Published by Macmillan on 2014-10-07
Genres: Contemporary
Pages: 200
Format: eBook
Goodreads
A cowboy and an heiress find themselves a pretend marriage—and a very real passion—in THE MISTLETOE EFFECT, a delightfully sexy Christmas e-novella from Melissa Cutler.
The Briscoe Ranch is famous for its December nuptials. No couple that’s ever gotten married at the Texas resort has divorced—a phenomenon that the wedding industry has dubbed the Mistletoe Effect.
But when the resort owner’s youngest daughter leaves her wayward fiancé at the altar, the Briscoe Ranch faces a publicity nightmare. So Carina Briscoe, the sister of the bride, steps in to exchange vows with James Decker, one of the ranch’s loyal employees instead. Their marriage might be a sham but the sparks between them are anything but. Sometimes a little bit of Christmas magic is all it takes for two hearts to end up in the right place at the right time…
Could it be that this unlikely couple ends up with the greatest gift of all?
FTC : I requested this for a fair and honest review from Net-Galley.
Although I thought it was early for a holiday read, I couldn’t resist a Melissa Cutler contemporary. This novel was quick, sexy and lots of fun; I finished it in one sitting.
This is a story of two people who take advantage of an opportunity and act on an attraction that has been building for years. Carina and Decker have been lusting from afar ever since they met but it isn’t until they are forced into pretending to be married that they start to lust from up close. They agree to act on their chemistry for a month and the results are explosive…. can they really still walk away when their time is up?
I loved Decker … seriously, he is a great character. A reformed player, he is the one to suggest the terms for the arrangement and I loved the way that he twisted it round to his way of thinking. Now don’t get me wrong, part of the deal was not to sleep with him (she made her own mind up on this) but he engineered the situation that led to them getting closer. Once he was in, he did everything that he could to help her stand up for herself. Well, he actually started off by trying to force the issue but that got him nowhere so he became supportive and quite lovely … I shared his frustration with her at times. He was a fab hero 🙂
Carina was a mixed bag for me. Her words were the words of a strong, independent woman but her actions were that of a people pleaser who put herself second. She lived her life as the legacy of her family name, putting her own wants second and making the needs of the business at the top of her to do list. I honestly don’t think that having a man in her life made her better but having a person in her life to care for certainly did as it made her consider someone other than her Father.
The sex scenes in the book … oh man the sex scenes. There was rough sex, kinky sex and some lovely gentle sex. Melissa Cutler is not an author that I usually think of when I think of really hot reads but I may have to change that opinion.
Overall, this is a very hot story with one of my favourite tropes at the center; lust from afar turned close. If you want fairly seasonal quickie that gives you the warm and fuzzies whilst playing with your libido, this is one to try.
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