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Wife by Approval
Billionaire Richard Anders needed Valentina to claim the spectacular Castle Anders. But he hadn't counted on her breathtaking beauty and playing the part of husband proves more pleasurable than he'd imagined.
Valentina's given Richard her innocence in the bedroom, and her word at the altar. But when she learns the truth, will she give him her heart?
Valentina's given Richard her innocence in the bedroom, and her word at the altar. But when she learns the truth, will she give him her heart?
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 2007
9 people are currently reading
60 people want to read
About the author
Lee Wilkinson
260 books39 followersLee Wilkinson was born in Nottingham, the only child of loving parents. She was educated at an all-girls' school, and after leaving, tried her hand at several jobs, including modeling swimwear.
At 22 she met and married her husband, Denis. They had a traditional white wedding and a honeymoon in Italy, and have been happily married ever since. They have two children, a son and a daughter—both now grown up and married—and four lovely grandchildren.
Lee's writing career began with short stories and serials for magazines and newspapers before going on to novels. She has had more than 20 Mills and Boon romance novels published to date.
Amongst her hobbies are reading, gardening, walking, and cooking. Traveling is her main love, and teaming up with her daughter and American son-in-law, she and her husband spent a year going round the world, taking in India, China, Australia, New Zealand, and the States.
Last year she rented a palazzo in the heart of Venice, followed by a quick hop aboard the Orient Express. Lee is currently saving up for a whirlwind tour of Japan, a romantic and exotic destination she has wanted to visit since childhood.
At present she lives with her husband in a 300-year-old stone cottage in a picturesque Derbyshire village, which gets cut off by snow most winters
At 22 she met and married her husband, Denis. They had a traditional white wedding and a honeymoon in Italy, and have been happily married ever since. They have two children, a son and a daughter—both now grown up and married—and four lovely grandchildren.
Lee's writing career began with short stories and serials for magazines and newspapers before going on to novels. She has had more than 20 Mills and Boon romance novels published to date.
Amongst her hobbies are reading, gardening, walking, and cooking. Traveling is her main love, and teaming up with her daughter and American son-in-law, she and her husband spent a year going round the world, taking in India, China, Australia, New Zealand, and the States.
Last year she rented a palazzo in the heart of Venice, followed by a quick hop aboard the Orient Express. Lee is currently saving up for a whirlwind tour of Japan, a romantic and exotic destination she has wanted to visit since childhood.
At present she lives with her husband in a 300-year-old stone cottage in a picturesque Derbyshire village, which gets cut off by snow most winters
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
July 14, 2017
You know those cheesy horror movies – the kind where they have lines like “the call is coming from inside the house?” Well, this is an HP version of that kind of cheese.
Our stupid, *stupid* heroine – the kind of heroine for whomThe Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence is written – begins her funhouse journey on Friday the 13th.
On this day she –
Wrenches her ankle getting out of the shower
Finds out she will have to spend the weekend in a hotel because her flatmate’s boyfriend is staying over.
Discovers she has a flat tire.
Is late for work and just grabs her mail without looking at it.
Forgets to pack a lunch and then when she buys a lunch has the bag burst on a rainy street and has to throw it away.
Has the feeling someone is watching her.
Is made redundant because a new firm is taking over.
Shrugs off the fact that her mail is missing from her desk.
Walks through a dark parking lot thinking someone is watching her.
Sits in her car and tries to think where to go.
Backs out and a Porsche hits her car.
Heroine thinks it’s her fault, but the driver offers to fix her car and to take her home.
She explains she doesn’t have a home – so he offers to take her to his home. He has a housekeeper and a guest room.
Okay – we wouldn’t have a story if the heroine went her own way but Good Lord is this bad judgment.
The author doesn’t help by giving us the hero’s incomplete thoughts as he lures the heroine into his lair. We know he doesn’t have good intentions – we don’t know what those intentions are – but the hero obviously doesn’t think well of the heroine.
The housekeeper explains how the hero funds a homeless shelter and what a great guy he is. The heroine finds this reassuring, but I was watching her down two glasses of wine and feeling woozy and letting the hero kiss her in her bedroom, so I just figured the housekeeper is in on it.
The action shifts to the next morning where the heroine is in bed naked and the hero is naked coming out of her bathdroom. He smiles and offers her a hangover potion.
