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Close Collaboration
How had life gotten so crazy?
One day Mallory was an efficient small-town home economics teacher, comfortably dating the school principal.
The next she was caught in a mad whirl--juggling two suitors; battling hitherto unknown feelings of jealousy and resentment; watching in faint horror as a beautiful blonde captivated her scholarly widowed father; and working into the wee hours rewriting a book to the tune called by C. Duncan Adams, a brilliant--and far too attractive--sociologist.
The taunting, sensual gleam in Duncan's eyes did nothing to help her regain control of her sanity--and certainly not her heart!
One day Mallory was an efficient small-town home economics teacher, comfortably dating the school principal.
The next she was caught in a mad whirl--juggling two suitors; battling hitherto unknown feelings of jealousy and resentment; watching in faint horror as a beautiful blonde captivated her scholarly widowed father; and working into the wee hours rewriting a book to the tune called by C. Duncan Adams, a brilliant--and far too attractive--sociologist.
The taunting, sensual gleam in Duncan's eyes did nothing to help her regain control of her sanity--and certainly not her heart!
187 pages, Paperback
First published September 1, 1988
46 people want to read
About the author
Leigh Michaels
351 books173 followersLeigh Michaels is the pseudonym used by LeAnn Lemberger (b. July 27 in Iowa, United States), a popular United States writer of over 85 romance novels. She has published with Harlequin, Sourcebooks, Montlake Romance, Writers Digest Books, and Arcadia Publishing. She teaches romance writing at Gotham Writers' Workshop (www.writingclasses.com) She is the author of On Writing Romance.
When Leigh was fifteen she wrote her first romance novel and burned it. She burned five more complete manuscripts before submitting to a publisher. The first submission was accepted by Harlequin, the only publisher to look at it, and was published in 1984.
Michaels was born in Iowa, United States. She received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, after three years of study and maintained a 3.93 grade-point average. She received the Robert Bliss Award as top-ranking senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and won a national William Randolph Hearst Award for feature-writing as an undergraduate.
She is married to Michael W. Lemberger, an artist-photographer.
When Leigh was fifteen she wrote her first romance novel and burned it. She burned five more complete manuscripts before submitting to a publisher. The first submission was accepted by Harlequin, the only publisher to look at it, and was published in 1984.
Michaels was born in Iowa, United States. She received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, after three years of study and maintained a 3.93 grade-point average. She received the Robert Bliss Award as top-ranking senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and won a national William Randolph Hearst Award for feature-writing as an undergraduate.
She is married to Michael W. Lemberger, an artist-photographer.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
October 20, 2016
Re Close Collaboration - LM gives us a high school romance -complete with a date to the prom. The h scores a triple word bonus, cause her date is a college guy. Technically the h is a high school home economics teacher and the H is the head of the local college Sociology Department. But between the bantering humor and alliteration of the H's first initial C., as well as a lot classroom time, this trip to HPlandia feels like high school all over again.
The h teaches all things domestic to high school students, she loves to cook, sew and manage a house, but somehow when conveying these skills to high school students, the thrill just isn't the same. The h also teaches a life skills class that is designed to help senior students transition to adulthood by teaching them the basics of independent living. Things like budgeting, insurance, renting a place to live and even parenthood are covered. The h likes the class so much that she has spent the last year writing a text book about the life skill class and she has sent in an outline to publishers hoping to get it into print.
The h gets a letter back from the potential publisher saying they like the idea but she needs a full Sociologist collaborator to put their name on the book as co-author or the publisher thinks the book won't sell. (You can tell how dated this book is by the fact that no one suggests the h sell it as a mass market self help book and there is no self publishing, new HP readers will probably judge this book to be from the Stone Ages as no one has even thought about e books yet.) The h is pretty despondent that her magnum opus may never see the printing press, but her Shakespearean professor father says he knows a Sociology guy that may be able to help her out. Since he and the h are slated to attend a college faculty buffet that night, he will hook her up and she can give her book pitch.
They go to the party and the h is kinda bored, she did not get a good description of her Sociology guy from her dad, so when she hears a tall, lanky guy expounding on tribal Samoan sociology studies, she thinks she's found her man. She is absentmindedly going through the food buffet and trying various samples for her inner food critic evaluation, when the man she thinks is Dr. Sociology starts to leave. In her hurry to catch up, she dumps her overloaded plate all over the jacket of the guy she almost runs over. She is totally embarrassed, and to make things even worse, the man she just bathed in Swedish Meatballs is the man she actually needs to talk to about co-authoring her book - her dad introduces him as Dr. Sociology. The h has no time to make her pitch as Dr. S is pretty irked and he and his very lovely companion leave the party and the h doesn't see him again.
Embarrassment aside, the h really needs the H's help. So she gathers up her precious manuscript (the only copy she has, there aren't many photocopiers available either) and seeks to corner the H in his college office. He gives her a verbal sorta smackdown, but the h talks fast and he agrees to look over her book. He takes the manuscript and wanders off and the h is left to stew and teach high school for two weeks.
The h has a 16 yr old brother, and she seems to be the main guardian over him as her father is generally too distracted by his studies to bother. The h also holds Sunday teas for a sorta meet new friends group and in general has taken over the running of the family home since her mother died and her father became a bit lost. Eventually the H turns up and questions the h pretty closely on her reasons for the book and then he agrees to co-author it with her. Since he is a published author, he tells the h that book will have to be almost totally rewritten and the h isn't too happy about it. But she wants the book to sell, so she agrees to collaborate and they begin working on the book.
Things are simmering along and the h has no spare time, she finally decides to take a night off and go to the movies with the principle of her school, he is divorced and the have been casually seeing each other - mostly around school functions as chaperones, but also in a more personal way with social evenings out. The H has been pretty helpful and the h assumes that the lovely lady he was with at the buffet party is his wife. When the h and her date get to the movies, her date sees the woman the H was with that night and starts remarking about how she is the most beautiful woman he has seen in his life. The h is a bit taken aback and even more flabbergasted when the woman comes up to her after the show and her date practically starts drooling all over her, he pretty much abandons the h to ask the woman out dinner. Then the H walks up and the h is pretty happy to see the sad look that comes over her date's face, cause they both think that the H is the woman's husband.
Then the woman introduces herself and the H - it turns out she is the H's sister. The h's date wastes no time in dragging the H's sister off to the local pizza parlor, completely abandoning the h to the H. The H decides that Dumper boy needs to be taught a lesson about abandoning the lady he came with. So he kisses the h in the pizza parlor parking lot, in full view of his sister and dumper boy.
The h is a little peeved that the H would just go around kissing people like that to make a point she wasn't particularly interested in pursuing, but she forgets all of that in the passionate response of her body to the H's kiss. Dumper boy is abashed, but that doesn't stop him from trying to take the sister home instead of the h, and the H tells him that he makes it a point to leave with the lady he brought and he take his sister home. Dumper boy takes the h home, but they don't exactly part amicably.
The work on the book continues and the H wants to hurry it up, he has deadlines of his own to make and he wants to be done by summer. The H wants to cut the part in the book about the parenthood life skills segment and the h adamantly refuses. She has her students pair up and carry eggs around for six weeks, the students have to share parenting responsibilities and treat the tea-stained, hollow eggs like real babies. The H says he would like to observe the class when they get their eggs, he thinks the lesson will be a bit dubious in teaching responsibility, but anything goes for Sociology research - those guys know how to party. The H goes to the egg delivery class and then the students gang up on the h and H and make them be responsible for their own little newblown egg. (The kids say how can the h teach it if she never experiences it and an egg mum is made.)
So the proud egg parents decide to go to the H's apartment to work on the book. There is an almost lurve club tower of power ride that involves kinda weird powdered doughnut smashings in unusual places. The H's sister comes home before any serious doughnut mashings can occur. The H threatens to tell the students that the h left little Alexandra egg in the car by herself while she and the H were abusing powdered doughnuts, if she won't say yes to dinner with him. The h escapes without any firm commitment, but the H shows up to the h's class the next day and the h finds herself agreeing to the implied blackmail. The h also finds out her brother has contracted mono, and she is trying to fit his care in with her other commitments. Surprisingly the H's sister is a nurse and she volunteers to ride heard on the h's little brother during the day while the h is teaching.
The h and H share some hot/cold he wants her/he doesn't moments and there is lots of eggtastic snarkyness to boot. Dumper boy is supposed to be the h's escort to the Senior Prom dance they are both chaperoning, but he dumps the h to take the H's sister instead. Dumper boy had also told the h that the social sciences department was going to take over the life skills class next year, but the h demands that she be allowed to continue to teach it. (She hasn't mentioned the book to anyone at her school, but she thinks she has a better chance of getting it published if she is actually teaching the class.) The night of the prom, the H shows up in a tux and we have the whole two grown ups reenacting high school thing complete with making out in the bushes and miniature golf.
The H wants the h to travel with him during the summer, he tells her she is unhappy with high school and she should follow in his trail and go into Sociology instead. The h thinks she would really like to do that, tho she is unclear in what capacity the H wants her to go with him -as girlfriend or student, but the h doesn't feel she can leave her brother yet. He is still 16 and her dad has a summer lecture tour planned, so the h is very unwilling to leave him unsupervised. The H indicates that he wants her as a lurve club holder and to show her his Sociology skillz too.
The H kidnaps the h for a picnic the next day, causing her to miss her weekly tea and when she won't agree to drop everything an lurve it up with him over the summer, he accuses her of martyring herself to her brother and her home and enjoying it. The h takes this pronouncement pretty badly and they part on angry words.
The H told her he is not returning the next school year to be the Sociology head of the local college, so the h realizes that their time has come and gone and she probably won't be seeing the H in any meaningful way anymore. She has a big mopey moment for a while, cause she figures out she is in love with the H.
(I thought the H was rather arrogant in his assumptions in his big ranty moment, yes the h may have been a bit sacrificial about her family, but her father was leaving town for the summer and while her brother was a good kid, I too would hesitate to leave a 16 yr old alone the entire summer without any adult supervision, especially to go shack up with a guy whose interest seems to be more than a bit arbitrary and sudden.)
The h's mopyness only gets bigger when the H's sister gives her a pair of blown glass Venetian lovebirds to add to her small animal pairs figurine collection. The sister tells the h that while the H is returning as a researcher to his alma mater back East, she will be staying on in the town and is now involved in a serous relationship. The H only moved to the h's town to help his sister get away from a bad relationship with a doctor at her old hospital.
The h is despondent cause she assumes the sister is serious about Dumper boy and everyone is pairing up but her, (tho it is fairly obvious to the reader that the sister is talking about hooking up with the h's widowed dad and the h has no clue,) so the h continues to pine over the H. The h decides it is time to talk to her dad, so she goes and asks him how he would feel if she left to be with the H. The h had apparently promised her mum on her deathbed that she would watch over the brother until he was grown and the dad admits that he should have stepped in and not dumped everything on her.
The h's dad tells her to go to the H with his blessing, but the h can't find him anywhere. Then she gets caught up in a seven course fund raising dinner for 24 people and doesn't have time to track him down. Tho she is hoping after the dinner is out of the way, she can apologize to the H for yelling at him and they can shack up on the road trip of lurve for the summer.
One of the h's servers and helpers for the big dinner calls out sick, so the H's sister calls the H and he agrees to come over and help out. The h is in a bit of a panic, cause she wasn't planning on flinging her bonnet over the windmill in the middle of the entree for 24 paying guests. But when she burns her hand and the H rushes to help her out, she figures he really does like her and let the bonnets fly. The h avows her love and then sets up to serve dessert. The dinner finally ends and the H and h are tasting the tempting shores of bliss when the h's brother comes in to break it up and drag the h to the living room.
The h gets quite a shock when her father announces that he and the H's sister are getting married - the dad thought he was too old for her, so she went to the prom with Dumper boy and then told the h's dad that he either hooked up or she was picketing his university and claiming the dad trifled with her affections.
The h is relived that everything is working out nicely and her brother won't have to be an unsupervised latch key kid who will fall in with a vicious gang of book highlighters and run amok at the public library. She and the H take a walk to discuss their future plans and the H claims he needs to marry the h so he will not continue to be an absent egg father. The h and H share a romantic stroll down the h's block for the big HP moonlit HEA.
This one is probably the easiest LM HP to read in terms of nobody being overly obnoxious or overtly idiotic. I am not sure the high school setting worked that well for HPlandia and I was really concerned with the lack of page time for little Alexandria egg for the latter half of the book. I suspect the h was rather neglectful in a growing egg's needs, but the h does admit that she probably isn't ready for egg growth supervision yet, tho she swears she wants no other little egglets but the H's.
I also thought all this urgency that the h had to pick a new career right that minute was sorta weird too. Plus, having this big push to rush the h off with the H for life based on a few months of minimal acquaintance and doughnut abuse and him totally condemning most of her life choices up to the moment he convinced her to leave with him was a bit too much like jumping the shark, but this is HPlandia and it worked out in the end, so I just went with it.
This isn't a bad book overall, and those who like the casual style and don't mind high school settings will probably have an eggscellent time on this excursion in HPlandia.
The h teaches all things domestic to high school students, she loves to cook, sew and manage a house, but somehow when conveying these skills to high school students, the thrill just isn't the same. The h also teaches a life skills class that is designed to help senior students transition to adulthood by teaching them the basics of independent living. Things like budgeting, insurance, renting a place to live and even parenthood are covered. The h likes the class so much that she has spent the last year writing a text book about the life skill class and she has sent in an outline to publishers hoping to get it into print.
The h gets a letter back from the potential publisher saying they like the idea but she needs a full Sociologist collaborator to put their name on the book as co-author or the publisher thinks the book won't sell. (You can tell how dated this book is by the fact that no one suggests the h sell it as a mass market self help book and there is no self publishing, new HP readers will probably judge this book to be from the Stone Ages as no one has even thought about e books yet.) The h is pretty despondent that her magnum opus may never see the printing press, but her Shakespearean professor father says he knows a Sociology guy that may be able to help her out. Since he and the h are slated to attend a college faculty buffet that night, he will hook her up and she can give her book pitch.
They go to the party and the h is kinda bored, she did not get a good description of her Sociology guy from her dad, so when she hears a tall, lanky guy expounding on tribal Samoan sociology studies, she thinks she's found her man. She is absentmindedly going through the food buffet and trying various samples for her inner food critic evaluation, when the man she thinks is Dr. Sociology starts to leave. In her hurry to catch up, she dumps her overloaded plate all over the jacket of the guy she almost runs over. She is totally embarrassed, and to make things even worse, the man she just bathed in Swedish Meatballs is the man she actually needs to talk to about co-authoring her book - her dad introduces him as Dr. Sociology. The h has no time to make her pitch as Dr. S is pretty irked and he and his very lovely companion leave the party and the h doesn't see him again.
Embarrassment aside, the h really needs the H's help. So she gathers up her precious manuscript (the only copy she has, there aren't many photocopiers available either) and seeks to corner the H in his college office. He gives her a verbal sorta smackdown, but the h talks fast and he agrees to look over her book. He takes the manuscript and wanders off and the h is left to stew and teach high school for two weeks.
The h has a 16 yr old brother, and she seems to be the main guardian over him as her father is generally too distracted by his studies to bother. The h also holds Sunday teas for a sorta meet new friends group and in general has taken over the running of the family home since her mother died and her father became a bit lost. Eventually the H turns up and questions the h pretty closely on her reasons for the book and then he agrees to co-author it with her. Since he is a published author, he tells the h that book will have to be almost totally rewritten and the h isn't too happy about it. But she wants the book to sell, so she agrees to collaborate and they begin working on the book.
Things are simmering along and the h has no spare time, she finally decides to take a night off and go to the movies with the principle of her school, he is divorced and the have been casually seeing each other - mostly around school functions as chaperones, but also in a more personal way with social evenings out. The H has been pretty helpful and the h assumes that the lovely lady he was with at the buffet party is his wife. When the h and her date get to the movies, her date sees the woman the H was with that night and starts remarking about how she is the most beautiful woman he has seen in his life. The h is a bit taken aback and even more flabbergasted when the woman comes up to her after the show and her date practically starts drooling all over her, he pretty much abandons the h to ask the woman out dinner. Then the H walks up and the h is pretty happy to see the sad look that comes over her date's face, cause they both think that the H is the woman's husband.
Then the woman introduces herself and the H - it turns out she is the H's sister. The h's date wastes no time in dragging the H's sister off to the local pizza parlor, completely abandoning the h to the H. The H decides that Dumper boy needs to be taught a lesson about abandoning the lady he came with. So he kisses the h in the pizza parlor parking lot, in full view of his sister and dumper boy.
The h is a little peeved that the H would just go around kissing people like that to make a point she wasn't particularly interested in pursuing, but she forgets all of that in the passionate response of her body to the H's kiss. Dumper boy is abashed, but that doesn't stop him from trying to take the sister home instead of the h, and the H tells him that he makes it a point to leave with the lady he brought and he take his sister home. Dumper boy takes the h home, but they don't exactly part amicably.
The work on the book continues and the H wants to hurry it up, he has deadlines of his own to make and he wants to be done by summer. The H wants to cut the part in the book about the parenthood life skills segment and the h adamantly refuses. She has her students pair up and carry eggs around for six weeks, the students have to share parenting responsibilities and treat the tea-stained, hollow eggs like real babies. The H says he would like to observe the class when they get their eggs, he thinks the lesson will be a bit dubious in teaching responsibility, but anything goes for Sociology research - those guys know how to party. The H goes to the egg delivery class and then the students gang up on the h and H and make them be responsible for their own little newblown egg. (The kids say how can the h teach it if she never experiences it and an egg mum is made.)
So the proud egg parents decide to go to the H's apartment to work on the book. There is an almost lurve club tower of power ride that involves kinda weird powdered doughnut smashings in unusual places. The H's sister comes home before any serious doughnut mashings can occur. The H threatens to tell the students that the h left little Alexandra egg in the car by herself while she and the H were abusing powdered doughnuts, if she won't say yes to dinner with him. The h escapes without any firm commitment, but the H shows up to the h's class the next day and the h finds herself agreeing to the implied blackmail. The h also finds out her brother has contracted mono, and she is trying to fit his care in with her other commitments. Surprisingly the H's sister is a nurse and she volunteers to ride heard on the h's little brother during the day while the h is teaching.
The h and H share some hot/cold he wants her/he doesn't moments and there is lots of eggtastic snarkyness to boot. Dumper boy is supposed to be the h's escort to the Senior Prom dance they are both chaperoning, but he dumps the h to take the H's sister instead. Dumper boy had also told the h that the social sciences department was going to take over the life skills class next year, but the h demands that she be allowed to continue to teach it. (She hasn't mentioned the book to anyone at her school, but she thinks she has a better chance of getting it published if she is actually teaching the class.) The night of the prom, the H shows up in a tux and we have the whole two grown ups reenacting high school thing complete with making out in the bushes and miniature golf.
The H wants the h to travel with him during the summer, he tells her she is unhappy with high school and she should follow in his trail and go into Sociology instead. The h thinks she would really like to do that, tho she is unclear in what capacity the H wants her to go with him -as girlfriend or student, but the h doesn't feel she can leave her brother yet. He is still 16 and her dad has a summer lecture tour planned, so the h is very unwilling to leave him unsupervised. The H indicates that he wants her as a lurve club holder and to show her his Sociology skillz too.
The H kidnaps the h for a picnic the next day, causing her to miss her weekly tea and when she won't agree to drop everything an lurve it up with him over the summer, he accuses her of martyring herself to her brother and her home and enjoying it. The h takes this pronouncement pretty badly and they part on angry words.
The H told her he is not returning the next school year to be the Sociology head of the local college, so the h realizes that their time has come and gone and she probably won't be seeing the H in any meaningful way anymore. She has a big mopey moment for a while, cause she figures out she is in love with the H.
(I thought the H was rather arrogant in his assumptions in his big ranty moment, yes the h may have been a bit sacrificial about her family, but her father was leaving town for the summer and while her brother was a good kid, I too would hesitate to leave a 16 yr old alone the entire summer without any adult supervision, especially to go shack up with a guy whose interest seems to be more than a bit arbitrary and sudden.)
The h's mopyness only gets bigger when the H's sister gives her a pair of blown glass Venetian lovebirds to add to her small animal pairs figurine collection. The sister tells the h that while the H is returning as a researcher to his alma mater back East, she will be staying on in the town and is now involved in a serous relationship. The H only moved to the h's town to help his sister get away from a bad relationship with a doctor at her old hospital.
The h is despondent cause she assumes the sister is serious about Dumper boy and everyone is pairing up but her, (tho it is fairly obvious to the reader that the sister is talking about hooking up with the h's widowed dad and the h has no clue,) so the h continues to pine over the H. The h decides it is time to talk to her dad, so she goes and asks him how he would feel if she left to be with the H. The h had apparently promised her mum on her deathbed that she would watch over the brother until he was grown and the dad admits that he should have stepped in and not dumped everything on her.
The h's dad tells her to go to the H with his blessing, but the h can't find him anywhere. Then she gets caught up in a seven course fund raising dinner for 24 people and doesn't have time to track him down. Tho she is hoping after the dinner is out of the way, she can apologize to the H for yelling at him and they can shack up on the road trip of lurve for the summer.
One of the h's servers and helpers for the big dinner calls out sick, so the H's sister calls the H and he agrees to come over and help out. The h is in a bit of a panic, cause she wasn't planning on flinging her bonnet over the windmill in the middle of the entree for 24 paying guests. But when she burns her hand and the H rushes to help her out, she figures he really does like her and let the bonnets fly. The h avows her love and then sets up to serve dessert. The dinner finally ends and the H and h are tasting the tempting shores of bliss when the h's brother comes in to break it up and drag the h to the living room.
The h gets quite a shock when her father announces that he and the H's sister are getting married - the dad thought he was too old for her, so she went to the prom with Dumper boy and then told the h's dad that he either hooked up or she was picketing his university and claiming the dad trifled with her affections.
The h is relived that everything is working out nicely and her brother won't have to be an unsupervised latch key kid who will fall in with a vicious gang of book highlighters and run amok at the public library. She and the H take a walk to discuss their future plans and the H claims he needs to marry the h so he will not continue to be an absent egg father. The h and H share a romantic stroll down the h's block for the big HP moonlit HEA.
This one is probably the easiest LM HP to read in terms of nobody being overly obnoxious or overtly idiotic. I am not sure the high school setting worked that well for HPlandia and I was really concerned with the lack of page time for little Alexandria egg for the latter half of the book. I suspect the h was rather neglectful in a growing egg's needs, but the h does admit that she probably isn't ready for egg growth supervision yet, tho she swears she wants no other little egglets but the H's.
I also thought all this urgency that the h had to pick a new career right that minute was sorta weird too. Plus, having this big push to rush the h off with the H for life based on a few months of minimal acquaintance and doughnut abuse and him totally condemning most of her life choices up to the moment he convinced her to leave with him was a bit too much like jumping the shark, but this is HPlandia and it worked out in the end, so I just went with it.
This isn't a bad book overall, and those who like the casual style and don't mind high school settings will probably have an eggscellent time on this excursion in HPlandia.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 4, 2011
This is one of my MOST fave books EVER!!! If you want to know what sort of a person I am - what sort of humor defines me - this book will clue you in.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews