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The Millionaire's Convenient Bride
Connah Carey Jones needs a nanny for his young daughter, and Hester Ward is perfect. She's practical, professional and very pretty— something Connah finds impossible to ignore. When the gorgeous millionaire whisks Hester off to Tuscany, the attraction between them ignites. Connah proposes expanding their business arrangement to include marriage. Hester must leave the man and little girl she's come to love, or resign herself to being Connah's practical, professional and very convenient wife….
192 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2007
About the author
Catherine George
445 books73 followersDeirdre Matthews was born in a village on the Welsh-English border, where the public library featured largely in her life. Her mother, who looked upon literature as a basic necessity of life, fervently encouraged her passion for reading, little knowing it would one day motivate her daughter into writing her first novel.
At 18, she met a future Engineer, who had set in a pendant a gold sovereign, that his grandmother put in his hand when he was born, and she have never taken off since. After their marriage he swept her off to Brazil, where he worked as Chief Engineer of a large gold-mining operation in the mountains of Minas Gerais, a setting which later provided a very popular background for several of her early novels. Nine happy years passed there before the question of their small son's education decided their return to Britain. Not long afterward a daughter was born, and for a time she lived a fulfilled life as a wife and mother who always made time to read, especially in the bath!
Her husband's job took him abroad again, to Portugal, West Africa, and various countries of the Middle East, but this time she stayed home with the family. And spent a lot of lonely evenings in between the reunions when her husband came home on leave. "Instead of reading other people's novels all the time," he suggested one day, "why not have a shot at writing one yourself?" So she did.
But first she took a creative writing course. Encouraged by the other students' enthusiasm for her contributions, she decided to try her hand at romance, and read countless Mills & Boon novels as research before writing one herself. Her first novel was accepted in 1982 as Catherine George, which Romantic Times voted best of its genre for that year, along with more than sixty written since.
These days son and daughter have fled the nest, but they return with loving regularity to where she and her husband back for good from his travels live, with Prince, the most recent Labrador, in a house built at the end of Victoria's reign in four acres of garden on the cliffs between the beautiful Wye Valley and the River Severn.
At 18, she met a future Engineer, who had set in a pendant a gold sovereign, that his grandmother put in his hand when he was born, and she have never taken off since. After their marriage he swept her off to Brazil, where he worked as Chief Engineer of a large gold-mining operation in the mountains of Minas Gerais, a setting which later provided a very popular background for several of her early novels. Nine happy years passed there before the question of their small son's education decided their return to Britain. Not long afterward a daughter was born, and for a time she lived a fulfilled life as a wife and mother who always made time to read, especially in the bath!
Her husband's job took him abroad again, to Portugal, West Africa, and various countries of the Middle East, but this time she stayed home with the family. And spent a lot of lonely evenings in between the reunions when her husband came home on leave. "Instead of reading other people's novels all the time," he suggested one day, "why not have a shot at writing one yourself?" So she did.
But first she took a creative writing course. Encouraged by the other students' enthusiasm for her contributions, she decided to try her hand at romance, and read countless Mills & Boon novels as research before writing one herself. Her first novel was accepted in 1982 as Catherine George, which Romantic Times voted best of its genre for that year, along with more than sixty written since.
These days son and daughter have fled the nest, but they return with loving regularity to where she and her husband back for good from his travels live, with Prince, the most recent Labrador, in a house built at the end of Victoria's reign in four acres of garden on the cliffs between the beautiful Wye Valley and the River Severn.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
November 6, 2016
Why I enjoyed this one :
- Hester runs into the mysterious Mr Jones and he's better than the fantasy version.
- Connah Carey Jones is the Unicorn of the Harlequin world.
He's kind, caring, he says please and makes amends when he's wrong.
His romantic life doesn't feature in the tabloids; he values family and his privacy.
- He is honest & above mind games.
She always knew where she stood with Connah.
- Hester is a woman with spine, compassion & spontaneous wit. She stands up to Connah when he makes a mistake but doesn't hold a grudge. She is focused on her self and her life does not revolve around romantic relationships.
- The pace was not slow but leisurely. You enjoy the story like a Grande Choco Frappe. You get to savour the growing bond and heightened emotions between the two.
- I liked the supporting characters - Sam and Hester's parents.
- Lowri was adorable. You believe it when Hester and Lowri get attatched and understand Connah's concerns.
- The story was not dominated by The Big Misunderstanding, accusations, or unnecessary angst. The leads are equals and pick communication over melodrama.
- Catherine George creates a wonderful world, vivid characters you can relate to and a lovely, slow burn romance.
- Connah is not Greek, Russian or Italian - He's Welsh.
Beat that typical romance heroes.
Give this one a try if you're looking for a sweet romance while I go and hunt the other books from Catherine George's backlist.
- Hester runs into the mysterious Mr Jones and he's better than the fantasy version.
- Connah Carey Jones is the Unicorn of the Harlequin world.
He's kind, caring, he says please and makes amends when he's wrong.
His romantic life doesn't feature in the tabloids; he values family and his privacy.
- He is honest & above mind games.
She always knew where she stood with Connah.
- Hester is a woman with spine, compassion & spontaneous wit. She stands up to Connah when he makes a mistake but doesn't hold a grudge. She is focused on her self and her life does not revolve around romantic relationships.
