A great debut...

The Temporary Wife by Jeannie Moon.

I want to start this review by saying I have read Jeannie's work before.  I felt so honored when she asked me to read one of her earlier stories.  So I was pretty sure I knew what to expect.

Yeah, I was totally wrong on that one.  Not the first time and I certainly hope it won't be the last.

For her first published work this story was so much more than just the idea of two people getting married to save a child.  Meg's tendency to not be able to walk on her own two feet without tripping may have been more believable if she wasn't always pitching herself into our hero's arms and wearing killer heels while she was doing it.  I can't walk on the dreaded things either, but when I lose it on a pair of heels all I end up doing is twisting my ankle, not landing in the arms of super hot guy.  

Sigh.  My loss.

And yes folks, that was my only beef with The Temporary Wife.

Jeannie took a recycled story line and made it fresh.  This reader sure did appreciate that.

Meg and Jason have a history, but we don't get mired down in it like some stories because this book wasn't about their past, it was about their future. One of the things you get a sense for early on is while Jason hurt Meg, our heroine was not some besotted women pining for what was.  She's grown into a women who recognizes that she has been hurt once by this man, but moved on. 

REFRESHING!

I also liked how Meg seemed to be the more emotionally stable of the two.  More willing to embrace the changes in their relationship, and dare I say it, be more alpha, where Jason worried more about what people thought.  A definite role reversal from romance novels of yesteryear where the hero was the quintessential male who never questioned what anyone thought of him.  

Meg also owned it when she was playing coy and when she was shooting straight.

Again, refreshing.

The story is solid, even if there were a few typos, but I think that falls more to the publisher than the author.  For me, this was a wonderful gem of a find and because I have read Jeannie's early works I was able to see how much she has grown and honed her craft as a writer.  

Don't take my word for it.  Read it and tell me what you think.

I can't wait to see what she comes up with next.