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A review by mjsam
Pretending in Paradise by M. Ullrich
4.0
ARC received via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the last M Ullrich book I read, but I enjoyed this one. I’m a sucker for the fake relationship trope, and this doesn’t disappoint there. The main premise here is that Emma and Caroline both work for the same travel review company, though Caroline has only been there one day. Emma is a reviewer who has posted a review that leads to legal action and Caroline is tasked with travelling with her to keep her in line.
I have to be honest though, I did not like Emma’s character to start with (and I shared Caroline’s opinions of her actions). I could not believe her reaction to the lawsuit, I felt her cavalier disregard for how her behaviour affected her workplace was deplorable, so much so that I almost stopped reading about three chapters in, but because this was an ARC I forced myself to keep reading, and I’m glad I did, because the romance here is very sweet once you get past the set up.
By virtue of attending a couples resort, the two main characters are forced to spend a lot of time together, Emma is very laid back, Caroline is very uptight, and during their time away, they manage to meet in the middle a fair bit. The way they get to know each other and start to fall for each other is believable, and sweet and I also enjoyed the myriad of activities/dates they went on. There’s maybe a bit too much time spent on people hitting on Emma/Caroline’s issues, it felt repetitive after awhile (and I could have done without the sex on the plane scene, seriously, having sex surrounded by a bunch of other people on a crowded plane is not my idea of sexy).
The story extends past them leaving the resort, which gives insight into how they relate after their forced relationship, and this leads to the customary ‘angst’ portion of the story, but it’s over fairly quickly and handled reasonably well, (and includes an pretty sweet callback that I enjoyed very much). There’s also a nice epilogue to wrap things up.
3.5 stars rounded up.
I wasn’t overly impressed with the last M Ullrich book I read, but I enjoyed this one. I’m a sucker for the fake relationship trope, and this doesn’t disappoint there. The main premise here is that Emma and Caroline both work for the same travel review company, though Caroline has only been there one day. Emma is a reviewer who has posted a review that leads to legal action and Caroline is tasked with travelling with her to keep her in line.
I have to be honest though, I did not like Emma’s character to start with (and I shared Caroline’s opinions of her actions). I could not believe her reaction to the lawsuit, I felt her cavalier disregard for how her behaviour affected her workplace was deplorable, so much so that I almost stopped reading about three chapters in, but because this was an ARC I forced myself to keep reading, and I’m glad I did, because the romance here is very sweet once you get past the set up.
By virtue of attending a couples resort, the two main characters are forced to spend a lot of time together, Emma is very laid back, Caroline is very uptight, and during their time away, they manage to meet in the middle a fair bit. The way they get to know each other and start to fall for each other is believable, and sweet and I also enjoyed the myriad of activities/dates they went on. There’s maybe a bit too much time spent on people hitting on Emma/Caroline’s issues, it felt repetitive after awhile (and I could have done without the sex on the plane scene, seriously, having sex surrounded by a bunch of other people on a crowded plane is not my idea of sexy).
The story extends past them leaving the resort, which gives insight into how they relate after their forced relationship, and this leads to the customary ‘angst’ portion of the story, but it’s over fairly quickly and handled reasonably well, (and includes an pretty sweet callback that I enjoyed very much). There’s also a nice epilogue to wrap things up.
3.5 stars rounded up.