Review: Awesome first in the series with a wonderful male lead!
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 05 30, 2013
is another book series that is going to cause me early onset angina! It's starts out as a lovely story about two childhood sweethearts finding each other again with a little twist involving marrying for money and then moves on to drop kick you in the balls!Rose Jensen doesn't feel beautiful or interesting and hasn't for most of her life. She is studying at UCLA to be able to open her dream bakery when she graduates and therefore doesn't make time for anything but studying. When her parents' business starts to fail she wonders how she can help them save their dream while trying to make hers happen. Surviving only on grants and scholarship money to get her through school she keeps her grades up so she doesn't have to burden her parents to help her financially. When she gets the news that her biggest scholarship will be going to another student next semester, her dream seems to deflate before her eyes.Until she gets a mysterious phone call from her Grandfather's lawyer informing her that she has been Willed a huge chunk of money when he passed away. The only catch is she has to marry Lee Montenegro. The half naked guy she runs into when he's leaving his latest random hookup in the dorm she lives in. Rose can't stand Lee and his man whore ways but his gorgeous hazel eyes and sinful smile seem to pull her in no matter how hard she fights it. As they get to know each other she begins having dreams she knows must be old memories and later finds out they involve Lee. He fills her in on their past summers together at her grandfather's house when they used to play in the creek nearby. Rose discovers that Lee has harbored a childhood love for her all these years and they grow closer and try out a relationship.Their happiness doesn't last long as a past girlfriend and Lee's own father work against them with devious ultimatums that could keep them apart for good.I have to say that throughout the first 3/4 of this book I was a swoony, mushy puddle of warm goo. Lee made this book for me hands down. This guy was written so well and his charm and character really stood out and made me fall head over heels for him. The way he looked at Rose and treated her was so sweet and beautiful. He was so vulnerable and watching him finally have what he has wanted all this time was rewarding...until Keira, his ex plaything comes into the picture and ruins it all. You already know his father is a conniving jerk but this Keira b**ch is ten times worse. She wants Lee so bad knowing he loves Rose that she stops at nothing to get him for herself. I was so upset with the decision Lee makes by the end of this book. I wanted to throw up. I was rooting for this couple so badly because they were so sweet together. I did like being able to read things from his perspective even though I didn't want certain things to go down the way they did. I think it was crucial to the story for him to have his say and I was very glad he got some page time. I wasn't expecting to read from his POV because it begins in Roses' and continues for a bit.As for Rose, she was a little more difficult for me to bond with in the beginning. She's dealing with some body issues in that she is tall and lanky with no defining curves and she doesn't feel attractive. Even when she goes on a modeling shoot with Lee's sister and ends up on the pages of Seventeen magazine she still looks at herself as plain and ugly. I can relate to how she feels unattractive, I mean we all have those days but I wish she would have found just a shred of of something she found she liked about herself. I did like her with Lee, she seemed to open up a lot more than before she met him and that was nice to see. My heart broke for her when she got a visit from Keira telling her that Lee was just using her for the money. I hated to see Rose believe everything straight up without asking Lee about it but the bitch almost had me convinced as well she was so good at deceit.I wasn't expecting the heat to be so intense in this book. I figured there would be some fade to black or some light petting but these two characters go at each other pretty hardcore! I mean it's not erotica but judging by the sweet innocent cover you wouldn't expect shy Rose to be giving her man head or seeing Lee tie her to a towel rack and hit it from the back! Whoo! It was hot, intense and pretty dang ice water worthy if I say so myself. Lee and Rose together burn up the pages and it's a shame I was reading this at work because I could have used some private time.Being the first book in a series it did exactly what it was supposed to do. Hook my interest and keep me on the line for the next in the series. I really liked this book and fell for the characters but I'm extremely nervous about where things are going to go due to the cliff hanger-ish ending! I hate to love endings like that and thankfully it's not over because if this was a stand alone I would totally ruin the author's day by pooping in her Begonias!