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Contract Bridegroom
Celia was paying Jethro to be her husband—so she was disconcerted to discover Jethro was actually a multimillionaire. Why had he agreed to marry—if he didn't need the money...?
All Celia had wanted to do was grant her dying father's wish to see her happily married. Now she must spend day and night pretending to be madly in love with her gorgeous new groom. And, although she'd stipulated "no sex" in the contract, it was exactly that clause she was finding impossible to keep....
Kindle Edition
First published May 5, 2000
1 person is currently reading
43 people want to read
About the author
Sandra Field
214 books35 followersJill MacLean was born on 1941 in England, UK. In 1950, her family moved to Nova Scotia, Canada.
After receiving her Bachelor of Science with honours from Dalhousie University, she married. She worked at the Fisheries Research Board until her daughter was born. Following the birth of her son, she was employed by the pathology laboratory of Sydney City Hospital and the biology department of Mount Allison University. More recently, she completed a Masters in Theological Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology; her thesis juxtaposed Hebrew concepts of chaos in the book of Job with modern chaos theory.
When her husband joined the Armed Forces as a chaplain, she had to stop working. They moved three times in the first 18 months, the last move was to Prince Edward Island. By then her children were in school; she couldn't get a job; and at the local bridge club, she kept forgetting not to trump her partner's ace.
However, she had always loved to read, fascinated by the lure of being drawn into the other world of the story. So one day she bought a dozen Harlequin novels, read and analyzed them, then sat down and wrote one. Her first book, To Trust My Love, typed with four fingers, was published in 1974 as Sandra Field (she believes she's curiously the first Canadian to write for Harlequin). During the four years she lived in Prince Edward Island, she researched an 18th century French settlement located near present-day Brudenell, resulting in a historical book, Jean Pierre Roma, published in 1977 under her real name. She also started to write in collaboration with other Martimer writer under the pseudonym Jan MacLean. She also used to singed her novels the pseudonym of Jocelyn Haley. Her pseudonyms was an attempt to prevent the congregation from finding out what the chaplain's wife was up to in her spare time.
Before she turned 40, her life was changed, she had lost three of the most important women in her life: her mother and sister to illness, and her seventeen-year-old daughter to a car accident, and she separated from her husband in 1976. One of the lasting legacies of the grief caused by these losses has been the idea that it is impossible and undesirable to live every waking moment in the knowledge that loss can strike at any time.
She's been very fortunate for years to be able to combine a love of travel (particularly to the north - she doesn't do heat well) with her writing, by describing settings that most people will probably never visit. And there's always the challenge of making the heroine's long underwear sound romantic. Her novels has been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Yugoslavian, Japanese... and sold in more than 90 countries. Her first collection of poetry, The Brevity of Red, was published in 2003. When her nine-years-old grandson, Stuart, asked him a book for him, she wrote her first Children's book and decided continued writing this type of books.
Jill now lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and she's lived most of her life in the Maritimes of Canada, within reach of the sea. Kayaking and canoeing, hiking and gardening, listening to music and reading are all sources of great pleasure. But best of all are good friends, some going back to high-school days, and her family. In Newfoundland, she has a beautiful daughter-in-law and the two most delightful, handsome, and intelligent grandchildren in the world (of course!).
After receiving her Bachelor of Science with honours from Dalhousie University, she married. She worked at the Fisheries Research Board until her daughter was born. Following the birth of her son, she was employed by the pathology laboratory of Sydney City Hospital and the biology department of Mount Allison University. More recently, she completed a Masters in Theological Studies at the Atlantic School of Theology; her thesis juxtaposed Hebrew concepts of chaos in the book of Job with modern chaos theory.
When her husband joined the Armed Forces as a chaplain, she had to stop working. They moved three times in the first 18 months, the last move was to Prince Edward Island. By then her children were in school; she couldn't get a job; and at the local bridge club, she kept forgetting not to trump her partner's ace.
However, she had always loved to read, fascinated by the lure of being drawn into the other world of the story. So one day she bought a dozen Harlequin novels, read and analyzed them, then sat down and wrote one. Her first book, To Trust My Love, typed with four fingers, was published in 1974 as Sandra Field (she believes she's curiously the first Canadian to write for Harlequin). During the four years she lived in Prince Edward Island, she researched an 18th century French settlement located near present-day Brudenell, resulting in a historical book, Jean Pierre Roma, published in 1977 under her real name. She also started to write in collaboration with other Martimer writer under the pseudonym Jan MacLean. She also used to singed her novels the pseudonym of Jocelyn Haley. Her pseudonyms was an attempt to prevent the congregation from finding out what the chaplain's wife was up to in her spare time.