- The pace was not slow but leisurely. You enjoy the story like a Grande Choco Frappe. You get to savour the growing bond and heightened emotions between the two.
- I liked the supporting characters - Sam and Hester's parents.
- Lowri was adorable. You believe it when Hester and Lowri get attatched and understand Connah's concerns.
- The story was not dominated by The Big Misunderstanding, accusations, or unnecessary angst. The leads are equals and pick communication over melodrama.
- Catherine George creates a wonderful world, vivid characters you can relate to and a lovely, slow burn romance.
- Connah is not Greek, Russian or Italian - He's Welsh.
Beat that typical romance heroes.
Give this one a try if you're looking for a sweet romance while I go and hunt the other books from Catherine George's backlist.
April 13, 2018
The heroine of Catherine George's contemporary romance The Millionaire's Convenient Bride is eager to play Jane Eyre to the hero's Rochester. She quips to her mom that she is not worried about a mad wife hiding in the attic since that's where her nanny quarters are located.
That was probably the one good line in an otherwise tepid nanny-employer romance, definitely a very lame copy of George's earlier exploration of this trope in her wonderful A Civilised Arrangement. I would recommend sticking to the vintage edition of this tale.
The twist ending did nothing to improve things either.
That was probably the one good line in an otherwise tepid nanny-employer romance, definitely a very lame copy of George's earlier exploration of this trope in her wonderful A Civilised Arrangement. I would recommend sticking to the vintage edition of this tale.
The twist ending did nothing to improve things either.
March 10, 2013
Tuscany
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★★★☆☆ I thought the hero's secret was a little bit of a weird twist. Hmmm... But thinking of the beautiful Tuscan countryside kicked this one up a notch.
The other thing that didn't work for me was the hero was alright all along...until near the end, when he is an asshat. Sure, he apologizes, but it still was too close to the ending. Maybe I hold on to grudges too long. LOL!
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★★★☆☆ I thought the hero's secret was a little bit of a weird twist. Hmmm... But thinking of the beautiful Tuscan countryside kicked this one up a notch.
The other thing that didn't work for me was the hero was alright all along...until near the end, when he is an asshat. Sure, he apologizes, but it still was too close to the ending. Maybe I hold on to grudges too long. LOL!
February 24, 2012
Professional Nanny Hester Ward finds herself between positions so she accepts a temporary summer job looking after eight-year-old Lowri. Hester is quite surprised and pleased that Lowri’s father is the man who mysteriously stopped with his wife at her mother’s B & B when Hester had been a very impressionable teenager. Connah Carey Jones is a widower and very devoted to his daughter. He seems obsessed in protecting Lowri and security around his London home is very tight. In fact there seems to be a strange man watching her. So to avoid this man, Connah takes Lowri and Hester to Tuscany to a friend’s villa. In close quarters, Lowri and Hester quickly form strong bonds and Hester finds her attraction to Connah becoming very difficult to hide. As the vacation in Tuscany is coming to an end, Connah proposes marriage, after all Lowri needs a mother and it’s quite obvious that there is sexual chemistry between them.
I’m not sure how to rate this book. The first two thirds the story was just a sweet story gently developing the characters and keeping the tone very low key. Though we know from the beginning that Hester is attracted to Connah, we really don’t begin to “feel” this attraction until the last third of the book. Actually that’s when the story picks up it’s pace and I no longer felt emotionally detached from the characters. This was a very nice story, and I liked Connah and Hester very much. I just wish there had been more umph to the beginning of the book as there was in the end. Great ending!
I’m not sure how to rate this book. The first two thirds the story was just a sweet story gently developing the characters and keeping the tone very low key. Though we know from the beginning that Hester is attracted to Connah, we really don’t begin to “feel” this attraction until the last third of the book. Actually that’s when the story picks up it’s pace and I no longer felt emotionally detached from the characters. This was a very nice story, and I liked Connah and Hester very much. I just wish there had been more umph to the beginning of the book as there was in the end. Great ending!
September 19, 2022
Do Harelequin men truly love or is it all just lust cause the speed in which they marry is insane and doesn't feel lasting. Also, so far all these books relationships are purely based off physical attraction and nothing else. Some try to make it seem like it isn't but cmon now... ya ain't foolin nobody. I, also, don't think the happy couple were together longer then two months in this before they decided to get hitched, because it all lasted over a span of the summer holiday in which she was employed to be his daughters nanny.
March 10, 2008
Not the most engaging read. I really couldn't feel much in the way of growth in the relationship...oh well.
February 3, 2021
Perfectly decent but very little tension.
March 16, 2021
Το μεγάλο δίλημμα - Catherine George, Χρυσά, 1394
April 20, 2025
Connah and Hester
I didn't like it. It was boring and only had heroine's POV. P.
I didn't like it. It was boring and only had heroine's POV. P.
October 1, 2016
Unfortunately, I had a hard time connecting to the story. I always want to be sucked in into the story and this book failed to do that with me. I just thought that Hester was way too convenient of a bride. The secrets coming out after the wedding just turned me off entirely.
August 31, 2019
These people are so repressed emotionally that they get downright confused when confronted with one (either their own or someone else's) and they get offended incredibly easily. Very fragile, very weird.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews