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Capture a Shadow
When top-selling romance novelist Valerie St. John announced that she was giving up her career, and disappeared into obscurity in the Midwest, editor Shelby Stuart was appalled. Unless she could persuade Valerie to write another book for her, Shelby would be fired. But the man who was supposed to be helping her look for Valerie -- Mark Buchanan -- seemed to be more interested in Shelby herself than in the search, and Shelby felt as if she was hunting a shadow. Award-winning romance novelist sends up the entire romance-writing and romance-reading community, along with writers in general, in this light-hearted romp of a story.
246 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1986
5 people are currently reading
75 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 - 11 of 11 reviews
June 2, 2011
The actual rating of the book would have to be 7. Yes, I know. Too much is what you're saying. But then again...I have read no other book which depicts the kind of story written here. One of the biggest recommendations is that almost all the people who've rated this book have liked it so it would probably appeal to everyone's taste.
I'm not going to give the story away but just tell you that the book combines:
1-a real view about people wanting to be authors
2-job insecurity
3-job rivalry
4-HUMOR
5-mystery
6-love, to name a few
Not saying anymore. Unh-huh....
Okay ONE thing: It's available on kindle! so go read it.......hehehe
and Okay one OTHER thing: This is soo gonna go on my best LM books
I'm not going to give the story away but just tell you that the book combines:
1-a real view about people wanting to be authors
2-job insecurity
3-job rivalry
4-HUMOR
5-mystery
6-love, to name a few
Not saying anymore. Unh-huh....
Okay ONE thing: It's available on kindle! so go read it.......hehehe
and Okay one OTHER thing: This is soo gonna go on my best LM books
August 11, 2011
In a way, this book reminded me of that romantic comedy How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days because of the false-motive plot, knows-he’s-too-cute hero and beg-the-heroine ending.
The conflict began when NY editor Shelby had to find her bestselling client/author or be fired from her job. She had a week to accomplish her task. Upon advice of a good friend, she teamed up with another author Mark to search of her reclusive client in a small Midwestern town. However, while she totally believed he was aiding her, he had been conspiring all along to hide his secret identity from her. When she found out the truth, she left.
Their reconciliation was his comeuppance of sort because he had to search her out and beg her to forgive him. But I didn’t care very much for his excuse for waiting for a month before approaching her again. He said 1) he was giving her “a chance to cool off” as if her reaction over his deception was overboard, and 2) he was making up his mind about a few things – I wonder what he had to make up his mind about.
Personally, the guy’s not my cup of tea. There’s something a bit fulsome and smarmy about him like all he has to do is smile and wink and the whole world would smile at him and give him a pass. For instance, his gift of the silky daffodil in lieu of a real apology was slick. Also, his play on the family name “saint” may have been funny at first but I thought the joke became old too soon. If I were the heroine I would have throttled him on the second day of his puns. But I understand that this was used as a plot device; his witticisms led to the discovery of his true persona in the end.
Overall, I agree that this book is an amusing read but the banter between the two characters, their interaction with the numerous secondary characters and the misadventures of the heroine in search for her quarry simply took over the story and overshadowed the development of the love story.
The conflict began when NY editor Shelby had to find her bestselling client/author or be fired from her job. She had a week to accomplish her task. Upon advice of a good friend, she teamed up with another author Mark to search of her reclusive client in a small Midwestern town. However, while she totally believed he was aiding her, he had been conspiring all along to hide his secret identity from her. When she found out the truth, she left.
Their reconciliation was his comeuppance of sort because he had to search her out and beg her to forgive him. But I didn’t care very much for his excuse for waiting for a month before approaching her again. He said 1) he was giving her “a chance to cool off” as if her reaction over his deception was overboard, and 2) he was making up his mind about a few things – I wonder what he had to make up his mind about.
Personally, the guy’s not my cup of tea. There’s something a bit fulsome and smarmy about him like all he has to do is smile and wink and the whole world would smile at him and give him a pass. For instance, his gift of the silky daffodil in lieu of a real apology was slick. Also, his play on the family name “saint” may have been funny at first but I thought the joke became old too soon. If I were the heroine I would have throttled him on the second day of his puns. But I understand that this was used as a plot device; his witticisms led to the discovery of his true persona in the end.
Overall, I agree that this book is an amusing read but the banter between the two characters, their interaction with the numerous secondary characters and the misadventures of the heroine in search for her quarry simply took over the story and overshadowed the development of the love story.
November 16, 2025
3.5 stars
February 6, 2022
I read the paperback of this, so I can't speak to whether the Kindle has been kinda updated for more modern sensibilities...I maybe hope so. This just feels like it's a 1980s book...it shows in the characters' actions, beliefs and their way of life (lack of technology perhaps?) Despite that, this was an enjoyable read...right up to the last page when my face fell at the heroine's last words.
To understand my disappointment, here's the set up. Shelby is a New York editor who is about to lose her job because her biggest author has just left her. And now, her second biggest author, Valerie St. James, a romance author, has just announced she's bailing too. Shelby can't afford to lose her, so, despite not knowing where Valerie lives or how to find her, she heads out to the Midwest to convince her to write more. She's helped my Mark Buchanan, a political thriller author and all around charming guy who comes off as smug as well. They run around town trying to solve the mystery of "Who is Valerie St. James?" and falling in love in the meantime. Or at least...Shelby is (no POV for Mark, so we have no idea). Then, Shelby finds out that and she high tails it back to New York without Mark, even though she desperately loves him.
Now...Shelby just wasted an entire week of vacation, stressed herself out for a job she LOVES. She loves it so much she doesn't want to just quit and leave Valerie St. James to her own devices. She risks time and money. When Mark mentions the idea of her moving to be with him, she shuts him down. No way is she giving up the job she loves! She's an independent career woman! So imagine my disappointment in this woman when she announces that she won't be trying to keep her job because "I'll be plenty busy as Mrs. Mark Buchanan - keeping my husband happy." Gah! Don't get me wrong. If a woman is happy to be a stay at home wife and mother and that's what she longs to do, by all means, I'm happy for her. But that's not Shelby. Several times she was in tears at the thought of losing her job and talked a lot about how much she loved being an editor. And now she's going to give it up for a guy she's known for a week (okay...a month and a week...but they were together for a week). No. That's a cop out and pretty damn disappointing.
Now, I will say other than that, this was a good read. I didn't particularly LIKE Mark, but I didn't hate him and he wasn't a jackass or abusive or anything like that. His smarminess and smugness kinda rubbed me the wrong way, but not overly much. And his sense of humor was actually kinda fun, but it rubbed the heroine the wrong way majorly. And I can pretty much understand why he didn't want to reveal that he was writing flowery romance novels after he and the rest of the town had been making fun of them left and right (I did enjoy the whole poking fun at romance thing too). So, tear out the last page and you have a pretty good story really.
To understand my disappointment, here's the set up. Shelby is a New York editor who is about to lose her job because her biggest author has just left her. And now, her second biggest author, Valerie St. James, a romance author, has just announced she's bailing too. Shelby can't afford to lose her, so, despite not knowing where Valerie lives or how to find her, she heads out to the Midwest to convince her to write more. She's helped my Mark Buchanan, a political thriller author and all around charming guy who comes off as smug as well. They run around town trying to solve the mystery of "Who is Valerie St. James?" and falling in love in the meantime. Or at least...Shelby is (no POV for Mark, so we have no idea). Then, Shelby finds out that and she high tails it back to New York without Mark, even though she desperately loves him.
