Catharina Maura

From the author of The Wrong Bride and The Temporary Wife comes another steamy and angsty billionaire arranged marriage romance.

When Lex finds Raya Lewis’s name hidden behind countless security measures on his own family’s servers, he knows it can only mean one thing.

Determined to take control of the situation, he sets out to find her — only for Raya to spill her drink all over him within seconds of meeting.

Much to her surprise, the notoriously unattainable tech billionaire asks for only one thing as compensation: six rounds of Truth or Dare.

An evening filled with laughter leads to Raya sneaking out of his bed in the morning, not expecting to ever see him again…

…until he shows up as her professor, offering her class the opportunity of a lifetime: an internship at Windsor Motors.

What Raya doesn’t realize is that their meeting wasn’t coincidental — and she’s the sole reason he took up a teaching position at all.

After all, Lex knows something she doesn’t: the two of them are arranged to be married.

The Secret Fiancee

Sophia

My heart begins to pound erratically, and he cups my face, our eyes locked. “I love you, Raya. More than anything — more than flying, more than breathing. I love you with every fiber of my being, with all I am, all I’ll ever be.”

Raya turns toward me, and I raise a brow when Lola’s face turns into a smug emoji. Raya follows my gaze, but Lola changes her emoji into a neutral one just in time. I stare in complete fucking shock as my own robot taunts me. Unbelievable.

Xavier Kingston is madly in love with my sister, and I’m not sure he even realizes it.

“Professor Windsor,” he says, his tone terse.

I grin at him as I raise my fingers to my mouth and suck them clean, not giving a fuck if he realizes what I’m up to. If Raya won’t make it clear he can’t have her, I will.

“Have fun rewriting that report,” I tell him as I straighten. “And don’t forget to keep your eyes off what isn’t yours, or you might find something you won’t like.”

I watch my wife laugh at something Adam says as they rise from their seats at the end of my class, something akin to jealousy settling in my stomach. Adam looks over his shoulder, right at me, as his arm wraps around Raya’s shoulders. The fucker smiles at me as he pulls her along, and my blood begins to boil. I should’ve just failed him for that fucking glorified love letter he handed in.

My Review (May contain spoilers, fair warning upon reading this review so please be responsible)

The Secret Fiancee is a book I was really looking forward to. Even though the past couple books in the series have been such a disappointment, I was wanting more for this one and hoping that maybe the author had learned from how the past couple books just hasn't worked as well for her readership. So I do want to say that the first 90% of the story was superb. The romance was fun, the hero was a beta sweet hero and I really thought that this would be a win because the relationship really felt more healthy. But of course, Maura just had to ruin this book with the last 10% of the story. Now I will say that even though the hero goes bonkers in a scene, its understandable why he does. He has some past betrayal and trauma issues he just hasn't resolved so I wasn't shocked by his reaction. My issue though was how the heroine treated him. Now I get she was hurt, but the circles that she makes him jump through was very abusive for him. Now yes I do agree that he needed to do a grovel here, but what she makes him do in order for her to forgive him was more about power and manipulation than actual love. The author writes the grovel to the point where the hero is DESTROYED emotionally to the point that it literally made me sick in disgust. I am not going to justify this behavior. Quite frankly he deserved better than a woman like this. Because she knew of his past, and she should have been more understanding, and how she puts everything on him and treating him so beneath her just soured the ending for me so much that I only got to about 95% and I actually technically DNF it, I just couldn't finish it. That is how bad it was. This is why I am not picky about grovels, in fact, I would prefer to have a lighter grovel than to see this type of abuse. This is NOT the first time I have seen this from this author, and honestly I am not sure I will finish the series. I don't get the appeal when authors destroy the heroes just for the sake of having a grovel to satisfy readers. And if this grovel had been better handled, this book would have been a 5 or 6 star read.

Overall this was a disappointment. Even though the first majority of the book was pretty amazing, the ending completely was toxic and abusive in ways that can't be redeemed.

Lover of Romance 

My Review (May contain spoilers, fair warning upon reading this review so please be responsible)

The Secret Fiancee is a book I was really looking forward to. Even though the past couple books in the series have been such a disappointment, I was wanting more for this one and hoping that maybe the author had learned from how the past couple books just hasn't worked as well for her readership. So I do want to say that the first 90% of the story was superb. The romance was fun, the hero was a beta sweet hero and I really thought that this would be a win because the relationship really felt more healthy. But of course, Maura just had to ruin this book with the last 10% of the story. Now I will say that even though the hero goes bonkers in a scene, its understandable why he does. He has some past betrayal and trauma issues he just hasn't resolved so I wasn't shocked by his reaction. My issue though was how the heroine treated him. Now I get she was hurt, but the circles that she makes him jump through was very abusive for him. Now yes I do agree that he needed to do a grovel here, but what she makes him do in order for her to forgive him was more about power and manipulation than actual love. The author writes the grovel to the point where the hero is DESTROYED emotionally to the point that it literally made me sick in disgust. I am not going to justify this behavior. Quite frankly he deserved better than a woman like this. Because she knew of his past, and she should have been more understanding, and how she puts everything on him and treating him so beneath her just soured the ending for me so much that I only got to about 95% and I actually technically DNF it, I just couldn't finish it. That is how bad it was. This is why I am not picky about grovels, in fact, I would prefer to have a lighter grovel than to see this type of abuse. This is NOT the first time I have seen this from this author, and honestly I am not sure I will finish the series. I don't get the appeal when authors destroy the heroes just for the sake of having a grovel to satisfy readers. And if this grovel had been better handled, this book would have been a 5 or 6 star read.

Overall this was a disappointment. Even though the first majority of the book was pretty amazing, the ending completely was toxic and abusive in ways that can't be redeemed.

I think this book is my favorite Windsor book yet! Wrong Bride will always be special but this book was nothing short of perfect.

They reminded me of Zane and Celeste before everything turned to shit and they became so toxic it was hard to breathe💀 but Lex and Raya worked so beautifully through everything I loved it!!

I knew Xavier and Sierra were gonna be a couple but I was so relieved to see it happening. I had a fear they would have other fiancés first. Thank God not haha

I think this book is my favorite Windsor book yet! Wrong Bride will always be special but this book was nothing short of perfect.

They reminded me of Zane and Celeste before everything turned to shit and they became so toxic it was hard to breathe💀 but Lex and Raya worked so beautifully through everything I loved it!!

I knew Xavier and Sierra were gonna be a couple but I was so relieved to see it happening. I had a fear they would have other fiancés first. Thank God not haha

The Secret Fiancee

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