Pretending with the Greek Billionaire

This was a very painful review to write. I love Kira Archer for her originality in making old tropes sparkling new, as was the case with Totally, Sweetly, Irrevocably, which a adored, but I was hoping the author would be as brilliant with PRETENDING WITH THE GREEK BILLIONAIRE. Pretend engagement is a difficult trope to pull off in contemporary romance, and I wondered how Constance and Luca would maintain their charade and make it believable in my eyes. Well, as you can see with my rating, it wasn’t very successful. I loved how Ms. Archer could translate Luca’s slight accent on the page, and make Greece vivid, and how frightening the author made the paparazzi appear. Even though the premise was a bit shaky at the beginning – the reason as to how Constance and the children happened to be on Luca’s grounds – I was willing to gloss over it and go on. One of the problems I had was that I never felt anything beyond lust on either Constance’s and Luca’s parts; he came off as rather two-dimensional, and with Constance there was so much blushing, shivering and trembling, she would have put a medieval maiden to shame. Not to mention one particular condition of the terms Luca insisted on, which required a lot of suspension of disbelief. I was TOLD so many times so many things, and yet I didn’t feel any of these. I was TOLD they had unbelievable chemistry, I was TOLD that Luca was such a good man, but it never felt it was happening; I was being TOLD it was. I was hovering towards a 3-star rating, but towards the end, a revelation about who was leaking information to the paparazzi brought the whole thing down to 2 stars; that was one thing too many, utterly unnecessary, and let’s be honest, just plain silly. I so wanted to love this book, but I just couldn’t. However, I will be looking forward to Kira Archer’s next book on the force of what I had thought of the previous one I read and loved so much. Unfortunately, that is what is called an honest review; I could have lied, written just a few words about what I liked, but I have integrity, and so be it. I received a complimentary copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

LOVED this book! Constance finds herself in a compromising situation with a rich playboy. Unfortunately for her, the stakes are very high and could cost her the children that she fosters/is guardian of. The playboy has his own issues and an urgent need to appear grown up and over his partying days. He suggests an odd idea to Constance and she is desperate enough to accept it. What follows is an engaging romance that I just loved. If you enjoy the genre, you will love this book.

Another great read from Kira Archer that is funny, steamy, and entertaining. I loved this book. It was so much fun and enjoyable to read. "Pretending with the Greek Billionaire" by Kira Archer is Luca Vasilakis and Constance McMurty's story. Luca has a reputation for being a playboy and the life of the party. He needs to find a way to improve his reputation. Luca needs to prove that he is capable of running his father's billion dollar corporation. He just hasn't figured out how. Constance is a social worker who is raising six orphans. Luca and Constance end up in a paparazzi photo the doesn't put either one in a good light. To solve both of their problems they pretend that they were engaged. Somewhere along the way, the lines start to blur between what's pretend and what's real. Will Constance and Luca be able to ignore the chemistry between them? Constance and Luca's story had me laughing and crying at times. I loved the banter between them. Once I started this book couldn't put the book down. A fun read! FYI, includes mature content. I received a copy of this book from NetGalley/Entangled Publishing in exchange for an honest review.