ISBN-13: 9780373778195
Publisher: Harlequin
Publication date: 10/29/2013
What if the perfect match is a perfect surprise? Honor Holland has just been unceremoniously rejected by her lifelong crush. And now—a mere three weeks later—Mr. Perfect is engaged to her best friend. But resilient, reliable Honor is going to pick herself up, dust herself off and get back out there…or she would if dating in Manningsport, New York, population 715, wasn't easier said than done. Charming, handsome British professor Tom Barlow just wants to do right by his unofficial stepson, Charlie, but his visa is about to expire. Now Tom must either get a green card or leave the States—and leave Charlie behind. In a moment of impulsiveness, Honor agrees to help Tom with a marriage of convenience—and make her ex jealous in the process. But juggling a fiancé, hiding out from her former best friend and managing her job at the family vineyard isn't easy. And as sparks start to fly between Honor and Tom, they might discover that their pretend relationship is far too perfect to be anything but true love….
Higgins does a great job of developing her characters. Honor was a fun character to watch, without her going over to the cheesy side, which I think this author can sometimes do.
The other strength of this author is her ability to show you through physical motion, the way her characters are feeling. Too many times in romance novels, authors tend to have go-to phrases for emotions such as, she bit her bottom lip, or he tilted his head to the side. Yes we get that she's nervous or that he's confused. (For more of my romance pet peeves, see this post.) But Higgins offers real life examples such as:
"So." He reached up and tucked a piece of hair behind her ear. It was all the encouragement she needed.
"You know what I thought the other day?" she asked. Her toes curled, but she kept her voice casual.
"What?"
"I was thinking we should get married."
I can totally picture her toes curling in her shoes as she struggles to stay calm. In fact my toes curled when I read it. (I tend to mimic some of the movements I read. It's weird, but I KNOW for a fact I'm not the only one who does it!) But my point is, she keeps her descriptions fresh.
I really liked both main characters in this book. I liked that I read the male lead with an accent the whole time even though she didn't force it down my throat with crazy spellings. He was a really great character. And even though Droog had some funky words, they were just enough to get me totally into his character and his accent.
Higgins signature behind-closed-doors love scenes where well written and there was definitely sexual tension.
Overall this was a really fun book to read. I read a lot of suspense, some historical and some young adult. It's a really nice change of pace to through in some contemporary (and humorous) lighter reading.
