. Although the romance is rather treacly, it felt more "authentic" in a way because of that -- in stories written during the time in which this book takes place the virtuous heroine would reject the hero's improper advances and show herself to be morally superior.
March 28, 2020
First time I've read one of Carola Dunn's books. I'm a big fan of Georgette Heyer's Regency novels, and this is in a similar vein (although no-one will ever come close to her brilliance). Will definitely read more of Dunn's. (I like Crime too, so may check out the Daisy Dalrymple books at some point). If you like Heyer, you may well like these- well-written, historically accurate and a nice flow to the story. A light, easy read.
March 29, 2011
I really enjoy this one. Lissa is a great character with realistic reactions and reasonings. Lord Ashe is also a fun character, creative and kind. Not so much kissing and more story. The young boys in the book are a really great addition to the storyline. Very enjoyable book.
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July 28, 2014
I have enjoyed all of Carola Dunn’s regency books I have read so far. They are a nice, quick, easy read and they have a Jane Austen feel to them. Each book is different enough from the others to feel fresh and her enjoyable writing style is consistent.
October 13, 2011
Totally implausible plot, but fun to read.
February 25, 2014
3.5 stars. I enjoy these old-style regencies.
February 14, 2015
I think I might be a Carola Dunn fan now. Very sweet simple Regency romance.
June 2, 2015
4 stars from Betty, who says "it's pretty good if that's the type of thing you're in the mood for."
June 13, 2015
Lissa is a 19 year old opera dancer. When she catches the eye of Lord Ashe, she considers becoming his mistress.
A Regency era romance with a hint of mystery.
A Regency era romance with a hint of mystery.
July 23, 2015
Quite an enjoyable read with fun characters and a fast-paced plot. :)
June 15, 2016
Charming story.
July 10, 2018
The heroine is a bit mushy, and quite a martyr.
Displaying 1 - 29 of 29 reviews