Heroine is horrified that she slept with the hero – but wonders why she can't remember anything and why her body doesn’t feel any different. (She’s a virgin)
Deeply embarrassed, she says she has to leave to find a hotel for the next few nights. Hero knows he has to keep her with him somehow – so he says he has a job offer for her at his vineyard and castle. The heroine doesn’t think she can accept a job from him because they have slept together, but the hero is adamant. He even offers her to bring her back to London after they have looked at the vineyard and castle.
The heroine wants to spend time with the hero – and she has a secret love of castles. When the heroine rhapsodizes over the moat, the hero seems angry with her, but then catches himself and is nice again.
This kind of behaviour happens over and over again. The hero stops himself from saying things. The hero shows a deep negative emotion and then kisses the heroine to distract her. The heroine wonders about this, but is blithely distracted by his kisses and flattery.
The hero realizes he has to keep the heroine at the castle no matter what, so he invites her to stay for dinner. He also manages to take her phone so she can’t call a taxi. After dinner he tells her a ghost story and then takes her through a tunnel under the moat where his flashlight suddenly cuts out. They fumble out of the tunnel, but have to walk the long way back and she wrenches her ankle again. He carries her off to bed and the heroine is so overcome by his nearness that she asks him to stay with her.
The next day he has no good answer for why he let her think they had sex the night before. The heroine is still orgasmic, so whatever brain cells she ever possessed have lost all blood supply and have withered and died. Even when she confronts him about her phone and sees how the flashlight does work – she shrugs off her uneasiness.
By now it’s Sunday morning. The housekeeper of the castle tells the heroine that she’s going to the chapel on the grounds for Sunday services. And oh, btw, hero is going to marry the gal next door and have the ceremony there. The heroine is upset and tries to leave.
The hero says the housekeeper got it wrong. Yes, he’s going to marry – but it’s going to be to the heroine. He fell in love at first sight. (Even when the heroine sees the PI file on his desk with her photos, the hero explains it away. He saw her at her work when his company was negotiating the take over. He had a business trip so he couldn’t approach her. But he wanted to know all about her so he had a detective follow her around.) He set a special licence in motion then and he has a priest on call. He wants to marry the next day.
The heroine is a little disturbed by this. The spying, the hero making sure she lost her job and the accident in the car park – but – the hero loves her and her brain cells are gone so she agrees.
The gal next door rains on her parade as the h is waiting outside the chapel for the priest and the hero to finish talking about the H’s nefarious plans wedding. She tells the heroine the hero doesn’t love her and that he’ll divorce her as soon as he gets what he wants. When the heroine reads the pre-nup (brought by a lawyer on Sunday), she sees that she will get a large sum of money and a house, but never the castle. The heroine signs it because she would never take the hero’s birthright.
Hero is relieved. But the heroine confronts him about the gal next door and the hero brushes it off as (paraphrase) bitch be crazy and she’s just jealous. He puts his mother’s ring on her finger – he took it out of the secret drawer from this mother’s desk. (Helpful hint: remember secret drawer!!!!)
Heroine doesn’t know what to think about the gal next door so she pleads a headache. Hero is angry because he wants to have sex with a mindless idiot and heroine is showing signs of sentience. Heroine feels guilty for doubting him, so she goes to his bed in the middle of the night.
It’s Monday – her wedding day. Hero has arranged for a wedding dress to be delivered. Heroine is touched by his thoughtfulness, but she still wants to know what the gal next door was talking about. So she rides over to house next door and gets the whole story.
Hero thinks she has inherited his castle because she is the illegitimate daughter of his evil stepfather who had a bogus will drawn up when his mother was ill. No one can find the real will, so marrying is the only way to keep it in the famly.
Heroine confronts H and tells him she can’t be the stepfather’s illegitimate daughter. She’s the spitting image of her father. The hero gives her the letter he stole off of her desk and she finally opens it. It’s from a law firm and is addressed to her step sister (they both have names that begin with V). The hero’s detective got the wrong sister (who was a slutty actress – hence the hero’s low opinion of the heroine at the beginning). Heroine tells him he’ll have to ask the sister to marry him now. He asks if the sister will sell the castle. Heroine says yes – sister isn’t greedy, she’s just a slut. (She slept with the heroine’s fiancé)
She packs her things and she puts the ring back in the secret drawer. But it won’t close because of a piece of paper. And that paper is – you guessed it, Nancy Drew – the real will! Heroine hands it over to the hero who is amazed the h didn’t destroy it. Heroine turns to leave, but the hero kinda grovels ( one paragraph) and tells her how much he loved her all along because he gave her his mother's ring. Heroine’s brain cells, over worked by their tussle with the secret drawer, finally give up the ghost. She buys it - hook, line and sinker - and goes to put on her wedding dress. HEA
I will say this that the heroine's character was consistent throughout. She sticks up for her sister even though she slept with her fiancé because her sister says "it wasn't planned." And she's still financing her sister's education - because, why not?
I don’t even know how to rate this, to be honest. The hero was a horrible person and I never got the sense he loved the heroine (how do you love a barely animate object?) – but he wanted to keep her. He lies and lies and lies some more. The gal next door (whom the hero did sleep with in the past) is still there so I wouldn’t be surprised if he stops by for a cup of sugar every now and again. The heroine would totally buy that excuse.
I was entertained, no matter how annoyed I got because I had to know what new dumb thing the hero was going to do next and what new dumb excuse he was going to give the gullible heroine.
Read if you want to feel alive with indignation and with pain as you hit your head on your desk.
Our stupid, *stupid* heroine – the kind of heroine for whomThe Gift of Fear: Survival Signals That Protect Us from Violence is written – begins her funhouse journey on Friday the 13th.
On this day she –
Wrenches her ankle getting out of the shower
Finds out she will have to spend the weekend in a hotel because her flatmate’s boyfriend is staying over.
Discovers she has a flat tire.
Is late for work and just grabs her mail without looking at it.
Forgets to pack a lunch and then when she buys a lunch has the bag burst on a rainy street and has to throw it away.
Has the feeling someone is watching her.
Is made redundant because a new firm is taking over.
Shrugs off the fact that her mail is missing from her desk.
Walks through a dark parking lot thinking someone is watching her.
Sits in her car and tries to think where to go.
Backs out and a Porsche hits her car.
Heroine thinks it’s her fault, but the driver offers to fix her car and to take her home.
She explains she doesn’t have a home – so he offers to take her to his home. He has a housekeeper and a guest room.
Okay – we wouldn’t have a story if the heroine went her own way but Good Lord is this bad judgment.
The author doesn’t help by giving us the hero’s incomplete thoughts as he lures the heroine into his lair. We know he doesn’t have good intentions – we don’t know what those intentions are – but the hero obviously doesn’t think well of the heroine.
The housekeeper explains how the hero funds a homeless shelter and what a great guy he is. The heroine finds this reassuring, but I was watching her down two glasses of wine and feeling woozy and letting the hero kiss her in her bedroom, so I just figured the housekeeper is in on it.
The action shifts to the next morning where the heroine is in bed naked and the hero is naked coming out of her bathdroom. He smiles and offers her a hangover potion.
Heroine is horrified that she slept with the hero – but wonders why she can't remember anything and why her body doesn’t feel any different. (She’s a virgin)
Deeply embarrassed, she says she has to leave to find a hotel for the next few nights. Hero knows he has to keep her with him somehow – so he says he has a job offer for her at his vineyard and castle. The heroine doesn’t think she can accept a job from him because they have slept together, but the hero is adamant. He even offers her to bring her back to London after they have looked at the vineyard and castle.
The heroine wants to spend time with the hero – and she has a secret love of castles. When the heroine rhapsodizes over the moat, the hero seems angry with her, but then catches himself and is nice again.
This kind of behaviour happens over and over again. The hero stops himself from saying things. The hero shows a deep negative emotion and then kisses the heroine to distract her. The heroine wonders about this, but is blithely distracted by his kisses and flattery.
The hero realizes he has to keep the heroine at the castle no matter what, so he invites her to stay for dinner. He also manages to take her phone so she can’t call a taxi. After dinner he tells her a ghost story and then takes her through a tunnel under the moat where his flashlight suddenly cuts out. They fumble out of the tunnel, but have to walk the long way back and she wrenches her ankle again. He carries her off to bed and the heroine is so overcome by his nearness that she asks him to stay with her.
The next day he has no good answer for why he let her think they had sex the night before. The heroine is still orgasmic, so whatever brain cells she ever possessed have lost all blood supply and have withered and died. Even when she confronts him about her phone and sees how the flashlight does work – she shrugs off her uneasiness.
By now it’s Sunday morning. The housekeeper of the castle tells the heroine that she’s going to the chapel on the grounds for Sunday services. And oh, btw, hero is going to marry the gal next door and have the ceremony there. The heroine is upset and tries to leave.
