Η Λη ένιωσε πολύ τυχερή όταν ο περίφημος Αυστραλός μεγαλοδικηγόρος Ντάμιεν Μουρ, δέχτηκε ν' αναλάβει μια σοβαρή οικογενειακή υπόθεσή της. Ήταν καταπληκτικός στη δουλειά του, απίστευτα γοητευτικός και τον θαύμαζε απεριόριστα. Όμως δεν θα μπορούσε ποτέ να φανταστεί ότι ο απρόβλεπτος όρος μιας διαθήκης θα την υποχρέωνε να τον παντρευτεί! Ο Ντάμιεν ξαφνιάστηκε όσο και η Λη, αλλά τη διαβεβαίωσε ότι ο γάμος τους θα ήταν προσωρινός και τυπικός. Ωστόσο, το πάθος που γεννήθηκε ανάμεσά τους ήταν πέρα για πέρα αληθινό και, πολύ σύντομα, δεν χρειαζόταν πια να προσποιούνται. Είχαν γίνει αληθινό ζευγάρι ...
Gillian Smith (alias Lindsay Armstrong) was born in South Africa. She grew up with three ambitions: to become a writer, to travel the world, and to be a game ranger. She didn't achieve the last one, but her fascination for wildlife and that special something about Africa and its big game still remains with her. When she went to work it was in travel, at an agency and an airline, and this started her on the road to seeing the world.
Lindsey met her New Zealand-born husband, who had been working in West Africa, when he was on his way home through Johannesburg. He did go home but in a matter of weeks he was back in South Africa, and six months later they were married. Three of their five children were born in South Africa. Then one in London and one in Australia, after they made the decision to emigrate from South Africa.
It wasn't until her youngest child started school that Lindsay sat down at the kitchen table determined to tackle her other ambition to stop dreaming about writing and do it! She hasn't stopped since. She's not happy unless she has a book under way, and she's discovered she can write through just about anything.
Lindsay and her husband have moved around a lot. They've trained racehorses,farmed, and lived on their boat for six months while they sailed it from the Gold Coast to the Torres Strait and back, an epic voyage! They currently live in Queensland, overlooking the water; they sold their farm, and they're looking around for another boat. She and her husband love to travel and have been back to Africa twice in the past few years. The highlight of one of their trips was a visit to the Serengeti, in Tanzania, where Lindsay did the one thing she swore she would never do: take a ride in a hot-air balloon. She was a nervous wreck as the balloon tottered upright, but will remember it as a unique experience to see the game spreading out on the Serengeti plain beneath her as the sun rose.
"They say you can take someone who was born in Africa out of the bush but you can't take the bush out of someone born there..."
Despite this passion for wildlife and Africa, Lindsay considers Australia her home now and loves the country. She travelled to Sydney to witness the closing weekend of the Olympic Games in September 2000; it made her proud to be an adopted Aussie!
Ho-hum marriage of convenience (commanded as a condition of a third party's will and testament) between an outwardly feisty, internally down-on-herself, country girl and a strait-laced, cold and aloof city-bred hero.
I couldn't blame her for being so insecure. Hero demonstrates that he loves to have sex with her, but nothing much else. Hero's mom and sister were two big, fat cows who went out of their way to demonstrate that the heroine was beneath the hero.
The sister in particular was such a bovine monster, inviting her best friend, who happens to be hero's ex-girlfriend who lived with him for two years, to hero's apartment, without even notifying the hero!!! Invite her to your own damn house or a coffee shop or the beach or the seven circles of hell if you wanna have a coffee klatch with her. Her logic? Since hero and heroine only have a marriage of convenience, it is okay to invite the ex-girlfriend over. What???!!!! Incredible sense of entitlement and lack of respect towards the heroine whom she obviously considers nothing more than a peasant who doesn't deserve any sense of consideration or dignity. But hey, this scenario is par for the course for Lindsay Armstrong so who am I to complain?
The straw that breaks the peasant's back is the hero and OW caught in a magazine picture at some glam gala in town while heroine is tucked away at the cozy country farmhouse. Heroine runs away. Hero tracks her down and they confess their ILYs.
We are supposed to feel warm and fuzzy that after a couple of years and a couple of heirs, the bovine in-laws have finally thawed towards the peasant *eye roll*
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I liked the H/h. Another reviewer mentioned in another review that this book has an unlikely premise for a MOC, and altho this true I still liked it. The plucky red haired heroine is described by the H as a one woman swat team...I like that in a heroine. The H seemed to have conflicted feelings about the h so it appeared that this would be a temporary marriage lasting only long enough to secure an inheritance. However, there is a strong attraction which eventually leads to passion. Altho the heroine quickly realizes she loves the H she has no reason to believe he has similar feelings or to believe that thir very different lifestyles could lead to a happy marriage. At one point the h is getting ready for something and she's thinking, "should I wash my hair, shave my legs"... I think I've been waiting for decades for an h in a harlequin to mention shaving their legs. The H's frequently in Hplandia think about the silky smooth legs of the h but I've always wondered about this because leg shaving is never mentioned. So I gave bonus points for this alone.
Have this H, Damien, washed and brought to my tent. Lee was an initially sparky h who became more uncertain as she fell further in love with her husband of convenience. Their marriage was centred on a weird legacy of an agricultural nursery. She initially approached hotshot, elusive lawyer Damien to instruct him in a fraud against her grandparents. It is when he accompanied her to beard the presumed fraudster in his den that the Will situation arose, forcing them into joint ownership of the nursery and ultimately into marriage to avoid the Will being contested. What worked in this for me was the character of the H who is very much in control and very much wanting things on his terms. He is extremely urbane, sexy and protective without being a douche. He maintains a self containment and self confidence that is very attractive. He's busy and puts the work hours in.Their chemistry is powerful. He does tend to take over so it's pretty good that she eventually brings him to heel at which point I felt confident that he'd give his all. If I said he reminded me of my husband you might think I'm bragging but really I'm just lucky.
After reading this novel I was quite convinced that harlequin vintage novels were better in comparison to the new ones simply because they were more convincing and have a better story.
I really didn't buy it at all that Damien married Lee because he didn't want anyone to take advantage of her now that she became RICH! Rich! Just by an unknown person giving her a farm house! GOD! It was utter pain to follow their attraction for one another and their character's development. Not at all interested to read it again. It gives one a headache.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Dos personas distintas que poco a poco descubren que hay muchas cosas que les unen. Damien sigue las reglas de los protagonistas abogados: guapo, inteligente, ropa cara, un coche maravilloso, un poco arrogante... pero también hay mucho de respecto y admiración por la gente sencilla. Lee es... Lee. Punto. No hay nada convencional en ella, desde el trabajo hasta la apariencia. Una mujer de valor que defiende a los suyos con "uñas y dientes", que hace todo lo que pueda contra una injusticia. A lo largo de la narrativa el lector se percata de que hay mucho más que una atracción sexual entre ellos, el amor se desarrolla de manera encantadora.
Lectura rápida, la pareja protagonista no tienen nada en común pero a la vez tienen mucho por descubrir uno del otro. Recomendada para aquellas que buscan algo para leer rápido y bonito.