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The Wedding Bargain
She knew when he asked her to marry him it was to be a marriage of convenience. To Daniel Morgan, self-made millionaire and reluctant playboy, young Liza Hanford was that rarest of all creatures - an efficient, compassionate and discreet private secretary. So discreet in fact that he never knew that for eight heart-wringing years Liza had been in love with him.
It was hardly the kind of proposal to set a girl cloud-walking, but to Liza it opened the door to a new life . . . and perhaps he just might learn to love her.
To all appearances it was a true Cinderella story. But underneath the pleasant surface dark shadows of Daniel's past began to emerge. Suddenly this unspoken menace exploded and threatened not only Liza's marriage but her husband's life.
It was hardly the kind of proposal to set a girl cloud-walking, but to Liza it opened the door to a new life . . . and perhaps he just might learn to love her.
To all appearances it was a true Cinderella story. But underneath the pleasant surface dark shadows of Daniel's past began to emerge. Suddenly this unspoken menace exploded and threatened not only Liza's marriage but her husband's life.
256 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1966
5 people are currently reading
154 people want to read
About the author
Agnes Sligh Turnbull
50 books37 followersNovelist Agnes Sligh Turnbull was born in 1888 in New Alexandria, PA. After a dozen years as a short story writer, Turnbull wrote her first novel, The Rolling Years, published in 1936. In the 14 additional novels she wrote over the next 40-plus years, Turnbull built a thorough chronicle of the Scots who settled and farmed rural Westmoreland County. Turnbull died in 1982.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews
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August 2, 2017The H was messed up on so many levels.
February 25, 2008
When I first started working at the library in 1991 my boss recommended this book to me and I really liked it. Everyone I have ever recommended it to has liked it. The story takes place in the 1930s in New York and New England. It is about a marriage of convenience that turns into a fun love story.
June 22, 2021
3.5. This was a cracking good story, and I zipped through it. I really like the main characters Dan and Liza and the story of their relationship. Also Aunt Sarah is a gem! I want to live with her.
I wasn’t as crazy about the Paula Ruston storyline, though I recognize that she was crucial to the story (as was Rene, but he was so much more likeable!). Somehow I read stories every year with a business tycoon-type hero. Not my fave, give me a shabby, literature professor or something any day, but guys like Dan Morgan certainly get things done. I like the bits of culture, like opera and poetry and Abelard/Heloise’s story, woven into this. Agnes Sligh Turnbull is an amazing writer. Funny that she had this in her head and pen as well as The Gown of Glory. They are nothing alike except for the likeability of the leads. This story was nowhere as profound as TGOG but I will happily return to it and enjoy rereading it in future years. Turnbull has been quite a find for me!
I wasn’t as crazy about the Paula Ruston storyline, though I recognize that she was crucial to the story (as was Rene, but he was so much more likeable!). Somehow I read stories every year with a business tycoon-type hero. Not my fave, give me a shabby, literature professor or something any day, but guys like Dan Morgan certainly get things done. I like the bits of culture, like opera and poetry and Abelard/Heloise’s story, woven into this. Agnes Sligh Turnbull is an amazing writer. Funny that she had this in her head and pen as well as The Gown of Glory. They are nothing alike except for the likeability of the leads. This story was nowhere as profound as TGOG but I will happily return to it and enjoy rereading it in future years. Turnbull has been quite a find for me!
August 17, 2010
I read this early on my life and found it on Good Reads so I decided to add this wonderful romance.
December 12, 2020
If you miss the quick banter of the 1940 classic films, this treasure will delight. It was a wonderful read this past summer. It is a quick read and very 1940 Americana. I thoroughly enjoyed it.
February 26, 2017
I would give this 3 1/2 stars if I could. The cover makes it look as though the book is set in the late 60s or early 70s but it begins in 1935. The dialog and style had me picturing it in the early 60s and so I had to look to see when it was published - 1966.
I really like books in this genre and from this era (early to mid 20th century). They're usually well-written with adult protagonists who are level headed and pragmatic. They also usually have a certain atmosphere-slightly suspenseful with an air of possible romance, too. This book has all that and I was really intrigued until the very end where it seems the author threw in a deus ex machina to wrap things up. I was disappointed with that and was hoping for a more believable explanation. Humph!
I would still like to read more from this author.
Clean.
I really like books in this genre and from this era (early to mid 20th century). They're usually well-written with adult protagonists who are level headed and pragmatic. They also usually have a certain atmosphere-slightly suspenseful with an air of possible romance, too. This book has all that and I was really intrigued until the very end where it seems the author threw in a deus ex machina to wrap things up. I was disappointed with that and was hoping for a more believable explanation. Humph!
I would still like to read more from this author.
Clean.
January 4, 2015
I first read this book back in 1999. I loved it then and still enjoyed it when rereading it recently. Agnes Sligh Turnbull has been one of my favorite authors. She's the only author that I have collected all the books she ever wrote. Her books are what I like to call Gentle Romance. While sex is alluded to in this book (this is about a marriage of convenience), it is extremely tastefully done. I'd not let my 13 year old read it however, but I would once she was in high school. Reading this makes me want to read through other favorites of mine by Turnbull, starting with The Richlands. If you like Jan Karon's Mitford novels, then you will most likely enjoy Agnes Sligh Turnbull and this book as well.
