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Marriage by Deception
Blind-date bride!
Ros Craig wished she d never let her stepsister persuade her to accept a blind date! Meeting Sam Hunter could have been love at first sight—if only Ros hadn t been pretending to be someone else.... How could she admit to this sexy stranger that she d lied?
Sam Hunter had equally hidden motives for accepting a blind date. But once he d met Ros, he wanted to see her again—and again.... Could their blind date really lead to marriage?
Ros Craig wished she d never let her stepsister persuade her to accept a blind date! Meeting Sam Hunter could have been love at first sight—if only Ros hadn t been pretending to be someone else.... How could she admit to this sexy stranger that she d lied?
Sam Hunter had equally hidden motives for accepting a blind date. But once he d met Ros, he wanted to see her again—and again.... Could their blind date really lead to marriage?
Mass Market Paperback
First published February 1, 2000
4 people are currently reading
69 people want to read
About the author
Sara Craven
493 books266 followersAnne Bushell was born on October 1938 in South Devon, England, just before World War II and grew up in a house crammed with books. She was always a voracious reader, some of her all-time favorites books are: "Pride and Prejudice" by Jane Austen, "Middlemarch" by George Eliot, "Jane Eyre" by Charlotte Brontë, "Gone With the Wind" by Margaret Mitchell and "The Code of the Woosters" by P. G. Wodehouse.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
She worked as journalist at the Paignton Observer, but after her marriage, she moved to the north of England, where she worked as teacher. After she returned to journalism, she joined the Middlesbrough Writers' Group, where she met other romance writer Mildred Grieveson (Anne Mather). She started to wrote romance, and she had her first novel "Garden of Dreams" accepted by Mills & Boon in 1975, she published her work under the pseudonym of Sara Craven. In 2010 she became chairman of the Southern Writers' Conference, and the next year was elected the twenty-six Chairman (2011–2013) of the Romantic Novelists' Association.
Divorced twice, Annie lives in Somerset, South West England, and shares her home with a West Highland white terrier called Bertie Wooster. In her house, she had several thousand books, and an amazing video collection. When she's not writing, she enjoys watching very old films, listening to music, going to the theatre, and eating in good restaurants. She also likes to travel in Europe, to inspire her romances, especially in France, Greece and Italy where many of her novels are set. Since the birth of her twin grandchildren, she is also a regular visitor to New York City, where the little tots live. In 1997, she was the overall winner of the BBC's Mastermind, winning the last final presented by Magnus Magnusson.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
September 2, 2019
Re Marriage By Deception - It is a kinder, gentler Sara Craven in the new millennium of HPlandia, tho she doesn't hold back on the tackiness that is not her usual style.
The h is a romance author who needs a little research, the H is a former war correspondent who gets harassed by his vulgar female editor into doing seekrit research on blind dating via the lonely hearts column.
The h's sister is a man-eater femme fatale who likes to make her guys work for it and the sister is the one who initially responds to the H's personal column ad, (kinda like a pre-Craig's list advert in the paper,) but the h is the one who shows up when her sister bails on the idear.
(The h felt bad some poor schmuck was going to be stood up because her sister got a whim and found a better offer.)
The h and H really hit it off and have a marvelous, purple passion infused time together. The only problem is that the H is lying about who he is and the h has a long term boyfriend.
Eventually, the h ends up preggers and the h's boyfriend shows up to tell her he is in love with his physiotherapist.
So it is only a wee bit tacky that the two of them were in this supposedly committed relationship and cheated on each other.
While the h is having her own personal drama, the H is busy learning that the h lied about who she was too.
In a fit of pique because the h's ex boyfriend was leaving her house when the H showed up, the H tells the h her sister is the better option and off he goes. The h gets to have her huge mopey moment and contemplate being preggers alone.
Then the h wins an award for one of her books and the H is the corresponding dashing reporter winner in the same award ceremony.
In the very trite finale, the H resigns from his dashing reporter position to go be a sedate editor of a little local paper in Yorkshire during his acceptance speech.
The h thinks he is marrying her sister until the H corners her on the way out the door and begs for a second chance. Everybody apologizes to everybody and we all go off to the Yorkshire Dales to have a nice country cottage and two writing careers with a baby for the cute little HEA.
This one was kinda tacky on everybody's part. The h for cheating - tho SC makes it clear that the h's former relationship was pretty dead in the water and the H for being such a snot pustule about the sister.
The sister was kinda tacky too, but we expect that from an SC relative, so I did not hold it against her too much.
Overall, the ending was worth the read, tho the road to get there was pretty rocky and I don't recommend this one unless you are a die hard SC fan and are looking for a more moderate SC HP outing.
The h is a romance author who needs a little research, the H is a former war correspondent who gets harassed by his vulgar female editor into doing seekrit research on blind dating via the lonely hearts column.
The h's sister is a man-eater femme fatale who likes to make her guys work for it and the sister is the one who initially responds to the H's personal column ad, (kinda like a pre-Craig's list advert in the paper,) but the h is the one who shows up when her sister bails on the idear.
(The h felt bad some poor schmuck was going to be stood up because her sister got a whim and found a better offer.)
The h and H really hit it off and have a marvelous, purple passion infused time together. The only problem is that the H is lying about who he is and the h has a long term boyfriend.
Eventually, the h ends up preggers and the h's boyfriend shows up to tell her he is in love with his physiotherapist.
So it is only a wee bit tacky that the two of them were in this supposedly committed relationship and cheated on each other.
While the h is having her own personal drama, the H is busy learning that the h lied about who she was too.
In a fit of pique because the h's ex boyfriend was leaving her house when the H showed up, the H tells the h her sister is the better option and off he goes. The h gets to have her huge mopey moment and contemplate being preggers alone.
Then the h wins an award for one of her books and the H is the corresponding dashing reporter winner in the same award ceremony.
In the very trite finale, the H resigns from his dashing reporter position to go be a sedate editor of a little local paper in Yorkshire during his acceptance speech.
The h thinks he is marrying her sister until the H corners her on the way out the door and begs for a second chance. Everybody apologizes to everybody and we all go off to the Yorkshire Dales to have a nice country cottage and two writing careers with a baby for the cute little HEA.
This one was kinda tacky on everybody's part. The h for cheating - tho SC makes it clear that the h's former relationship was pretty dead in the water and the H for being such a snot pustule about the sister.
The sister was kinda tacky too, but we expect that from an SC relative, so I did not hold it against her too much.
Overall, the ending was worth the read, tho the road to get there was pretty rocky and I don't recommend this one unless you are a die hard SC fan and are looking for a more moderate SC HP outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 25, 2011
If you ever wondered what would happen if an alien took over Sara Craven's body and wrote a Harlequin in her stead, then the answer is this book. SC is an old warhorse in the HQN line offering a Old Skool/ WTF mixture of rapey heroes & willful virgins in forced marriages for decades to great success.
THIS has none of those things. The H/h meet through the personal ads and thru an elaborate backstory, they are each not what they seem and continue deceiving each other throughout the novel. Since they can't have honesty between them, they have lots of sex instead.
The Jump The Shark moment was when the heroine revealed that she wasn't on the pill after having a marathon bout of unprotected sex with the H. This would not be unusual, except . . . she has a current boyfriend (NOT the H) who she has been enjoying having sex with for two years. The heroine continues to have a boyfriend AND continues to have unprotected sex with the hero to the end of the book. Um, ooookay. Maybe Emily Giffin (who writes chicklit) or Miranda Lee (who writes sexually bolder but not braindead heroines) could have made this work but the alien SC can't.
The H/h were both so weak. There was a small subplot in which the hero was a victim of sexual harrassment from his boss which just showed him to be even more ineffectual. Despite all this, there was no little drama or angst to make this even slightly palatable as a Harlequin. It was epic fail all around.
Grade: D+
THIS has none of those things. The H/h meet through the personal ads and thru an elaborate backstory, they are each not what they seem and continue deceiving each other throughout the novel. Since they can't have honesty between them, they have lots of sex instead.
The Jump The Shark moment was when the heroine revealed that she wasn't on the pill after having a marathon bout of unprotected sex with the H. This would not be unusual, except . . . she has a current boyfriend (NOT the H) who she has been enjoying having sex with for two years. The heroine continues to have a boyfriend AND continues to have unprotected sex with the hero to the end of the book. Um, ooookay. Maybe Emily Giffin (who writes chicklit) or Miranda Lee (who writes sexually bolder but not braindead heroines) could have made this work but the alien SC can't.
The H/h were both so weak. There was a small subplot in which the hero was a victim of sexual harrassment from his boss which just showed him to be even more ineffectual. Despite all this, there was no little drama or angst to make this even slightly palatable as a Harlequin. It was epic fail all around.
Grade: D+
October 15, 2016
3.5
Two strangers who meet on a blind date of course choosing to hide their real identities for their own unexplainable reasons . What now? They soon fall in love , but the masks is what all they want to reveal , enigmas , well both of them are .
This is definitely not a usual Sara Crazen type but I liked it .
After all Roses played a crucial role ;)) And I like roses .
Two strangers who meet on a blind date of course choosing to hide their real identities for their own unexplainable reasons . What now? They soon fall in love , but the masks is what all they want to reveal , enigmas , well both of them are .
This is definitely not a usual Sara Crazen type but I liked it .
After all Roses played a crucial role ;)) And I like roses .
Read
May 19, 2021Do not finish at 13%.
It was a promising beginning: hero was not a CEO/billionaire/magnate-something and heroine actually had a job and financially independent. Hero was a war journalist, so intent to become an editor but got thwarted into doing lifestyle column. Heroine was a successful writer AND a boyfriend on her own. I was hooked at the beginning. I was.
But then the story went on. Okay, there was misunderstanding, mistaken identity, yadda-yadda. But one thing that bothered me was that during the course of her relationship with the hero (well, at 13% they were just beginning to get acquainted with each other, but the heroine had already felt attracted to the hero) she was in a relationship with her boyfriend. WHAT? Look, I'm used to read Sara Craven books, and a lot of time her heroines are attractive women and thus it's not strange that they had boyfriend but usually they either got dumped or broke up or in a platonic relationship. But when heroine met hero, both of them are technically single. That doesn't happen in this book. No, I just couldn't.
It was a promising beginning: hero was not a CEO/billionaire/magnate-something and heroine actually had a job and financially independent. Hero was a war journalist, so intent to become an editor but got thwarted into doing lifestyle column. Heroine was a successful writer AND a boyfriend on her own. I was hooked at the beginning. I was.
But then the story went on. Okay, there was misunderstanding, mistaken identity, yadda-yadda. But one thing that bothered me was that during the course of her relationship with the hero (well, at 13% they were just beginning to get acquainted with each other, but the heroine had already felt attracted to the hero) she was in a relationship with her boyfriend. WHAT? Look, I'm used to read Sara Craven books, and a lot of time her heroines are attractive women and thus it's not strange that they had boyfriend but usually they either got dumped or broke up or in a platonic relationship. But when heroine met hero, both of them are technically single. That doesn't happen in this book. No, I just couldn't.
January 28, 2021
The title had nothing to do with the book. Dating by Deception would a more accurate title.
I found it very, very hard to like Ros because she kept thinking about doing something stupid, acknowledging it was a stupid idea, and then doing it anyways. Over and over.
I found it very, very hard to like Ros because she kept thinking about doing something stupid, acknowledging it was a stupid idea, and then doing it anyways. Over and over.
November 19, 2022
Well this was quite a sweet little thing. No billionaire thank god. He was Sam Hunter, a journalist doing a feature on lonely hearts (as punishment for turning down his editor's (f) sexual advances). She's a romance novelist (very meta, Sara!) called Rosamund who pretends to be her flighty stepsister Janie on their date. The attraction is clear from the off but their mutual deceit plus other life issues (her foundering previous relationship to the hideous sounding Colin, his career issues) gets in the way. Fairly unconvincingly if I'm honest. Nevertheless, SC Hs are among my very favourites and this was a very nice Saturday night read.
October 11, 2024
I enjoyed the story even though I found it difficult to know why Ros didn’t come clean on their 2nd meeting but then I guess it would have been a pretty short story! It pleasantly whiled away a couple of hours.
March 29, 2018
The cover don't do any justice to the story
July 8, 2020
Unusual set up for a somewhat humdrum romance.
August 4, 2021
Definitely an odd one with main characters a lot closer to regular people. It felt like rom com.
April 5, 2017
Beautiful story. I'm a huge Sara Craven fan and I wasn't let down. I only wish she had spent more time developing Ros and Sam's relationship after they found out the truth about each other.
Ridiculous title, though that isn't her fault.
Ridiculous title, though that isn't her fault.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews