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The Marriage Bargain #3
Ruthless Husband, Convenient Wife
Powerful Ryan Wolfe swept Penny off her feet and into his satin sheets. When she fell pregnant, Ryan decided they'd marry at once. But Penny was out of her depth in Ryan's ultra-glamorous world. Knowing she'd never be good enough for him, she fled….
A year on, Ryan has finally tracked Penny down. He wants his child, and he wants Penny. Whatever it takes, he'll make her his willing wife!
A year on, Ryan has finally tracked Penny down. He wants his child, and he wants Penny. Whatever it takes, he'll make her his willing wife!
192 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published July 1, 2003
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177 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
August 7, 2018
Perhaps one of the worst, as in most misleading, titles ever. They don't get married until the very end; he's not ruthless, and she is certainly NOT convenient.
The heroine ran from the pretty obsessed, head over his heels SO IN LOVE hero when she found out she was pregnant. She was very young, and fairly emotional (I was going to say damaged but not that bad) from a bad relationship with a domineering college professor, and had issues with boundaries. The hero did as well as in he had absolutely none regarding the heroine. He wanted her with him 24/7 to the point he didn't want her to go back to university, take art classes, etc... I love a besotted and obsessed hero when they're sweet, but he was a little clingy.
She runs and is fairly cruel to the H. It's a year later, and he's tracked her down. Sorry to say he doesn't even punish her with kisses, grab her arm possessively or really even yell at her. He's beta clothed as alpha. The rest of the story is the push-pull of her trying to maintain her independence and him trying to be okay with it. HP editors must have all been on vacation except for the idiot that titled this one.
I enjoyed it. It was nice to have a hero so in love with the heroine he wanted her and everyone else to know it. What I didn't care for was the initial suggestion that he couldn't let her out of his sight or allow her any independence.
P.S.
Here is something interesting. Did a search for Madeleine Ker and more books and this popped up.
Marius Gabriel is an international thriller and mystery writer.
Under the pseudonym Madeleine Ker, he wrote over 30 romance novels in the 1980s.
As Marius Gabriel he has written several mystery best-sellers, some of them historical novels.
The heroine ran from the pretty obsessed, head over his heels SO IN LOVE hero when she found out she was pregnant. She was very young, and fairly emotional (I was going to say damaged but not that bad) from a bad relationship with a domineering college professor, and had issues with boundaries. The hero did as well as in he had absolutely none regarding the heroine. He wanted her with him 24/7 to the point he didn't want her to go back to university, take art classes, etc... I love a besotted and obsessed hero when they're sweet, but he was a little clingy.
She runs and is fairly cruel to the H. It's a year later, and he's tracked her down. Sorry to say he doesn't even punish her with kisses, grab her arm possessively or really even yell at her. He's beta clothed as alpha. The rest of the story is the push-pull of her trying to maintain her independence and him trying to be okay with it. HP editors must have all been on vacation except for the idiot that titled this one.
I enjoyed it. It was nice to have a hero so in love with the heroine he wanted her and everyone else to know it. What I didn't care for was the initial suggestion that he couldn't let her out of his sight or allow her any independence.
P.S.
Here is something interesting. Did a search for Madeleine Ker and more books and this popped up.
Marius Gabriel is an international thriller and mystery writer.
Under the pseudonym Madeleine Ker, he wrote over 30 romance novels in the 1980s.
As Marius Gabriel he has written several mystery best-sellers, some of them historical novels.
October 27, 2011
I’ll never understand why Harlequin goes out of its way to make its books sound as generic as possible. I would have guessed from the blurb that I’d read this exact same story a hundred times, and it was just luck that I picked it up.
Penny and Ryan fell in love at first sight, but Penny never felt truly comfortable in their relationship. After a bad experience with her older first lover -- also her college professor -- she’s extremely sensitive about being bulldozed by a more dominant personality. Becoming pregnant made her feel even more pressured and culminated in her running away, while confused by being in the first stages of encephalitis. She miscarried while sick.
