Review: Don't pay for this book
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 07 26, 2012
This novel is based on a concept done many times by romance authors: woman needs a husband (for whatever reason) & decides to rent or rope some guy into faking being her fiance or husband for a little while; woman and man fall in love during their fake relationship & decide to make it real. This concept doesn't succeed here because both the female and male leads are super-successful, competitive attorneys. Why they would allow their families to bully them is a mystery. Another mystery is why she should suddenly need a "husband" for her younger sister's wedding--or even get an invitation to said sister's wedding when she's a bridesmaid. In addition, Olivia's family lives nearby--she has lunch with her sister--and she makes no allowances for the fact that while she wants a husband for the wedding, she will have to explain what has happened to him when she returns home. The idea that she can fool them with a fake husband and pregnancy is preposterous--and she's supposed to be a successful attorney? In addition, everyone in their office thought they were married too. At this point, they may as well have gotten married for real.Another problem is Olivia's constant anger with Brody. She seems to hold everything against him--being cute, liking women, working in her office--but yet she asks him for a HUGE favor. The bantering between them had potential and was sometimes cute, but she physcially attacked him 1 too many times. And her family seems to have the same problem.The idea that a Seal has access to all sorts of law enforcement information boggled my mind. Perhaps Olivia's brother-in-law should've worked for the FBI or something instead.Olivia's stalker was yet another problem. The stalker's motivation is having Brody for herself, but Olivia's stalking began BEFORE they began pretending to be married. What, was the stalker a mind reader? I can understand that the stalker was psycho, but this really came out of left field.Other reviewers were bothered by Olivia getting drunk with her sisters while being stalked. I thought that whole scene was rather juvenile anyway. Three grown women getting drunk while the gentle, caretaking, sober men go about their business? It was just odd and seemed unnecessary. And Olivia's sister's "F" word came out of nowhere, in an otherwise fairly clean book.Finally, THE GRAMMAR. I read material that is this poorly written by my 9th grade English students. Stilted language, misused words, changes in verb tense, changes in point of view, and misused punctuation are all examples of poor grammar. Some words are so completely out of context that I wonder if a dictionary was ever consulted. I'm not sure how this got by an editor--or if it even had an editor, it's that bad.However, I will say that I read the book all the way through. Perhaps it was because I wanted to see if anything improved, or maybe I just wanted to see if there was anything new in this storyline. I don't know. I did like Brody a lot, but other than being pushed by his mother initially, his main motivation seemed to be in his pants. I would have liked to have seen some backstory--maybe a longtime secret crush on Olivia--that motivated him to accept her preposterous offer. Olivia needs maturity and to keep her hands and feet to herself. Olivia's dad needs the same kind of makeover. He was not amusing and was rather offensive. And I would drop the stalker, or else I would change the stalker's motivations. They simply didn't make sense.The author commented in another review that she is making some changes given the number of negative reviews. I would be willing to read it again if she cleans up the grammar and implements some serious changes. Kudos to her for completing a novel and for her willingness to listen to Amazon reviewers. However, I would say that this book shouldn't be purchased unless she assures you that this is an updated/revised version of the novel.