Length: 95,000 words approx.
Cover Design: L.A. Witt
Blurb
Hayden Somerset is convinced the ad is a joke, but he responds anyway because, hello, $1.2 million. He’s broke, living in a tiny apartment with two roommates, and exhausted from praying his ancient car survives just one more week. His skyrocketing rent and crushing student loans aren’t helping either. At this point, there isn’t much Hayden wouldn’t do for that kind of cash.
The ad isn’t a joke. Jesse Ambrose is absolutely serious. His father, the charismatic patriarch of a powerful Hollywood dynasty, has his eye on politics, and he’s counting on California’s liberals and progressives to elect him. But Jesse knows what his father believes when cameras and voters aren’t around. As the election looms, he’ll do anything to force the man’s hand and show the public who Isaac Ambrose really is.
Anything, including marrying a stranger so his father will make good on his promise to disown Jesse if he ever takes a husband.
Now he just has to wait for his father to take the bait… and try not to accidentally fall in love with his fake husband.
3.75 Stars!
Hayden and Jesse come from different worlds, but come together to try to stop Jesse's father. While Hayden and his parents are close, he has a struggling relationship with his brother. Jesse's family is seriously toxic and everything is about appearances. How Jesse came out of that family with half the kindness he has is amazing. I liked both men and loved watching Hayden joke with Jesse as well as his roommates. I liked that Jesse was determined to go through with his plan even though it was going to cost him emotionally as well as financially. The fake marriage trope part of this story was good, but I did find myself thinking that there were ways that Jesse's father could have found out that they were setting him up. As controlling as the man was, I'm surprised that he didn't try to do more than he did.
I liked that they slowly became friends. However, while there were hints that they were attracted to each other, the building of that attraction didn't seem to happen. The change in their relationship seemed abrupt. I was happy for them in the end though. All in all, it was a good read.
*** Copy provided to Bayou Book Junkie for my reading pleasure, a review wasn't a requirement. ***
4 Stars!
A really decent tale that feels believable, despite the Hollywood setting and premise.
I've seen 'marry for money/ulterior motive' tales done many times before, mostly with a frivolous reason at the core and they've tended to be all too quick with the instaeverything - the sex, the true liking, the love and the HEA. But not this tale. Nope, this was a very different version, with a couple of issues that I suspect the author's quite impassioned about, and it's also a little scathing about how faux Hollywood is, and how it works. LAW's political stance doesn't come across as strongly here as it does in Rabi and Matthew, her upcoming YA/NA tale, but I read a little between the lines, and can't help but think, 'Go you, LAW!!'
The tale isn't a 'let's rush to the altar and start having sex' one. Nope. Not at all. Instead, I think it's done with as much realism and believability as the author could insert into the storyline, including Hayden's friends' participation and their reactions, and their support and love for him. That she took time to bring into the tale how their lives had changed, and yet how very down to earth and frugal they remained made me like them even more and added warmth to the tale. There's Jesse's highly dysfunctional but sadly believable family, and there's the shallowness of being a slave to money, to social media, to fame and fortune, and to bright lights and glitter, and Jesse's sad knowledge that this is how shallow his life is. And yet there are two regular, normal and decent guys come out of the mess that the Ambrose family is, and who end up being part of Jesse's real family at the end, and it was nicely done, without anything faux about it.
As for Jesse and Hayden? They started out with nothing but utter honesty and that continued throughout the tale. They became not quite out-and-out friends, but a friendship built out of wanting to do something decent and out of true liking, out of their common goal to do the right thing, from which their eventual sexual attraction to each other came. When the guys did up having sex, I thought it was kind of unusually old-fashioned (not a criticism at all), rather romantic and sweet, and true. It wasn't overly descriptive and sexy, there wasn't any dirty talk that seemed planted, and I believed in their attraction to each other by then. And, the sex only came around some 70% into the tale, which again was a major plus for me, and totally true to the storyline of the tale.
But, the best-laid plans often don't go to plan, as is the case here, which simply added believability to the conclusion, and it was done with class and with a touch of 'Aha! The tables have turned, muhahahaha!', and in a setting where the Ambroses got their comeuppance, though it didn't last long, because, hey, it's Hollywood and it's a case of He Who Rules, and who you know and the many ruling the few. But, there was some good that came out of it, because it stopped a racist homophobe from getting into (the mess that is) current US politics (and yes, I'm aware of the irony, being a Brit, because our stuff is also messy right now, but at least it's true politics, and nothing to do with what feels like hate, racism, white privilege, immorality and plain deceit and small-mindedness), and it showed us that there are decent, principled people that exist, in RL and in the gloss, glitz and glamour of Hollywood.
I did like the digs that LAW took at parts of US society, because it was done with honesty, with 'her', and yes, there was more than a hint of truth to it. To me, she's a voice in MM and I do love that she speaks her mind, but isn't didactic and makes things organic to the tale she writes. I've enjoyed her tales throughout the years, but in 2018 she's produced 2 especially good tales with great messages, and this is one of them.
ARC courtesy of the author and SignalBoost Promotions, for my reading pleasure.
November 15 - Cdawgz Reads, On Top Down Under, Two Chicks Obsessed, Gay Book Reviews, Xtreme Delusions, OMG Reads, November 17 - Henna Loves Books, Open Mind For A Different View, Urban Smoothie Read, Amy's MM Romance Reviews, November 19 - Cupcakes & Bookshelves, November 21 - Love Unchained, V's Reads, Mainely Stories, November 23 - Momma Says: to Read or Not To Read, Scattered Thoughts & Rogue Words, Bonkers About Books, Engaging Secrets, MM Good Book Reviews, November 26 - Jim's Reading Room, Making It Happen, November 28 - Megan's Media Melange, November 30 - Mirrigold - Mutterings & Musings, Lillian Francis, Valerie Ullmer, Reading In Sarah's Corner, Sexy Erotic Xciting, Southern Babes Book Blog, Bayou Book Junkie, Wicked Reads
L.A. Witt is an abnormal M/M romance writer who has finally been released from the purgatorial corn maze of Omaha, Nebraska, and now spends her time on the southwestern coast of Spain. In between wondering how she didn’t lose her mind in Omaha, she explores the country with her husband, several clairvoyant hamsters, and an ever-growing herd of rabid plot bunnies. She also has substantially more time on her hands these days, as she has recruited a small army of mercenaries to search South America for her nemesis, romance author Lauren Gallagher, but don’t tell Lauren. And definitely don’t tell Lori A. Witt or Ann Gallagher. Neither of those twits can keep their mouths shut…
Website: http://www.gallagherwitt.com
E-mail: gallagherwitt@gmail.com
Twitter: @GallagherWitt
Blog: http://gallagherwitt.blogspot.com
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