3.75 out of 5 stars
Ebook. Kindle Unlimited. 232 pages. Published November 5th 2018
Blurb:
Cole Mallory is on the brink of losing everything.
For the past seven years, Cole has dedicated himself to managing Mallory Vineyard, the winery his family owns. It’s not that he hasn’t had time for a relationship so much as he’s never found anyone he wanted to devote time to beyond the initial getting to know you stage. But that all needs to change—and fast—because if Cole wants to inherit the vineyard, he needs to be married.
Rhett Kingston is about to have a new life dropped into his lap.
What started out as a night of lonely drinking in a local bar ends with Rhett agreeing to “fake marry” his twin brother’s best friend. Rhett will act as the perfect future fake husband for Cole and, in turn, Cole will help Rhett launch the event planning business he’s always dreamed of owning.
Before they know it, their totally fake relationship is tangled up with completely mutual desire. After a destination wedding forces Cole and Rhett into the same bed, sparks fly and fictional feelings escalate and threaten to turn into something very, very real and more than either of them bargained for.
Likes:
- Sweet, easy, low angst read.
- The setup was a cliché but modern and believable.
- Cole and Rhett knew each other but hadn’t really noticed each other.
- Hot smut, and lots of it.
Dislikes:
- Almost too sweet and low angst.
- The spark between them happened fast.
- Cole’s family.
- Wished for more about Rhett’s life.
- Colt’s sister’s abrupt personality change.
I’m surprised how much I didn’t mind this marriage of convenience story. Yeah, it’s a cliché all by itself, but it felt weirdly modern. Cole’s mom might have been fine with him, an unmarried gay man, taking over the winery, but his grandparents were another matter. It was the fact that the grandparents had the final say that sold it for me. I can totally see older folks picking a hetero couple over a gay man, even one they’re related to.
I also liked that Cole chose Rhett as his future fake boyfriend. It was believable to everyone around them. Plus, they already knew each other. The fact that they’d never looked at each other as potential love interests made sense. Despite their connection through Rhett’s brother, they moved in different social circles.
But once they started being around each other, the spark happened fast. Definitely insta-lust, which I didn’t mind. And the smut! Very hot, and plentiful. Almost too much, at one point. I definitely skimmed a few times. As much as I love smut in my romance, if it’s not moving the plot along, it almost becomes filler, especially if there’s already been a lot.
I just wish there had been a little more tension, both with the romance and with the story in general. There was only one hiccup near the end, and it was sorted out without any effort by Rhett or Cole. The story was sweet, low angst, and east to read. A little more tension here or there would have spiced it up.
Both Cole and Rhett were nice guys. Cole’s family, however, were classist assholes. Which made Cole’s sister’s decision to be nice at the end surprising. It felt completely out of character for her, and while it helped give the story a happy ending, I don’t buy it. I wish Cole had gotten mad at his family. I half expected him to just snap and burn the whole winery to the ground.
I am glad the story didn’t bore me to death with the intricacies of how wine was made – looking at you, An Intoxicating Crush. I do wish that more of Rhett’s life had been explored. Cole’s family and livelihood got the page time. I didn’t even realize that Ryan and Rhett weren’t identical twins at first.
I am looking forward to the next book in the series. The writing was solid and I finished the book quickly. Both authors have other series, so I’ll have to give them a try one day.
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