September 2, 2013
This is one of my favorite books for the romance and mystery of the story. Agnes Sligh Turnbull tells a wonderful story of Liza who is going to tell Daniel, her boss, that she is quitting but he asks her to marry him. She has been in love for him for years but he only sees her as his secretary. She agrees to the marriage but knows he is incapable of love. His past comes to light when he is accused of murder but Liza remains supportive. The story takes place in New York in the 1930's when society was formal, industry was creating wealthy men from other social classes and women were just beginning to be accepted in the workforce.
May 25, 2012
I just read this book for the second time and really enjoyed it. It is an old out of print book that was written in the 60s and set in the 30s, in New York. It is a favorite book of my Grandmas and I can see why:) If you are in the mood for a good clean romantic book-- pick this one up at the library, you will love it! I read it probably 15-20 years ago and enjoyed again last weekend! It's a keeper!
October 24, 2012
Good clean romance/mystery. Great descriptions of the house, food, fashions, and trips. It's always interesting also to read how the super wealthy live and entertain, although this couple didn't seem over-the-top, not like the super rich of today.
November 20, 2008
I enjoyed this book, I think this author is interesting to read because she really is able to imagine how the characters would feel and speak, the words are not flat or boring...
February 2, 2009
I love this book. An oldie, but a goody! I recommend it to anyone who loves a clean love story.
June 2, 2009
One of the best books I have ever read-it was hard to put down! I have a copy if anyone wants to borrow.
Read
July 5, 2010A very quaint book. Very wholesome reading.
September 12, 2013
I absolutely LOVED this book. I think it's actually my new favourite! It was perfection.
January 25, 2014
Enjoyed this book!
July 26, 2016
I don't even know where I got this book, but I read it as a teenager and adored it.
July 19, 2013
One of my favorites!
Want to read
February 5, 2014It was a book that I had read before; loved it the second time around.
December 7, 2019
Well written in many ways, but...
But I needed a cultural translator to understand this odd, dated book. The plot is: a secretary secretly loves her boss, and on the very day (the very day!) she is going to resign because she can't take her unrequited and unstated love any longer, he proposes to her in an attempt to get away from a scheming husband-hunter or two.
She says yes.
This is utterly ridiculous on its face, but stick with the story for now to see how much more ridiculous it gets. They have sex (not described in the least, but I got the sense that there was nothing in it for her at all, just him "satisfying his normal male urges" in her room and wandering immediately back to his own room.) She plays hostess. He's lavish with his pocketbook and she ends up with nice dresses and a box at the opera and a mansion and jewels and minks. He's kind to her spinster aunt who raised her. He asks about her feelings on various matters--is she upset at this or that? Very solicitous guy. And she respects him for his work ethic. But while she enjoys the heck out of the wealth, she keeps thinking that what she really really wants is for him to love her.
And here's where I get super-confused. What he's doing for her is awfully kind. He's never anything near cruel, never calls her names, is solicitous when she's ill (only with the vapors or somesuch) and never cheats. But she wants his love. She never says so to him, mind you. She just hopes he'll intuit that and come around, and she does a lot of internal handwringing when he doesn't in a few months. And I don't get what it is she wants. Just the three stupid words? Because he's already doing more than what most husbands do for wives (or wives do for husbands), and with a fatter pocketbook to support it.
What this woman SHOULD want, I think, is orgasms. I mean, she has everything a 50s fictional gal bent on matrimony could wish for (he even keeps using her for work in a pinch because he values her business talents, so she even has meaningful work beyond instructing the servants and decorating and stupid crap like that.) Clearly she's getting everything but orgasms. And then I started to think "maybe 'love' is 1950s code for orgasms?"
Is that possible? It's the only way her complaints make sense to me. Cuz people can say "I love you" and never mean it, I don't get the value of the three words. His behavior is respectful and loving, and so I don't get her increasing sadness that she has everything but that tiny, tiny detail. She's really going to leave him because of that one lack? Does she know she's never going to have that kind of money again? Will never earn enough for minks and jewels and servants with her typing skill? That three years into most relationships the romance fades and pretty much all that's left in the good ones is friendship anyway? She's 30 when that was definitely over the hill for women, so she's unlikely to find another husband of any level of wealth, and apparently husbands are #1 on her goal list. And she's going to give all this up because of the lack of three words? If it's really about not getting any good sex, she should take some of that extravagant allowance he gives her and get a damned vibrator.
But I honestly don't think it is about that, as much as that would make more sense to me. It's about the three damned words, and honestly, that seems like a stupid reason to leave a kind and generous multimillionaire.
I'd really have been better off reading a 1950s book set in Thailand or Japan or Zaire. I wouldn't have understood that culture very well either, but at least I'd have gone into it knowing I'd be a little culture shocked.
Oh, and there's a trial at the end and a silly deus ex machina, but it's the love story that drives the book.
But I needed a cultural translator to understand this odd, dated book. The plot is: a secretary secretly loves her boss, and on the very day (the very day!) she is going to resign because she can't take her unrequited and unstated love any longer, he proposes to her in an attempt to get away from a scheming husband-hunter or two.
She says yes.
This is utterly ridiculous on its face, but stick with the story for now to see how much more ridiculous it gets. They have sex (not described in the least, but I got the sense that there was nothing in it for her at all, just him "satisfying his normal male urges" in her room and wandering immediately back to his own room.) She plays hostess. He's lavish with his pocketbook and she ends up with nice dresses and a box at the opera and a mansion and jewels and minks. He's kind to her spinster aunt who raised her. He asks about her feelings on various matters--is she upset at this or that? Very solicitous guy. And she respects him for his work ethic. But while she enjoys the heck out of the wealth, she keeps thinking that what she really really wants is for him to love her.
And here's where I get super-confused. What he's doing for her is awfully kind. He's never anything near cruel, never calls her names, is solicitous when she's ill (only with the vapors or somesuch) and never cheats. But she wants his love. She never says so to him, mind you. She just hopes he'll intuit that and come around, and she does a lot of internal handwringing when he doesn't in a few months. And I don't get what it is she wants. Just the three stupid words? Because he's already doing more than what most husbands do for wives (or wives do for husbands), and with a fatter pocketbook to support it.
What this woman SHOULD want, I think, is orgasms. I mean, she has everything a 50s fictional gal bent on matrimony could wish for (he even keeps using her for work in a pinch because he values her business talents, so she even has meaningful work beyond instructing the servants and decorating and stupid crap like that.) Clearly she's getting everything but orgasms. And then I started to think "maybe 'love' is 1950s code for orgasms?"
Is that possible? It's the only way her complaints make sense to me. Cuz people can say "I love you" and never mean it, I don't get the value of the three words. His behavior is respectful and loving, and so I don't get her increasing sadness that she has everything but that tiny, tiny detail. She's really going to leave him because of that one lack? Does she know she's never going to have that kind of money again? Will never earn enough for minks and jewels and servants with her typing skill? That three years into most relationships the romance fades and pretty much all that's left in the good ones is friendship anyway? She's 30 when that was definitely over the hill for women, so she's unlikely to find another husband of any level of wealth, and apparently husbands are #1 on her goal list. And she's going to give all this up because of the lack of three words? If it's really about not getting any good sex, she should take some of that extravagant allowance he gives her and get a damned vibrator.
But I honestly don't think it is about that, as much as that would make more sense to me. It's about the three damned words, and honestly, that seems like a stupid reason to leave a kind and generous multimillionaire.
I'd really have been better off reading a 1950s book set in Thailand or Japan or Zaire. I wouldn't have understood that culture very well either, but at least I'd have gone into it knowing I'd be a little culture shocked.
Oh, and there's a trial at the end and a silly deus ex machina, but it's the love story that drives the book.
March 31, 2018
My sister, Mary, got this as a user paperback in the early 70s and it was a favorite for both of us. In fact, we passed it back and forth and read it so many times that it started falling apart and had to be held together with rubber bands. Finally got the chance to re-read it this week and enjoyed it every bit as much. It's a romance novel set in the mid-1930s, with suspense and old-fashioned in its telling. I love the main characters, Liza and Dan, and their story so much that to this day I wish the author had written an epilogue so I could get a glimpse of their lives after the story concludes. If you're fond of wholesome love stories, you should enjoy this book.
February 29, 2020
Its a good story. One of my favorites actually. A little dated, but I like that. A little sappy romance. But I like that too. Well written, even though predicable. One of my annual re-reads for lots n lots of years.
March 30, 2020
Amanda knows me so well. Definitely my kind of book. The book at times spent longer on a part than I wanted, but I loved it. I wanted to see if the author wrote other books.
November 29, 2020
Really excellent book - I have owned this book for years and reread it frequently.
July 15, 2021
I needed a book that didn't require any brain power and this worked perfectly. It was cute and fun and surprisingly suspenseful.
July 10, 2025
An old favorite. Dated. But still one of my favorites of all time. Not really worthy of five stars but I loved it as a re-read.
February 11, 2016
Decades long history to this one. Dave & I (husband) first read in paperback which my Mother had, easily 40 years ago. A truly memorable book, as I've been searching for it for years just to read again. Finally recently found it from Abe Books.com & gave it to Dave on his birthday. We both had forgotten so many of the details but loved rereading it & will surely keep this hardcover edition, 2nd printing.
July 23, 2016
Read this several years ago after picking it up at a thrift store. I only remember in general, so I will re-read before a full review. I know it started out as a marriage of convenience only. I do intend to research her other books and short stories.
August 30, 2008
It was cute, appropriate, a little suspenseful, but not very deep. I especially enjoyed the very last page. I liked it and do recommend it, but don't expect to get anything deep out of it.
July 30, 2016
I love this book. I really do. I read it when I was a teen and certainly didn't appreciate it as much as I do now. Great romance, great historical fiction, great mystery.:)
Displaying 1 - 30 of 34 reviews