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Springhill #2
Once and for Always
Jill Donovan swore that she would never set foot in Iowa - she loved city life and the prospect of spending her days as the wife of a small-town hardware merchant in Springhill, Iowa, didn't appeal. Yet she found herself in Springhill on a modelling assignment. Scott Richards, the man whose proposal she turned down ten years before, still managed the hardware store. But it wasn't the small business she's imagined and Springhill wasn't boring...
269 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1989
3 people are currently reading
55 people want to read
About the author
Leigh Michaels
351 books172 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 - 5 of 5 reviews
March 7, 2017
Re Once and For Always - Leigh Michaels' penultimate HP before she relocates permanently to HRtopia is a second chance love story that idealizes the bonuses of small town living with a magazine model h who is made to see the error of her ways in wanting to live in a place larger than 5000 people surrounded by corn fields. The H is the former college love who went home to his Iowa hometown to run the family hardware store after his dad's heart attack.
The H and h were lovers in college. The h had always talked about her big dreams in the big city while they were together, but when the H's father collapsed the H wanted the h to move back to his hometown and marry him. The h was shocked, she made no secret about her life plans and those plans did not include living in a place where everyone knows your name and your business. The h thought the H knew her better than that, but since she had to do all the chasing in the relationship and he really only showed up to exercise the lurve club, maybe she should have reconsidered her dating choice.
Oh well, she got her heart broken, but she learned and moved on to a modeling career. Now it is eight years later and her latest assignment is in the cornfields of Iowa, doing an ad layout for three wheeled ATV's. (LM has a subtrope about the dangers of ATV's to push so there is plenty of dangerous ATV riding moments.)
When the crew for the ad shoot arrives in the selected cornfield mecca, the h is startled to see her old college flame. He is wearing a wedding ring and later we find out he has a six year old son, so apparently Mr. Hardware wasted no time in moving on in his life. The h seems to be okay with that, after all she wanted different things. But in a 180 personality turn, the h decides that she has to come across as a catty man eater to prove a point to the H at the local 'welcome to our town' party.So she smiles at the H after he has been staring at her all night and never approaching her.
The h also runs into her old college sorority sister, who the h assumes is the H's wife. (She isn't, she married another guy and then convinced him to move the H's hometown.) The h is even more surprised after the party, when the H calls her up and sorta propositions her in the hotel bar. The h and the H have a lot verbal baiting about over-the-hill has-been models and the h gets on the militant feminist bandwagon but doesn't think to call him on the cheating husband card. The h eventually walks out, and the H plants a huge roofie kiss on her in the lobby. The h is perturbed, cause married men are a no go area for her, but she can't get the feeling of his kiss off her mind.
The next day the crew on the ad layout need some hardware supplies, and since everyone else is busy setting up, the h is elected to go. The only hardware game in town is the H's store, so the h and the H have another conversation where we meet his son, and the H invites her over for dinner. The h finds out the H's dad has passed and that he is widowed. The h speculates out of the blue that the H could leave this place now and work in his almost achieved marketing degree area of advertising if he wanted.
(The h speculates on this a few times and it was sorta odd really, the H made it pretty clear he was happy where he was and doing what he wanted to do and he had always intended to live there. So these little meanderings of the h were pretty pointless and probably thrown in to make the h seem even more selfish and catty than she already was portrayed as.)
We find out the sorority sister's husband walked out on her when he became a father and she is the H's neighbor and his son's babysitter. She also seems to be angling for Mrs. Hardware number two, even as she is warning the h off the H. Tho she backtracks pretty quickly and denies any such intentions when the h questions her.
(LM kinda drops the plot here, she set the sorority sister up as the OW who followed the H to his hometown, then she rethinks it and drops the thread. But LM goes out of her way to make sure the OW hammers home the point that small Iowa town life with gossipy birthday parties is better than NYC.)
The modeling ad shoot isn't going well and there are lots of delays and petulant out bursts from the male model, who eventually has an accident when the ramp collapses on the 'dangerous ATV'. The H and h continue to spend time together, ostensibly to catch up on old acquaintances and making friendship gestures. The H continually torpedoes that plan by persistently making remarks on the h's age and her lack of career future and how she is a horrible person for not being married with 2.5 kids.
The h does manage to maintain a friendly relationship with the H's plot moppet son and since amateur photography is a hobby of hers, she takes a few pictures of him at the sorority sister's daughter's birthday party. Where the h is accused of using the son to entrap the H. (I must say if LM was trying to sell readers on the virtues of small town living, having every other woman there make nasty remarks about the h in her hearing probably wasn't the way to do it.)
She shows the pictures to the H and he has a conniption, accusing the h of trying to get his son involved in the unwholesome world of big city modeling. The h has to vigorously insist that wasn't her intention and make a speech about show-biz parents. The h winds up crying on the H as she just found out she lost a much hoped for magazine cover. The H tells the h he wants to have an affair while she is in town. This leads to lurve mojo moves but then the H has to go see about an alarm on his hardware store. The h offers to babysit, thus proving her motherhood potential even tho she has stated she has no particular desire to have kids. The h winds up spending the night and when the H returns, we get the full lance of luv moment.
The H and h decide it was a mistake brought on by sleep deprivation the next morning and the h goes to her modeling shoot. Only to be told the whole thing is cancelled and the director of the ad layout may be fired for poor choices. The h now has to decide if she should go or stay and there is a whole lot of moping and naval gazing as the h decides to work for the local studio photographer and eventually take over her business and stay with the H. The H doesn't really seem to care much one way or the other, but he agrees to marry her and tells her his wife knew he was mourning the h when he married her. The h has a last temptation moment with the offer of a big cosmetics campaign, but she has made her choice and she and the H can lurve it up for the HEA.
This one was pretty lackluster. Ideas and themes were presented but never followed through on plot development and the H was little more than a lurve clubbing paper cutout. He never talks about his marriage, it is all related by third parties and the impression isn't that the H was pining away with love for the h.
We are told the H and h have this big burning passion for each other, but the h never thought of him much in eight years and the H wasted no time in moving on - whatever passion they shared is not really seen on stage, so to speak.
There is also the unique inversion of the HP h makeover. Instead of moving into designer labels and beauty treatments, this h is moving towards mom jeans and enough home hair coloring to make a Helen Bianchin h faint dead away from shock and fashion deprivation.
Also the small town virtue vs big city badness was pretty heavily emphasized and that kinda makes this one a bit strange for HPlandia. HP's as a whole are generally concerned with opulence and the exotic. We may get some English Midland Market towns, but the H's are generally rich or in exotic jobs and major cities are a big feature. This means Sydney, Rome, London, a layover in Athens on the way to the Greek Tycoon's private island and off to Paris for seekrit baby making weekends. We do not usually get washed up models marrying Joe Schmoe hardware store guys in Iowa.
Not that there is anything wrong with Iowa or hardware store guys, it just doesn't seem to fit the motif of HPlandia. Anyways, we can be happy the h is kinda happy and the H doesn't voice any objections, so we can close the book on a rare HPlandia inversion of the norm that doesn't quite work.
The H and h were lovers in college. The h had always talked about her big dreams in the big city while they were together, but when the H's father collapsed the H wanted the h to move back to his hometown and marry him. The h was shocked, she made no secret about her life plans and those plans did not include living in a place where everyone knows your name and your business. The h thought the H knew her better than that, but since she had to do all the chasing in the relationship and he really only showed up to exercise the lurve club, maybe she should have reconsidered her dating choice.
Oh well, she got her heart broken, but she learned and moved on to a modeling career. Now it is eight years later and her latest assignment is in the cornfields of Iowa, doing an ad layout for three wheeled ATV's. (LM has a subtrope about the dangers of ATV's to push so there is plenty of dangerous ATV riding moments.)
When the crew for the ad shoot arrives in the selected cornfield mecca, the h is startled to see her old college flame. He is wearing a wedding ring and later we find out he has a six year old son, so apparently Mr. Hardware wasted no time in moving on in his life. The h seems to be okay with that, after all she wanted different things. But in a 180 personality turn, the h decides that she has to come across as a catty man eater to prove a point to the H at the local 'welcome to our town' party.So she smiles at the H after he has been staring at her all night and never approaching her.
The h also runs into her old college sorority sister, who the h assumes is the H's wife. (She isn't, she married another guy and then convinced him to move the H's hometown.) The h is even more surprised after the party, when the H calls her up and sorta propositions her in the hotel bar. The h and the H have a lot verbal baiting about over-the-hill has-been models and the h gets on the militant feminist bandwagon but doesn't think to call him on the cheating husband card. The h eventually walks out, and the H plants a huge roofie kiss on her in the lobby. The h is perturbed, cause married men are a no go area for her, but she can't get the feeling of his kiss off her mind.
The next day the crew on the ad layout need some hardware supplies, and since everyone else is busy setting up, the h is elected to go. The only hardware game in town is the H's store, so the h and the H have another conversation where we meet his son, and the H invites her over for dinner. The h finds out the H's dad has passed and that he is widowed. The h speculates out of the blue that the H could leave this place now and work in his almost achieved marketing degree area of advertising if he wanted.
(The h speculates on this a few times and it was sorta odd really, the H made it pretty clear he was happy where he was and doing what he wanted to do and he had always intended to live there. So these little meanderings of the h were pretty pointless and probably thrown in to make the h seem even more selfish and catty than she already was portrayed as.)
We find out the sorority sister's husband walked out on her when he became a father and she is the H's neighbor and his son's babysitter. She also seems to be angling for Mrs. Hardware number two, even as she is warning the h off the H. Tho she backtracks pretty quickly and denies any such intentions when the h questions her.
(LM kinda drops the plot here, she set the sorority sister up as the OW who followed the H to his hometown, then she rethinks it and drops the thread. But LM goes out of her way to make sure the OW hammers home the point that small Iowa town life with gossipy birthday parties is better than NYC.)
The modeling ad shoot isn't going well and there are lots of delays and petulant out bursts from the male model, who eventually has an accident when the ramp collapses on the 'dangerous ATV'. The H and h continue to spend time together, ostensibly to catch up on old acquaintances and making friendship gestures. The H continually torpedoes that plan by persistently making remarks on the h's age and her lack of career future and how she is a horrible person for not being married with 2.5 kids.
The h does manage to maintain a friendly relationship with the H's plot moppet son and since amateur photography is a hobby of hers, she takes a few pictures of him at the sorority sister's daughter's birthday party. Where the h is accused of using the son to entrap the H. (I must say if LM was trying to sell readers on the virtues of small town living, having every other woman there make nasty remarks about the h in her hearing probably wasn't the way to do it.)
She shows the pictures to the H and he has a conniption, accusing the h of trying to get his son involved in the unwholesome world of big city modeling. The h has to vigorously insist that wasn't her intention and make a speech about show-biz parents. The h winds up crying on the H as she just found out she lost a much hoped for magazine cover. The H tells the h he wants to have an affair while she is in town. This leads to lurve mojo moves but then the H has to go see about an alarm on his hardware store. The h offers to babysit, thus proving her motherhood potential even tho she has stated she has no particular desire to have kids. The h winds up spending the night and when the H returns, we get the full lance of luv moment.
The H and h decide it was a mistake brought on by sleep deprivation the next morning and the h goes to her modeling shoot. Only to be told the whole thing is cancelled and the director of the ad layout may be fired for poor choices. The h now has to decide if she should go or stay and there is a whole lot of moping and naval gazing as the h decides to work for the local studio photographer and eventually take over her business and stay with the H. The H doesn't really seem to care much one way or the other, but he agrees to marry her and tells her his wife knew he was mourning the h when he married her. The h has a last temptation moment with the offer of a big cosmetics campaign, but she has made her choice and she and the H can lurve it up for the HEA.
This one was pretty lackluster. Ideas and themes were presented but never followed through on plot development and the H was little more than a lurve clubbing paper cutout. He never talks about his marriage, it is all related by third parties and the impression isn't that the H was pining away with love for the h.
We are told the H and h have this big burning passion for each other, but the h never thought of him much in eight years and the H wasted no time in moving on - whatever passion they shared is not really seen on stage, so to speak.
There is also the unique inversion of the HP h makeover. Instead of moving into designer labels and beauty treatments, this h is moving towards mom jeans and enough home hair coloring to make a Helen Bianchin h faint dead away from shock and fashion deprivation.
Also the small town virtue vs big city badness was pretty heavily emphasized and that kinda makes this one a bit strange for HPlandia. HP's as a whole are generally concerned with opulence and the exotic. We may get some English Midland Market towns, but the H's are generally rich or in exotic jobs and major cities are a big feature. This means Sydney, Rome, London, a layover in Athens on the way to the Greek Tycoon's private island and off to Paris for seekrit baby making weekends. We do not usually get washed up models marrying Joe Schmoe hardware store guys in Iowa.
Not that there is anything wrong with Iowa or hardware store guys, it just doesn't seem to fit the motif of HPlandia. Anyways, we can be happy the h is kinda happy and the H doesn't voice any objections, so we can close the book on a rare HPlandia inversion of the norm that doesn't quite work.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 24, 2011
Try hard as I could, I just didn’t empathize with the heroine here. She struck me as a snobby, citified chick who looked upon with disdain on rural living and marriage/family life. But once her modeling prospects looked bleak and her popularity declined into the range of a has-been, she changed her tune and conveniently accepted his proposal.
The fact is until the umpteenth moment she thought that there were few options for her glamorous and creative sort in the small town of Springhill Iowa and regarded the hero as a wasted underachiever for toiling in his family hardware store when he could be working big-time in New York.
I felt for the hero though. I thought carried the torch for her long enough…eight years. And I couldn’t help wondering what would happened had the heroine come back in his life when he was comfortably settled with his second-choice wife. As it was, he was too willing to drop everything for her.
The fact is until the umpteenth moment she thought that there were few options for her glamorous and creative sort in the small town of Springhill Iowa and regarded the hero as a wasted underachiever for toiling in his family hardware store when he could be working big-time in New York.
I felt for the hero though. I thought carried the torch for her long enough…eight years. And I couldn’t help wondering what would happened had the heroine come back in his life when he was comfortably settled with his second-choice wife. As it was, he was too willing to drop everything for her.
October 5, 2020
Okay, so while I enjoy Leigh Michaels’ work, there’s a definite current of anti-feminism in there and never more so than here, where our heroine, a fancy New York model, comes to the small Iowa hometown of the hero, the guy she left in the dust because she… didn’t want to get married, move to a small town in Iowa, and become a housewife. The hero re-initiates contact and then proceeds to sneer at the heroine for being an evil city lady, tell her she doesn’t eat enough and announce that she would be prettier if she gained some weight. We’re told that Jill is intelligent but she’s stubbornly refusing to accept what everyone else in the industry is telling her - that she’s too old to be a successful model for much longer and she needs a second career. Why, whatever will Jill do with herself now? Surely not marry her college sweetheart and settle down with his adorable child! Gag.
August 18, 2021
Harlequin Presents #1245
December 1, 2015
A nice romantic read.
Jill and Scott were once in love years ago but their future goals pulled them apart. Jill went onto become a model and Scott took over the family business in a small town. Fate brings them together when Jill arrives for a modeling assignment in the middle of nowwhere, IA.
Seeing each other after all these years ignites the love they have both tried to forget. But to complicate matters in the years apart Scott married and had a son leaving Jill to doubt if he ever loved her.
Jill and Scott will need to search their hearts to find out what is more important love or dreams or can they have both?
A well done read about discovering what really really matters for happiness. Josh was a sweet little boy and the connection he found with Jill was wonderful......he steals your heart.
Jill and Scott were once in love years ago but their future goals pulled them apart. Jill went onto become a model and Scott took over the family business in a small town. Fate brings them together when Jill arrives for a modeling assignment in the middle of nowwhere, IA.
Seeing each other after all these years ignites the love they have both tried to forget. But to complicate matters in the years apart Scott married and had a son leaving Jill to doubt if he ever loved her.
Jill and Scott will need to search their hearts to find out what is more important love or dreams or can they have both?
A well done read about discovering what really really matters for happiness. Josh was a sweet little boy and the connection he found with Jill was wonderful......he steals your heart.
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