Montana Reunion by Soraya Lane

Montana Reunion
Grade-C
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Genre-contemporary
Trope-marriage of convenience
Reviewed by Kate

When Maddison discovers her fiancee is gay, she takes a break from her busy Los Angeles life and returns home to Montana. She runs across Jack right away. Jack was her childhood best friend whose father has recently died. In order to inherit the farm, Jack must marry within a year, or contest the will…a long and expensive process. Maddie offers a marriage of convenience. Both agree that their marriage is a good idea, but they disagree about children. Maddie wants kids as soon as possible. Jack refuses to have kids because he worries he will be a terrible father like his own dad. So what happens when Maddie ends up pregnant?

I really liked parts of this book. Jack and Maddie genuinely care about each other and their relationship reflects their prior friendship. The whole kids vs. no kids argument got old fast, though. Maddie decides to marry him knowing there won’t be kids, but she continually tries to convince him he would be a great father.

In general, I am a marriage of convenience kind of reader, but this one just didn’t do it for me.

Married in Haste by Cathy Maxwell

Married in Haste (Marriage, #1)
Grade-B-
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Marriage #1
Genre-historical
Reviewed by Kate

Brenn, the new Earl of Merton, has come to London to find a bride…a rich bride…to help him rebuild his estate. The estate has been in tatters for 200 years and he is currently living in a small cottage.

Tess Hamlin has been the belle of the ball for a few seasons now. But an heiress can afford to be choosy, can’t she? When she finds out her inheritance is gone, she must marry quickly before society finds out about her financial state.

Married within a week, neither Brenn nor Tess knows the other’s secret.

I enjoyed this one quite a bit. I connected with both characters and couldn’t help but root for them. But the typical “I love him but will be mad at him until he says those three magic words” part went on a bit long for me.

Game of Hearts by Kate Donovan

Game of Hearts  (Happily Ever After Company, #1)
Grade-C+
Hotness Level-Blaze
Kink Level-None
Series-Happily Ever After Company #1
Genre-historical, mail order bride
Reviewed by Kate

Megan and Suzannah have been best friends since they were little girls. They promised each other that they would get married at the same time and live close enough to each other that their children would be able to play together.

They consult a matchmaker to arrange marriages for them. When they are unable to find two acceptable husbands that live close enough together, they decide Megan will accept a contract with Dennis Riordan. Suzannah will accompany Megan on her journey and then pick a husband at that point. I can’t see anything going wrong, can you?

While on their journey, Megan meets and falls in love with Ben, but she feels unable to marry him due to her marriage contract. Ben follows them to their destination and is there when the girls discover that Dennis is really Aengus Yates.

Suzannah has been in love with Aengus Yates since she was a little girl. But he has broken her heart twice already. Once when, at age 11, she asked him to wait for her to be old enough to marry, but her married someone else instead. The second time, when he left his wife and two young sons and never came back.

Aengus can’t marry Megan, despite their contract, once he sees how much she loves Ben. But can Suzannah marry Aengus after he has already broken her heart?

I think you can tell that the story is a bit involved. Definitely much easier to read than it is to summarize. What I’ve written about above is just the first half of the book. The scond half follows Suzannah as she adjusts to marriage and tries to help Aengus mend the broken relationship with his sons.

While I enjoyed the story, I don’t think I’ll be buying the other books in the series.