Lucinda Darling thinks she’s ready to get married. Even though Donald doesn’t give her butterflies, the heiress is ready to make her marriage work. She’s got the dress, she’s at the church and her fiancé…is making out with his ex. So Lucinda stuffs her tulle skirts into her tiny sports car and hits the road…only to have her car break down.
Jake Parker knows he’s not ready to settle down. But Grandma Hattie is sick, so, to make her happy, he’s returning home to find himself a fake fiancé. When Jake rescues Lucy from the side of the highway, she goes from runaway bride to temporary fiancé.
Lucy hopes to escape the public eye in small-town Georgia, but she doesn’t expect to fall for Jake’s charming hometown, let alone Jake himself. Soon Jake and Lucy both start to wish their lie were true. But Lucy knows she must stop their pretense before Jake’s family—and her heart—are hurt so badly they’ll never recover.
Lucinda Darling is an heiress and therefore everything she does is front page news. When she runs out on her wedding right before she’s about to walk down the aisle it is definitely news worthy – or at least to everyone else. To Lucinda it’s just ridiculous. She finds her fiance making out with his ex-girlfriend right before the ceremony, gets into her car and hits the road. She has no idea where she’s going but that doesn’t matter she just needs to be gone. When her car breaks down it’s almost too much for her. Luckily Jack Parker happens by on his motorcycle and lends a hand.
Jake is on his way home to Pride, Georgia. He’s gotten word that his 89 year old grandma is not doing well and he needs to head home to make her happy. Unfortunately he knows that this means getting married and having children – and he’s not ready to do either. He doesn’t even have a girlfriend! He comes up with a plan on the spur of the moment to have Lucinda (he calls her Lucy) act as his fake fiance. She agrees because really, what has she got to lose, and she heads to Pride with Jake.
But Jake’s more wonderful than any man has a right to be and she’s horribly attracted to him. She thinks she should feel bad since she was just about to marry someone else but she never loved her fiance and it was more of a business arrangement. Now she’s in Pride and falling in love with Jake as well as the town. Her father, Jakes’ father, her ex-fiance and Jake’s ex-girlfriend are now all scheming in their own way to get what each of them wants – without taking into consideration what Jake and Lucy want. On top of that Jake and Lucy have their own trust issues and they’re finding it hard to work through it all.
This was a very cute if highly unlikely story. Not many trust fund babies would have helped Jake out but that right there showed me how different Lucinda was from the what was expected. She had a kind heart and wasn’t afraid to step out of the mold and help people whenever she felt the need. She didn’t like lying to Jake’s family but she did it – at first because she had to and after because she cared about Jake and didn’t want him hurt by the fall out. It really wasn’t a very solid plan on either of their parts. Lol
I did have some issues with the story in that there was quite a bit that was left open-ended. Without going into too much detail…there was an issue with folks in Mississippi that Jake had been working with that Lucy’s ex and her father had worked on. She had no idea about any of the nasty dealings but talked to her father about it. He was portrayed as a complete bastard, really, but the book had him capitulating on the issues that Lucy brought up and it just seemed so out of character for him. I also couldn’t see Donald, Lucy’s ex, going along with Lucy’s father on that one. Once we got the HEA we didn’t get to see Donald again or hear what happened. I can’t see giving up. Then there was a romance between Jake’s sister and her ex-husband and the story of a makeover that Lucy had helped a towns person with (did they EVER get together) that we never heard anything about. Once the main characters said I Love You the book ended. As great as that was I needed more!
So in the end I really liked the book but there definitely things about it that didn’t agree with me.
Rating: 3.5 out of 5
Hmmmm, this book sounds so-so. I like the premises, but I hate it when it's not well-wrapped up at the end.
Is this ebook only?
Is it self-pub'd?
Nath – It was so cute but I definitely felt like I was left hanging a bit.
Holly – No, it's a Carina Press.
Thank you Tracy. Hmmm, what Nath said. The premise is interesting, but…I'm on the fence I think 🙂