And Then He Kissed Her Book

Emmaline (Emma) Dove works for Harry Marlowe as his secretary. She's worked for him for five years. But what she really wants to be is a published writer. She has written a book on etiquette expertise and has had it rejected by Harry four times. (Harry is a publisher of Marlowe Publishings, owns several newspapers, and has a weekly periodical called "The Bachelor's Guide".) So Emma rewrites her book and gives it to Harry again, and he rejects it again. (It seems that Harry finds the topic of etiquette useless and barely gives her manuscripts a glance thinking absolutely no one would be interested in such a dull topic.) One day Emma finally discovers that Harry has never really read her manuscripts. (Her manuscripts are written by her literary creation called Mrs. Bartleby and when Emma brings up Mrs. Bartleby's name to Harry one day he says he's never heard of her.) Emma now knows the truth, is furious, gives it some thought, and eventually gives her resignation to Harry.

Emma has also just reached her thirtieth birthday and is being referred to as a spinster. She has spent her entire youth waiting for things that never happened. A man she loved for three years married someone else, her Aunt Lydia who Emma nursed for five years hoping she'd get well died, and now, five years of hard work typing and re-typing manuscripts were for nothing, Harry barely glanced at them. Emma decides it's time to quit waiting for things to happen and to start to make them happen. She ends up getting a job with Harry's rival, Mr. Barringer, a newspaper owner (of the Social Gazette) who gives Emma her own newspaper column, which to Harry's shock and surprise, becomes extremely popular and the talk of London! Along the way Harry is also noticing little things about his formerly calm, sensible ex-secretary. How she has gold sparks in her eyes when she argues, how her brown hair has red highlights in the sunlight. And he is finding himself very attracted to her.

I loved this book! It was cute, sweet, and sexy. I really felt for Emma and I was glad when she finally got recognition as a writer. I liked Harry, he was handsome and charming, though he wasn't interested in marriage. (He was married once but divorced his wife for adultery and desertion.) I thought it was sweet when he bought Emma the books she admired at the bookshop. Harry and Emma had wonderful chemistry. It took awhile for them to finally make love so the tension kept building and building. I also liked the secondary characters and I noticed some of them have their own stories in other books in this series (Girl Bachelors). This was a lovely historical romance and I look forward to reading more by this author.