Law of Desire


Book Description

As an Iranian Muslim woman and a granddaughter of a well-known ayatollah, Shahla Haeri was accepted into the communities where she conducted her fieldwork on mut’a, temporary marriage. Mut’a is legally sanctioned among the Twelver Shi’ites who live predominantly in Iran. Drawing on rich interviews that would have been denied a Western anthropologist, the author describes the concept of a temporary-marriage contract, in which a man and an unmarried woman (virgin, widow, or divorcee) decide how long they want to stay married to each other (from one hour to ninety-nine years) and how much money is to be given to the temporary wife. Since the Iranian revolution of 1979, the regime has conduction an intensive campaign to revitalize this form of marriage, and Shi’i ulama (religious scholars) support it as positive, self-affirming, and cognizant of human needs. Challenged by secularly educated urban Iranian women, and men and by the West, the ulama have been called upon to address themselves to the implications of this custom for modern Iranian society, to respond to the changes that mut’a is legally equivalent to hire or lease, that it is abusive of women, and that it is in fact legalized prostitution. Law if Desire thus makes available previously untapped and undocumented data about an institution in which sexuality, morality, religious rules, secular laws, and cultural practices converge. This important work will be of interest to cultural anthropologist, religious scholars, scholars of the Middle East, and lawyers as well as to those interested in the role of women in Islamic society.




Temporary Wife


Book Description

Fake marriages have rules. We break all of them. Ryder Drake is the devil.The billionaire architect exudes power and privilege from every pore in his body. Toronto magazines fawn over him, calling him one of the hottest single men in the city.Color me unimpressed. Ryder's new skyscraper will cut off access to the waterfront for all but the ultra-rich, and I'm determined to stop it. Then he asks me to marry him. It's a business deal, nothing more. He needs a fake wife and I need money. It should be uncomplicated. Rule 1: No kissing.Rule 2: No sex.Rule 3: No falling in love.I break the first rule within the hour. The second rule? I last less than a week before I give in to Ryder's raw, animal magnetism. Repeatedly. Before the wedding. After the wedding. With toys. Without toys. I'm having the best, naughtiest, steamiest sex of my life. And rule 3? I'm Ryder's temporary wife. No matter what happens, I can't forget that our marriage isn't real.Temporary Wife is a standalone romance with a guaranteed HEA and no cheating. It was previously released in a boxed set.




The Temporary Wife/A Promise of Spring


Book Description

In two classic tales of Regency-era romance from New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh, the vagaries of love have a way of challenging the most convenient arrangements. THE TEMPORARY WIFE Miss Charity Duncan has no illusions about Lord Anthony Earheart’s proposal. The arrogant aristocrat has made it painfully clear what he wants: a wife who will enrage the father he despises and then disappear from his life. In exchange, Charity’s family will receive the money they desperately need. But after Charity agrees to this mockery of matrimony, she soon discovers a startling fact: She has fallen for Anthony, and breaking their marriage vows may also break her heart. A PROMISE OF SPRING Grace Howard has every reason to be devoted to Sir Peregrine Lampman. After all, the gallant gentleman rescued her from poverty by making her his bride. Even more nobly, he did not withdraw his affection after she confessed to a youthful folly that had compromised her virtue. But Grace did not tell the whole truth about the handsome lord who betrayed her—and now the one thing she’s kept from Perry threatens to destroy her last chance at true love.




The Temporary Wife


Book Description

A woman receives a proposal she can’t refuse from a man she can’t resist in the first Forever Love story. Kindergarten teacher Megan Rossi is devoted to being a mother to her best friend’s five-year-old daughter, Molly. When the child was orphaned, Meg became the little girl’s legally named guardian—over the objections of Molly’s wealthy grandparents, the Campbells. Now the Campbells are petitioning for custody, and Meg is faced with a long and expensive legal battle. The last thing she expects is for her former high school boyfriend—and the Campbells’ estranged son—to offer a solution: marriage. Billionaire software developer Jason Campbell knows his parents don’t have Molly’s best interests at heart—it’s all about control for them. There is one way he can ensure that his sister’s last wishes are honored. He will offer Meg the protection of his name and lawyers until the custody arrangement has been finalized, then he’ll secure his niece’s future with a very generous divorce settlement. Jason’s considered all the scenarios, except one—that the sparks that once flew between he and Meg might reignite a burning passion. And that his confirmed bachelor heart might just melt away from the heat...




His Temporary Live-in Wife


Book Description

Marcy Monroe is a woman with her priorities straight—school and career first, then a husband and children. And to pay her tuition, she takes a job as a housekeeper for a professor—and soon realizes that her new boss might prove to be a distraction from her goals. A very tempting distraction… Eric Sheridan is ready to start a family…as soon as he can find a suitable wife, that is. And his sexy, if career oriented, employee is most certainly not the kind of woman he had in mind! Still, keeping close quarters with independent Marcy soon wrecks Eric's ideas about what he wants for his future…and an unexpected night of passion has the professor wishing he could hire Marcy's services on a permanent basis—as his Mrs.!




Temporary Superheroine


Book Description

Chloe Cole wants to stop her crazy dreams that she's a costumed superheroine battling a supervillain, but when her comics fanboy ex throws her into a bizarre escapade involving the New York City comic book scene, suddenly she's having wild, superpowered adventures in an oddly retro mirror universe. To fight a real supervillain, she's forced to meet the father she never knew, dodge the suspicious courtship of a powerful publishing boss, and embrace her destiny as a superheroine. PG-rated nonstop comic book style adventure novel set in two universes, with plenty of super-powered battles and recognizable classic comic book scenarios—and some iffy romance thrown in. CHARACTERS IN THIS NOVEL Chloe Cole: Reluctant female superhero, strong female protagonist, possessor of super powers, snarky twenty-five-year-old with parent and boyfriend issues Roland Kirby: Eager comics fanboy, dependable partner in other world adventures, ex-boyfriend who won't go away, sweet geek who believes in comic book science Eric Wood: Suspiciously charming comic book company CEO, possible secret villain, questionably honest potential lover and confidant Jovial Jerry Fine: Beloved elderly icon of the comic book world, benign but skeptical participant in fast-paced adventures, knows more than he tells Diabolical Dave McCay: Maverick comic book artist, man who wants the modern world to be what it was like in 1962, troublemaking genius Bodacious Barb: Knows the secrets behind the comics, doesn't give a hoot The Purple Menace: Supervillain, mad scientist, wants to take over the world—make that two worlds Keywords: Strong female protagonist, superheroes, female superhero, chick lit, satire, superhero adventure comedy, comic book parodies, super heroine romance fiction




The Temporary Bride


Book Description

For fans of Reading Lolita in Tehran, a true story of forbidden love set against the rich cultural and political backdrop of modern-day Iran. Jennifer Klinec is fearless. In her thirties, she abandons her bland corporate job to launch a cooking school from her London apartment and travel the world in search of delicious recipes and obscure culinary traditions. Her journey takes her to Iran, where she seeks out a local woman to learn the secrets of Persian cuisine. Vahid is suspicious of the strange foreigner who turns up in his mother's kitchen. Unused to such a bold and independent woman, he is frustrated to find himself, the prized only son of the house, largely ignored for the first time. But when the two are thrown together on an unexpected adventure, they discover a mutual attraction that draws them irresistibly toward each other--but also pits them against harsh Iranian laws and customs, which soon threaten to tear the unlikely lovers apart. Getting under the skin of one of the most complex and fascinating nations on earth, The Temporary Bride is a soaring, intricately woven story of being loved, being fed, and struggling to belong.




The Temporary Wife


Book Description




The Temporary Gentleman


Book Description

A stunning new novel from the two-time Man Booker shortlisted author of The Secret Scripture. Sebastian Barry's latest novel, A Thousand Moons, is now available. Irishman Jack McNulty is a “temporary gentleman”—an Irishman whose commission in the British army in World War II was never permanent. Sitting in his lodgings in Accra, Ghana, in 1957, he’s writing the story of his life with desperate urgency. He cannot take one step further without examining all the extraordinary events that he has seen. A lifetime of war and world travel—as a soldier in World War II, an engineer, a UN observer—has brought him to this point. But the memory that weighs heaviest on his heart is that of the beautiful Mai Kirwan, and their tempestuous, heartbreaking marriage. Mai was once the great beauty of Sligo, a magnetic yet unstable woman who, after sharing a life with Jack, gradually slipped from his grasp. Award-winning author Sebastian Barry’s The Temporary Gentleman is the sixth book in his cycle of separate yet interconnected novels that brilliantly reimagine characters from Barry’s own family.