Author's Choice

by Elizabeth August

He's a literary lion...
Women—especially beautiful ones—hang on John Medwin's every word. But when an aspiring writer is about to lose custody of her niece and nephew, the confirmed bachelor stuns the publishing world when he marries the unknown. Of course, the newlyweds understand their union is in name only...

She's an author in distress...
Once the court rules in her favor, Melinda Oliver expects her rescuer to take up where he left off with his legions of adoring fans. Except the more she gets to know him, the more she hopes he'll settle for a good old-fashioned ending—with a grateful heroine in his arms...

Genres: Romance, Fiction, Harlequin, Contemporary Romance

Paperback

First published January 1, 1988

About the author

Betty Marie Wilhite had always wanted to write. She married Doug, and they had three boys, the first was Douglas Jr., four years later Benjamin, and nine years later the last, Matthew. The family lived in Wilmington, Delaware. She began writing romances soon after Matthew was born. She wrote under the pseudonyms of Betsy Page, Elizabeth Douglas, Elizabeth August and Kathleen Ward.

Reviews

[Vicki · Rating 3 out of 5]

Writers Melinda Oliver and John Medwin meet at a convention in New Orleans, but apparent compromising circumstances later have her proposing a marriage of convenience so that she doesn't lose custody of her orphaned nephew and niece.

[Virginia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading other reviews I realize that some people are way too invested in what they read being a READ. This is a simple romance written back in 1988 when Harlequins were simply easy escapism romance. Even bearing that in mind, this was a pretty good story. Yes simple and not too developed a story line but a good one. The 20 something virgin is a stretch these days, but a couple’s insecurities are not. I liked the children and the secondary characters. It is a well written quick read.

[JoAnne · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick read with not much meat to it. Cute story but characters not really developed and Melinda definitely didn't know how to communicate and always thought the worst of what she did or said - usually without thinking. John seemed like a nice guy even given his past history. Adelle, the step-grandmother was only out for herself.

Story flows from Pennsylvania to New Orleans, Las Vegas, Delaware and North Carolina. Some closure but would have liked an epilogue or it to go on a little longer. Nice happily ever after in the end. Like that it's part of a series. May look for some of her other books.

[Anna Marie · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was on my shelf with the cover torn off (which meant it was ugly). I didn't remember what it was about, so I pulled it out to re-read it, this weekend.

Melinda goes to a writer's convention and switches rooms with a guy friend and wakes up with a strang man in the extra bed. Apparently her guy friend is forgetful and it slipped his mind that he'd allowed uber Hot n' Famous mystery writer John to share his room, last minute. Melinda loathes John's lavish and promiscuous life, and he thinks her an uptight prude.

Fast forward several months, and Melinda is proposing marriage to him. The VERY convoluted back story is that she has custody of her deceased brother's kids, and their step grandmother wants them in order to get her hands on their trust money. She had Melinda followed to the convention, snapped pics of her with John in the room via detective, and plans to prove Melinda an unfit mother. But if she marries John, it could be passed off as a tryst for the engaged couple before the wedding.

John agrees to marry her, and from that point on, the story is pretty much "How to drive a Man Away by Jumping to Conclusions and Dooming the Marriage, Yourself". She's a miserable, horrible woman who creates scenarios of cheating and philandering and betrayal and hate on John's behalf. Of course he agreed because he has this thing for paranoid uptights in ratty robes, right? And he LUVVVS her. But honestly, it doesn't fly. It's a miserable union, with him retreating to the sofa and her running hot and cold on him the ENTIRE rest of the book.

I gave it an extra star, because it was actually written by an author with a grasp of the English language (a rare find, these days... but then, this is an old book, with children named 'Frank' and 'Joan'), and I gave it a star for some fairly steamy chemistry when they DO get together.

But it's not going back on my bookshelf.

[Sylvia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Modern

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

cover did not match description of hero at least initially. Spent the first part of the book set in New Orleans not Delaware. Good head turn off kind of book.

[Myfanwy · Rating 1 out of 5]

This was... real bad.