The hero says the housekeeper got it wrong. Yes, he’s going to marry – but it’s going to be to the heroine. He fell in love at first sight. (Even when the heroine sees the PI file on his desk with her photos, the hero explains it away. He saw her at her work when his company was negotiating the take over. He had a business trip so he couldn’t approach her. But he wanted to know all about her so he had a detective follow her around.) He set a special licence in motion then and he has a priest on call. He wants to marry the next day.
The heroine is a little disturbed by this. The spying, the hero making sure she lost her job and the accident in the car park – but – the hero loves her and her brain cells are gone so she agrees.
The gal next door rains on her parade as the h is waiting outside the chapel for the priest and the hero to finish talking about the
Hero is relieved. But the heroine confronts him about the gal next door and the hero brushes it off as (paraphrase) bitch be crazy and she’s just jealous. He puts his mother’s ring on her finger – he took it out of the secret drawer from this mother’s desk. (Helpful hint: remember secret drawer!!!!)
Heroine doesn’t know what to think about the gal next door so she pleads a headache. Hero is angry because he wants to have sex with a mindless idiot and heroine is showing signs of sentience. Heroine feels guilty for doubting him, so she goes to his bed in the middle of the night.
It’s Monday – her wedding day. Hero has arranged for a wedding dress to be delivered. Heroine is touched by his thoughtfulness, but she still wants to know what the gal next door was talking about. So she rides over to house next door and gets the whole story.
Hero thinks she has inherited his castle because she is the illegitimate daughter of his evil stepfather who had a bogus will drawn up when his mother was ill. No one can find the real will, so marrying is the only way to keep it in the famly.
Heroine confronts H and tells him she can’t be the stepfather’s illegitimate daughter. She’s the spitting image of her father. The hero gives her the letter he stole off of her desk and she finally opens it. It’s from a law firm and is addressed to her step sister (they both have names that begin with V). The hero’s detective got the wrong sister (who was a slutty actress – hence the hero’s low opinion of the heroine at the beginning). Heroine tells him he’ll have to ask the sister to marry him now. He asks if the sister will sell the castle. Heroine says yes – sister isn’t greedy, she’s just a slut. (She slept with the heroine’s fiancé)
She packs her things and she puts the ring back in the secret drawer. But it won’t close because of a piece of paper. And that paper is – you guessed it, Nancy Drew – the real will! Heroine hands it over to the hero who is amazed the h didn’t destroy it. Heroine turns to leave, but the hero kinda grovels ( one paragraph) and tells her how much he loved her all along because he gave her his mother's ring. Heroine’s brain cells, over worked by their tussle with the secret drawer, finally give up the ghost. She buys it - hook, line and sinker - and goes to put on her wedding dress. HEA
I will say this that the heroine's character was consistent throughout. She sticks up for her sister even though she slept with her fiancé because her sister says "it wasn't planned." And she's still financing her sister's education - because, why not?
I don’t even know how to rate this, to be honest. The hero was a horrible person and I never got the sense he loved the heroine (how do you love a barely animate object?) – but he wanted to keep her. He lies and lies and lies some more. The gal next door (whom the hero did sleep with in the past) is still there so I wouldn’t be surprised if he stops by for a cup of sugar every now and again. The heroine would totally buy that excuse.
I was entertained, no matter how annoyed I got because I had to know what new dumb thing the hero was going to do next and what new dumb excuse he was going to give the gullible heroine.
Read if you want to feel alive with indignation and with pain as you hit your head on your desk.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 27, 2017
This has one of the biggest collections of dumb bunnies. Taking into account how low the bar is in HarleyLand in the first place that's saying something. These two are stupid AND boring. Usually when you get stupid in a Harlequin, you get OTT zaniness, sex, angst, insta-love, or all of the above. Not here.
Should have listened to StMargarets' review.
Timeline:
Friday evening: The H and h meet if you don't count his stalking her for three weeks.
Friday night: She sleeps at his house because, well... it doesn't really matter. She's a virgin; she just met him, and she sleeps at his house. Has too much to drink or is drugged and wakes up to him coming out of the shower starkers. In real life the H would look like this.
and we would have a different book on our hands.
Saturday: They actually have sex and she realizes that she did not have sex the night before now that she knows what sex is really like.
SundayHe proposes. Luckily he has a wedding dress designer friend so she gets a dress and a plan if they get divorced, but no friends or family invited.
Monday They are supposed to get married, but things happen...Then they do.
