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.

Count on Kira Archer to take life's awkward moments and turn them into romance gold. A playboy billionaire makes a desperate bid for good publicity and ends up getting the family he never bargained for. Luca puts the word party in "party animal. Fun, women and booze are constant companions for this rich kid until an ultimatum leaves him trying to clean up his act. Constance is the total opposite. She takes her responsibilities seriously and cares about her charges like her own family members. When a serious situation rises due to a mischievous charge, against her better judgment she agrees to help Luca and herself by posing as a couple. Sparks fly, hearts are at risk and a world of possibilities open up. The little girls were an adorable touch. There is nothing sweeter than a man out of his league due to a handful of little girls

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.