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The Corporate Wife
Her boss asked her to marry him! Had Erin made the right decision? Gorgeous, wealthy Slater Livingstone had proposed, and she, plain Erin Reynolds, had said no!
As Slater's assistant, Erin was already the equivalent of a corporate wife: she organized his schedule, entertained his clients, kept his life in order...But surely that wasn't a basis for real marriage? So why did Erin keep wishing she'd said yes?
As Slater's assistant, Erin was already the equivalent of a corporate wife: she organized his schedule, entertained his clients, kept his life in order...But surely that wasn't a basis for real marriage? So why did Erin keep wishing she'd said yes?
186 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published January 1, 2000
9 people are currently reading
136 people want to read
About the author
Leigh Michaels
351 books172 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 - 16 of 16 reviews
March 31, 2017
Nice little boss/secretary MOC and for once LM tones down the bickering she indulges in over in HPlandia. There is a huge moment when the H thinks the h is an industrial sabotuer/spy and selling his plans, but it gets resolved really quickly and for once the H actually doesn't act like a complete blobfish slime slob for more than half a page.
It was nicely done and the HEA was very believable - such a relief to have an LM where the misunderstanding is relatively quickly resolved.
It was nicely done and the HEA was very believable - such a relief to have an LM where the misunderstanding is relatively quickly resolved.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 4, 2024
I found this infuriating since there was a whole scene at the end with the H ignoring her for a beautiful woman at a dinner that was never explained.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 24, 2023
I absolutely love boss/employee books where both protagonists are chill and competent. Gah. This is LM at her best. Read via KU.
July 26, 2020
A very decent read.
May 9, 2013
I know it might sound bad but I liked it when Erin felt heartbroken and disappointed. I needed to feel something, anything while I was reading a book because the previous 2 weren't good.
It's a medium read. There is more talk about Erin being a corporate wife than actually seeing her act as one. A similar thing happened some time ago so it doesn't affect my rating. What affected my rating is the cold and hot showers I got from Slater. Sometimes his true feelings were more than obvious and sometimes it seemed like he was just fine with the current situation. I liked the characters, the idea of the book and the way the end was delivered to the reader.
It's a medium read. There is more talk about Erin being a corporate wife than actually seeing her act as one. A similar thing happened some time ago so it doesn't affect my rating. What affected my rating is the cold and hot showers I got from Slater. Sometimes his true feelings were more than obvious and sometimes it seemed like he was just fine with the current situation. I liked the characters, the idea of the book and the way the end was delivered to the reader.
September 15, 2012
The Corporate Wife is a good book by talented author. It is an older Harlequin, but I enjoyed reading about the characters Erin and Slater. It is certainly not a Fifty Shades of Grey style, and sometimes that is just fine!
October 14, 2022
3+
Is this a vintage Harlequin? really? And yet, it IS 22 years old (lol watch me turn to dust and drift away in the breeze). I'll still shelve it as such, because it's the Harlequin sweet contemporary style (which, I gotta say, a lot of people don't seem to know should be their expectations when they pick one up but the formula is why I go for them).
Another from the stack passed along to me by a friend who moved and thinned her books. She chose tropes she thought I liked and after going through and putting them in order to read, I'm loling that many are MoC, which is not a favored trope of mine. It's fine! but not a bulletproof. Maybe because I love Betty Neels, hmm.
This was a good MoC, and offers a few twists. Including it's very evident from the jump the hero is in love with the heroine and waiting her out / desperate to maneuver her into his life -- which is always a treat when you figure out what to look for and then it's evidenced, again and again, so there's slowburn pining in the background of the action rather than dawning realizations -- and then the heroine's mother's illness that speeds events along. With a more modern nod that the heroine goes back to work after they marry.
I like that Erin was good at her job and smart and allowed to fall apart when her mom was so ill. I like Slater having hid his vulnerability to her but then not from her as it goes along. They have good chemistry.
The inclusion of a gorgeous girl to make Erin uncertain and jealous right near the end was the clunky note for me. It wasn't needed; by then Erin had realized she was in love, Slater wasn't using anyone against Erin to jolt her into awareness, and just slowed things down at that point. As the corp espionage was plenty enough catalyst to have them fight and then tell-all and then HEA, and the party (where gorgeous girl was shoe-horned) could have easily been Erin feeling sidelined as that corporate wife and hating it but damn she'd agreed so in for a penny, etc.
Loose ends get tidily dealt with but I wasn't particularly bothered or worried about them being given full plot scope. I could accept the sick mother was reconciling with her estranged ex and being cared for off-page. That the bad guy would simply be whisked away (no pressing charges? anything?). There's not really major conflict or issues, more a bumpy channel to navigate before steering into smoother sailing.
The mother's illness and Erin's reactions made it possible for her to accept Slater's before given, seemingly businesslike, proposal. It also blew up any idea she would slot into being a corporate wife as she believed Slater wanted, because she had to be different and not businesslike and in her emotions, and Slater took advantage -- just not of her. So her efficiently running his life simply wasn't going to happen, first because she's in a mess from the upheaval of the illness, and second, because Slater is gone for her and waiting with hope she'll fall for him too, and then she does -- giving them HEA from a now unneeded MoC in a satisfying way.
Is this a vintage Harlequin? really? And yet, it IS 22 years old (lol watch me turn to dust and drift away in the breeze). I'll still shelve it as such, because it's the Harlequin sweet contemporary style (which, I gotta say, a lot of people don't seem to know should be their expectations when they pick one up but the formula is why I go for them).
Another from the stack passed along to me by a friend who moved and thinned her books. She chose tropes she thought I liked and after going through and putting them in order to read, I'm loling that many are MoC, which is not a favored trope of mine. It's fine! but not a bulletproof. Maybe because I love Betty Neels, hmm.
This was a good MoC, and offers a few twists. Including it's very evident from the jump the hero is in love with the heroine and waiting her out / desperate to maneuver her into his life -- which is always a treat when you figure out what to look for and then it's evidenced, again and again, so there's slowburn pining in the background of the action rather than dawning realizations -- and then the heroine's mother's illness that speeds events along. With a more modern nod that the heroine goes back to work after they marry.
I like that Erin was good at her job and smart and allowed to fall apart when her mom was so ill. I like Slater having hid his vulnerability to her but then not from her as it goes along. They have good chemistry.
The inclusion of a gorgeous girl to make Erin uncertain and jealous right near the end was the clunky note for me. It wasn't needed; by then Erin had realized she was in love, Slater wasn't using anyone against Erin to jolt her into awareness, and just slowed things down at that point. As the corp espionage was plenty enough catalyst to have them fight and then tell-all and then HEA, and the party (where gorgeous girl was shoe-horned) could have easily been Erin feeling sidelined as that corporate wife and hating it but damn she'd agreed so in for a penny, etc.
Loose ends get tidily dealt with but I wasn't particularly bothered or worried about them being given full plot scope. I could accept the sick mother was reconciling with her estranged ex and being cared for off-page. That the bad guy would simply be whisked away (no pressing charges? anything?). There's not really major conflict or issues, more a bumpy channel to navigate before steering into smoother sailing.
The mother's illness and Erin's reactions made it possible for her to accept Slater's before given, seemingly businesslike, proposal. It also blew up any idea she would slot into being a corporate wife as she believed Slater wanted, because she had to be different and not businesslike and in her emotions, and Slater took advantage -- just not of her. So her efficiently running his life simply wasn't going to happen, first because she's in a mess from the upheaval of the illness, and second, because Slater is gone for her and waiting with hope she'll fall for him too, and then she does -- giving them HEA from a now unneeded MoC in a satisfying way.
October 6, 2020
In all honesty it’s hard to take a romance where the hero is named “Slater” seriously. We’re supposed to envision hard-charging incredibly handsome corporate tycoon, but all I can see is Mario Lopez in a muscle shirt being sleazily charming. It’s a generational thing I guess.
That said, there were a lot of little notes in here to enjoy - for example, the receptionist, Sarah has a “dinosaur scale” of the hero’s grumpiness (is he at a velociraptor or a T. Rex?). The heroine realizes her boss has unexpected depths when she wanders into his personal library and finds it crammed full of well-loved books. The marriage of convenience proposal actually makes sense, the heroine’s reasons for accepting it actually make sense, and it’s (mostly) plausible that the hero’s interest secretly preceded it.
That said, there were a lot of little notes in here to enjoy - for example, the receptionist, Sarah has a “dinosaur scale” of the hero’s grumpiness (is he at a velociraptor or a T. Rex?). The heroine realizes her boss has unexpected depths when she wanders into his personal library and finds it crammed full of well-loved books. The marriage of convenience proposal actually makes sense, the heroine’s reasons for accepting it actually make sense, and it’s (mostly) plausible that the hero’s interest secretly preceded it.
February 16, 2021
Lovee it
Their story was very interesting. Out of a non- traditional situation these two, Erin and Slater happen to find out what they felt fo each other. I voluntarily reviewed this Audiobook.
Their story was very interesting. Out of a non- traditional situation these two, Erin and Slater happen to find out what they felt fo each other. I voluntarily reviewed this Audiobook.
January 25, 2015
Contemporary secretary marries the male boss with some corporate espionage themes in this clean romance novel. So the rich smart sexy boss is named Slater Livingstone and he knows what he wants for a wife and has been slowly seducing her towards his way of thinking with out even actually touching or mentioning his intentions, which may have actually handicapped his purpose because he is really not romantic, but practical. Miss Erin Reynolds is focused on her job that keeps her busy much more then 40 hours a week, but she is skittish because of witnessing her parent's divorce two years ago. When her mother becomes suddenly deathly ill, everything gets pushed ahead at warp speed because of the danger of losing her mother. Which really worked for me, everyone was complex and the good people stayed good and the bad were really bad in this story. No sexy scenes but lots of falling in love. Cute quick romantic read.
186 pages and kindle freebie
2 stars
186 pages and kindle freebie
2 stars
April 19, 2013
I got this as a kindle freebie and I thought it seemed like a decent category romance, probably a Harlequin of the secretary and boss variety --not groundbreaking, but well-executed. And it turns out this actually was a Hqn category romance in 2001. So now I feel all kinds of clever. Like everything I've read by Michaels, it was interesting and easy to read.
April 24, 2013
The book was interesting, left you on edge, did not see the end happening the way it did, which I love! My only complaint, that there could have been an epilogue of how their lives played out; a brief glimpse a year or two down the road.
May 16, 2013
Entertaining and quick read. Interesting twist on the average secretary/boss love affair with corporate piracy, selfish ex-girlfriends, and last-know-I-love-you! It was entertaining but not surprising.
April 17, 2013
When Slater comes to his personal assistant, Erin, with a proposal of marriage. What will be her answer...
But there is more to to this... Interesting read.
But there is more to to this... Interesting read.
April 19, 2013
Wish there would have been more to it there at the end
May 24, 2013
it was ok. a cute story but there was way too much dialogue that i couldnt keep up with so most of the time i gave up and skipped over it. it was cute though
Displaying 1 - 16 of 16 reviews