That is three and half days. Three. Days.
There is no energy and NO connection between the two.
Should have listened to StMargarets' review.
Timeline:
Friday evening: The H and h meet if you don't count his stalking her for three weeks.
Friday night: She sleeps at his house because, well... it doesn't really matter. She's a virgin; she just met him, and she sleeps at his house. Has too much to drink or is drugged and wakes up to him coming out of the shower starkers. In real life the H would look like this.
and we would have a different book on our hands.Saturday: They actually have sex and she realizes that she did not have sex the night before now that she knows what sex is really like.
SundayHe proposes. Luckily he has a wedding dress designer friend so she gets a dress and a plan if they get divorced, but no friends or family invited.
Monday They are supposed to get married, but things happen...Then they do.
That is three and half days. Three. Days.
There is no energy and NO connection between the two.
March 12, 2020
This is complete nonsense, and sputter-inducing. The heroine is a bunny.* The hero is a bounder.
*Autocorrect changed ninny to bunny, but I decided to keep it because it would have been a much better book and the h would have been smarter and have more backbone.
*Autocorrect changed ninny to bunny, but I decided to keep it because it would have been a much better book and the h would have been smarter and have more backbone.
June 8, 2024
I wanted to like this one but could not.
How would you act in this situation:
She's never made love
She in the home of gorgeous guy she met that evening, about 4 hours earlier
She drank too much and got pretty woozy
Gorgeous guy took her upstairs to her bedroom, then kissed her and that's the last thing she remembers
She wakes up undressed and he walks in completely nude.
She thinks they must have made love but has no memory of it nor does she see any physical signs.
Option A: Talk to him the next morning calmly and find out what did happen?
Option B: Get angry when you talk to him because it's wrong to take advantage?
Option C: Smack him upside the head for being a classless jerk and explain about rape laws?
Option D: Act cool like this sort of thing happens every day.
Our heroine chose D, I kid you not.
Reread as part of a book bundle and liked it a little better. Excellent pacing but the romance does not work.
The blurb sounds enticing so tried again. Still a disappointing turkey.
How would you act in this situation:
She's never made love
She in the home of gorgeous guy she met that evening, about 4 hours earlier
She drank too much and got pretty woozy
Gorgeous guy took her upstairs to her bedroom, then kissed her and that's the last thing she remembers
She wakes up undressed and he walks in completely nude.
She thinks they must have made love but has no memory of it nor does she see any physical signs.
Option A: Talk to him the next morning calmly and find out what did happen?
Option B: Get angry when you talk to him because it's wrong to take advantage?
Option C: Smack him upside the head for being a classless jerk and explain about rape laws?
Option D: Act cool like this sort of thing happens every day.
Our heroine chose D, I kid you not.
Reread as part of a book bundle and liked it a little better. Excellent pacing but the romance does not work.
The blurb sounds enticing so tried again. Still a disappointing turkey.
March 12, 2017
Ugh really bugs me that after I invest my time and emotions reading a book it just disappoints me. This book was so promising it tide me all up with his reason for wanting her so badly being hidden from the reader the entire book. She was so stupid I like a heroine with a bit of brains please. She kept musing to herself the entire book that things didn't make since and even after he admitted to crazy behavior and blamed it on his feelings for her she swallowed the bull! An ok book but it didn't deliver for me.
February 8, 2021
After reading the back description of the book, I had been expecting a certain amount of angst in the story but there was hardly any heaviness even after the heroine finds out the truth about the hero. The story overall lacks depth of any kind in my opinion, though it definitely had potential to become memorable. The heroine was sweet but again LW gives the impression that she was too easy to take by the hero, not by being spineless alone but also by having low levels of intelligence I feel the romance overall lacked depth but it was ok to read to past the time.
hq-to-read
April 1, 2024Billionaire Richard Anders needed Valentina to claim the spectacular Castle Anders. But he hadn't counted on her breathtaking beauty and playing the part of husband proves more pleasurable than he'd imagined.
Valentina's given Richard her innocence in the bedroom, and her word at the altar. But when she learns the truth, will she give him her heart?
Valentina's given Richard her innocence in the bedroom, and her word at the altar. But when she learns the truth, will she give him her heart?
August 2, 2018
The heroine is an idiot and the hero is a stalker and quite possibly a sociopath. No thanks.
May 11, 2024
Mejor que muchas novelas románticas populares!!!! Corta. Concisa. Divertida.
September 25, 2009
Modern
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews