Garrett Song is due to take over his family's fashion empire as it's next CEO. There's only one thing getting in his way: his grandmother wants him to get married and she has already chosen the perfect bride. He is not too happy that every aspect of his life is controlled and now he cannot even pick his own wife. Never mind the fact that he wants to remain a bachelor. Natalie Sobol likewise is looking for a husband. She needs a promotion and a husband to present a perfect family image in order to gain custody of her niece.
Garrett manages to run into Natalie and he cannot take his eyes off of her. Together, the two decide to fake a relationship, get married and separate after a year once they have achieved what they both wanted. It was a perfect arrangement so long as they didn't fall in love.
Temporary Wife Temptation is a Harlequin Desire novella written by Jayci Lee. I picked this up because it sounded interesting and who doesn't like a good heir/billionaire hero every once and a while? This book also counts towards my Year of the Asian challenge reading goal since it is written by an Asian author and the romance is between two Asian-American characters.
This ended up being a great read because it pulled me out of my reading slump. It was just the right length, not too long and not too short. There was no point when the story dragged on in my opinion. While both Garret and Natalie have an obvious attraction between them from the beginning, they both deny their feelings for each other and when they finally do get together, they have already been married for some time. So, their relationship did not feel as instant-lovey as it could have been or as it might have seen at the beginning.
One of my favorite tropes is the fake dating/engagement/marriage trope. I just love seeing two characters being forced to "fake" loving each other while secretly desiring each other but denying any attraction between them. Give me denial and angst any day of the week.
This story was not angsty at all, but I did love Garrett and Natalie trying to deny the obvious lust and love between them. Especially after the scene when the social worker came to dinner and Garrett realized how much he actually did want a family.
I also liked how the fake marriage situation was handled in this modern setting. Their reason for getting into this agreement in the first place was not silly. There was no miscommunication as to why they had to get married to each other. The agreement and arrangement was very clear.
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