A year later, Ryan has finally found her and is as much in love as ever. And he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make the relationship work again.
This was a passionate story, yet not completely ungrounded in reality. There were lots of little things I liked about it: Ryan’s wealth comes from actual work, and is not limitless, Penny’s creativity with flowers and interior decorating is charmingly described, there are some pleasant secondary characters, and there’s a playfulness to the love scenes that made me smile. Best of all was Ryan’s steadfast adoration of Penny, and his willingness to learn from his part mistakes. It was easy to believe they would be happy together.
The prose is a touch purple at times and the flashbacks are a little annoying -- really, there’s no need to describe an incident in the past and then also have a flashback about it! And Penny is sometimes a confused character; she’s constantly ascribing negative motivations to Ryan for no reason, and she’s furious at him for believing she might have done something she threatened to do. (Admittedly, while not in her right mind.) The positives far outweighed the negatives, however, and I'd definitely recommend this.
Penny and Ryan fell in love at first sight, but Penny never felt truly comfortable in their relationship. After a bad experience with her older first lover -- also her college professor -- she’s extremely sensitive about being bulldozed by a more dominant personality. Becoming pregnant made her feel even more pressured and culminated in her running away, while confused by being in the first stages of encephalitis. She miscarried while sick.
A year later, Ryan has finally found her and is as much in love as ever. And he’s willing to do whatever it takes to make the relationship work again.
This was a passionate story, yet not completely ungrounded in reality. There were lots of little things I liked about it: Ryan’s wealth comes from actual work, and is not limitless, Penny’s creativity with flowers and interior decorating is charmingly described, there are some pleasant secondary characters, and there’s a playfulness to the love scenes that made me smile. Best of all was Ryan’s steadfast adoration of Penny, and his willingness to learn from his part mistakes. It was easy to believe they would be happy together.
The prose is a touch purple at times and the flashbacks are a little annoying -- really, there’s no need to describe an incident in the past and then also have a flashback about it! And Penny is sometimes a confused character; she’s constantly ascribing negative motivations to Ryan for no reason, and she’s furious at him for believing she might have done something she threatened to do. (Admittedly, while not in her right mind.) The positives far outweighed the negatives, however, and I'd definitely recommend this.
June 20, 2012
ok read....Hero was typical HP land hero...dashing, debonair, good looking, wealthy millionaire. Heroine was typical, young, beautiful, a little scatterbrained and trying to find herself through a rewarding career. They have a passionate affair that ends badly. She runs away and the hero searches to find her for over a year. They meet up, work out their differences and have the happy ending.
Nice read, but lacked the tension that makes HP's worth reading.
Nice read, but lacked the tension that makes HP's worth reading.
June 7, 2014
DNF - got tired of the heroine
May 1, 2020
He’s a bit stalkery 🙄
November 23, 2018
This is Book 3 of The Marriage Bargain Series. I read Book 1, skipped Book 2, Book 4 has a huge age difference, and a little less than a huge time gap. So I'll skip again, and I declare my series as finished, here.
Penelope (Penny) Watkins runs her own Flowers and Decor shop. She is an artist, a sculptor, a painter; there is beauty in her work.
"She was twenty-three, but it sometimes seemed as though she were still trembling on the brink of full womanhood, like a flower that had half opened, and was waiting for the clouds to part so that the sun could bring her to full glory."
This is my first Madeleine Ker book. And oooh... What a description!
Ryan Wolfe, a thirty-one year old self-made millionaire, comes knocking at her shop's door, saying that he finally found her. They have been apart for eleven months now. They have a history, which involves a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage when Penny contracted encephalitis when she was three months along. She almost died, but Ryan couldn't believe that and blames her for aborting the child. She wrote a letter too which never reached him.
Now that Ryan has found her, he is not going to leave her alone. The first night he's back, they sleep together. He's a financier in the movie business. Quite different professions for our main characters in this book. She thinks he's too domineering, while he doesn't know what to think. They are like a drug to each other. But, his time around, they reach a compromise and learn to give each other time (with the most unusual of conditions), and space, before jumping into a relationship. Penny thinks about her life back to what it was, a long flashback there. He never knew how unhappy she was in their relationship. He stonewalled her for fear that he would otherwise loose her. Her previous relationship with an older guy has left her disillusioned. She starts comparing both her ex and Ryan's high-handed attitude and fears for her individuality. The flashback was enough to convince me how controlling Ryan is, ooof...even reading it I felt suffocated.
The writing seemed old school, compared to the first book of the series, though these were released in 2009.
Woah! At certain places, this book just made me cringe, kissing sweaty feet...yuck. Their role playing scene was interesting though, in the old fashioned way.
How they both finally achieve a closure on their past is good. Though I am amazed, what was so casually discussed, about the things that happened in her past, was sexual harassment and rape!?! And for that criminal to have gone scot-free after that was sad and disgusting.
P.S. I can to know about two things; Hans Christian Andersen, a 1952 musical movie about the famous Danish children's author, and Ayala's Angel, a classic novel by Anthony Trollope, which have now been added to my respective lists.
Penelope (Penny) Watkins runs her own Flowers and Decor shop. She is an artist, a sculptor, a painter; there is beauty in her work.
"She was twenty-three, but it sometimes seemed as though she were still trembling on the brink of full womanhood, like a flower that had half opened, and was waiting for the clouds to part so that the sun could bring her to full glory."
This is my first Madeleine Ker book. And oooh... What a description!
Ryan Wolfe, a thirty-one year old self-made millionaire, comes knocking at her shop's door, saying that he finally found her. They have been apart for eleven months now. They have a history, which involves a pregnancy that ended in miscarriage when Penny contracted encephalitis when she was three months along. She almost died, but Ryan couldn't believe that and blames her for aborting the child. She wrote a letter too which never reached him.
Now that Ryan has found her, he is not going to leave her alone. The first night he's back, they sleep together. He's a financier in the movie business. Quite different professions for our main characters in this book. She thinks he's too domineering, while he doesn't know what to think. They are like a drug to each other. But, his time around, they reach a compromise and learn to give each other time (with the most unusual of conditions), and space, before jumping into a relationship. Penny thinks about her life back to what it was, a long flashback there. He never knew how unhappy she was in their relationship. He stonewalled her for fear that he would otherwise loose her. Her previous relationship with an older guy has left her disillusioned. She starts comparing both her ex and Ryan's high-handed attitude and fears for her individuality. The flashback was enough to convince me how controlling Ryan is, ooof...even reading it I felt suffocated.
The writing seemed old school, compared to the first book of the series, though these were released in 2009.
Woah! At certain places, this book just made me cringe, kissing sweaty feet...yuck. Their role playing scene was interesting though, in the old fashioned way.
How they both finally achieve a closure on their past is good. Though I am amazed, what was so casually discussed, about the things that happened in her past, was sexual harassment and rape!?! And for that criminal to have gone scot-free after that was sad and disgusting.
P.S. I can to know about two things; Hans Christian Andersen, a 1952 musical movie about the famous Danish children's author, and Ayala's Angel, a classic novel by Anthony Trollope, which have now been added to my respective lists.
November 19, 2017
Ok it was a good enough book, but what a deceptive title! The couple weren’t even married!
The hero finds the heroine a year after she ran away from him. They had been living together, so we find out in the course of the story the reason for their break-up. It turns our the Hero is very controlling and doesn’t listen to the concerns of the heroine. He wants everything his own way. Sounds familiar?
What I found different is that as soon as the Hero finds the heroine, he immediately declares his love for her. He seems relieved to have finally found her, he had been worried and concerned for her. The heroine is a bit of a bitch, but in the end I realised how really controlling the hero had been towards her. Although he loved her very much, he took her for granted in that he brushed aside her dreams and ambitions, and wanted her devote herself solely to him.
I also liked that this was not a revenge plot. When the hero finds her, he immediately wants to talk about what went wrong in their relationship and wanted to compromise this time.
The hero finds the heroine a year after she ran away from him. They had been living together, so we find out in the course of the story the reason for their break-up. It turns our the Hero is very controlling and doesn’t listen to the concerns of the heroine. He wants everything his own way. Sounds familiar?
What I found different is that as soon as the Hero finds the heroine, he immediately declares his love for her. He seems relieved to have finally found her, he had been worried and concerned for her. The heroine is a bit of a bitch, but in the end I realised how really controlling the hero had been towards her. Although he loved her very much, he took her for granted in that he brushed aside her dreams and ambitions, and wanted her devote herself solely to him.
I also liked that this was not a revenge plot. When the hero finds her, he immediately wants to talk about what went wrong in their relationship and wanted to compromise this time.
January 30, 2015
Compared to other Harlequin novels that I've read in the past, the excerpt, blurb and the first few chapters didn't intrigue me that much.
The first few chapters was lined with mystery but it wasn't cleverly packaged. To me, this is because the author made the mistake of making the first few chapters vague in the notion that it would keep the reader more interested. In my case, she didn't succeed. I wasn't all that thrilled to continue reading, in fact I almost gave up on it.
Approximately in the middle part, things started to pick up and make sense. It was then that I decided maybe I should stick with it. The characters were explained better and the vague cloud that hang over the book slowly lifted off.
Fortunately, in the end I give this book three stars which means I enjoyed reading it despite its flaws.
The first few chapters was lined with mystery but it wasn't cleverly packaged. To me, this is because the author made the mistake of making the first few chapters vague in the notion that it would keep the reader more interested. In my case, she didn't succeed. I wasn't all that thrilled to continue reading, in fact I almost gave up on it.
Approximately in the middle part, things started to pick up and make sense. It was then that I decided maybe I should stick with it. The characters were explained better and the vague cloud that hang over the book slowly lifted off.
Fortunately, in the end I give this book three stars which means I enjoyed reading it despite its flaws.
November 8, 2014
Stupid. That's the word I describe this story. The heroine blame the hero because he never give space for her. Well, she should fight for her own freedom. I didn't say the hero is clear of all the fault. But don't blame other people because of your weakness.
The sex. I like the sex part, when the amount is reasonable. But I count 5 detailed sex in this book. That's too much and bored me. Overall, I don't like this book.
The sex. I like the sex part, when the amount is reasonable. But I count 5 detailed sex in this book. That's too much and bored me. Overall, I don't like this book.
March 13, 2016
The Harlequin book title generator really miss the mark with this one, in my opinion. There's nothing ruthless or convenient, they're not even married yet.
They're both in love with each other from the beginning, just not wise or mature enough and too selfish so the first time around the relationship didn't work.
A very light reading.
They're both in love with each other from the beginning, just not wise or mature enough and too selfish so the first time around the relationship didn't work.
A very light reading.
October 31, 2021
They have a relationship. She leaves him because she feels he doesn’t give her space. She wants time to think.
After a year he finds her. She tells him that she had an abortion. When he is devastated by that news, she is angry at him that he believed her because she would never do such a thing.
That’s the kind of woman she is. How can you make up such a serious subject as an abortion? She is just toying with him and his feelings. All the time she’s angry or moody. He can never do anything right in her eyes.
He is the perfect man. He loves her so much. I feel sorry for him. He deserves a better woman. Poor man.
They are in bed together and she says that he never listens to what she has to say. So he stops making love to her and he says to her to talk to him and he’ll listen. Then she says it’s too late. Omg. She’s such a whiner.
