Honor Holland has just been unceremoniously rejected by her lifelong crush. And now—a mere three weeks later—Mr. Perfect is engaged to her best friend. But resilient, reliable Honor is going to pick herself up, dust herself off and get back out there or she would if dating in Manningsport, New York, population 715, wasn’t easier said than done.
Charming, handsome British professor Tom Barlow just wants to do right by his unofficial stepson, Charlie, but his visa is about to expire. Now Tom must either get a green card or leave the States—and leave Charlie behind.
In a moment of impulsiveness, Honor agrees to help Tom with a marriage of convenience—and make her ex jealous in the process. But juggling a fiancé, hiding out from her former best friend and managing her job at the family vineyard isn’t easy. And as sparks start to fly between Honor and Tom, they might discover that their pretend relationship is far too perfect to be anything but true love
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Honor Holland has been in love with her best friend, Brogan, for the past 17 years. They’ve been friends with benefits off and on for years as well and when Honor’s gyno tells her that her eggs – as in those kind that make babies – start to uh, shrivel up when you pass the age of 35 she starts to freak. She’s 35 with no boyfriend and so she makes the move and asks Brogan to marry her. He actually laughs – and then realizes she’s serious. He of course just feels like she’s his best friend and though likes sleeping with her he doesn’t see her as a forever mate.
Honor starts to try dating sites and even gets set up with her the grand-nephew of her one of her grandma’s friends – oy. He ends up being Tom Barlow – a Brit who is going to be deported at the end of the semester as the college he works at won’t be renewing his work visa. He comes to the date drunk and is a complete ass. Honor doesn’t stay for long as she knows it will never work. Of course when she runs into him again she ends up liking him and they agree to commit marriage fraud and get married so that Tom can get his green card and stay in the states. Yes, he likes it here but what he really wants to stay for is Charlie. Charlie is the 14 year son of Tom’s dead fiance. Charlie is surly, non communicative and is pissed at Tom for a variety of reasons.
Honor and Tom move in together and try to make things work. Honor is up front and tells Tom that she’ll definitely stay with him the required 2 years (for the green card) but she actually wants to try and make the marriage work and stay together for the long haul – babies…you name it. Tom agrees but he’s more than scared about what he’s getting himself in to. He cares about Honor but isn’t sure he’s marriage material. In the end Tom’s fears, Charlie’s abandonment, Honor’s relationship with Brogan and a whole host of other things come between the couple and they may not make it through.
This was another great read by Higgins. I didn’t read book 1 in this series but that put no damped on my enjoyment of this book.
Honor was a strong woman but she was human and was anxious to be with someone for the long haul. Of course she still had standards and while she didn’t care for Tom at first she still ended up not only liking him but loving him. She loved his silly sense of humor, his kisses and of course he undying love for Charlie. She was a great character.
Tom was a bit of a study in frustration. He knows what he wants but then he doesn’t. He cares for Honor, then he doesn’t, he wants to get married, then he doesn’t. I seriously wanted to slap this man a time or two during the course of the book but I guess I could understand his feelings on so many subjects. He really was a man with a deep well of feelings he just didn’t know how to handle things when they went wrong in his life and didn’t end up handling them well. Of course he finally realized his asshole-ishness and remedied the situation in a heroic way so I had to love him for that.
Overall this is both a heart-wrenching and heart-warming book. It made me laugh, smile, frown and almost cry – it pretty much ran the gamut on my emotions but it was worth the read and I really enjoyed it.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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