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Bride For A Price
There seemed to be no possible solution
Olivia Garland was shattered to discover that the terms of her stepfather's will left the family business in the hands of arrogant Matthew Jordan.
Somehow or other, Olivia was determined to wrest control of Garland's back into her own hands--after all, it was part of her young brother's heritage.
Her contacts with Matthew Jordan so far had been unsuccessful, his various suggestions unacceptable. She could only keep on trying and hope the price to be paid wasn't beyond the limits she was prepared to go....
Olivia Garland was shattered to discover that the terms of her stepfather's will left the family business in the hands of arrogant Matthew Jordan.
Somehow or other, Olivia was determined to wrest control of Garland's back into her own hands--after all, it was part of her young brother's heritage.
Her contacts with Matthew Jordan so far had been unsuccessful, his various suggestions unacceptable. She could only keep on trying and hope the price to be paid wasn't beyond the limits she was prepared to go....
192 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
April 3, 2017
Re Bride for a Price - Stephanie Howard is back and this book is soooo tacky. I just don't even know what to say, even the h uses tacky - multiple times. It was funny tacky, but still waaay tacky.
Okay I am going to give this a shot here. But remember the tackiness and the sheer inconsistency is not my doing - I mean HP's are nonsensical at times and we like the place-- so we go with it, but no one should have to deal with both tackiness and nonsense really. Get your Captain or your favorite substitute and your cookie supplies ready, you are going to need it for this one.
The story opens with the h in tizzy, her widowed mum remarried and somehow managed to give the h's deceased father's company to her new husband. Since the company was to go to her brother - who really wants it and is going to school to run it - the h wants it back. It appears that the mum's new husband was some kind of electronics magnate and the h's father's company is to be a needed supplier of assets that the new hubby's company wanted for it's own. The h has received no compensation for the company and unfortunately her mum and her new husband - that neither the h or her brother liked AT ALL- have also died while on a ski trip.
The h's family company is now in the hands of the heir to the new hubby's company and he is refusing to give it back. Unless the h marries him. The H is a tacky tarty lady lurver extraordinare and as the h says, quite tacky in his non-subtle eagerness to get his lurve club swinging. They do marry and the deal is the h and H marry for six months, he signs over the company back to her cause HIS company's charter is that only family members can have holdings and the H supposedly has to be married to keep his inheritance.
They go to Paris for the honeymoon and the H tries to tart her up in skimpy clothes, takes her to an erotic review (which I suspect was burlesque,) gets her drunk and then tries again to lurve her up. The h, who doesn't know this man from Adam, or even like him much, firmly refuses and calls him an animal. The H backs off and we all return from Paris and a state of detente.
Then her brother wants to visit, and to the h's surprise her brother and her new husband get along great. They had to temporarily share a bedroom while the brother was visiting and one night the h has a nightmare and the H gives her cuddles. The brother leaves and this is the cue for the H to try another roofie kissing seduction - which the h is totally refusing cause she isn't a prostitute and would have never married the H except for his demands and she needed to get her brother's legacy back.
The H, who priorly had said she had to let him pike her cause he doesn't believe in adultery, gets angry and storms off. The h feels bad about yelling at him that he is blobfish spawn slime, so she follows him to his London apartment, where the H is in the process of lurving another woman's oven. The h kicks the H's geisha girl secretary out and yells at the H some more. He runs off and the h goes home, strangely perturbed that her husband is with another woman.
The situation devolves and the H is always off with his secretary. The h is having a mopey moment and running her own business, which is an art gallery. Then the h finds out the company accountant and financial officer has run off. The H breaks the news that there was a secret merger agreement between the h's mother and her new husband that the h's brother gets the company back when he is twenty one, the H's company is really only there to put a manager in place until her brother is ready to take over. Nobody knew this because supposedly the company financial officer ran off, after destroying the merger records and he embezzled a lot of money. The only reason they found out is because a retired secretary kept a copy of the merger.
The h's brother is fine with the H running things until he is ready to take over and so now the H and h can divorce. The h decides that she is in love with the H and goes to seduce him. He kicks her out. She decides the next day to pack and leave and wait out the divorce period.
But the H comes back and has a hissy fit and the h admits she loves him. The H claims that the only reason he asked her to marry him was because he was in love with her- there was no company stipulation he had to be married, but he kept pushing too hard and so she hated him. He supposedly never slept with his secretary and she has another job with a different company. They avow mutual love and decide against divorce for the HEA.
This book was tacky and whacked. If there was no merger details then the H did not own the company and any court of law would have decided that. All the h had to do was file a complaint and the H would have been removed. The H being in love with the h is also questionable, cause they only met the once before he proposed when she asked for the company back.
This book made no sense and the H cheating on the h, (and I totally believe he did multiple times,) was just plain tacky. My theory is that the H was never supposed to get the company, the mother may or may not have agreed to sign the company over but her second domineering husband saw something he wanted and either co-opted or bamboozled her into giving up the company to get the assets his own company needed.
I think the H figured the h was getting irked enough to leave and start an audit and a divorce and the whole situation would have presented in court and the H would have been found guilty of fraud with possible jail time. So he made up the seekrit merger story and this way he still gets to use the h's company's assets until her brother is ready to takeover and he never has to pay for them.
The reason he came on so strong with the h and the reason he rejected her is that he rightly pegged her as a modest, prim person and knew she wouldn't leap into bed right away - cause really who does that in old skool HPlandia when it is an MOC with someone the woman clearly loathes, but when she decided to get frisky he panicked, cause he doesn't really want her.
He came back the next day because he knew his whole little scheme was about to fail and he had to get his secretary girlfriend to a new cozy lurve nest, so he faked his way into avowals of love with the h and will either dump her when her brother takes over or hope for a convenient accident to get her out of his orbit and he can continue his tarty lady lurving life.
I still don't know what to say, except all in all this was one for the tacky side of HPLandia and not one I ever want to repeat.
Okay I am going to give this a shot here. But remember the tackiness and the sheer inconsistency is not my doing - I mean HP's are nonsensical at times and we like the place-- so we go with it, but no one should have to deal with both tackiness and nonsense really. Get your Captain or your favorite substitute and your cookie supplies ready, you are going to need it for this one.
The story opens with the h in tizzy, her widowed mum remarried and somehow managed to give the h's deceased father's company to her new husband. Since the company was to go to her brother - who really wants it and is going to school to run it - the h wants it back. It appears that the mum's new husband was some kind of electronics magnate and the h's father's company is to be a needed supplier of assets that the new hubby's company wanted for it's own. The h has received no compensation for the company and unfortunately her mum and her new husband - that neither the h or her brother liked AT ALL- have also died while on a ski trip.
The h's family company is now in the hands of the heir to the new hubby's company and he is refusing to give it back. Unless the h marries him. The H is a tacky tarty lady lurver extraordinare and as the h says, quite tacky in his non-subtle eagerness to get his lurve club swinging. They do marry and the deal is the h and H marry for six months, he signs over the company back to her cause HIS company's charter is that only family members can have holdings and the H supposedly has to be married to keep his inheritance.
They go to Paris for the honeymoon and the H tries to tart her up in skimpy clothes, takes her to an erotic review (which I suspect was burlesque,) gets her drunk and then tries again to lurve her up. The h, who doesn't know this man from Adam, or even like him much, firmly refuses and calls him an animal. The H backs off and we all return from Paris and a state of detente.
Then her brother wants to visit, and to the h's surprise her brother and her new husband get along great. They had to temporarily share a bedroom while the brother was visiting and one night the h has a nightmare and the H gives her cuddles. The brother leaves and this is the cue for the H to try another roofie kissing seduction - which the h is totally refusing cause she isn't a prostitute and would have never married the H except for his demands and she needed to get her brother's legacy back.
The H, who priorly had said she had to let him pike her cause he doesn't believe in adultery, gets angry and storms off. The h feels bad about yelling at him that he is blobfish spawn slime, so she follows him to his London apartment, where the H is in the process of lurving another woman's oven. The h kicks the H's geisha girl secretary out and yells at the H some more. He runs off and the h goes home, strangely perturbed that her husband is with another woman.
The situation devolves and the H is always off with his secretary. The h is having a mopey moment and running her own business, which is an art gallery. Then the h finds out the company accountant and financial officer has run off. The H breaks the news that there was a secret merger agreement between the h's mother and her new husband that the h's brother gets the company back when he is twenty one, the H's company is really only there to put a manager in place until her brother is ready to take over. Nobody knew this because supposedly the company financial officer ran off, after destroying the merger records and he embezzled a lot of money. The only reason they found out is because a retired secretary kept a copy of the merger.
The h's brother is fine with the H running things until he is ready to take over and so now the H and h can divorce. The h decides that she is in love with the H and goes to seduce him. He kicks her out. She decides the next day to pack and leave and wait out the divorce period.
But the H comes back and has a hissy fit and the h admits she loves him. The H claims that the only reason he asked her to marry him was because he was in love with her- there was no company stipulation he had to be married, but he kept pushing too hard and so she hated him. He supposedly never slept with his secretary and she has another job with a different company. They avow mutual love and decide against divorce for the HEA.
This book was tacky and whacked. If there was no merger details then the H did not own the company and any court of law would have decided that. All the h had to do was file a complaint and the H would have been removed. The H being in love with the h is also questionable, cause they only met the once before he proposed when she asked for the company back.
This book made no sense and the H cheating on the h, (and I totally believe he did multiple times,) was just plain tacky. My theory is that the H was never supposed to get the company, the mother may or may not have agreed to sign the company over but her second domineering husband saw something he wanted and either co-opted or bamboozled her into giving up the company to get the assets his own company needed.
I think the H figured the h was getting irked enough to leave and start an audit and a divorce and the whole situation would have presented in court and the H would have been found guilty of fraud with possible jail time. So he made up the seekrit merger story and this way he still gets to use the h's company's assets until her brother is ready to takeover and he never has to pay for them.
The reason he came on so strong with the h and the reason he rejected her is that he rightly pegged her as a modest, prim person and knew she wouldn't leap into bed right away - cause really who does that in old skool HPlandia when it is an MOC with someone the woman clearly loathes, but when she decided to get frisky he panicked, cause he doesn't really want her.
He came back the next day because he knew his whole little scheme was about to fail and he had to get his secretary girlfriend to a new cozy lurve nest, so he faked his way into avowals of love with the h and will either dump her when her brother takes over or hope for a convenient accident to get her out of his orbit and he can continue his tarty lady lurving life.
I still don't know what to say, except all in all this was one for the tacky side of HPLandia and not one I ever want to repeat.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 23, 2021
This was some Devil's Pawn-level OW gaslighting.
September 3, 2015
Couldn't get over how he would have slept with Celine if heroine had not gone over to the flat and heroine was way too accepting of his near betrayal!
September 10, 2015
this was a real page turner ! olivia was most bitchy and absolutely terrific in her role as outraged maiden. matthew very definitely was too keen and forced the relationship when she was not ready yet. so no, i wud not say she was frigid ! he was crazily in love wid her, besotted beyond imagination. and yes, i can forgive him for wanting to have sex wid celine. this just made the book more poignant for me. the scene that ensued, the force of character showed by olivia then: awesome! hats off to stephanie howard! she described a maelstrom of emotions so strong i was captivated and did not miss one word ! AWESOME, the kinda book u want to read again!
January 16, 2016
It was a good read but some part were dry and uninteresting. She blamed him for a lot and when they got married it felt too mechanical for me. Just she had a lot of passion and it did not manifest itself in the book.
January 15, 2016
Heroine was a hateful bitch. too bad hero didn't cheat on her, she deserved it but sadly he forgave her and ended up with her. I felt so sorry for him for having to put up with such a shrew.
April 1, 2019
I could not stand the heroine. It made the book just awful. Hero was a cheater in my view too. He was sleeping with his receptionist even if it had not happened yet he said it would have. That is a cheater. Story could have been good.
July 14, 2017
"The duckling has turned into a swan" !!!!! I mean really??!!
First of all a duckling is just as beautiful! (I know I know it's a saying but he didn't have to say it!)
A woman if she dresses up or chooses not to is her choice and a man who proclaims to be in love should overlook whether she dresses nicely and love her whether she wears plain clothes or not(I know at this point he doesn't say he loves her but still). That is her choice. That comment pissed me off. My rage is boiling. I hate the fact that men think we women dress up for them if we go out of the context of the story. But even in the story. Hello, we dress up for ourselves and psychologically it is proven that dressing up well makes one feel good about themselves but everyone's style is different so for some dressing up well may mean plain simple or elegant clothes and for some it may be glamorous clothes.
So that was one point that knocked off a star.
Second point, he tried to cheat on her! Okay he did that but why was the heroine so easily forgiving!! She should have made him work harder to gain her trust. So that knocked off another star leaving three stars.
So don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the basis of the story but those two things made me angry. I can handle cheating H's as long as there is a good long grovel with plenty of redeeming factors and the h doesn't forgive too easily.
But overall, this was a great angst filled read and I actually did like it. So it is recommended if anyone wants to read it. Your opinions might be different.
First of all a duckling is just as beautiful! (I know I know it's a saying but he didn't have to say it!)
A woman if she dresses up or chooses not to is her choice and a man who proclaims to be in love should overlook whether she dresses nicely and love her whether she wears plain clothes or not(I know at this point he doesn't say he loves her but still). That is her choice. That comment pissed me off. My rage is boiling. I hate the fact that men think we women dress up for them if we go out of the context of the story. But even in the story. Hello, we dress up for ourselves and psychologically it is proven that dressing up well makes one feel good about themselves but everyone's style is different so for some dressing up well may mean plain simple or elegant clothes and for some it may be glamorous clothes.
So that was one point that knocked off a star.
Second point, he tried to cheat on her! Okay he did that but why was the heroine so easily forgiving!! She should have made him work harder to gain her trust. So that knocked off another star leaving three stars.
So don't get me wrong, I enjoyed the basis of the story but those two things made me angry. I can handle cheating H's as long as there is a good long grovel with plenty of redeeming factors and the h doesn't forgive too easily.
But overall, this was a great angst filled read and I actually did like it. So it is recommended if anyone wants to read it. Your opinions might be different.
January 8, 2021
One moment the h is making out with him (willingly), the next moment she screams he is a beast and she hates him. No wonder he is stunned.
She is not only mean to him, but also to other people. And it seems like she can’t stop screaming.
The h keeps rejecting the H, she keeps insulting him, she keeps screaming at him. So they don’t have sex. Until at the end of the book he says she is free to leave and he’ll file for divorce. Then she suddenly changes her mind and she decides she wants to have sex with him.
What I don’t like in this book: the H would probably have cheated on her with his secretary if the h hadn’t interrupted them in the middle of the night in his apartment. Cheating is so not romantic.
And I also don’t like hysteric women. This h has crazy bitch moments. If I were the H, I would be scared of her.
But the H is good in the things he says to her and how much he does his best to get her to have sex with him.
So sexy when he says to her that he is a businessman from 9 to 5, but a man 24 hours a day. Because of him, this is not a bad novel. 3 stars.
She is not only mean to him, but also to other people. And it seems like she can’t stop screaming.
The h keeps rejecting the H, she keeps insulting him, she keeps screaming at him. So they don’t have sex. Until at the end of the book he says she is free to leave and he’ll file for divorce. Then she suddenly changes her mind and she decides she wants to have sex with him.
What I don’t like in this book: the H would probably have cheated on her with his secretary if the h hadn’t interrupted them in the middle of the night in his apartment. Cheating is so not romantic.
And I also don’t like hysteric women. This h has crazy bitch moments. If I were the H, I would be scared of her.
But the H is good in the things he says to her and how much he does his best to get her to have sex with him.
So sexy when he says to her that he is a businessman from 9 to 5, but a man 24 hours a day. Because of him, this is not a bad novel. 3 stars.
September 18, 2016
Olivia was wacked ....in the end I just felt sorry for Matthew
not sure what there was to fall in love with in Olivia
not sure what there was to fall in love with in Olivia
February 14, 2014
Heroine was a bit too foolish, but the Hero was delicious.
March 14, 2023
دائمًا الحنين يأخذنا عندما يقع بين أيدينا إحدى ذكريات الشباب والمراهقة ... الرواية كان لها معزة خاصة في قلبي .. قرأتها مترجمة من روايات عبير بعنوان "صفقة زواج". القصة قد تكون مكررة والنهاية بالتأكيد معروفة ولكن تبقى لحلاوة الذكرى مكانة خاصة.
"أن تقدم على شيء مجبرًا يجعلك تكرهه على الفور حتى وإن كان جيدًا، ويولد لديك عنادًا يعمي القلب والعقل عن كل شيء سوى رفضك له".
تتزوج أوليفيا من ماثيو مجبرة بسبب وصية للحفاظ على إرث أخيها بعد عقد صفقة، تجعلها رافضة لزوجها وغافلة عن كل مزاياه وحبه لها وحرصه عليها وحمايته لها ولأخيها حتى كادت تخسره.
"أن تقدم على شيء مجبرًا يجعلك تكرهه على الفور حتى وإن كان جيدًا، ويولد لديك عنادًا يعمي القلب والعقل عن كل شيء سوى رفضك له".
تتزوج أوليفيا من ماثيو مجبرة بسبب وصية للحفاظ على إرث أخيها بعد عقد صفقة، تجعلها رافضة لزوجها وغافلة عن كل مزاياه وحبه لها وحرصه عليها وحمايته لها ولأخيها حتى كادت تخسره.
September 8, 2025
Mariage of convenience for the family business. Heroine was ridiculous to think the hero wouldn't want to have sex - she didn't even consider it. Hero was ridiculous to think the very virginal and prim heroine would just fall into bed with him without a kind word.
The rest of the story is the fallout from their no-go wedding night. Heroine is mean and nasty. Hero is cold and nasty. They're a matched set.
After all that ugliness they find their happy ending. *rolls eyes* Good riddance to these two.
The rest of the story is the fallout from their no-go wedding night. Heroine is mean and nasty. Hero is cold and nasty. They're a matched set.
After all that ugliness they find their happy ending. *rolls eyes* Good riddance to these two.
pback-to-read
February 6, 2019Olivia Garland was shattered to discover that the terms of her stepfather's will left the family business in the hands of arrogant Matthew Jordan.
Somehow or other, Olivia was determined to wrest control of Garland's back into her own hands--after all, it was part of her young brother's heritage.
Her contacts with Matthew Jordan so far had been unsuccessful, his various suggestions unacceptable. She could only keep on trying and hope the price to be paid wasn't beyond the limits she was prepared to go
Somehow or other, Olivia was determined to wrest control of Garland's back into her own hands--after all, it was part of her young brother's heritage.
Her contacts with Matthew Jordan so far had been unsuccessful, his various suggestions unacceptable. She could only keep on trying and hope the price to be paid wasn't beyond the limits she was prepared to go
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