Before she turned 40, her life was changed, she had lost three of the most important women in her life: her mother and sister to illness, and her seventeen-year-old daughter to a car accident, and she separated from her husband in 1976. One of the lasting legacies of the grief caused by these losses has been the idea that it is impossible and undesirable to live every waking moment in the knowledge that loss can strike at any time.
She's been very fortunate for years to be able to combine a love of travel (particularly to the north - she doesn't do heat well) with her writing, by describing settings that most people will probably never visit. And there's always the challenge of making the heroine's long underwear sound romantic. Her novels has been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, German, Italian, Greek, Dutch, Swedish, Yugoslavian, Japanese... and sold in more than 90 countries. Her first collection of poetry, The Brevity of Red, was published in 2003. When her nine-years-old grandson, Stuart, asked him a book for him, she wrote her first Children's book and decided continued writing this type of books.
Jill now lives in Bedford, Nova Scotia, and she's lived most of her life in the Maritimes of Canada, within reach of the sea. Kayaking and canoeing, hiking and gardening, listening to music and reading are all sources of great pleasure. But best of all are good friends, some going back to high-school days, and her family. In Newfoundland, she has a beautiful daughter-in-law and the two most delightful, handsome, and intelligent grandchildren in the world (of course!).
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Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews
September 21, 2019
Re Contract Bridegroom - Sandra Field does a fairly mediocre HP voyage that manages to hit all the sour notes along the way in a weird mélange of old skool tropyness and an attempt to show the unicorn grooming h as a modern 2000's kinda girl.
The premise on this one is that the h was a coastguard emergency operator and took the H's mayday call when he and his friend got caught on his sinking yacht. The h arranged for his rescue from drowning and in exchange, the H stalks her and sexually harasses her.
The h has her own little problems brewing amidst all this stalking gropey inquisition, her extremely controlling and now mortally ill father is trying to guilt trip the h into marriage so she will be "taken care of".
(Which is ludicrous because the h is independently wealthy, has a good work ethic and is a reasonable adult for the most part.)
But the h carries a lot of guilt from her father's continual beratement for her not living her life according to his Victorian Womanhood dictates when her mother died when she was five and she wants to earn his approval before he departs this mortal coil.
So she offers the H a three month contract for marriage - per her father's doctor, the father won't live much longer than that - and she offers the H $60,000 to participate.
The H doesn't want her money, he is seekritly rich and a huge businessman, what he really wants is a lot of boudoir moments with the h. She is a unicorn groomer tho and she refuses to sleep with him unless he agrees to a short term marriage.
As this is HPlandia, the H agrees to the wedding and then proves that he is exactly like the h's father in terms of dictatorial Victorian edicts. Things are further complicated by a past OM whom the h previously dumped after an attempted rape on his part and there is also the h's very inconvenient lurve force mojo meltdowns every time the H gets within a hundred yards of her.
There is a lot of autocratic ordering the h about by both her father and the H, but eventually they marry and then the H decides he is going to play hard to get and NOT have any unicorn grooming license revocations. The h is going nuts thinking the H is blatantly cheating on her with his mistress.
The H then proceeds to virtually assault the h while she is trying to find some family photos her father requested from the attic and this leads to tedious h angsting that she is only a convenient bang upon demand for the H.
Further h angst is generated when the H hooks the h's father up with a special drug that will alleviate his condition, (and he lied to the h about it to force her to marry him,) and the h realizes that she is now locked into a marriage with a man that is arguably more controlling than her father.
The h takes off to have a mopey moment about things and the H chases to declare his love --while the h recovers from a deer running in front of her car induced concussion for the somewhat disappointing and very lackluster HEA.
This was not a very entertaining HP outing as SF tries really hard to modernize her story, but messes up on the nuances.
Instead of having an independent h learning to compromise for love, SF instead brings us a steady and insidious infantilization of the h that pretty much went out of style in the early days of HP voyaging.
The H isn't that convincing as the big true love of the h's life either. SF gives us his pov and while there was some childhood abuse angst, it wasn't enough to overcome the impression that the H is basically a cold, controlling womanizer who only sees the h as a means to carry his genetic legacy and she is good shag for the moment as well.
The story is competently written tho, so if you like the more domineering type in your HP outings, this will probably fill your cuppa.
The premise on this one is that the h was a coastguard emergency operator and took the H's mayday call when he and his friend got caught on his sinking yacht. The h arranged for his rescue from drowning and in exchange, the H stalks her and sexually harasses her.
The h has her own little problems brewing amidst all this stalking gropey inquisition, her extremely controlling and now mortally ill father is trying to guilt trip the h into marriage so she will be "taken care of".
(Which is ludicrous because the h is independently wealthy, has a good work ethic and is a reasonable adult for the most part.)
But the h carries a lot of guilt from her father's continual beratement for her not living her life according to his Victorian Womanhood dictates when her mother died when she was five and she wants to earn his approval before he departs this mortal coil.
So she offers the H a three month contract for marriage - per her father's doctor, the father won't live much longer than that - and she offers the H $60,000 to participate.
The H doesn't want her money, he is seekritly rich and a huge businessman, what he really wants is a lot of boudoir moments with the h. She is a unicorn groomer tho and she refuses to sleep with him unless he agrees to a short term marriage.
As this is HPlandia, the H agrees to the wedding and then proves that he is exactly like the h's father in terms of dictatorial Victorian edicts. Things are further complicated by a past OM whom the h previously dumped after an attempted rape on his part and there is also the h's very inconvenient lurve force mojo meltdowns every time the H gets within a hundred yards of her.
There is a lot of autocratic ordering the h about by both her father and the H, but eventually they marry and then the H decides he is going to play hard to get and NOT have any unicorn grooming license revocations. The h is going nuts thinking the H is blatantly cheating on her with his mistress.
The H then proceeds to virtually assault the h while she is trying to find some family photos her father requested from the attic and this leads to tedious h angsting that she is only a convenient bang upon demand for the H.
Further h angst is generated when the H hooks the h's father up with a special drug that will alleviate his condition, (and he lied to the h about it to force her to marry him,) and the h realizes that she is now locked into a marriage with a man that is arguably more controlling than her father.
The h takes off to have a mopey moment about things and the H chases to declare his love --while the h recovers from a deer running in front of her car induced concussion for the somewhat disappointing and very lackluster HEA.
This was not a very entertaining HP outing as SF tries really hard to modernize her story, but messes up on the nuances.
Instead of having an independent h learning to compromise for love, SF instead brings us a steady and insidious infantilization of the h that pretty much went out of style in the early days of HP voyaging.
The H isn't that convincing as the big true love of the h's life either. SF gives us his pov and while there was some childhood abuse angst, it wasn't enough to overcome the impression that the H is basically a cold, controlling womanizer who only sees the h as a means to carry his genetic legacy and she is good shag for the moment as well.
The story is competently written tho, so if you like the more domineering type in your HP outings, this will probably fill your cuppa.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
hq-to-read
June 14, 2021Celia was paying Jethro to be her husband—so she was disconcerted to discover Jethro was actually a multimillionaire. Why had he agreed to marry—if he didn't need the money...?
All Celia had wanted to do was grant her dying father's wish to see her happily married. Now she must spend day and night pretending to be madly in love with her gorgeous new groom. And, although she'd stipulated "no sex" in the contract, it was exactly that clause she was finding impossible to keep
All Celia had wanted to do was grant her dying father's wish to see her happily married. Now she must spend day and night pretending to be madly in love with her gorgeous new groom. And, although she'd stipulated "no sex" in the contract, it was exactly that clause she was finding impossible to keep
March 21, 2018
One of the best romances I have read
This was a book I bought ages ago in my college days and at that time it was one of the most mushy romances I had read. I loved it back then... and as I discovered, I love it even now. I really do not know the reason I love this book. It’s not one of the great classics nor does it inspire new thoughts. It’s just plain old lovey-dovey romance but I just love it. Probably because it’s so fairy tale like that one cannot but love reading it.
If you are looking for some feel good romance, read this one. It will leave you smiling.
This was a book I bought ages ago in my college days and at that time it was one of the most mushy romances I had read. I loved it back then... and as I discovered, I love it even now. I really do not know the reason I love this book. It’s not one of the great classics nor does it inspire new thoughts. It’s just plain old lovey-dovey romance but I just love it. Probably because it’s so fairy tale like that one cannot but love reading it.
If you are looking for some feel good romance, read this one. It will leave you smiling.
July 22, 2020
It was ok, there wasn't anything awful but also want anything super memorable. Np.
July 28, 2020
Pleasant but predictable.
March 17, 2011
Average. Unfortunately, it was spoiled by the female lead dropping her knickers at the slightest touch from the male lead. Its completely unrealistic, in my opinion.
December 31, 2021
It all started with a misunderstanding and an instant chemistry….. good story and great characters
Displaying 1 - 7 of 7 reviews