This may be my favourite line from any spanking story ever.
It’s been a while since I’ve read a spanking novella, and Susan Thomas’s The Schoolmarm and the Preacher was a lovely way to get back into the habit. The story’s mix of traditional discipline and progressive social changes makes a charming combination. I’ve also missed the strong, spirited women and stern but gentle men- and there were plenty of each here. Plus, it was lovely to revist some of the beautifully flawed and wonderfully reasonable residents of Kirkham first met in Elizabeth’s Flight. (I hear there’s one more story from the good folk of Kirkham, but that’s a post for another month.)
From the publisher:
When Annie McWilliams arrives in Kirkham with her two young children, she is given a warm welcome and taken to a small house that has been made ready for the town’s new schoolmarm. Delighted with her new surroundings, Annie quickly settles in, eager to leave her troubled past behind and make a fresh start in life. Her first encounter with Reverend James Daffern occurs when he saves her children from drowning in the river. She finds him very attractive, and James is extremely taken with the pretty young widow. But when Annie disobeys the Sheriff’s instructions by exploring an unrespectable part of town, she learns she is to be spanked for her disobedience, and as she has no husband, James Daffern is the man for the job.
Acutely embarrassed, Annie takes her punishment … and given her headstrong nature, it turns out to be the first of several discipline sessions with the good-looking preacher. As time passes, their romance grows, and when James asks Annie to be his wife, she accepts gladly … yet she is reluctant to set a date for the wedding. She has a secret which weighs heavy on her shoulders … but she is not the only one with a secret past. As events unfold, the truth comes to light … but how will the revelations affect Annie’s future?
Available from LSF publications.
Acknowledging Imperfection 
Thank you very much indeed Kia. I am so very pleased you enjoyed it and honoured that you have featured it on your blog. It should have been an easy book to write but it wasn’t. It was started at a very bad time and took ages to complete. I almost deleted the whole thing at one point. There is indeed another book (the last) in the Kirkham series which is considerably more dramatic but of course has scenes of discipline. Like all my books it has a happy ending. I can’t read books with ambiguous or unhappy endings so can’t write them.
If this was difficult to write, it certainly didn’t show in the final product! Very glad that you persisted- it was worth it.
Love your endings- both happy and very satisfying. I’ve also just picked up a copy of Damson– I need to get reading!