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The Mistress Purchase
Leon Stapinopolous had never known defeat in the boardroom—or the bedroom! One of France's oldest perfume houses was to be another acquisition in his empire…not least because Leon insisted that perfume designer Sadie Roberts be included in the purchase price!
Sadie was as adamant that he'd never own her. But Leon thrilled her senses more than the headiest fragrance, and even the knowledge that she had everything to lose couldn't keep Sadie from becoming intoxicated by Leon's blend of charm and passion…
Sadie was as adamant that he'd never own her. But Leon thrilled her senses more than the headiest fragrance, and even the knowledge that she had everything to lose couldn't keep Sadie from becoming intoxicated by Leon's blend of charm and passion…
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published February 6, 2004
15 people are currently reading
102 people want to read
About the author
Penny Jordan
1,125 books668 followersPenelope Jones Halsall
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
aka Caroline Courtney, Annie Groves, Lydia Hitchcock, Melinda Wright
Penelope "Penny" Jones was born on November 24, 1946 at about seven pounds in a nursing home in Preston, Lancashire, England. She was the first child of Anthony Winn Jones, an engineer, who died at 85, and his wife Margaret Louise Groves Jones. She has a brother, Anthony, and a sister, Prudence "Pru".
She had been a keen reader from the childhood - her mother used to leave her in the children's section of their local library whilst she changed her father's library books. She was a storyteller long before she began to write romantic fiction. At the age of eight, she was creating serialized bedtime stories, featuring make-believe adventures, for her younger sister Prue, who was always the heroine. At eleven, she fell in love with Mills & Boon, and with their heroes. In those days the books could only be obtained via private lending libraries, and she quickly became a devoted fan; she was thrilled to bits when the books went on full sale in shops and she could have them for keeps.
Penny left grammar school in Rochdale with O-Levels in English Language, English Literature and Geography. She first discovered Mills & Boon books, via a girl she worked with. She married Steve Halsall, an accountant and a "lovely man", who smoked and drank too heavily, and suffered oral cancer with bravery and dignity. Her husband bought her the small electric typewriter on which she typed her first novels, at a time when he could ill afford it. He died at the beginning of 21st century.
She earned a living as a writer since the 1970s when, as a shorthand typist, she entered a competition run by the Romantic Novelists' Association. Although she didn't win, Penny found an agent who was looking for a new Georgette Heyer. She published four regency novels as Caroline Courtney, before changing her nom de plume to Melinda Wright for three air-hostess romps and then she wrote two thrillers as Lydia Hitchcock. Soon after that, Mills and Boon accepted her first novel for them, Falcon's Prey as Penny Jordan. However, for her more historical romance novels, she adopted her mother's maiden-name to become Annie Groves. Almost 70 of her 167 Mills and Boon novels have been sold worldwide.
Penny Halsall lived in a neo-Georgian house in Nantwich, Cheshire, with her Alsatian Sheba and cat Posh. She worked from home, in her kitchen, surrounded by her pets, and welcomed interruptions from her friends and family.
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
June 12, 2013
There was a lot going on in this one from Penny Jordan, my all time fave M&B author. It had a nice feel to it and was very reminiscent of her earlier heroines, who are all touchingly vulnerable and likeable and her earlier heroes who are all devastatingly handsome, brooding and sexily remote.
The premise for the story is this - Raoul, Sadie's cousin, tricks her into selling her third share of the perfume company she owns to a Greek billionaire who wants to take over the perfume house business. Raoul needs the money and doesn't know anything about perfume anyway. Sadie, however, has "a nose" for perfume and she also owns the formula for a very popular old scent. Leon - the hero - wants this - but he wants her to stop making it with natural materials and use synthetics so that all women can afford it.
Well, that's what Leon starts off wanting - he gets a lot more than that as the pair embark on a highly charged sensual relationship. It's quite a complicated plot for a mills and boon - there's all the falling in love stuff going on - and it is actually quite nicely developed in this novel. The couple do genuinely seem to have a basis for romance rather than it just being based on the usual him catching her naked in the shower and then seducing her. For a change, the couple do actually seem to form some kind of relationship. However, then it gets a bit messy as they realise (unlike most Mills and Boons!) that sexual chemistry alone is not enough for a lasting relationship and that they are going to have to compromise a bit in their attitudes if they want to make it work. The characters are well developed, and that's both the male lead and the female. Normally we as the reader don't get to see a lot of what's going on in the man's brain (if he has one) but Leon is a well-developed, believeable character; if a little too perfect in the bedroom department (you would have to see the description of his anatomy to know what I mean here!)
There's a bit too much sensuality in this book for me and it's quite explicit. Indeed, like most Jordan romances concerning these "captains of industry" one wonders how they've had time to build up their fortune at all, there's so little actual work going on. Consider one example of negotiations during a business meeting: "I would rather you had given me your trust and treated me as an equal, not as a child to be given "gifts",' Sadie told him huskily. But somehow she had moved, and so had he, and they were once more in each other's arms. From there it was just a few short, passionate moves to the bed, their discarded clothing littering the floor as they took refuge in the thing that bound them most securely together both physically and emotionally". Later on, there is some inventive use of office furniture along similar lines.
I suppose what's nice about this Mills and Boon is that there is a strand of reality in there in that the couple do realise their relationship is flawed - that it is entirely based on the sex that binds them "most securely together both physically and emotionally". They need to learn to trust each other and compromise, they realise. They need some distance to lend them perspective. Leon recommends a break of three months. Sadie agrees (but in the next sentence admits: "She was lying! Oh, how she was lying!" She's very untrustworthy, it seems.)
Still, Leon can hardly manage three weeks before he's back and making inventive use of the kitchen table with her (not to prepare a casserole) and the end is a M&B forgone conclusion. Leon gets not only the perfume he wants, but twins as well. All I can say is, he's only got himself to blame.
The premise for the story is this - Raoul, Sadie's cousin, tricks her into selling her third share of the perfume company she owns to a Greek billionaire who wants to take over the perfume house business. Raoul needs the money and doesn't know anything about perfume anyway. Sadie, however, has "a nose" for perfume and she also owns the formula for a very popular old scent. Leon - the hero - wants this - but he wants her to stop making it with natural materials and use synthetics so that all women can afford it.
Well, that's what Leon starts off wanting - he gets a lot more than that as the pair embark on a highly charged sensual relationship. It's quite a complicated plot for a mills and boon - there's all the falling in love stuff going on - and it is actually quite nicely developed in this novel. The couple do genuinely seem to have a basis for romance rather than it just being based on the usual him catching her naked in the shower and then seducing her. For a change, the couple do actually seem to form some kind of relationship. However, then it gets a bit messy as they realise (unlike most Mills and Boons!) that sexual chemistry alone is not enough for a lasting relationship and that they are going to have to compromise a bit in their attitudes if they want to make it work. The characters are well developed, and that's both the male lead and the female. Normally we as the reader don't get to see a lot of what's going on in the man's brain (if he has one) but Leon is a well-developed, believeable character; if a little too perfect in the bedroom department (you would have to see the description of his anatomy to know what I mean here!)
There's a bit too much sensuality in this book for me and it's quite explicit. Indeed, like most Jordan romances concerning these "captains of industry" one wonders how they've had time to build up their fortune at all, there's so little actual work going on. Consider one example of negotiations during a business meeting: "I would rather you had given me your trust and treated me as an equal, not as a child to be given "gifts",' Sadie told him huskily. But somehow she had moved, and so had he, and they were once more in each other's arms. From there it was just a few short, passionate moves to the bed, their discarded clothing littering the floor as they took refuge in the thing that bound them most securely together both physically and emotionally". Later on, there is some inventive use of office furniture along similar lines.
I suppose what's nice about this Mills and Boon is that there is a strand of reality in there in that the couple do realise their relationship is flawed - that it is entirely based on the sex that binds them "most securely together both physically and emotionally". They need to learn to trust each other and compromise, they realise. They need some distance to lend them perspective. Leon recommends a break of three months. Sadie agrees (but in the next sentence admits: "She was lying! Oh, how she was lying!" She's very untrustworthy, it seems.)
Still, Leon can hardly manage three weeks before he's back and making inventive use of the kitchen table with her (not to prepare a casserole) and the end is a M&B forgone conclusion. Leon gets not only the perfume he wants, but twins as well. All I can say is, he's only got himself to blame.
July 8, 2008
I went to a flea market in my town in June and picked up a bunch of old books (mostly romance) for a quarter each. I used to love romance. I started reading them in High school. Stopped reading them by end of college (let's just say I became disillusioned by them) and lately I'll randomly pick up a romance a read it - if I'm in the right mood, or tired of kids books...I know I'll get a "happily ever after" and they're usually short easy reads.
Then I read them and I remember why I stopped reading them. That said I've read two in the past few days. The one thing that drives me nuts with these books are the bad writing - head hopping! It's so frustrating sometimes to the point of making me put the book down and go do something else, and Penny Jordan's love of adverbs modifying dialogue tags. We know how much I can't stand that...it's gotten to the point were I don't even read the adverb, I can totally skip over it, she does it so often...
The "romance" story is what I expected, nothing earth shattering, but amusing enough that I keep reading.
Oh and can I just say the one time I approve of and usually expect prologues and epilogues are in romance. :D
Then I read them and I remember why I stopped reading them. That said I've read two in the past few days. The one thing that drives me nuts with these books are the bad writing - head hopping! It's so frustrating sometimes to the point of making me put the book down and go do something else, and Penny Jordan's love of adverbs modifying dialogue tags. We know how much I can't stand that...it's gotten to the point were I don't even read the adverb, I can totally skip over it, she does it so often...
The "romance" story is what I expected, nothing earth shattering, but amusing enough that I keep reading.
Oh and can I just say the one time I approve of and usually expect prologues and epilogues are in romance. :D
April 27, 2016
Eh, this was just okay. I wanted more romance. Not much but sex seems to happen between Sadie and Leon. Even the perfume plot is underdeveloped.
August 6, 2018
This was a spiced romance with a lot antagonism with each other (main couple) add a hihgly greedish character that only want his gain overall even against the consent of our hero.
This couple was amazing how even with their antagonism for eact other they both feel more than an average attraction to each other, the way the overcome obstacles is higly remarkable and more than welcome, in the end is a really good novel, with an amazing plot and an even better characters.
This couple was amazing how even with their antagonism for eact other they both feel more than an average attraction to each other, the way the overcome obstacles is higly remarkable and more than welcome, in the end is a really good novel, with an amazing plot and an even better characters.
October 11, 2022
You will search in vain for any relevance to the title. Leon is head of a conglomerate purchasing (geddit?) the h Sadie's declined familial perfume business. The plot is pretty weak and it's very carnal. I mostly skimmed. There's an epilogue with twins. PJ seems very keen on multiple births. Wasn't feeling this one but could just be me.
May 30, 2016
Título original: Mistress Purchase
Título: Procura-se uma Amante
Autor: Penny Jordan
Tradução: Silvia Lima
Série: Encontrando Um Amor 02.1
Editora: Harlequin
Ano: 2013
Os gregos são tão impossíveis quanto os italianos e os espanhóis. Nunca colocaria minha mão no fogo por qualquer um deles. Os magnatas gregos pensam que o mundo estão aos seus pés. Ainda mais se pegam uma jovem inexperiente, pronto, fazem a menina de gato e sapato. O que me deixa louca e que mesmo assim a coitada continua apaixonada. Deve ser o maldito charme grego, com aquela pele dourada… Aff!!!
Mas nesta história o diabo grego é tão ruim como sempre, o problema, se é que realmente é um problema. A mocinha tem personalidade e sabe exatamente o que quer, e para minha surpresa, apesar de Leon ser um bobalhão de marca maior, Sadie o quer de todas as maneiras possíveis e imaginárias. Assustador, ela ainda vai correr atrás, neste caso o machista e problemático Leon.....
Quer ler a resenha completa e muito mais, visite o blog Momentos da Fogui:
site: http://foguiii.blogspot.com.br/2016/0...
Título: Procura-se uma Amante
Autor: Penny Jordan
Tradução: Silvia Lima
Série: Encontrando Um Amor 02.1
Editora: Harlequin
Ano: 2013
Os gregos são tão impossíveis quanto os italianos e os espanhóis. Nunca colocaria minha mão no fogo por qualquer um deles. Os magnatas gregos pensam que o mundo estão aos seus pés. Ainda mais se pegam uma jovem inexperiente, pronto, fazem a menina de gato e sapato. O que me deixa louca e que mesmo assim a coitada continua apaixonada. Deve ser o maldito charme grego, com aquela pele dourada… Aff!!!
Mas nesta história o diabo grego é tão ruim como sempre, o problema, se é que realmente é um problema. A mocinha tem personalidade e sabe exatamente o que quer, e para minha surpresa, apesar de Leon ser um bobalhão de marca maior, Sadie o quer de todas as maneiras possíveis e imaginárias. Assustador, ela ainda vai correr atrás, neste caso o machista e problemático Leon.....
Quer ler a resenha completa e muito mais, visite o blog Momentos da Fogui:
site: http://foguiii.blogspot.com.br/2016/0...
May 18, 2020
Leon Stapimopolous had never known defeat in the boardroom--or the bedroom! One of France's oldest perfume houses was to be another acquisition in his empire...not least because Leon insisted that perfume designer Sadie Roberts be included in the purchase price!
Sadie was adamant that he'd never own her. But Leon thrilled her senses more than the headiest frangrance, and even the knowledge that she had everything to lose couldn't keep Sadie from becoming intoxicated by Leon's blend of chamr and passion....
Sadie was adamant that he'd never own her. But Leon thrilled her senses more than the headiest frangrance, and even the knowledge that she had everything to lose couldn't keep Sadie from becoming intoxicated by Leon's blend of chamr and passion....
July 2, 2012
titre vf : Liaison sous condition
May 31, 2014
ditto, romance novel, love Penny Joradan
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews