The Billionaire's Contract Bride
29-yr-old dancer attends her gay friend's family wedding party as his pretend girlfriend b/c he doesn't want his family to know that he's gay. She is instantly attracted to his handsomem brooding & hardworking brother who thinks she's a gold-digger & has a 1-night stand with him. She thinks that's it for them but is surprised when he proposes a 6-month marriage of convenience to please his dying father in lieu of paying the huge gambling debts he thinks she incurred after overhearing her conversation with his younger brother. She eventually agrees b/c she being with him for 6 months is better than nothing. As the wedding draws near, heroine is compelled to tell him the truth about her gambling debts but hero doesn't buy it & thinks she's just a typical money-hungry woman.This Marinelli book was good but not great. The romance, sexual chemistry, sex scenes,& pacing were decent. I liked that heroine was comfortable with who she was & didn't whimper when hero misjudged her. I also liked her honesty with herself & others. Hero was arrogant & manipulative & projects his them onto heroine. I didn't like that he was too prideful that he let heroine go instead of being honest with her about what he knew re: her gambling debts. His sudden realization at the very end, thanks to his brother's urging, was spurious & not so believable. At least he came clean with the herione about what he knew but he should've also apologized for being a prideful jerk.
Somewhat recommended.
