A Bride and Child Worth Waiting For

Crocodile Creek: 24-Hour Rescue #12

by Marion Lennox

Two friends and one orphaned girl might not seem like the average family - but to Medical Director Charles Wetherby and Director of Nursing Jill Shaw it's everything. Yet if they are to keep little Lily they must adopt her - and that means marriage.

Charles offers Jill a marriage of convenience - wanting more but always believing his injuries will stop him finding love. But Jill sees beneath his surface - how could she not want this caring, sexy, successful man? She just needs the courage to tell him. Charles and Jill's simmering emotions are unleashed when Lily suffers from a mystery illness. It could be their one opportunity to become the loving family they all need so much.

Genres: Contemporary, Fiction

288 pages, Kindle Edition

First published October 1, 2008

About the author

Writing romance sounds fascinating. Huh?

I'm a writer. I'm boring. Day after day I sit behind a word processor making up people in my head. Why do I do it? I love it. My husband, Dave, gets up in the morning, puts on a suit and heads out into the ice and cold of Ballarat's winter. (Sadly I live in one of the tiny parts of Australia that qualifies as cold.) I make myself another cup of coffee, head up to my study, choose what music I want and sit and daydream. And I get paid for doing it. Hooray!

My first attempt at writing romance, 'Dare To Love Again', a Medical Romance, was published by Harlequin Mills and Boon in 1990. It still stands today as a monument to my family's ability to survive on cheese sandwiches and spaghetti.

Since then I've written over 80 Romances for Harlequin Mills and Boon, with more on the drawing board. (I used a pseudonym - Trisha David - for the first few Romances but suffered with a split personality and have since reverted to being Marion Lennox all the time.) In between romances, I've co-authored a non-fiction history, (I love local history) done the odd (very odd) spot of housework and done a heap of travelling - research :-)

I come from a farming community. You can probably tell this from my books. There's not a skyscraper in sight. I'm very much a pets person. Chloe and Harry were my constant canine companions for many years as I wrote, demanding walks and air freshener at frequent intervals. Sadly I lost them, and for a while I vowed not to get another. My heart was broken and my study smelled so clean! But.. The cat and I missed them so badly we weakened and bought Mitzi. Mitzi's a black and silver mini-schnauzer who makes me and the cat laugh. Expect to find her in future stories.

If you're interested in formalities, I hold a Bachelor of Commerce degree and a teaching diploma. I have a couple of kids and a huge extended family who look on me with affectionate tolerance. Marion? The crazy one who talks to people in her head... I've had nine nominations for the Rita, winning twice, and fourteen for the Australian Book of the Year. After years of thinking of my writing as a hobby I guess I finally now qualify as a `real' writer.

Thank your for taking the trouble to check out my web page. Now try my books. We might even end up having fun together. And write to me. I show my family - `See? Real people do like the things that go in in my head.'

Reviews

[Linda Verhage]

Deel 2 van

[Suzanne · Rating 5 out of 5]

Crocodile Creek #12. Charles Weatherby and Jill Shaw finally get married but we find out things about each of them before it happens. The proposal starts out with a marriage of convenience so the social worker can allow them to adopt Lily but by the end of this book, the marriage is not more than a marriage of convenience.

[Fiona Marsden · Rating 4 out of 5]

We made it to the end of the Crocodile Creek Medical Series. Book twelve is the story of Charles Wetherby, the instigator and medical director of the Medical Centre at Crocodile Creek and Jill Shaw, the nursing director.

We have seen Charles play a role in all the previous books, gliding silently around the hospital and clinic in his wheelchair and playing deus ex machina in a number of the romances. We know from previous story lines that he was shot in the spine as an eighteen year old but went on to study medicine before returning home to create the best rural medicine facility possible for north Queensland. He is now in his forties and though it was revealed in an earlier book that he has an adult daughter from a teen romance, he has never married and isn't close to his family. His family is really Crocodile Creek and it's residents.

Jill we know is a survivor from an abusive marriage. It's left her with scars both emotional and physical at 37. She is good at her job and has been working closely with Charles for eight years. Recently, they have been co-parenting Charles' orphan cousin Lily. But now the crunch has come and Lily's legal guardian wants her adopted by a married couple so he no longer has to justify not looking after her himself.

So here we are. The obvious solution is a marriage of convenience. Because Jill would never want to marry again after her previous experience and Charles is hardly an ideal candidate for marital bliss, handicapped as he is by his injury.

It was interesting to see how forcing these two to look again at their relationship shook them up and shook up the relationship. It was lovely to see them reach their happy ending after 12 books. The mystery illness on the island which Lily contracted played a roll as well in bringing them closer and is concluded as well. A couple of plot points were a little disconcerting but easily skimmed over. It was a nice finish to a well written series with a small group of authors pulling it all together.

[Cecilia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Unusual - hero in a wheelchair, hero and heroine both older than usual. Nice characters. Somewhat silly ending, but an enjoyable read.

[ReadKnitHoard · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

Marriage of convenience…so inconvenient! Wounded plot moppet. Pasts. Feelings. Misunderstandings. Feelings. Excitement.