Niall Caden Hawthorne—Cade—lives an exacting, uncompromising life. His only priorities are, and always will be, his family and his business. He’d do anything for them. This includes marrying a colorless, drab moth of a woman who leaves him physically and emotionally cold.
Fern Lambert is everything Cade has never wanted in a woman—timid, sheltered, shockingly inexperienced, and—after a night of uncharacteristically bad choices—pregnant with his baby. She is also the key to securing an elusive business contract that Cade has been after for nearly a year. Marrying her means giving up three years of his life, it means acknowledging a child that he never planned on having… it means complications and disruptions to his well-ordered life. But Cade knows it’s the right thing to do. It’s the only thing to do. That doesn’t mean he has to like it.
And—inexplicable fascination with her lush upper lip notwithstanding—it certainly doesn’t mean he has to like her.
Since making her publishing debut in 2012, Natasha Anders has drawn praise and attention as a unique voice in romance. Montlake author and 2018 RITA® Finalist, Anders was born in Cape Town, South Africa. She spent nine years as an associate English teacher in Niigata, Japan, where she became a legendary karaoke diva. Anders currently lives in Cape Town.
This book felt like watching a car crash in slow motion, except the heroine was not just begging the car to hit her, she laid down on the pavement, thanked it for noticing her, and called the wreckage true love, while the hero played the car, the road, and the brainless man-child behind the wheel.
Quick Opinion: This was just okay for me. It took me (what felt like) a long time to read and that was because I had a lot going on, but also I wasn't as engaged as I hoped to be. It was a jerk H that was emotionally immature but grows to realize that the h and their baby is exactly what he wants after all (and after most of the book fighting it). The name drama was kind of weird. The side characters were likable. The h was not necessarily a doormat but I don't think I really liked her or connected with her either. I can see where this would be a winner for many of my GR friends, but it was one that I can see not really remembering in a few months.
I think he’s an abuser and a bully She’s pathetic Honestly I was expecting at some point she left or something but she does nothing… just taking it all. You don’t need to be a very clever man to know not to speak or act like this with a pregnant woman, he is just cruel and mean and I don’t believe for a second that he loves her, impossible Actually I think this book could be very triggering for some readers…
Hero and heroine meet at a party and have a one night stand. To her, it’s a beautiful interlude. To him, “worst sex of his life.” The heroine lives in servitude to her evil uncle and two stepsisters, who steal her money and treat her like garbage. Few weeks after the encounter, when she finds herself pregnant and that the hero is her uncles business rival, she proposes a marriage of convenience.
Their journey forms the story.
My biggest issue with this book is the hero. Yes he had some family and daddy issues, but god he was soooo mean to the poor heroine. He always treated her like garbage, couldn’t make his mind up about his emotions so would get close to her and then push her away- knowing that she craves affection and has grown up without any. He body and beauty shamed her, didn’t let her share her feelings - even when she said she was glad to have a family he rudely reminded her that it was his family. She was a pushover so kept forgiving him, but nothing he did made me warm up to him as he was a fully grown bully. He was also callous about her pregnancy, and I didn’t like him. The heroine needed therapy but she had a heart of gold
This started out good but was too long and drawn out with the H pushing back. The angst was centered around the H saying his truths to the fmc like he’s on the spectrum…. He wasn’t trying to be hurtful- he was just telling the truth as he saw it. He sure said a lot of hurtful Things. Telling the fmc she was the worst sex of his life.. but dude didn’t pick up On the fact she was a 27yo virgin. He was definitely emotionally stunted. This angst just didn’t do it for me because it was like the H had Asperger’s.
I originally DNF'd this story, then my good friend talked me into going back and giving this one another chance. I'm happy I did. My head wasn't into the story the first time I gave it a try. I started it over, and I definitely enjoyed this one the second time around. ["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>["br"]>
He was hard to like. But because we were in his head alot, I knew he loved her even if he didn't know it yet. But I did get sick of it at times. He could be a real.dick. I loved.Fern, I loved Cades dad too. It was very cute. And the epilogue was perfect. Obviously this is a series and I can't wait to get involved with them!
Loved the angst in this one! This is why I love Natasha Anders! The H really had his head up it, but he eventually realized what he had with Fern. Love the name Fern, btw. It’s my dog’s name! I loved Fern’s pragmatism.
I've heard of this author before. I heard that she loves writing asshole heroes. Well, I get it now. Gosh, her heroes are infuriating.
The thing about our guy here is that what he said and his actions were a world apart. He would say the hurtful things about her and yet his actions contradicted himself. Even I got the whiplash from his treatment, no wonder our girl turned mercurial as well.
