His Hired Girlfriend

Kiwi Bride #1

by Alexia Praks

Alexandra Stewart is dating the man of her dream. But there’s a catch. The date is a masquerade and her Mr. Hot-Choc is gay, or so she thinks...

Family oriented Alexandra Stewart is in desperate need of money for her dad’s heart surgery. She is stoked when billionaire Jayden McCartney unexpectedly barges into her life and offers to help. ON ONE CONDITION. She must pretend to be his girlfriend. One look at Jay tells her to run in the opposite direction. He is too good looking, too successful, and too rich for her liking. When she is told Jay is gay, however, she feels sorry for him, and thinking that she’d kill two birds with one stone, agrees to the proposal. Now, the only problem is how does she prevent herself from falling madly in love with Jay when the way he looks at her makes her heart tremble and his touches set her body on fire?

Hot, recently single Jayden McCartney has to bring his girlfriend to his sister’s wedding in order to stop the matchmaking his grandmother has planned for him. Not in the mood for dating or a new woman after the discovery of his cheating ex, he hires a perfect candidate as his girlfriend in Alexandra Stewart. Alex, however, thinks he’s crazy. It’s only when he commits a sinful lie that would damned his manhood forever does she agree to help. He convinces her that he is gay and that the possibility of his family finding out would ruin them financially and socially. Now, Jay has to pretend to be batting for the other team, which turns out to be no easy task where the geeky turn sexy Alex is concerned because he wants her, and what Jay wants, he certainly will get.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary, Contemporary Romance, Chick Lit, Ebooks, Fiction, Amazon

ebook

First published January 20, 2012

About the author

Alexia is a self-proclaimed hermit, puppers-loving girl who likes to write anything romance—be it contemporary, historical, fantasy, paranormal, or a combination of any of these. Currently residing in Aotearoa (land of the long white cloud), she spends seventy percent of her time watching anime and reading comics and the other thirty percent daydreaming about food and procrastinating. Whatever’s left she actually uses to write books that may or may not bring her a few precious gold coins to support her lifestyle.

Reviews

[Irish Zulu · Rating 1 out of 5]

I rate this book a quarter of a star!

What the hell did I just read?

This has got to be one of the most unrealistic books I've ever read. I strongly believe in giving a book a chance as it cant be the easiest thing for the author to put something out there. Its a bit like A talent show,Where someone goes and murders a claasic feel good song thinking they are the bees knees. I blame the family and friends, they should have just said " mate you cant sing" instead of allowing the rest of the world to be tortured with their so called talent. If I had written a book I would have my friends read it and let me know what they thought, after that I would ask a random reader on goodreads to read the book and give notes. This book could have been so much better if someone had at least proof read it for one thing and maybe told the author about all the lame bits. I got so confused, there seems to have been random conversations that didnt make sense and loads of characters that could have been cut out. Whats the Deal with Beth? Whats the real point of Mary and Britney? The end result for Sarah and Britney was just so "hollywood ending" it was ridiculous. Also what 30 year old billionaire still lives with him mummy and daddy? Seriously? I could go on but I would be wasting too much time on this book.

Suffice to say I didnt like this book in the slightest and so annoyed with myself for paying for it.

Absolutely Ridiculous!

[J.t. · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book is terrible, unrealistic and offensive. *spoilers* There is an attempted rape in this book and no one does a thing about it. Half the family thinks she's pregnant but nobody proposes to take her to hospital when she's drugged and sick. Not only that, but the woman who conspired to have the other woman raped is still invited to the sister's wedding because her father is a family friend, despite the fact that she committed a felony against the supposedly pregnant woman. No one calls the police and they debate even telling people about it. Jayden is allegedly a 30-year-old billionaire whose ex-best friend just drugged and tried to rape his "girlfriend" and all he does is punch him a few times and take her home to sleep off the drugs she was slipped. Bullshit.
The motives and actions in this book are insane and stupid. No "high society" family is a classless and unworldly as the people portrayed in this book. It's completely and utterly ridiculous.
There's also the matter of the extreme shallowness of the book. I get it, they're rich but dropping designer brands with nearly every item of clothing is absurd. Alex, who is made out to be a scientist and woman of substance, gets a haircut and some make-up and suddenly decides that she's no longer insecure and shy.

At this point I'm just ranting a bit, but the book really frustrated me lol. It's really that bad.

[Brooke Hauguel · Rating 1 out of 5]

1 star is to high of a rating for this rubbish.

I only made it about 80% of the way in, and I wanted to finish it, but honestly, the book is just so terrible I finally decided there was no real point in actually finishing.

So, want to know why I think this book is one of the worst ones I have ever read?

First off, I was extremely excited about what the book was about (love the plot summary)

But...

This story is not written in a first person POV, it is instead written about so many different characters, and at so many different locations and times that it gets kind of confusing, and who the hell cares about these other people anyways.

Secondly, the first time Jayden sees Alex, he is not attracted to her, and he think she is wrong for the job as his hired girlfriend.

Soooo....why the hell does her actually agree to ask her to be the one!?!

Just none of this crap actually makes any sense.

He offers her 100k to be his fake girlfriend for 2 weeks. All Alex does is constantly stress about not being able to pay her daily bills, let alone the fact that her dad is going to DIE if he doesn't get money to do the surgery. YET, she declines his offer....without any actual reason!?!??

But then she finds out he is "gay" and now she will do it. Even though he is lying about being gay....

So besides that, she now has to go to New York, but she gets put on a crappy flight, and ends up in LA, for some reason she left the airport, and nearly gets raped by the cabbie (which, this far she hasn't told Jayden about). If he can afford to pay for her dad's heart transplant, why doesn't her have a private plane for her? Or at least better accommodations for her so that she doesn't nearly get raped!!!

Now, she is finally in the states with him and everyone is a complete bitch to her and is like Gossip Girl x100 in the rude things they say to her.

All the while she is attracted to Jayden, but can't let it go there since he's "gay", even though he keeps kissing her.

But now Jayden is falling for her, and keeps going after her, and isn't even trying to act like he is gay....

This is super freaking annoying. This book had SUCH a good chance at being funny and unique and really cute, but they don't even follow their own rules!!!!

So to continue on,

I am so upset that this story line, which I thought wAs going to be amazing, totally blew.

And I really suggest not reading this book.

I do not think there is anyway it could end that would possibly be satisfying.

[Priyanka · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars

I thought I'd read this book because the plot seemed interesting. And the beginning was really good! But as the story proceeded, I was like: what am I reading?!

I found out some grammatical mistakes. The story was not at all attention grabbing. The characters seemed untouchable. Not a flick of proper emotion. I felt Alex was a tad bit too much emotional and crying at small stuffs. And Jayden? I felt he was a huge pain in my ass. I was not at all connected to him. I didn't see him defending Alex at many points.
Like for example: When Britney insults Alex in some store about how she needed a makeover and all... Were his lips stitched with steel threads? Couldn't he defend her? Or that time when both are in the hotel and Sarah calls Alex as a slut or something; Alex defended herself. I liked that but why didn't Jayden defend her?! She is his girlfriend after all! Anyways...
Mary... lol that psycho bitch. And Britney and Sarah? Lol they both were too much.

I loved the ending though. It was sweet and very satisfying. It is because of the ending that I'm giving it 2.5 stars.

[Els · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nice story

[Michelle · Rating 1 out of 5]

Note: read the wattpad version. idk if the kindle version is more polished or not.

Another note: I read like the first five chapters then skipped to the ending.

Look, this plot can be pulled off with extreme success. This book didn't do it. The basic, basic grammar was subpar. There wasn't enough showing, and way too much telling.

There really were a lot of super static sentences that weren't really descriptive.

Actually, 90% of what I read was formulated like this:

"{character name or pronoun} was/is very {adjective} based on/at/to {noun}."
or
"{character name or pronoun} thinks that {something} is {adjective}."

That, my friends, is a VERY bad case of telling instead of showing (which should not be happening 60% of the time. At all.)

Secondly, it was very difficult to keep up with the shifting perspectives in every chapter. This book would have been so much better in first person or third person limited (at least by chapter, so it'd be easier to differentiate between the perspectives).

Overall, very bad book. Do not recommend for anyone unless you hate yourself or you don't give a shit about static sentences.

[Kathy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read a review that said this was "sweet" read and if you are looking for "steam" this isn't it. The cover was cute and it was an amazon freebie so it seemed like a good fit and I downloaded a copy.

Apparently my definition of "sweet" and "steam" are a quite a bit different than the review I read.

Content: This is not a clean read.
The parts I read had lots of language, lots of innuendo, and lots of clothing removed... I skimmed portions of it but I don't think there is an actual sex scene so perhaps that is why it was referred to as lacking "steam" but it had more steam than I am comfortable with.

[Gilgamesha · Rating 2 out of 5]

Praks what were you thinking? Seriously I was so iritated by the heroine I wanted to strangle someone...are you stupid???? I wonder what she thought pretending to be in serious relationship consisted of if she had to be told everything.....but that was just the beginning of the problems with book.

[Patty · Rating 3 out of 5]

05/15/2020: Okay, second time around this actually isn’t that bad. Bumping this up to 3 stars.

[Paula Phillips · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jay has just caught his girlfriend in the act, the one he thought he was ready to marry with his best friend, Kyle. Needing to clear his head, he hightails it to New Zealand - the land of the long white cloud which according to the New Yorkers in His Hired Girlfriend sounds romantic. While down south visiting his friend Paul, Jay gets a message from his family that his sister Kelly is getting married and Jay is required to head home. The thing is they are expecting a girlfriend and one who can fit his families requirements. Paul has the perfect girl in mind, Alexandra Stewart aka Alex. Paul has known Alex since high school and knows that she is the most genuine person he has ever met and would do anything for her family. Currently, her dad is awaiting a transplant and Jay is offering her enough to push him up the list for a heart. Alex reluctantly agrees, only after Paul tells her that Jay is gay. The thing, of course, is that Jay is anything but and is attracted to Alex. What will happen in New York when Alex starts to find herself falling for Jay, especially when she still thinks he is gay? Can Jay prove to Alex that his love for her is real and that he has wanted her since Day One? I enjoyed His Hired Girlfriend for the most part as I love the whole idea of that falling in love with the Cinderella base but what did annoy me was that due to this being an NZ Book some of the language and kiwi-isms made me cringe like calling New Zealand - the land of the long white cloud. Like to be honest who calls it that besides in our National Anthem and good ol' Maui in our NZ Myths and Legends. Overall if you are looking for a sweet romance, then His Hired Girlfriend by Alexia Parks is for you.

[Sara · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was a good read and it was touching.
I loved the story and especially Alex and Jayden relationship and how they fell in love. They were so cute together! Although at first I didn't like him much when he saw Alex for the first time, and sometimes I wanted to punch Jay for his stupidity and for always putting work before her. Knowing she was upset he went to the office when called instead of running to her and explain. I get that it was an important contract, but some times there re things more important. Work could have waited until the day after, for God's sake. It was also his sister's wedding! Damn man! But other than that, he was sweet and caring and I loved how he treated Alex and always hugged her and cuddled with her when she was sick or upset.

Loved particularly how he took care of her after the Hen's party. God, I fell in love with him, if even possible!
Alex was a sweet little thing, very innocent and lovely, but it was clear she started to chang a little during those two weeks she was with Jay. She grew a backbone, otherwise se wouldn't have been able to face the b*tches Britney and Sarah. God, how I hated them!
But hated much more Kyle. Disgusting man and rapist at heart. Jerk! Asshole! I'm glad Jay worked his face and guts good and hard that night. And in the end he got what he deserved.

I particularly liked Gracie (Jay's mother) and Kelly (his sister). They were so sweet and lovely and cared for Alex a lot. I loved especially Gracie, an amazing mother and awesome mother-in-law. So sweet of her for saying Alex was like a daughter to her. And both Gracie and Kelly took good care of her and were always nice to her.
I also like Peter a lot. A very sweet and loyal friend, especially to Alex. He really was an amazing friend and an awesome guy. I could have fallen in love with him too if he were single and I was given a little more time in his presence. Heheh. He was really cute, and it was so clear he wanted to match up Alex with Jay.
I didn't particularly like Beth, until the end when she realized Alex was very lovely and Jay was happy with her and that Brit was a b*tch. But at least she came to realize it, so fine.
Alex parents were nice too, though didn't particularly like that Jacob believed to what Mary said, that Alex was being a mistress and doing a married man. I was disappointed. Aex's mother was nice and anyway I appreciated how they both welcomed Jay in the family after they knew him, thanks to Peter.
And, speaking of Mary, God how I wanted to punch her in the face and in the gut and.. well, beat her up until she lay there unconscious and bruised and aching. That would rìteach her! She was hateful and evil. She deserved that Peter tattled her to the dean. Well done!

All in all, a good book, though I was annoyed by the bad writing. There were just too many grammar errors, especially verbs. That's why I couldn't give this book a good 4 stars but only 3.5. Though it'll show 3, cause GR still hasn't the half point option.

[Ruth · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only reason I finished reading this book was because I was so hopeful that something would happen that would completely changed my mind about how horrible to book was. I really wanted to like it, but the writing was just entirely too bad.

My first major beef with the book was that it was written in such a confusing manner. The author used present tense to write but in third person. I was so confused most of the book because the writing was so scattered. One minute you are reading Alex's thoughts and then a couple sentences later it's Jayden's thoughts.

There were also so many inconsistencies in the story. Like in one part of the book, Gracie and Beth are talking and Gracie refers to Beth as "Mother". But then a few paragraphs later Beth is thinking about her late husband David McCartney. Now, if Beth is Gracie's mother, why does Gracie's husband have the last name McCartney. That would be Gracie's maiden name. Maybe this is over-thinking on my part, or maybe I missed something else, but it just really bothered me and distracted me from the story.

Another issue I had with the story was that there were so many unrealistic things happening. First, Jayden is a damn billionaire who still lives at home with his ENTIRE family, including Grandma. Second, when Jayden first saw Alex, he was not impressed. He even mentally criticized her for her lack of fashion sense and called her plain. But then all of a sudden he's so attracted to her. And most of all, when Alex is out with Kelly for the bachelorette party, at this point the family all believed that Alex was preggo, but yet they were letting her drink at the club, which led her to getting drugged. Once she was drugged, nobody from the group of people that thought she was pregnant thought that maybe, just maybe she should go to the hospital to get checked out.

Some other things that bothered me were the shallowness of the author in name dropping all the designer names in the story. We know these people are supposed to be filthy rich, of course they are going to have a great wardrobe, we don't need to hear about it in every other sentence. And I laughed at one point where she mentions something about somebody's $1000 Louis bag. Are you kidding me? $1000 is like pocket change for a billionaire. And to end my rant, I must say that the ending that was given for Britney and Sarah was just plain horrible. How cliche. I find it hard to believe that two women with filthy-rich parents have no kind of education and their only resort once daddy went bankrupt was to become a maid, at the hotel that their "nemesis" own nonetheless.

I'm not embarrassed that I read this book, but that I actually read it until the end. But I really did try to give the author a fair shot, but I'm sorry, it was just really bad.

[Mariela Rmz · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a quick fun read and thank God it was free because this one is definitely not everybody's cup of tea

The first third of the book was really good though and I think that is why I gave this the three stars because it hooked me and made me finish it, though after this first third all went to hell.
At times it was fun and cheesy, then it was silly, afterward you wouldn't know what the hell you're reading, a Disney like book perhaps??

There were so many things that were too surreal that you really have to take this story like a too clichee, prudy and not at all deep story to go with the storyline and not ending up with seizures from rolling your eyes...I mean, come on... your Hero is a 30 years old freaking billionare and he acts like he is afraid of his granny antics??

If you don't mind that much too clichee characters, over the top situations and the plausibility of it all and you enjoy cheesy, chick lit romance stories then this is right up your street :D

[S · Rating 5 out of 5]

Aaawwww... I loove this book. It's such a fun, light, happy read! This made me smile all the way! Such a light lovely story!

[Mariete Verwey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't expect much, and I got it. Maybe my twisted level of entertainment is lower than the other reviewers, but I actually thought it was a fun little read. You don't read billionaire love stories for the believable story lines or in-depth character growth, and for that, it was fun.
I have to unfortunately agree with some of the reviewers, though - there is a definite pacing issue. My reading app said I was on 48% by the time she had been hired, and they were sight-seeing in New York for the wedding after picking a dress. By 62%, she had been assaulted, rescued, gone to a wedding, had her entire romance fall apart, and gone home. (With him assaulting people a bit over-eagerly for the situation - was the writer having a bad day?) And then by 70% they are happily married and on honeymoon. (And why the little titbit about the guy getting arrested for attempted murder? I know he was just a paper-thin side-character of a side-character, but who did he try to kill? And why was the other guy arrested? And please tell me the three girls all ... broke the heels of their favourite shoes, or something.) I hate little unresolved interesting side-bits in my light-hearted fluff.
All in all, I got what I expected - something unbelievable and light-hearted, with some interesting moments.

[Phylis Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful
The Billionaire's Hired Girlfriend by Alexia Peaks is a wonderful endearing story. There are twists and turns you don't expect. Totally enjoyed reading this. Thanks

[Lauren - SERIESous Books · Rating 2 out of 5]

I got His Hired Girlfriend for free on Amazon and decided to read it right away because it sounded like a lot of fun. While I'm used to reading books about rich men hiring average girls to be their girlfriends I've never read one where the guy pretends to be gay so that really interested me.

I think the biggest problem I had with this book is that it is told in the present tense BUT in third person. I've never read a book like that before so it really took some getting used to. Unfortunately, I think the book suffered from it because it just gave me the impression that the writing was scattered. One minute we would be getting Alex's thoughts and then in the next two lines it would be Jay's. It just confused me more than anything so I couldn't get into the story as much as I wanted.

When we first met Alex, I really liked her. Same with Jay. But I just felt like their character development wasn't the smoothest and they got a little irritating. For example, Alex just seemed really dim-witted about certain things and that frustrated me at times. She also never seemed consistent in her convictions. In one minute she was shy to be around Jay with clothes on and in the next she has no problem with him seeing her in her underwear. It just didn't make sense to me.

The plot itself is cliché but I think that is pretty much expected so that didn't bother me too much. This book reminded me of watching a soap opera because things are a little over the top at times and it follows a predictable path. I found with the way that this book was written it made for following the plot a little confusing at times. I'm also really confused as to why Jay (who is American) was in Sydney, Australia with his girlfriend and best friend at the start of the novel when he is celebrating him and his girlfriend's anniversary--like to me that screams warning bells in my head.

Unlike other books, we don't really get introduced to the character(s) in the next books. Briefly we meet Ruby, heroine of Highland Kiss, who discusses her impending trip abroad but not enough for me to really want to read her story. So I will be passing on the rest of the series.

Overall: This book was disappointing in the sense that it could have been a lot more entertaining if the writing style was different and the characters were better developed. For a free read, I didn't mind so much but I would have been very disappointed if I paid for it and this is what I got.

Check out more spoiler-free book and series reviews on my blog SERIESousBookReviews.com as well as read book series recaps!

[Tonileg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Clean contemporary romance with a nerdy kiwi virgin scientist and a sexy disenchanted rich millionaire American guy fall in love with a hired-girlfriend-becomes-a-real-one plot scenario.
So we start out with Jayden McCartney as he finds his long term girlfriend bed (not innocently sleeping) with his 'best-friend' Kyle. Well mostly everyone that is rich or beautiful in this story are all cheating evil folks and we don't get many grey characters in this drama where I felt like every one was wearing a black hat (evil) or a white one (good folks).
Alexandra Stewart is our geeky redheaded glasses wearing trope of a ugly duckling heroine. Alex does has a loving old school family so she does have support when there are some bumps in the road in her 'fake' romance with Jay. Jay pretending to be gay was ridiculous and I really didn't like that because it was so obvious a lie from the start if Alex had only googled Jay in the six weeks before she travels to America to meet Jay's family.
So many crazy events in New York that I don't want to even remember, because it was so improbable except to say that Alex has a way of attracting the worse type of people (like the evil LA cabbie or the many evil ex-girlfriends...)
Didn't think this was all that believable in fact the crazy threw me out of the story a few times, but there is a clear HEA for everyone and the author felt the need to make all the nasty 'bad girls' suffer which was needless because I really didn't care about what happened to those folks.
266 pages and kindle freebie
2 stars

[Shabana Mukhtar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the guilty pleasure. Read something romantic and silly.

You know when there is nothing but romance in the air? A super rich, super handsome, super caring guy falling for otherwise plain-looking, simple, and innocent girl. Yeah, it is a fantasy for all girls at some point in their life. So it doesn't hurt to read a glorified version of that story.

It is a story of Jayden McCartney (Jay) and Alexandra Stewart (Alex). Jay has to bring his girlfriend to his sister’s wedding in order to stop the matchmaking his grandmother has planned for him (Really, do that have that in western culture as well? I thought it is only us the asian sub-continent folks who do that). Nonetheless, a few family members like Alex, the grandma doesn't. And Jay couldn't help himself from falling in love with Alex.

The story takes a predictable path. However, like I said, it is a guilty pleasure read.

A 2.5 on 5 stars.

[Xueting · Rating 5 out of 5]

Honestly I love the story. Love the idea of Jay being supposedly gay so the can get closer. The story started out as you can help me and i can help you and slowly turn into I don't wanna go and I want you to stay. Alex herself fighting the undeniable attraction to Handsome billionaire Jay and Jay working hard maintains being gay while suppressing his desire for beautiful Alex. This story is just a great read for those romantics out there, that loves a love story that's not just girl meets boy and fall in love. I recommend this book, give it a try and leave reviews to support more of Alexias amazing work (especially Sakura, which is everyone's favourite
Nine kingdom series, personally my favourite).

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had my good share of fun! Something important to state is that this is originally a Wattpad story. I believe it won some Wattpad award? Anyway, what I want to put forward is that because it is a Wattpad story, it is very like a fan fiction. That explains a lot of the elements in the story that many will give critique about.

First of, I like the cover! Not exactly align with the story but what eves...
Second, there's A LOT of cheesy and cliché parts in here that is very fairytale-ish or simply pure fan fiction type.
Third, the story can't be taken seriously but it was entertaining enough for a person who needs a break in between complex and intense books. A light hearted read!

[Miriam · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought this book was a good read. I enjoyed how it was humorous, but also cute as it had those moments between the two main characters. However, I really didn't like that Mary character, I kind of thought she was pointless. Overall it's good, but not one of my favourites.

[Preet · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the story was great. However there were too many spelling and grammatical mistakes. This book could benefit from some thorough editing.

[Laura]

Must be the worst book I have read in a long time. How does one even give this one a star? I got this book free so am not too miffed that I paid for it, however I am really miffed that I spent time turning the pages reading what one could only describe as a load of codswallop.

Alex is a family orientated young lady? If so, do, you lie to your family about where and why you going for two weeks, especially overseas? Does your family not ask a zillion and one questions about your time away where you will be and where you will be staying and who else is going with you? How did her family not know where she got the money from for her father's heart transplant?

Borne on a lie so that she would help him (Jayden aka Jay) out, gay for crying out aloud, then all the other crappy situations that just confirm, that most women are after "rich men" and will do anything to get their dream and desire, even, if it is being vindictive and malicious. These scenarios don't make sense, don't enhance the story line and certainly do not blend in with the theme of the book and it goes on and on for 296 pages. The secondary characters in Beth (the grand mother who also jumps to conclusions and makes all think she is right but changes her tune at the drop of a hat), Mary (the jealous and malicious gal in New Zealand) who hate Alex for whatever reason sure as hell don't add any more substance to the plot than does Kyle, Sarah and Britney or the business deal that Jay gets called to the office for during his sister's wedding reception.

How does a haircut, a day at the spa let one let go of your inhibitions, your baggage, your issues, your naivety and all of a sudden you are a strong woman fighting the world and standing up for yourself? That when you say no the man still grabs you by the back of your head and kisses you and you go with the flow and allow it to happen? In, this authors mind it happens and no means a yes and, this happened and that was the change we saw in Alex.

It is clear that the author did not research the effects of drugs and what one needs to do when one discovers that someone has been drugged. No wonder no one in Jay's family thought to call in a doctor, when they realised that Alex had been drugged by Kyle and whilst two days of sleeping, may have gotten the drug out the system, surely that should have been under a doctor's supervision?

As a youngish billionaire he still lives with his mother and father in their mansion. He expected her to share his bedroom and after weeks of daily emailing she did not know this? Surely, all those details should have been straightened out before she missed the first fight from Australia to the USA.

Neither Jay nor Alex's characters deepen with the progression of the story, they don't really get to know one another and seem to stay the superficial two people they were when they first met in New Zealand except both can slap other people's faces tell them they don't like them or beat them up. They have sex because he told her he loved her. He Skype chats with her parents to tell them who he is and what he did and they parents accept that without a tremendous amount of questioning and research? With all his money he should have arrived on their doorstep and done it in person, but isn't that what the world has come to? Text messaging, Skypeing and emailing is the acceptable way of doing things?

Do these books ever get edited? Does the author actually have a couple of beta readers who read the book and come back with feed back and suggestions, about what works and what does not; what is inconsistent and what is not; what is realistic and what is not; what language changes need to be made? Jay in three different places is 27 then 28 and in another 30 years of age.

It could have been a good book if only the author's mind was not jumbled up and some parts of the book had been seriously connected and the flow of thoughts a little more mainstream. I would not recommend this book to anyone.

[KahJih · Rating 1 out of 5]

Having read the synopsis, I quite liked the storyline and was looking forward to reading this book. But I CRINGED the whole way through! I even had to skip lots of paragraph to be able to continue on and even then, I wanted to just stop reading before I got to the end.

The structure of the sentences, the grammatical mistakes, missing words, the words used, the lack of imagination to describe the actions and feelings of the characters, it all lead me to believe that this was written by a child.

The book also had no depth. How can a family who are apparently very family oriented not call their daughter when the father collapse after a major heart surgery?
How can no one ask Alex where the money came from suddenly when the bank rejected their loan application?

The book went from being in Jay's point of view to Alex's and to nearly every other characters'.
You also read about little details which don't ever make sense. For example:
- The maid goes and tells Jay's mother, Gracie, what she has overheard from Britney, then that Gracie goes and starts making calls but we never find out what the calls are about nor to whom.
- Britney's father gets charged for fraud and attempted murder but you don't find out who he tried to kill.

When I read about Peter "terminating his friendship" with Jay, cringe moment.
When I read about Jayson coming to propose to Alex and she accepts straight away, cringe moment.
When Jay only says "I was set up by Sarah and Britney" AFTER Alex says yes to the mariage proposal, cringe moment.
So many cringe moments that I might have to paraphrase 80% of the book.

Alex was portrayed as a weak female, throwing away her independence for the first guy she got. She could have had visited Central Park on her own, having worked hard all her life, I can't imagine her not having the strength to do that!
She was also suddenly fine with showing herself naked to 'gay Jay' even though she knew he was lying and all of that just because she had a makeover. Talk about being vain on top of weak.
And who would stay in bed with a stranger?? Having had her drink spiked is no excuse for being ok with being in an expensive bed, feeling suddenly safe with a stranger.
And what the hell! How can no one report and attempted rape? And why not take her to the hospital? None of the family had a medical background nor does Jay ever call a "family doctor" to find out what's the best course of action.
And who would keep partying after having witnessed something like that?

After reading books written by Marie Force, J.S. Scott, Kristen Proby, Christina Lauren, Stephanie Laurens, Cassia Leo etc, I was just very disappointed with the level of writing. And disappointment is a very light word here.
Can't say I'll be reading the rest of the series.

[Yasmin Ahmed · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book was completely unrealistic that watching Frozen would have been better to pass my time.

No creativity at all, nothing new in the plot, AND GOD THE WRITING, the events are totally not connected and lack synchronization. There are a massive lot of unnecessary characters and scenes. No chemistry AT ALL, I felt like they just met each other, then BAM! They fall in love. Give me a break. And the mixed signals like, his sister doesn't care about her, then she likes her (noting that no interaction occurred between them for the sister to change her mind), and the grandma hates her, then all of a sudden she considers her family... are you bipolar, granny?
When you read a book, you expect to be a little emotional at the end, this book's ending however, was so monotonous and dull I felt like I just wasted my day for zero.

[Edwina · Rating 2 out of 5]

What even was this book? I mean it wasn't poorly written mind you it was greatly structured in terms of language but it lacked so much emotion and too much plot. It's almost reading off a synopsis of a film you're watching and we all know what happens in the end. Alexia Praks is good at her romance novels but everything seemed a bit too fast paced and it needed some gaps to be filled in within the storyline - some parts of the story had events that happened but were not mentioned on how it was resolved. I kind of felt disappointed as I had high expectations of this novel. Otherwise, I would have given it more stars. An average read at most.

[Caroline Lie · Rating 1 out of 5]

Sorry to say but this novel is bad and weird. Not recommended, as I'm fortunate I didn't pay for this novel (borrowed).

A little spoiler alert!
In my opinion, this novel has too many unnecessary conversation and unnecessary character. It's interesting in the beginning of the story but half way not really totally bad. Feels like failed Korean Drama (the 'don't you be with that girl, you should be with the girl i pick' grandma).

Looks to me that the author doesn't really have much experience in writing novel or is this her first novel?

[Ramya · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book a few years back. I'm writing this review after my reread.

This one was quick and clean read. Though there was some smut(very innocent kind) in it. It was quite nice story without many tragedies or anything.

I don't know why many people are giving it such bad reviews. Yes there were some plot lines where people were trying to just hurt others in the worst possible way they can think of, but isn't that's the kind of thing that makes you root for the lead characters.

I can't make anyone like it or not. This is just my personal view of this book.

[Staphysagria · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty woman style story about a poor student who manages to get a deal that pays for her father's heart transplant. She has to pose as the fake girlfriend to a millionaire type guy who wants to escape the matchmaking attempts of his grandmother, the female boss of his family clan. Glitzy and pretty but heavy on the clichés.