Fake Wife

A very entertaining marriage of convenience story. The characters are great and the writing and flow of the story are excellent. Overall a great read. Teagan has had one heck of a day. First she loses her job. Then arriving home early she catches her long term boyfriend in bed with another woman. As if that wasn't enough she then rams her car into the rear of "Portland's Sexiest Bachelor". She expects Corbin to be furious. Instead he makes her an offer she should refuse but what the heck, she's going for it. Now she just has to lock down her heart and keep her head in the game. Definitely a book I recommend.

3.5 stars — This one started off really strong, and then somewhere along the way I started losing my enthrallment with it. It did pull me back in for the ending though. I started this one after midnight and stayed up late needing to read one more chapter, so it was very compelling to begin with. Part of that is that I just really enjoy Fake Relationship tropes…I don’t know what it is about them, but I always love seeing a couple slowly fall in love when forced to act in love I guess. And this one started off good in that direction, but it didn’t completely follow the formula…which can be a good thing, mix it up right? But along with a few things that ended up bugging me, I guess I needed more familiarity in the formula or something. Both Corbin (and I can’t help but say Korben Dallas every time) and Teagan started off as extremely likable characters. I felt for both of them, when they met they were both struggling with shiznit, kwim? I mean Corbin had just lost his grandma, and was floundering in grief and then the complication of her will stipulations on top of that. And Teagan was dealing with the loss of her job and then her cheating boyfriend. I was really pulled in by both of them, and they were very sympathetic characters. And I loved the way they met, and how their first interaction went. I loved that Teagan was both enthralled by Corbin, but her star-struckedness didn’t make her naive and silly…she was still skeptical of his proposal and relatively safe about it…though I suppose in the end she does still go with him out of the city. But regardless, I appreciated her almost down-to-earth-ness. But I think it was Corbin’s temper and mood swings (which are fully acknowledged) that started my descent into less enthrallment. I know Teagan called him out for being a dick, and eventually he apologized, but the problem is that I didn’t understand what brought on these mood changes. We typically weren’t in his POV when they happened, and although we get a bit of an impression that he’s concerned about his attraction to her when he’d wanted to keep it business, that just wasn’t enough of an explanation for me. And that kept happening again and again…it got a little frustrating. Add in his family drama that was initially hinted at, and later explained, and I think I just wasn’t always understanding what his motivations were. And while I know I was reading an ARC, and there very well could be another editing/proofing pass before publication, I found myself stumbling over sentence structure on occasion (meaning I would have to go back to the beginning of the sentence to remember what the sentence was about). And not only that, but sometimes I just didn’t understand what was being said. Maybe I was tired? But as with not getting Corbin’s motivations for his moods, there were other little things that happened in the story that I just didn’t follow… One final thing, this one had quite a bit of drama that centered on them not talking to each other and making assumptions about the others feelings. While this is to be expected a bit with two strangers, it stretched on WAY longer than I personally like. I just got frustrated with them and wanted to roll my eyes. However, I really appreciated the way the ending played out…there were hurt feelings and overreactions on all sides, but unlike the rest of the book, they didn’t last too long. OK, back to the good stuff! Teagan was kind of adorable. I loved her ambitions, and would have loved to see more of her interacting with horses since it was her passion. And obviously I loved her love of books… 😛 And she had a bit of sass to her that made me smirk, and I loved the way she was always herself. I also appreciated how she dealt with Drake. And when Corbin wasn’t being a dick, he was kind of adorable too. I loved how passionate he was about his work as well, and I loved his memories of his grandparents. And their chemistry started off a bit slower for me, but when it heated up, hoo boy did it heat up.

Charming and incredibly diverting, Fake Wife is the epitome of a heartfelt and romantic love story! After reading Filthy Player, I was instantly intrigued with the author. So reading Fake Wife was a no-brainer. The author takes the story of the prototypical fake relationship and makes it 100% her own. Apart from the steamy and erotic aspects, the book exudes a gamut of emotions within it’s pages. From heartbreak to happiness, sorrow to success, loneliness to love, each scene is marked with impassioned writing by the author. The characters’ chemistry is influential throughout the story, and brings a captivating and intense magnetism until the very end. The circumstances each character endures makes the story that much stronger, proving that simply loving someone might not be enough for a happily ever after. Great love stories have one thing in common: the author’s exquisite ability at storytelling. Fake Wife transforms from a simple love story to one that enraptures readers with it’s emotion, conviction, and vitality. Beautifully penned, this book is an insta-must read, and one you won’t be able to put down. 5 Stars!