Well, the book is heavy on the internal plot, i.e. revolving around their feelings with each other, our girl trying to find herself after being abused and taken advantage of by her step-family and our guy with his huge ego and refusal to fall for his wife even though we all know he fell hard.
Something that I did like though, and I don't think many would agree with me, is the
All in all, I need to know if this book is the standard of heroes in her books. I think I need to be in a very forgiving mood to read any of her works from now on.
Grovel = h overhears the H, SEVERAL times, making harsh observations and thoughts about the h...H was fighting his own feelings but eventually gets over himself and buckles down to grovel to the h through word and deed.
O my! I felt every heartache, pain and disappointment. This is such an emotional romance, you won’t be able to put it down. You will fall in love with Fern and her new 3 year plan has a lot of twists and turns. You will love some twists, hate some twists, and just giggle along with the others. This re-tell of Cinderella is done so exceptionally well.
I started this book with very high expectations & oh my goodness… it absolutely exceeded those expectations. My kind of story.
I just could not put it down and had to finish it in a few hours today. From the prologue (which captured me with the way the characters and surroundings were describes) up until the last word of the epilogue… Was so so so good and well written.
Especially the way Fern developed as character just spoke to me in a way I cannot describe.
Finding Forever will be forever in my mind and I am immediately putting all this author’s previous books on my TBR.
I love love love these characters! They are so well developed and will have you rooting for them from the very beginning. This story had me feeling every possible emotion in the best of ways! As usual, Natasha did not disappoint!.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
When I saw the tropes the first thing came to my head was The unwanted wife idk why I keep wanting to read about asshole MMCs!! Hope this one grovels a lot a lot!!
I tried to read this twice, bc it has the 'unplanned pregnancy' trope. I was shocked to discover just how much profanity and crude language it contains. I've read three books by N.A. that were nothing like this.
In the prologue, when the MCs are complete strangers, the MMC says: I want to f*ck you hard and long." He then goes off with the timid virgin to have rough sex.
🤢 Here's an excerpt showing the crude language: "Fern." Her name was a primal growl that—not gonna lie—thrilled her to death and added even more wetness to the flood already pooling in her panties.
Add in 250 F's and a horrible not-a-hero who doesn't deserve an HEA.
my favorite thing about natasha anders is that every single time the mmc will say the most egregious insane downright terrible things about the female main character and yet I still root for them at the end bc I be fucking with an angsty book and redemption arcs
I loved it. I knew I’d love this book because I cannot even begin to tell you how many time’s I’ve re-read The Unwanted Wife. I simply love this author’s writing, & this book did not disappoint.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
I have to be honest and acknowledge the reason this is a 3 and not a 2 is because this is Natasha Anders. I've never not enjoyed a book, and it's a little disconcerting. And also, adding after completing my post, i understand i was expecting more from a character who was written to be a 'mouse' so my opinions are harsh and unfair. Also, have to acknowledge that i hold The Unwanted Wife on a pedestal, so again, unfair. However...this entire post is a 2 star spoiler. I am so sorry.
Fern and Cade meet at one of his family's gala events, and they're both trying to blend into the background. He doesn't really wanna be at yet another event, and she wants to experience real freedom after 15 years. He's attracted to her like a moth to a flame, and they go and smash. Only, it's his worst sexual experience with a woman ever. She's all teeth and nails. She was a virgin, and HE didn't make her experience great at all since HE was the experienced one.
They meet again at her stepfather's house, and lo and behold, she's preggers. Anyway, she negotiates with Cade to marry her, and she'll help him secure a business deal. She tells him she's pregnant, and he thinks she's lying to try and get him to say yes to the negotiation. She doesn't correct him again. They escape and get married. Wooo 😐
Eventually, she tells him, "bro, I'm actually pregnant, but you're not involved. After 3 years, me and this baby that you're gonna be forced to get to know because we're gonna live together, are gonna dip ✌🏾 he's like, cool.
So in his head, he doesn't acknowledge pregnancy, baby, and when he does, it's never with warmth or love. This is literally up to 75% of the book. I do have to say that when we started to see a shift and he was concerned the little fetus, the pear, could be crying if he heard him raise his voice...🥹 Cuuute
She gets hurt and upset everytime she notices him not acknowledging the baby or pregnancy even though she told him he's not gonna be involved. Didn't ask him. Told him.
Separately, she tries to get to know him you know be cordial, friendly, acquaintances since they're, you know, married. But he's a whiplash of contradictions. Being friendly and kind then putting her in her place and reminding her, cruelly, that she and her baby are unwanted complications who need to remember their place and basically be seen not heard. This part was written so well I was excited to read a Natasha Anders angst. She practically says 'bet' and gives him exactly what he asked for. 🥳 then whoosh like a dead balloon. She was suckered in by his lame jokes and two pages later we're pals again. This happens several times but at points I was just over it knowing full well she wasn't going to do much about it.
I do have to give grace and fully understand that she was sheltered, emotionally, and financially abused, ostracised, and bullied by her stepfather and sisters. She was brave in standing up against him through Cade. I loved that for her. However, there were moments where she'd remind herself of all her bravery and how far she'd come, but I only really saw bits of a backbone.
Unresolved for me: No real comeuppance for stepfather or stepsisters. He had misused her trust fund for years and yes we read that he essentially bankrupted and arrested for assault but no real on page salivating view of his downfall. The stepsisters sent peanuts to a woman deathly allergic to nuts and yet nothing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I have fond memories of Natasha Anders from my early days of reading romance, and I'm glad she's still writing, but this was sadly very KU-schlock. So much page filler that clearly does not serve the purpose of the story, but does serve the purpose of "KU pays by the page read" :\
Amazing angst and amazing writing style. The author is really good, no doubts about that. What made me rate just three and not four was the absolute awful hero. Ok, I admit that he eventually changed and became a hopelessly besotted guy, and he apologized and groveled, but maaaan, was he vicious. And without cause. The author tries to write what she’s better at. Marriages in trouble. Unwanted bride, and in this case she extended the unwanted to the unexpected child. The hero and the heroine meet at a party, she’s quiet, shy, mousy, and he is strangely attracted to her, so they decide to have a quickie that ends really bad, basically the worst sex of his life and of hers, since she’s also a virgin. They part without exchanging numbers, of course and a couple of months later they meet at her stepfathers. She proposes an arranged marriage, since she’s the heiress and the stepdad is keeping her basically prisoner to exploit her money. She’s also preggo. The hero accepts in exchange of the company he wanted to buy from her stepfather, that is basically the company of her mother. So, both have a personal interest, but he’s quite pissed which I didn’t really understand. He should be grateful that he had a company worth hundreds of millions for free, just to stay married with he for three years, so she can be protected from her stepdad. I didn’t understand his grumpy face, that she described resting grump face, but i would say resting bitch instead, because he had no reason to be rude with her, yet he was. He’s awful regarding the child, ok it wasn’t planned but man up! He’s 30 something, not 22. And he keeps being unpleasant to her when she did nothing to offend him. He tells her she is not to become friend with his family since she’s just a guest, he tells his father she’s plain, a moth, and the opposite of what he wanted as a wife, and he tells her he doesn’t want to have anything to do with the kid. He’s unpleasant. He’s also very selfish and self centered, and no, I don’t buy when the author would like us to believe that he was always thinking of other peoples wellbeing since with the heroine when he talks it’s always I, me mine. Me me me me mememememememememe. It’s always about him, a hat he wants, how he feels and doesn’t feel, what he thinks and everything has to accommodate his feelings. Jesus. I must admit I’ve never read such an unpleasant character, such a rude, cold, bratty man. And yes, emotionless, beside the endless self love and self centered attention he lavish on himself. I just wished the heroine would have been a bit more forceful, but admittedly she couldn’t do that since she had always been secluded in college and bearding school so I suppose she had to find her own strength. But it would have been very satisfying if she had been a bit catty and bitchy instead of simply staying silent and suck it up. He deserved someone who answered properly, not the poor scared little heroine. But the angst was great. The story also has a development and the hero changes his ways around her and their kid. It’s definitely a slow burn, both between the characters and with the unborn kid. The heroine finds some strength towards the end, but she keeps thinking something is wrong with her instead of simply letting the asshole husband go and do her things. And the body shaming. I don’t know why the author keeps reiterating that the heroine is plain, colorless and unremarkable on the looks department, but it was grating my nerves. And how could she be plain? She’s described as slender, toned, with white blond long hair, large grey eyes, pointed chin and small straight nose. Well, many models could fit this description so how is she plain? Because she’s pale? But then she has a makeover and new clothes and wow, she’s stunning. I just didn’t appreciate the dichotomy gorgeous hero/plain heroine since there’s too much focus on it. Safety is good. Hero had some affairs but never serious in the past, apparently he dated models, socialites, pop stars but after he met the heroine there was nobody else. Heroine is a virgin.