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Temporary Measures
When Deborah Ainsley's distant cousin Riley Lassiter warns her that Aunt Ida is about to invest the family trust fund in a scam, Deborah needs a good excuse to hold up the transfer. An expensive wedding -- to be paid for by the trust -- might do the trick, and as for a groom... well, Riley is close at hand, and he already knows the score.
Leigh Michaels is the award-winning author of more than 90 books, including contemporary and historical romance novels and non fiction (Writing the Romance Novel). Her books have been published in 120 countries and 25 languages with more than 35 million copies in print. A six-time finalist in the RITA competition sponsored by Romance Writers of America, she also teaches romance writing at www.writingclasses.com.
Leigh Michaels is the award-winning author of more than 90 books, including contemporary and historical romance novels and non fiction (Writing the Romance Novel). Her books have been published in 120 countries and 25 languages with more than 35 million copies in print. A six-time finalist in the RITA competition sponsored by Romance Writers of America, she also teaches romance writing at www.writingclasses.com.
184 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 1, 1991
About the author
Leigh Michaels
354 books176 followersLeigh Michaels is the pseudonym used by LeAnn Lemberger (b. July 27 in Iowa, United States), a popular United States writer of over 85 romance novels. She has published with Harlequin, Sourcebooks, Montlake Romance, Writers Digest Books, and Arcadia Publishing. She teaches romance writing at Gotham Writers' Workshop (www.writingclasses.com) She is the author of On Writing Romance.
When Leigh was fifteen she wrote her first romance novel and burned it. She burned five more complete manuscripts before submitting to a publisher. The first submission was accepted by Harlequin, the only publisher to look at it, and was published in 1984.
Michaels was born in Iowa, United States. She received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, after three years of study and maintained a 3.93 grade-point average. She received the Robert Bliss Award as top-ranking senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and won a national William Randolph Hearst Award for feature-writing as an undergraduate.
She is married to Michael W. Lemberger, an artist-photographer.
When Leigh was fifteen she wrote her first romance novel and burned it. She burned five more complete manuscripts before submitting to a publisher. The first submission was accepted by Harlequin, the only publisher to look at it, and was published in 1984.
Michaels was born in Iowa, United States. She received a Bachelor of Arts in journalism from Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, after three years of study and maintained a 3.93 grade-point average. She received the Robert Bliss Award as top-ranking senior in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication, and won a national William Randolph Hearst Award for feature-writing as an undergraduate.
She is married to Michael W. Lemberger, an artist-photographer.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
October 8, 2020
This is one of Michaels's giddy novels, where the hero and heroine snark at each other endlessly. Michaels is pretty good at writing snark and witty banter so this is pretty pleasant, and while it's obvious that the hero is going to turn out to be secretly super successful, in the meantime he seems like a relatively normal dude, and moreover one who says (to his third cousin to whom he's pretending to be engaged) "I intend to change diapers, warm bottles at three in the morning, take out splinters - all the joys of parenthood - along with my regular job. Why shouldn't my wife have the same opportunity for a well-rounded life?"
Lastly, I really enjoyed that
Lastly, I really enjoyed that
August 3, 2011
Not one of Leigh Michaels’ better stories.
First, the icky factor: H/h are third cousins. Their great-grandfathers were brothers; their grandfathers were first cousins, their parents are second cousins and they’re third cousins. That might be fine for other people but anything involving kissing-cousins is a romance killer for me. Because frankly, I can’t imagine my descendants, three generations down, exchanging googly-eyes with descendants of people surrounding me at last year’s Thanksgiving’s dinner.
I had the same distaste as the h’s boyfriend when he asked her if she realized that their (hers and the hero’s) future children will also be their third cousins once removed. Then, to make it worse, the H/h were also childhood friends so they knew each other’s scrapes, tics, and faults. It’s a teensy-weensy bit incestuous to my fastidious mind.
Second, nothing romantic came off their pretend-engagement except for the opportunity to do some “practice kissing.” I read Leigh Michaels because she writes memorable, dreamy sequences without being syrupy or maudlin. But there’s nothing to see here. The secondary characters kept on intruding. And the hero himself was a bit too comedic. It was like dating that red-head Conan O'Brien (of that night show).
And third, the embezzlement plot didn’t fly and it made the couple appear tawdry, like, they were in it just for the money – which they were. The main reason for the fake engagement was to protect the h’s trust fund which the Aunt seemed to be jeopardizing in an unwise land-development. (The save-the-community altruism was a nice touch, though.) But the embezzlement story was wieldy to develop in a 188 page book alongside a credible romantic relationship. In the end, Aunt Ida’s machinations were just too convenient a trick to expose both the financial scam and the engagement sham in one fell swoop.
Skip if you have others on the TBR.
First, the icky factor: H/h are third cousins. Their great-grandfathers were brothers; their grandfathers were first cousins, their parents are second cousins and they’re third cousins. That might be fine for other people but anything involving kissing-cousins is a romance killer for me. Because frankly, I can’t imagine my descendants, three generations down, exchanging googly-eyes with descendants of people surrounding me at last year’s Thanksgiving’s dinner.
I had the same distaste as the h’s boyfriend when he asked her if she realized that their (hers and the hero’s) future children will also be their third cousins once removed. Then, to make it worse, the H/h were also childhood friends so they knew each other’s scrapes, tics, and faults. It’s a teensy-weensy bit incestuous to my fastidious mind.
Second, nothing romantic came off their pretend-engagement except for the opportunity to do some “practice kissing.” I read Leigh Michaels because she writes memorable, dreamy sequences without being syrupy or maudlin. But there’s nothing to see here. The secondary characters kept on intruding. And the hero himself was a bit too comedic. It was like dating that red-head Conan O'Brien (of that night show).
And third, the embezzlement plot didn’t fly and it made the couple appear tawdry, like, they were in it just for the money – which they were. The main reason for the fake engagement was to protect the h’s trust fund which the Aunt seemed to be jeopardizing in an unwise land-development. (The save-the-community altruism was a nice touch, though.) But the embezzlement story was wieldy to develop in a 188 page book alongside a credible romantic relationship. In the end, Aunt Ida’s machinations were just too convenient a trick to expose both the financial scam and the engagement sham in one fell swoop.
Skip if you have others on the TBR.
August 31, 2013
The story didn't have enough romance and the reason could have been that Leigh was scared of the cousins doing it - well - if that's the case then don't make them cousins...
November 13, 2016
You will love that story.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews