Pretending with the Playboy (In Love with a Tycoon, #2)
Tracey Livesay
ISBN 9781633751675 moved to newer edition found here Commitment makes you weak. It's playboy Carter Richardson's motto. The only exception to the rule is his aunt, and when Carter learns she's terminally ill, he rushes to her bedside. Filled with fear and guilt—and desperate to ease his aunt's mind—Carter does the only thing a guy could do...he panics and blurts out that he's engaged to his aunt's enticing protegée. Lauren Olsen has already had her heart crushed once by Carter. Against her better judgment, she agrees to keep up appearances—until Carter makes their “engagement” public in order to protect the family business. Now Lauren's torn between obeying her conscience, and obeying her desire. Because while she could never trust the womanizing Carter she once knew, she seems to be falling for the man beneath the playboy...
Publication Year: 2014
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3.25/5.
I really love the premise for this one--the rakish best friend guy from the previous book flips out and accidentally ropes the woman he kissed back when she was a Youthful Temptation into a fake engagement to appease his dying aunt; perhaps a Barney Stinson Maneuver--and it does have a lot of cute moments. The leads have chemistry, the hero is dumb as hell (positive) and she's an art history phD with an art history job. (Rare if not impossible these days.) The moment he was like "Picasso could paint people who looked like people? Whaaaaat?" was so deliciously stupid of him. Chef's kiss.
But there was a throughline of insecurity in the heroine that I found... off-putting, if not entirely unrealistic. I get why she would potentially feel that she's not good enough (though she's clearly beautiful, smart, and irresistible to this man) but the narrative seemed to enforce it as well. People complimented her on having a hot body--NOW. We hear about how committed she is to working out and a "healthy lifestyle" (she's lost weight). Sure, the hero was into her before she lost weight, but it's phrased in a way that almost makes it sound like he was anticipating her future hotness, versus seeing her as attractive when she was somewhat heavier.
It just left me with a bad taste in my mouth, and it did prevent me from fully enjoying the book. #23for23
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