Suprisingly excellent
Join the fun in this vibrant first installment of the new romantic comedy serial by best-selling author Leta Blake and newcomer Alice Griffiths! After a drunken night of hot sex in Vegas, strangers Will Patterson and Dr. Patrick McCloud wake up married. A quickie divorce is the most obvious way out—unless you’re the heir of a staunchly Catholic mafia boss with a draconian position on the sanctity of marriage. Stuck between a rock and a hard place, Will and Patrick don't like it, or each other, but they have to make the best of it until they can find another way out of their marriage. To ensure the trust fund Will's charitable foundation relies on isn't revoked by his mobster grandfather, he and Patrick travel to Will’s hometown of Healing, South Dakota, posing as a newlywed couple in the throes of true love at first sight. Complicating their scheme are Will’s unresolved feelings for his all-too-recent ex-boyfriend Ryan, and Patrick’s desire to get back to the only thing that really matters to him in life: neurosurgery. Will they fool everyone? Or will the mafia get wind that their marriage is a fake? Throw their simmering attraction into the mix and all bets are off!.
Review:
Dear Leta Blake and Alice Griffiths,
I have heard a lot of good things about this story, but I hesitated about trying it because I thought the price was too high even for me. I mean the price for six parts all together – not for this first part, and I waited till it was free on Amazon and got it. Having said that, the complete serial is on Kindle Unlimited and if you belong to Kindle Unlimited you can read it for free (if you pay monthly dues that is) .
So, the blurb gives you a set up. Of course my first thought was about Ross and Rachel from “Friends”. But at least Ross and Rachel had a history, these guys are indeed complete strangers, so swallowing this about complete strangers should have been even harder for me, but alas it was not. I mean when I finished the story, I had my share of eye rolls and laughs, not just about the set up but about what followed after that, but while I was reading, I happily went along with the flow and to me it meant that the writing was very good, very convincing. Opinions may differ of course.
"Will looks down. Lying there, drooling onto Will’s pecs, is a man, perhaps thirty-five or so, with short auburn hair that curls. A man with long wiry muscles, and trim shoulders and hips. A man he definitely does not know."
“We got married.” Patrick presses the palms of his hands against his eyes, shaking his head furiously. “For the love of—oh, you’ve got to… For the record, this cannot be happening.” Patrick is finally on board the panic train and Will’s ready to ride it with him, but his vision goes spotty and his mouth numb. He moans. A rushing noise hits his ears, and then there’s darkness."
Both characters came alive on page for me. I am not sure if “sharply drawn” are the best words to use here, but I could feel their panic and the conflicting emotions that came right there after.
You see, no matter what super crazy attraction they felt that both of them decided to get married (while quite drunk), of course they do not want to stay married to strangers day thereafter. But of course in order for them to eventually get their happy ending in part six (because part six is called “Will and Patrick’s happy ending”) they need to stay married or at least to stay close to each other.
The plot twist authors come up with in order to make it true? You ready? I do not think it is a spoiler because blurb pretty much discussed it. Will belongs to mafia family, but not really anymore, because his close relatives left it quite a while ago), but he got some former mafia money (not really mafia) anymore and he is leading huge charitable foundation which does tons of good things, like really awesome things for the people of his town. Only the mobster relative who left him money made sure that it came with strings – he cared about sanctity of marriage. A lot. So once married Will cannot divorce and grounds for annulment are strictly limited and getting the annulment did not work out.
Will decides that his grandmother (who was in the mafia but left a while ago but still has tons of connections) would help them to get around it and get divorce only Patrick should go with him to his town and stay there for a few months. Does it make much sense? I know if I were reading my summary I would have sworn not to get this book ever. Once again, I happily went with the flow, while I was reading the story. And Patrick, abandoning his life because he only has work anyway and agreeing to go with Will, because he felt bad and I suspect was more attracted than he thought initially? Yes, it all made sense to me. Don’t ask me why, I guess the writing entertained me that much.
"“I’m not going anywhere with you—” Will whirls around. “But you’re willing to go to bed with me?” “Well, yeah, we’re husband and husband. May as well get a little something out of this"
There is no resolution at the end of the story which is understandable because it is only a first episode but there is no cliffhanger either.
Grade: B+
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