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tamke's review
emotional
funny
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Homophobia, Sexism, and Classism
Minor: Death and Terminal illness
galleytrot's review against another edition
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.5
READ: Jun 2023
FORMAT: Audio
BRIEF SUMMARY:
In this contemporary romance set in Seattle, Christian is stood up by his paid fake date to his cousin’s wedding, when the entire purpose of having said date was to show his estranged family that he was capable of living a happy, successful life without their support. Émile meets him, stranded and panicked outside the venue, fresh off of learning he stands to inherit a far larger portion of inheritance than he was expecting – on the condition of his marriage. On a whim, Émile decides to be Christian’s fake date, the opportunity to stick it to his stuffy asshole parents irresistible; then, once he lets on about his own problem, Christian offers up his hand in temporary marriage to pay the favour right back.
ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 4.5 / 5⭐
I think the only thing that stopped this book from scoring five-star enjoyment for me was all of the second-hand embarrassment. Christian is an absolute travesty of a klutz, and the hijinks that resulted had me squirming and cringing and squealing from the oh dear god no of it all. I absolutely hate feeling that way, but it was well worth squiring through to get to the rest of this book. Beyond the devastating scenes of utter humiliation, I had such a good time going through this book that I caught myself grinning from ear to ear on a good number of occasions.
Christian was kicked out from home after coming out as a teen, and has since made ends meet while boarding with a group of guys in similar situations to his own, forming a strong friend group and system of support. He is thrown off-kilter when a cousin gets in touch and invites him to her wedding, uncertain about facing his family again after a decade of radio silence. If he’s going to do it, he won’t go as the deeply-in-debt starving artist that he is, but as a successful actor in a well-established group, with a highly influential man at his side whom they couldn’t possibly disapprove of. It just turns out that Émile isn’t exactly the particular influential man he’d had in mind.
Émile comes from old money, the descendant of a family who established a worldwide and renowned shipping company. The loss of his grandfather, the only person in his family whom he ever had a meaningful relationship with, is a gut-punch to his soul, but the reading of his will takes a rather unexpected turn in Émile’s favour – except for the conditions applied to the release of his inheritance. All Émile wants is to be rid of the intrigue and the propriety that come with being a part of a traditional family of generational wealth, and the chance to do some actual good in the world with his share of the money is an attractive prospect. If it means he has to play their game a bit longer to get it, then Christian is an excellent choice in man to help him get it done.
TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 4.5 / 5⭐
So I’m pretty much of the mind that if you’ve read one fake-marriage plot, you’ve read them all, and this story certainly hits all the beats that come with it as far as I’m concerned – some fortune locked up under the condition of marriage, a partner the family doesn’t approve of, a set of boundaries that are broken, a casual partnership developing into big feelings, some insidious attempt from an outside party to break things off before the wedding...
What this story has that other stories might not is a memorable cast of characters written with tremendous chemistry, and performed by two audiobook narrators who did a phenomenal job. I’m not kidding, the performance is outstanding. That being said, I’m fairly certain anything Joseph reads is going to benefit significantly from his performance, I seriously cannot get enough of what he’s done, under any of his aliases (and I’ve found three so far). Hamilton is now on my radar as well, as a new-to-me narrator.
FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 4.5 / 5⭐
Short o the not-entirely-original premise, I had an excellent time going through this story. I thought it was touching, comical, decently paced, and the chemistry between the two leads gave for some especially heated bedroom scenes. You’ll hear no complaints from me. The series is young, but I’ll be checking in for the next installments once they’re out.
This book has representation for gays and pansexuals. I didn’t flag much in the way of diversity, but I admittedly might have missed something.
The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Sexual content
Moderate: Cursing, Homophobia, Misogyny, Sexism, Blood, Vomit, Injury/Injury detail, and Classism
Minor: Death, Racism, Terminal illness, Dementia, and Grief