What’s worse than being fake engaged to a woman who despises you?
Falling head over heels for her.
Larkin Gray hates me with the fire of ten thousand suns.
We haven’t seen each other in twelve years, but she’s still furious with me for breaking a promise to her…and she’s even prettier than I remember.
But there’s no undoing the damage I caused.
Since I can’t make amends, I avoid her lethal glare at all costs. Until I stumble upon her lying about having a fiancé to her ex, and I lose my ever-loving mind. Suddenly, I’m introducing myself as her betrothed and getting us invited to his wedding.
Predictably, Larkin is intent on making my life miserable, except this barbed banter is kind of fun. And the more time we spend together, the more we discover we have in common.
Then she kisses me to prove our relationship status and I damn near lose my heart.
I’m ready to go all in with Larkin, but she’s not the only one I hurt twelve years ago. Her intimidating brother has every reason to hate me too and doesn’t want me touching his sister. But my lips and tongue don’t count as hands. Right?
Trigger warning: Physical and emotional abuse. It’s also recommended that you read book four in the Bower Boys series, 4 HINTS YOU LOVE YOUR BEST FRIEND, before reading this heart-gripping story.
Review:
The final Bower Boy gets his book!
If you’ve read book 4 in the series ( 4 Hints You Love Your Best Friend , which the author does suggest reading first, as at least one major plot point has to do with something that happened in that one), then you already knew both Jake and Larkin, both from their actions in that book and from the epilogue, AKA major teaser for this one. 7StSYFF picks up at exactly the same spot, explaining why it is that Larkin still absolutely hates Jake’s guts twelve years later.
We’ll just say…she has reasons.
Which is rather unfortunate, because Larkin’s business partner is involved with one of Jake’s younger brothers–Callahan, the one he works with.
But then Jake accidentally claims to be Larkin’s fiancé during a tense moment, and suddenly they’re fake-engaged but real-committed to spending time together, convincing everyone (who’s not a Bower or involved with one, because they all know the truth) that their relationship is real. Because a very real consequence hangs in the balance…
This was a cute read! Some of the characters’ reactions (Jake’s reasons for pulling away/not answering the phone the first time they met, for example) and/or ideas (i.e. Larkin’s for how to manipulate her ex) are a bit OTT, but it’s hard to argue that theirs isn’t a charming romance. Jake especially gave a lot of LOL moments (just about all of my highlighted passages were from his POV) and even when one (or both of them) is making questionable decisions it was pretty much impossible to not be rooting for the two of them to get to their HEA together. Their mutual “blackmail” threats were absolutely adorable, and I liked that despite their years-long antagonistic relationship they didn’t throw too much unnecessary denial in the way of their real connection once it was underway.
A link at the end of the book will give you access to a bonus scene (a wedding for two previous series characters!) and I for one wouldn’t complain if Larkin’s brother got a book sometime in the future… 😉
Rating: 4 stars / A-
I voluntarily reviewed an Advance Reader Copy of this book.