Now...Shelby just wasted an entire week of vacation, stressed herself out for a job she LOVES. She loves it so much she doesn't want to just quit and leave Valerie St. James to her own devices. She risks time and money. When Mark mentions the idea of her moving to be with him, she shuts him down. No way is she giving up the job she loves! She's an independent career woman! So imagine my disappointment in this woman when she announces that she won't be trying to keep her job because "I'll be plenty busy as Mrs. Mark Buchanan - keeping my husband happy." Gah! Don't get me wrong. If a woman is happy to be a stay at home wife and mother and that's what she longs to do, by all means, I'm happy for her. But that's not Shelby. Several times she was in tears at the thought of losing her job and talked a lot about how much she loved being an editor. And now she's going to give it up for a guy she's known for a week (okay...a month and a week...but they were together for a week). No. That's a cop out and pretty damn disappointing.
Now, I will say other than that, this was a good read. I didn't particularly LIKE Mark, but I didn't hate him and he wasn't a jackass or abusive or anything like that. His smarminess and smugness kinda rubbed me the wrong way, but not overly much. And his sense of humor was actually kinda fun, but it rubbed the heroine the wrong way majorly. And I can pretty much understand why he didn't want to reveal that he was writing flowery romance novels after he and the rest of the town had been making fun of them left and right (I did enjoy the whole poking fun at romance thing too). So, tear out the last page and you have a pretty good story really.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
abrierto-to-read-hr-other
July 8, 2022Her future lay in a romance writer's hands
Shelby had rejected a manuscript only to have it top the New York Times Best Seller list for another publisher. And now her star author wanted to quit. Just like that!
There was only one thing to do -- beg her reluctant romance author to write again. But how? All Shelby had to go on was a pen name, a Midwest town post-office box and the helping hand of an outrageously handsome local author, Mark Buchanan.
There was so little time to unearth her reclusive romance author -- even less time for real-life romance. Or so it seemed.
Shelby had rejected a manuscript only to have it top the New York Times Best Seller list for another publisher. And now her star author wanted to quit. Just like that!
There was only one thing to do -- beg her reluctant romance author to write again. But how? All Shelby had to go on was a pen name, a Midwest town post-office box and the helping hand of an outrageously handsome local author, Mark Buchanan.
There was so little time to unearth her reclusive romance author -- even less time for real-life romance. Or so it seemed.
January 6, 2025
"Capture a Shadow" is the story of Shelby and Mark.
A fun little book in which the heroine travels to a small town to speak to one of the authors she edits for, a mysterious romance writer. Her interactions with the hero (another author) and townsfolk forms most of the book. I could see the reveal come miles away from the second chapter itself, and the book was VERY slow, but I finished it and that matters.
Safe
2.5/5
A fun little book in which the heroine travels to a small town to speak to one of the authors she edits for, a mysterious romance writer. Her interactions with the hero (another author) and townsfolk forms most of the book. I could see the reveal come miles away from the second chapter itself, and the book was VERY slow, but I finished it and that matters.
Safe
2.5/5
August 19, 2025
I first read this book as a teenager (a good 25+ years ago) and have re-read it more than once. Every time I read it, I fall more and more in love with it!
If you are looking for spice, this is not your book. If you are looking for a sweet, kind of cliche romance where the main characters banter and fight as they fall in love, I would highly recommend reading this.
If you are looking for spice, this is not your book. If you are looking for a sweet, kind of cliche romance where the main characters banter and fight as they fall in love, I would highly recommend reading this.
October 12, 2019
Finally founded it ... Searched Google for its Arabic name *searching for Valerie * and i did find nothing then for the author name but i found nothing too so I searched it in English... Happy to find it really 💜 my favorite story at all
June 29, 2025
Super adorable story. I wish we could have had some of the hero’s point of view, but still great.
July 14, 2013
I have been in a book slump. Haven't known what to read. I thought I'd bring out some old favorites. This was one of my fave Harlequin's growing up. Re-reading it 17 years or so later I see just how cheese-tastic it is. Not great but a fun easy read.
September 22, 2011
I liked this book - there wasn't any big, deep dark secret. There wasn't any danger. Just a nice, light-hearted read.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews