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A Careful Wife
Marriage merger!Honor was convinced Ryan Bailey was looking for a "careful," suitable wife. She was equally certain he'd never consider her an ideal candidate! And she was glad. Getting involved with Ryan would be a bad idea. For one thing, he was her boss. For another, he clearly wanted someone meek and obedient....Only, it transpired that Ryan had a very different sort of woman in mind. Someone passionate; able to stand up to him -- someone like Honor! And once their relationship had crossed the line from business to personal, there was no turning back!
185 pages, Paperback
First published March 8, 1996
24 people want to read
About the author
Lindsay Armstrong
318 books92 followersGillian Smith (alias Lindsay Armstrong) was born in South Africa. She grew up with three ambitions: to become a writer, to travel the world, and to be a game ranger. She didn't achieve the last one, but her fascination for wildlife and that special something about Africa and its big game still remains with her. When she went to work it was in travel, at an agency and an airline, and this started her on the road to seeing the world.
Lindsey met her New Zealand-born husband, who had been working in West Africa, when he was on his way home through Johannesburg. He did go home but in a matter of weeks he was back in South Africa, and six months later they were married. Three of their five children were born in South Africa. Then one in London and one in Australia, after they made the decision to emigrate from South Africa.
It wasn't until her youngest child started school that Lindsay sat down at the kitchen table determined to tackle her other ambition to stop dreaming about writing and do it! She hasn't stopped since. She's not happy unless she has a book under way, and she's discovered she can write through just about anything.
Lindsay and her husband have moved around a lot. They've trained racehorses,farmed, and lived on their boat for six months while they sailed it from the Gold Coast to the Torres Strait and back, an epic voyage! They currently live in Queensland, overlooking the water; they sold their farm, and they're looking around for another boat. She and her husband love to travel and have been back to Africa twice in the past few years. The highlight of one of their trips was a visit to the Serengeti, in Tanzania, where Lindsay did the one thing she swore she would never do: take a ride in a hot-air balloon. She was a nervous wreck as the balloon tottered upright, but will remember it as a unique experience to see the game spreading out on the Serengeti plain beneath her as the sun rose.
"They say you can take someone who was born in Africa out of the bush but you can't take the bush out of someone born there..."
Despite this passion for wildlife and Africa, Lindsay considers Australia her home now and loves the country. She travelled to Sydney to witness the closing weekend of the Olympic Games in September 2000; it made her proud to be an adopted Aussie!
Lindsey met her New Zealand-born husband, who had been working in West Africa, when he was on his way home through Johannesburg. He did go home but in a matter of weeks he was back in South Africa, and six months later they were married. Three of their five children were born in South Africa. Then one in London and one in Australia, after they made the decision to emigrate from South Africa.
It wasn't until her youngest child started school that Lindsay sat down at the kitchen table determined to tackle her other ambition to stop dreaming about writing and do it! She hasn't stopped since. She's not happy unless she has a book under way, and she's discovered she can write through just about anything.
Lindsay and her husband have moved around a lot. They've trained racehorses,farmed, and lived on their boat for six months while they sailed it from the Gold Coast to the Torres Strait and back, an epic voyage! They currently live in Queensland, overlooking the water; they sold their farm, and they're looking around for another boat. She and her husband love to travel and have been back to Africa twice in the past few years. The highlight of one of their trips was a visit to the Serengeti, in Tanzania, where Lindsay did the one thing she swore she would never do: take a ride in a hot-air balloon. She was a nervous wreck as the balloon tottered upright, but will remember it as a unique experience to see the game spreading out on the Serengeti plain beneath her as the sun rose.
"They say you can take someone who was born in Africa out of the bush but you can't take the bush out of someone born there..."
Despite this passion for wildlife and Africa, Lindsay considers Australia her home now and loves the country. She travelled to Sydney to witness the closing weekend of the Olympic Games in September 2000; it made her proud to be an adopted Aussie!
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
April 7, 2017
OMG Zzzzzzzzzz
Big boss hero speculates what the art curator heroine looks like in black lace underwear and appears amused when she is frosty to him then and at subsequent meetings.
H/h sparred/bickered/said hateful things for a few weeks - and then were kidnapped by a crazed artist who wanted the H to buy his paintings. The kidnapper took them on the H's boat, but a storm comes up and he abandons ship with the H/h still on it. The boat runs aground on an uninhabited island and they are stranded for a few days.
*sigh* It was so implausible and boring and the hero was smugly superior through it all.
The kidnapper is still at large so the heroine has to move into the hero's gated estate. Cue more sparring/bickering/saying hateful things. All of this manufactured conflict is broken up by the hero's ex-wife who just can't quit him. The heroine pretty much tells her that the hero isn't worth wasting any more of her life on and she should stop beating herself up for not being the kind of wife the hero needed. He wasn't the kind of husband *she* needed.
True words. Heed your own advice, heroine.
Finally, the kidnapper is apprehended. There is some last minute drama with a disgruntled employee who warns off the heroine. The hero has bitter words for the heroine listening to the guy. So they break up for a few days. The heroine comes crawling back to a smug hero.
I wanted Hero to apologize for being a cold, speculative ass to the heroine, claiming he could read her mind and he knew better than she what she was *really * thinking. Right. He needed some humbling and to show some vulnerability - but no - he's still the big boss at the end of the story.
Besides having a "superior" hero (my least favorite kind) this was so slow, I skimmed paragraphs.
Big boss hero speculates what the art curator heroine looks like in black lace underwear and appears amused when she is frosty to him then and at subsequent meetings.
H/h sparred/bickered/said hateful things for a few weeks - and then were kidnapped by a crazed artist who wanted the H to buy his paintings. The kidnapper took them on the H's boat, but a storm comes up and he abandons ship with the H/h still on it. The boat runs aground on an uninhabited island and they are stranded for a few days.
*sigh* It was so implausible and boring and the hero was smugly superior through it all.
The kidnapper is still at large so the heroine has to move into the hero's gated estate. Cue more sparring/bickering/saying hateful things. All of this manufactured conflict is broken up by the hero's ex-wife who just can't quit him. The heroine pretty much tells her that the hero isn't worth wasting any more of her life on and she should stop beating herself up for not being the kind of wife the hero needed. He wasn't the kind of husband *she* needed.
True words. Heed your own advice, heroine.
Finally, the kidnapper is apprehended. There is some last minute drama with a disgruntled employee who warns off the heroine. The hero has bitter words for the heroine listening to the guy. So they break up for a few days. The heroine comes crawling back to a smug hero.
I wanted Hero to apologize for being a cold, speculative ass to the heroine, claiming he could read her mind and he knew better than she what she was *really * thinking. Right. He needed some humbling and to show some vulnerability - but no - he's still the big boss at the end of the story.
Besides having a "superior" hero (my least favorite kind) this was so slow, I skimmed paragraphs.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 30, 2020
HAIKU BOOK REVIEW: A Careful Wife, by Lindsay Armstrong.
An art curator,
classy but cold is thawed out
by hunky tycoon.
An art curator,
classy but cold is thawed out
by hunky tycoon.
May 28, 2019
Another day, another misleading title.
Here we have another wife who isn't a wife h until the epilogue so what she has to be careful for is anyone's guess.
The H in this one annoyed me less than 8 pages into the book. He is a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen. How he has managed to run a multi-million $$ empire with the words that come out of his mouth beggars belief.
The h works as an art curator for the H and when he isn't making unwanted advances on her he is pretty darn rude to a lot of his employees and struggles to get rid of his spineless but lovely ex wife who has to come see him just to get her butt wiped.
The h dodges the H's advances until they are kidnapped by some art fanatic and then they begin an affair. Things plonk along fairly steadily until he has to go on a business trip at which point the h feels let down and leaves him to go have a cheeky cry rendering her previous fairly kick ass character in a melted pile of liquified calcium backbone.
The employee betraying him seemed unnecessary to the plot and just added extra wordy words.
Here we have another wife who isn't a wife h until the epilogue so what she has to be careful for is anyone's guess.
The H in this one annoyed me less than 8 pages into the book. He is a sexual harassment lawsuit waiting to happen. How he has managed to run a multi-million $$ empire with the words that come out of his mouth beggars belief.
The h works as an art curator for the H and when he isn't making unwanted advances on her he is pretty darn rude to a lot of his employees and struggles to get rid of his spineless but lovely ex wife who has to come see him just to get her butt wiped.
The h dodges the H's advances until they are kidnapped by some art fanatic and then they begin an affair. Things plonk along fairly steadily until he has to go on a business trip at which point the h feels let down and leaves him to go have a cheeky cry rendering her previous fairly kick ass character in a melted pile of liquified calcium backbone.
The employee betraying him seemed unnecessary to the plot and just added extra wordy words.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 5, 2019
Interesting title but a very boring book. The character of h as a late Judge's daughter and an art curator would make you think of her as a strong lady but she just comes across as a tease and a coward with way she plays it safe with H. The H is described as a tiger and his ex-wife who still carries a torch for him as a lamb. There is several mention of how h is an ideal equal to h but despite these mentions the h comes across as a girl who has no idea what she wants in life or who she wants in it. The H is by no means an alpha but a guy who keeps spouting off verbal propositions with no luck! In real life if you do keep propositioning the same woman that many times after she refuses to play, it would be called harassment.
February 24, 2019
Hope Lingard works for Ryan Bailey as his "in house" curator. Ryan Bailey is owner of Bailey Construction and is very wealthy. Hope always believed that Ryan would wantva wife thar was quite, and does everything to his wishes. However Ryan knows the only wife he will have needs to be able to stand toe to toe with him and not to back down. And that only woman has to be Hope. He only has to convince him of that.
October 15, 2022
This is the story of Ryan ( tycoon) and Honor( art curator). There are no passionate scenes between them. There are however lots and lots of probing-of- mind conversations like in all this author’s books. I thought the romance developed somewhat naturally and very slowly between the
Two. The heroine is a somewhat a strong character at first but ends up almost like the usual Lindsay Armstrong heroines. One can certainly read it once.
Two. The heroine is a somewhat a strong character at first but ends up almost like the usual Lindsay Armstrong heroines. One can certainly read it once.
December 26, 2023
This one was a bickerfest. Art collector and divorced construction magnate Ryan fancies the pants off classy ice maiden art curator (and employee) Honor. Couldn't massively take to either of them, although as someone married to a workaholic, I had some sympathy for her qualms. It was a bit slow.
May 29, 2011
La historia iba como tantas otras hasta que surgió un presunto van Gogh y puso pimienta en las cosas. Hay un secuestro cuyo desarrollo y conclusión son muy distintos del que suelen tener en los libros: felicitaciones a la autora.
January 16, 2025
OK but slow. More telling than showing.
Reread as I usually like this author but this is bad, so slow, boring, unlikable characters and too much arguing.
Reread as I usually like this author but this is bad, so slow, boring, unlikable characters and too much arguing.
July 14, 2012
Ehhhh. Boring
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews