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Corbins #4
My Darling Melissa
“The reigning queen of Americana romance” (Romantic Times), #1 New York Times bestseller Linda Lael Miller charms with this unforgettable Western love story of a runaway bride who wants only to hear three little words from a dashing Oregon lumber baron: My Darling Melissa…
When beautiful heiress Melissa Corbin discovers on her wedding day that her groom has a mistress, she begs for a ride out of town on Quinn Rafferty’s private railway car. Determined to prove she’s an independent woman and not just the baby sister to her three older brothers, Melissa makes Quinn a tempting offer: her inheritance in exchange for a marriage that would be in name only—until she says otherwise. But as Quinn’s burning caresses kindle a white-hot desire like she’s never experienced before, the headstrong beauty knows she is falling in love...and won’t admit it until the man she married does first! It’s a gloriously passionate standoff for two proud hearts, a battle of wills too thrilling to resist.
When beautiful heiress Melissa Corbin discovers on her wedding day that her groom has a mistress, she begs for a ride out of town on Quinn Rafferty’s private railway car. Determined to prove she’s an independent woman and not just the baby sister to her three older brothers, Melissa makes Quinn a tempting offer: her inheritance in exchange for a marriage that would be in name only—until she says otherwise. But as Quinn’s burning caresses kindle a white-hot desire like she’s never experienced before, the headstrong beauty knows she is falling in love...and won’t admit it until the man she married does first! It’s a gloriously passionate standoff for two proud hearts, a battle of wills too thrilling to resist.
336 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 1990
135 people are currently reading
599 people want to read
About the author
Linda Lael Miller
551 books3,234 followersThe daughter of a town marshal, Linda Lael Miller is a #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than 100 historical and contemporary novels, most of which reflect her love of the West. Raised in Northport, Washington, Linda pursued her wanderlust, living in London and Arizona and traveling the world before returning to the state of her birth to settle down on a spacious property outside Spokane.
Linda traces the birth of her writing career to the day when a Northport teacher told her that the stories she was writing were good, that she just might have a future in writing. Later, when she decided to write novels, she endured her share of rejection before she sold Fletcher’s Woman in 1983 to Pocket Books. Since then, Linda has successfully published historicals, contemporaries, paranormals, mysteries and thrillers before coming home, in a literal sense, and concentrating on novels with a Western flavor. For her devotion to her craft, the Romance Writers of America awarded her their prestigious Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
Long a passionate Civil War buff, Linda has studied the era avidly for almost thirty years. She has read literally hundreds of books on the subject, explored numerous battlegrounds and made many visits to her favorite, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where she has witnessed re-enactments of the legendary clash between North and South. Linda explores that turbulent time in The Yankee Widow, a May 7, 2019 MIRA Books hardcover, also available in digital and audiobook formats.
Dedicated to helping others, “The First Lady of the West” personally financed fifteen years of her Linda Lael Miller Scholarships for Women, which she awarded to women 25 years and older who were seeking to improve their lot in life through education. She anticipates that her next charitable endeavors will benefit four-legged critters.
More information about Linda and her novels is available at www.lindalaelmiller.com, on Facebook and from Nancy Berland Public Relations, nancy@nancyberland.com, 405-206-4748.
Linda traces the birth of her writing career to the day when a Northport teacher told her that the stories she was writing were good, that she just might have a future in writing. Later, when she decided to write novels, she endured her share of rejection before she sold Fletcher’s Woman in 1983 to Pocket Books. Since then, Linda has successfully published historicals, contemporaries, paranormals, mysteries and thrillers before coming home, in a literal sense, and concentrating on novels with a Western flavor. For her devotion to her craft, the Romance Writers of America awarded her their prestigious Nora Roberts Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
Long a passionate Civil War buff, Linda has studied the era avidly for almost thirty years. She has read literally hundreds of books on the subject, explored numerous battlegrounds and made many visits to her favorite, Gettysburg, Pennsylvania, where she has witnessed re-enactments of the legendary clash between North and South. Linda explores that turbulent time in The Yankee Widow, a May 7, 2019 MIRA Books hardcover, also available in digital and audiobook formats.