Because the woman is annoying, I take one star off.
After a year he finds her. She tells him that she had an abortion. When he is devastated by that news, she is angry at him that he believed her because she would never do such a thing.
That’s the kind of woman she is. How can you make up such a serious subject as an abortion? She is just toying with him and his feelings. All the time she’s angry or moody. He can never do anything right in her eyes.
He is the perfect man. He loves her so much. I feel sorry for him. He deserves a better woman. Poor man.
They are in bed together and she says that he never listens to what she has to say. So he stops making love to her and he says to her to talk to him and he’ll listen. Then she says it’s too late. Omg. She’s such a whiner.
Because the woman is annoying, I take one star off.
July 19, 2023
Al principio me enojaba Ryan, su toxicidad y posesividad eran irritantes y esperaba que Penny nunca lo perdonara... pero el tiempo me enseñó (eia) que, a veces, las segundas oportunidades si funcionan y las personas puedes evolucionar 🥹
Tanto Penny como Ryan aprendieron a no ser unos tótsicos de mierda y que bello fue todo al final,,,
Tanto Penny como Ryan aprendieron a no ser unos tótsicos de mierda y que bello fue todo al final,,,
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 20, 2018
The storyline is WOW. The chemistry between the two main characters is hot. The supporting characters are all so sweet and caring. The character of the actress who is going to play the main role in the upcoming movie is so loving......<3 <3 <3...
July 10, 2021
This is the first HP books where the H is not an asshole and h is being a bitch. In this book H fight for their relationship and h trying to runaway(total opp of HP books) but I love H, ok he is sometimes arrogant but I prefer him over h who is selfish and throws temper tantrums.
October 16, 2022
Lovely story of love lost then rekindled I
This is a beautiful love story of two people separated by tragedy who found each other again and eventually found the love that drew them together. Absolutely recommended.
This is a beautiful love story of two people separated by tragedy who found each other again and eventually found the love that drew them together. Absolutely recommended.
January 25, 2022
Ugh. Couldn't get into it, slow pace and much too hand wringing. Did not finish.
I'm pretty sure I tried this once before with the same result because part seemed familiar.
I'm pretty sure I tried this once before with the same result because part seemed familiar.
dnf
December 29, 2022A promising beginning that gets really bad really fast. Don’t love how abortion is discussed.
January 27, 2025
This one had that typical fiery start I've come to expect from Harlequins, always a big plus.
Not typical was that the hero was open about his feelings from the start. I appreciated that, that he genuinely learned and improved much earlier than right before the end as well. Unusual but very welcome.
Similarly, I loved that she remained hard despite being unable to resist him. She didn't fold immediately like many heroines do, but she couldn't let go of him either.
I further very much enjoyed reading about how their relationship started and deteriorated in the first place.
However, that's the extent of my notes already as not much was going on thanks to the hero seeing reason for once.
Lastly, I was glad that he indirectly took down the professor who exploited her and other female students. It's outrageous that she felt a little sorry for him after she lingered so long on how miserable he made her though. Totally unnecessary and uncalled for.
We got a nice ending, and I liked the story overall but it didn't wow me in any way. Solid three stars.
Not typical was that the hero was open about his feelings from the start. I appreciated that, that he genuinely learned and improved much earlier than right before the end as well. Unusual but very welcome.
Similarly, I loved that she remained hard despite being unable to resist him. She didn't fold immediately like many heroines do, but she couldn't let go of him either.
I further very much enjoyed reading about how their relationship started and deteriorated in the first place.
However, that's the extent of my notes already as not much was going on thanks to the hero seeing reason for once.
Lastly, I was glad that he indirectly took down the professor who exploited her and other female students. It's outrageous that she felt a little sorry for him after she lingered so long on how miserable he made her though. Totally unnecessary and uncalled for.
We got a nice ending, and I liked the story overall but it didn't wow me in any way. Solid three stars.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews