Jayci Lee

Much more than he bargained for… “You want me to find you a wife?” “No. I want you to be my wife.” Garrett Song is this close to taking the reins of his family’s LA fashion empire…until the Song matriarch insists he marry her handpicked bride first. To block her matchmaking, he recruits Natalie Sobol to pose as his wife. She needs a fake spouse as badly as he does. But when passion burns down their chaste agreement, the flames could destroy them all…

Temporary Wife Temptation

Lauren Sullivan

CW: (view spoiler)[accidental injury of child, niece’s parents died in a car accident, trauma of getting a bad phone call on page (hide spoiler)]

I’m not a big category reader, but the cover was so gorgeous and I’m such a sucker for contemporary arranged marriage stories that I just had to try this one. I’m glad I did – it’s funny with strong characters and a lovely romance.

“It didn’t matter that he made her blood rush; he was an executive of Hansol and she was its HR director. It would be unprofessional of her to so much as smile too warmly at him.”

Garrett’s grandparents built the Hansol fashion empire from the ground up, and he’s the heir apparent for the CEO position. Garrett’s parents’ marriage had been arranged, but they fell in love and his mother’s death of cancer when he was a teen devastated the family. His grandma decides the best way to secure a new partnership is to arrange a marriage for Garrett, and the only way out is to tell his grandma he’s already engaged. The only problem is, he doesn’t even have a girlfriend, though he does have a thing for the acting HR director. Crazy idea or not, Natalie needs the marriage to bolster her attempt to adopt her niece – it looks better if she’s well-off, married, plus Garrett’s said he’ll give her application the additional bump to get the HR director position in NY, where her niece’s paternal grandparents live. What could possibly go wrong?

“Are you sure about waiting?”
“No.” Garrett shrugged and pinned her with his gaze. “That’s why I need you to ruin me for the Korean heiress.”
“Ruin you?” Natalie was horrified at how far his grandmother would go to control his life. It had to be suffocating to bear so much pressure. Yet, he was risking so much to protect her reputation. “I don’t know… I’ve never ruined a hotshot billionaire before.”

Contemporary arranged marriage, especially one where it’s also a workplace romance, can go wrong in so many ways, but this book navigated the pitfalls expertly, managing to poke fun at the trope while still reveling in it. Natalie’s no shy secretary – she’s bold, smart, excellent at her job, and has very little time for catering to some executive who can’t seem to be bothered to fill out simple paperwork. She’s also still reeling from the death of her sister, and it’s caused her to reevaluate some aspects of her life. Garrett, for his part, is content enough with work, and having been burned by love before, coupled with his mom’s death and watching his father’s grief, thinks he’s immune to love, even if having his grandma arrange a marriage for him is a step too far. Garrett’s family is Korean-American and still follows a lot of Korean traditions, but while Natalie is half-Korean, she admits that all she really knows about the culture comes from K-dramas. It’s not my cultural background, but I enjoyed watching Natalie learn to navigate those traditions.

“A chunk of her heart had been torn from her and buried with her sister. If the pain of losing her sister didn’t kill her, then she could survive anything. Like the end of a fake marriage. Everyone left one way or another. In this case, at least she’d see it coming. She could prepare herself.”

The themes of loss and grief play a role in this book, both Natalie’s for her sister and Garrett for his mom. Garrett’s grief drives him towards logic and reason and away from emotional responses, while Natalie feels compelled to be there for her niece. There’s a particular moment in the book that really struck home for me, when Natalie and Garrett’s phones begin ringing continuously, and Natalie’s transported back to the moment when she got the news that her sister and brother-in-law had been killed in a car crash. It was incredibly well done and rang very true to my own experiences.

As for cons, I definitely felt the length constraints of a category romance – the two weeks between their engagement and the wedding are skipped over, for instance. And given that gaining custody of her niece was the big driver behind Natalie agreeing to the marriage, there wasn’t much about her relationship with Sophie.

Overall, this was a delightful surprise, and I’ll definitely be looking for more books by Ms. Lee in the future. Recommended for anyone who’s a fan of the arranged marriage trope!

I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

Amanda J 

Good solid romance. Enjoyed the characters, disliked the conflict trope. Would read others in the series

Leelynn Brady

Disclaimer: I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. Thank you to Netgalley and Harlequin Desire for this free copy. All quotes in this review are taken from the Advanced Reader Copy and may change in final publication.

Oh my freaking gosh!



I was kind of getting younger bad boy Daniel Dae Kim vibes for some reason? Like, couldn’t you imagine if this book was written when Kim was in his late 20s or even early 30s and it was adapted into a movie and then he got to play Garrett Song? Ughhhhh I can’t even handle it.

That’s how much I loved this book, okay? Like, I swear Lee is about to be one of my favorite authors now and I need to know more about this series. I can’t believe this is the first one, only! Like, I need more immediately. I also need to stop saying “like” all the time, but whatever. I’m too freaking excited by this novel.

I won’t lie either, I also love that our main characters are Asian, because for me I rarely see that in the book world, especially without them being side characters. Well, yeah I guess that’s the point of me calling them the main characters, but for real. I was so into Garrett and the Song family. I could feel the kind of familial obligation that he has to take over the family business, and be the perfect son. Not just to the public eye, but to his family legacy as well. I totally get that, even though I’m not as well to do as the Songs are.

Then the pressure of having to start a family too, in order to continue the legacy again. Again it’s about the family, bringing honor to the family and making sure that the family is going to be in a positive light as much as possible. It only makes sense that Garrett would result to having a fake wife in order to get his family off his back. Ugh and the steaminess that comes from this arrangement? Priceless.

b.andherbooks

Natalie Sobol and Garrett Song are both wildly attracted to each other, despite Natalie laying the HR hammer on Garrett not realizing he's the CEO of her company (for not filling out paperwork). Both aren't looking for love, but both soon find they could benefit from being married, so they agree to a marriage of convenience. Garrett wants his matchmaking grandmother off his back AND an edge in striking a business deal; Natalie wants to convince the state to give her full custody of her niece.

Over the months of living together and acting married, their lust turns in to love.

A promising debut from an author to watch! I found some of the time jumps a bit choppy, but overall this was delicious fun and pulled off a modern, contemporary marriage of convenience with heat and charm.

Thank you to the publisher for the free review copy (from Netgalley).

CW for death (siblings, parents, off page), child custody stuff

Lacey

I read this for the Lunar New Year Readathon and enjoyed it so much. The chemistry between Garrett and Natalie is ON FIRE. Theirs is a fantastic marriage of convenience romance, with a great dose of angst and grovel at the end. It's a fairly quick read – it is a Harlequin category romance – and while I wish we could've had more time with the story so parts would be more fleshed out, I really loved getting to know our main characters and their families.

Natalie is strong heroine, capable of going head to head with Garrett, who is very much an alpha hero. They need a marriage of convenience so that Natalie can adopt her orphaned niece and Garrett isn't forced to marry a stranger his grandmother picked out for him, while still attaining his CEO seat. Their arrangement is perfectly methodical and logical, but the desire and heat between them changes everything the more they spend time together.

This was such a great debut romance from Jayci Lee and I cannot wait for more of her books, not just in this series but her upcoming foodie romance, A Sweet Mess! I'm all for reading more Asian romances by Asian authors.

zahra

Chantale

Much more than he bargained for... "You want me to find you a wife?" "No. I want you to be my wife." Garrett Song is this close to taking the reins of his family's LA fashion empire...until the Song matriarch insists he marry her handpicked bride first. To block her matchmaking, he recruits Natalie Sobol to pose as his wife. She needs a fake spouse as badly as he does. But when passion burns down their chaste agreement, the flames could destroy them all...

Temporary Wife Temptation

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