Dedicated to helping others, “The First Lady of the West” personally financed fifteen years of her Linda Lael Miller Scholarships for Women, which she awarded to women 25 years and older who were seeking to improve their lot in life through education. She anticipates that her next charitable endeavors will benefit four-legged critters.
More information about Linda and her novels is available at www.lindalaelmiller.com, on Facebook and from Nancy Berland Public Relations, nancy@nancyberland.com, 405-206-4748.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews
May 8, 2008
Okay but I have read better of Linda Lael Miller's work. Melissia Corbin discovers on her wedding day that the man she is to marry has a mistress, and he invited her to their wedding!! Talk about slapping you in the face. So what does Melissia do, she runs!!! To get out of town she runs after a train and on the end of that train is a private railway car that is owned by Quinn Rafferty. Ok damsel in distress what is the hero to do, save the damsel.
This is one of her earlier releases and I can tell how well she has progressed in her writing and story telling. Do not get me wrong it is a really sweet and loving story but her later work in my opinion is better.
This is one of her earlier releases and I can tell how well she has progressed in her writing and story telling. Do not get me wrong it is a really sweet and loving story but her later work in my opinion is better.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 1, 2012
This is the dumbest book I've ever read. h.Well half read---I put it down half way through. An heiress marries a millionaire and then gets a job a few days later shucking oysters. She dresses in hand me down shabby dresses. She constantly misconstrues the situation she's involved in. For some reason her brothers think she need watching over. They're right. She needs a keeper. And frankly her husband is not up to the job. I can't believe LLM wrote this. I'm usually a fan.
August 11, 2025
This is a book picked up solely in vacation mode at the closest store, a Walgreens. It was fine. I used to read LLM books in the 90’s so knew I would at least be familiar with her style of writing. Too much fluff and filler and not enough plot. Like the feistiness of some of the characters though. Hate the title with an absolute passion. Would I go back and re-read it, no. Do I regret reading it the first time? Also no
January 2, 2015
Okay book. On her wedding day Melissa found out that her fiance has a mistress and that he invited her to the wedding. Melissa will put up with some things, but infidelity isn't one of them. She runs from the wedding and ends up on a private train car with Quinn Rafferty. She offers him a bargain - she'll marry him and he'll get the benefits of being married to a Corbin.
I have to say that I really didn't like Melissa much. I found her to be immature and ridiculously stubborn. I understood why she ran from her wedding, and had no problem with that. But from the time she met Quinn, she seemed to think only of herself. As the youngest and only girl in her family, she has been somewhat spoiled, but she has also suffered from overprotective brothers. She is determined to stand on her own two feet, in spite of being married to a successful man. Again, no problem with the concept, but her execution was terrible. She is so set on doing things her way that she doesn't think about the effects it will have on Quinn. She is jealous of his female business partner, and shows it in petty ways like flirting with another man. She is very attracted to him, and when they are together the chemistry between them is hot. It doesn't take her long to fall in love with him, but she persists in doing things that she knows will anger him. She gets herself into situations that are dangerous because she is too stubborn to listen when he tells her something.
Quinn was a little better than Melissa but not by much. He is a successful man, with plans for expanding his businesses. He has an on again off again relationship with his business partner Gillian. When he rescues Melissa from the train platform he is immediately attracted to her, but he's a gentleman and behaves himself. He accepts her bargain, but is most interested in getting her into bed with him. When that finally happens he is amazed by the strength of their connection. The thing that bothered me about him is that whenever things started to get wound up between them, instead of talking to her he would use sex to distract her from what he didn't want to deal with. Even when they have admitted their love for each other, they don't talk to each other about what's important. It takes a near tragedy for them to realize what they mean to each other and what they have to do.
There are some interesting secondary stories. Quinn has a secret about his sister Mary that he fears revealing to Melissa because he's afraid of her reaction. Quinn's father is creating trouble because he is a basically nasty man who abused Quinn and his mother. Melissa's ex-fiance is trying to get her back for reasons of his own. Melissa's brothers are dealing with issues in their own lives that are also affecting her. There are a couple of interesting twists that come out involving Quinn's family and Melissa's.
I have to say that I really didn't like Melissa much. I found her to be immature and ridiculously stubborn. I understood why she ran from her wedding, and had no problem with that. But from the time she met Quinn, she seemed to think only of herself. As the youngest and only girl in her family, she has been somewhat spoiled, but she has also suffered from overprotective brothers. She is determined to stand on her own two feet, in spite of being married to a successful man. Again, no problem with the concept, but her execution was terrible. She is so set on doing things her way that she doesn't think about the effects it will have on Quinn. She is jealous of his female business partner, and shows it in petty ways like flirting with another man. She is very attracted to him, and when they are together the chemistry between them is hot. It doesn't take her long to fall in love with him, but she persists in doing things that she knows will anger him. She gets herself into situations that are dangerous because she is too stubborn to listen when he tells her something.
Quinn was a little better than Melissa but not by much. He is a successful man, with plans for expanding his businesses. He has an on again off again relationship with his business partner Gillian. When he rescues Melissa from the train platform he is immediately attracted to her, but he's a gentleman and behaves himself. He accepts her bargain, but is most interested in getting her into bed with him. When that finally happens he is amazed by the strength of their connection. The thing that bothered me about him is that whenever things started to get wound up between them, instead of talking to her he would use sex to distract her from what he didn't want to deal with. Even when they have admitted their love for each other, they don't talk to each other about what's important. It takes a near tragedy for them to realize what they mean to each other and what they have to do.
There are some interesting secondary stories. Quinn has a secret about his sister Mary that he fears revealing to Melissa because he's afraid of her reaction. Quinn's father is creating trouble because he is a basically nasty man who abused Quinn and his mother. Melissa's ex-fiance is trying to get her back for reasons of his own. Melissa's brothers are dealing with issues in their own lives that are also affecting her. There are a couple of interesting twists that come out involving Quinn's family and Melissa's.
June 4, 2018
First off, I picked this up because I wanted to read an American historical or Western and it certainly met the criteria and I look forward to trying more like it. Reading this one required a healthy dose of crazy sauce.
I need to say that haven’t read a whole lot of 1990s era romance so perhaps if I had read it in its heyday I might have liked this a bit more. The heroine’s “independent” streak came off to me as a bit TSTL and, well, bratty. Her nickname is Brat and she is well-deserved of the nickname that her brothers gave her but I draw the line at cute-bratty when it comes to how the heroine behaves to the hero. I don’t think the hero deserved any of the horrible treatment she bestowed on him. Her behavior made it extremely hard for me to root for her so-called independence. The whole back and forth bit almost made me throw it across the room.
I did enjoy the hero and other characters as well as the historical Washington setting very much.
I will certainly read more Linda Lael Millers books, but will be careful when choosing ones where the heroine appears insurmountably stubborn.
April 18, 2020
Unfortunately this book didn't really work for me.
Most of the time I was annoyed of the characters and there actions. All was very jumpy and often I was missing a little bit a red line through the story. It seemed as if there were a lot of ideas but there was no real arc of suspense, and if there was a small one it was solved just a few pages later.
The male character was okay the female character was actually quite annoying. Maybe it's better if you read the other books before but I actually was more interested in the Story of two of her brothers- Keith and the doctor -than the story of those two.
Most of the time I was annoyed of the characters and there actions. All was very jumpy and often I was missing a little bit a red line through the story. It seemed as if there were a lot of ideas but there was no real arc of suspense, and if there was a small one it was solved just a few pages later.
The male character was okay the female character was actually quite annoying. Maybe it's better if you read the other books before but I actually was more interested in the Story of two of her brothers- Keith and the doctor -than the story of those two.
March 26, 2013
Melissa was immature, annoying and beyond stubborn. I completely commiserated with Quinn having to deal with her dramatics. I enjoyed Quinn's passionate nature but how he endured Melissa's behavior was unbelievable. Most men would have dropped girls like that like a hot potato. Promising story line but fell way short of a satisfying read. Two stars.
February 28, 2017
I read this book a long time ago and could not remember the title but it stayed on my mind. So I really enjoyed it.
February 1, 2019
I’ve always loved her books and this was another good one. I would have given it five stars if the end didn’t seem so rushed. I thought the drama scene between mellissa and Quinn’s father would have been lot more dramatic. I also felt the car crash with Ajax was ridiculous. From reading all about mellissa from the start quoting about how her dress is ruined isn’t something I’d expect a pregnant women would say after being flown from the car. And to top it all Quinn laughing about it when his wife is on the ground pregnant and hurt. Made no sense to me. I had not read the previous Corbin books so this was my first that I read in the series. I also felt mellissa wasn’t shocked about Mary and I as the reader was very shocked when I read it but she took it as a grain of salt and moved on the very next sentence. I enjoyed reading the love making but almost felt it was literally every other page they were doing it in detail. I would have also liked a conversation between Gillian and Mellissa about Quinn’s past and Mary conception. It just seemed odd there wasn’t lot of conversation bout Gillian being the mother of Mary or her absence to Mary. Was not explained
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 26, 2024
1.5 stars
Lord this was incomprehensible! Almost every chapter changed the plot direction - this book felt like a bad soap operate where every week there was a new plotline, fight, random character popping up. I could hear the soap close-up and dramatic music in my head - which did not ender this book to me.
This book was basically a mess - the characters were unbelieved and I am not sure there was romance and much as a fever dream. Despite this I finished it - so I guess that counts for something. Maybe... Giving it and extra 1/2 stars for the sheer bonkers nature of the plot and the commitment of our heroine to be throughly silly. She lurched from one fight, general battiness and tantrum to another - that took guts. The hero was overshadowed and I was rooting for him to run - but I guess he was infected. Poor man!
Really disliked this - and what upsets me even more is that I have a few of this author's book. Hopefully they are better (or I DNF faster).
Lord this was incomprehensible! Almost every chapter changed the plot direction - this book felt like a bad soap operate where every week there was a new plotline, fight, random character popping up. I could hear the soap close-up and dramatic music in my head - which did not ender this book to me.
This book was basically a mess - the characters were unbelieved and I am not sure there was romance and much as a fever dream. Despite this I finished it - so I guess that counts for something. Maybe... Giving it and extra 1/2 stars for the sheer bonkers nature of the plot and the commitment of our heroine to be throughly silly. She lurched from one fight, general battiness and tantrum to another - that took guts. The hero was overshadowed and I was rooting for him to run - but I guess he was infected. Poor man!
Really disliked this - and what upsets me even more is that I have a few of this author's book. Hopefully they are better (or I DNF faster).
April 27, 2020
Absolutely Great
Last book on theseries and what a great series it is. Hated to see it end. Can't say which story was my favorite because I liked them all. Hope she writes more books/series like this one.
Last book on theseries and what a great series it is. Hated to see it end. Can't say which story was my favorite because I liked them all. Hope she writes more books/series like this one.
January 16, 2023
Great read
Love the storyline of the Corbin family. Read the others a while back but missed this one. so glad i came across it. I have been a big fan of Linda's and she never disappoints!
Love the storyline of the Corbin family. Read the others a while back but missed this one. so glad i came across it. I have been a big fan of Linda's and she never disappoints!
May 20, 2024
Love to read
What a great read! Loved every minute of the experience. Got a little irritated a couple of times with the heroin but at the same time I could kinda understand what made her tick. You won't be disappointed if you read this lovely book.
What a great read! Loved every minute of the experience. Got a little irritated a couple of times with the heroin but at the same time I could kinda understand what made her tick. You won't be disappointed if you read this lovely book.
October 24, 2019
Good ending for the whole family
July 18, 2020
Classic LLM novel. Enticingly written, leaving you wanting more.
March 11, 2021
3.5 stars
February 28, 2023
3.5 stars
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May 24, 2023My Darling Melissa
After reading all four books in the series, I believe this is my favorite. Again, love adventure and family make a great story
After reading all four books in the series, I believe this is my favorite. Again, love adventure and family make a great story
September 11, 2023
Linda Lael Miller writes some of the best western romances. This is one of the greats.
October 28, 2016
2.5 Stars
July 28, 2011
Inhaltsangabe:
Das Leben hat die Corbins eigentlich immer verwöhnt - die Brüder Adam, Jeff, Keith und ihre Schwester Melissa. Bis zu dem Tag, als ihr Vater unter mysteriösen Umständen verunglückte. Nun müssendie vier allein versuchen, ihren Weg im Leben zu finden.
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Natürlich ist es ein unglaublicher Skandal, als Melissa ihren Bräutigam einfach am Altar stehen läßt, aber das ist ihr egal. Soll sie vielleicht nur wegen der Leute einen Mann heiraten, der sie schon vor der Ehe betrügt?
Doch schon bald fragt sie sich, ob sie nicht vom Regen in die Traufe geraten ist - denn ihre Flucht führt sie direkt in die Arme eines anderen Mannes. Der ist zwar aufregend und zärtlich und sinnlich, aber sein Leben wird von einem düsteren Geheimnis überschattet . . .
Das Leben hat die Corbins eigentlich immer verwöhnt - die Brüder Adam, Jeff, Keith und ihre Schwester Melissa. Bis zu dem Tag, als ihr Vater unter mysteriösen Umständen verunglückte. Nun müssendie vier allein versuchen, ihren Weg im Leben zu finden.
--------------------
Natürlich ist es ein unglaublicher Skandal, als Melissa ihren Bräutigam einfach am Altar stehen läßt, aber das ist ihr egal. Soll sie vielleicht nur wegen der Leute einen Mann heiraten, der sie schon vor der Ehe betrügt?
Doch schon bald fragt sie sich, ob sie nicht vom Regen in die Traufe geraten ist - denn ihre Flucht führt sie direkt in die Arme eines anderen Mannes. Der ist zwar aufregend und zärtlich und sinnlich, aber sein Leben wird von einem düsteren Geheimnis überschattet . . .
February 5, 2009
This is a fun read. Mellissa is a woman that runs away from her family and her wedding and hops a train to get away. Quinn is a up and coming buisness man that is intrigued by Melissa and finds her everything he is looking for. There are twists and turns to them finding love yet they seem to overcome the odds and get there with the help of friends and family. Though I didn't give this one five stars, I feel it is a worthwhile read.
February 22, 2008
My Darling Melissa - Ok
Miller, Linda Lael (aka Leal St. James)- 4th of Corbin series
Fleeing the altar on her wedding day when she discovers that her husband-to-be is plotting to take a second lover, Melissa Corbin trades access to her family fortune for her hand in marriage in an unusual arrangement.
Okay but not great.
Miller, Linda Lael (aka Leal St. James)- 4th of Corbin series
Fleeing the altar on her wedding day when she discovers that her husband-to-be is plotting to take a second lover, Melissa Corbin trades access to her family fortune for her hand in marriage in an unusual arrangement.
Okay but not great.
January 29, 2012
I really enjoyed this. It was funny. The couple was a little frustrating in parts but it was a fun read. Very hot. If you have a problem with sex in your books, this one isn't for you. I didn't realize this is the fourth of a series. I actually own Banner O'Brien and haven't read it yet.
September 16, 2013
The final edition of the Corbin family is about the sister, Melissa. She is as strong headed as her brothers and she meets her match with Quinn. It turns out they love to fight as much as they love to love.
May 18, 2015
The plot was good,the heroine was feisty, if somewhat headstrong and spoiled. The book had more detailed sex than the plot required. Although it is a continuation of the Corbin series, it was not necessary to have read the previous three books to enjoy this one.
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February 3, 2017very good book
October 23, 2009
This was a fun read. I didn't know this was the fourth book in a series, so I will try to find the other three and see if they are as good. I always enjoy reading Linda Lael Miller.
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March 31, 2022Time Period: 1891
Location: Washington, USA
Location: Washington, USA
Displaying 1 - 30 of 44 reviews