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Rival Brothers #2
One Night with Gael
Rules for dating Gael Aguilar
1. Six-week time limit
2. No second chances
When aspiring actress Goldie Beckett storms into Gael’s board meeting to return the ten thousand dollars he left on her nightstand, she’s sure she’s triggered rule 2. But in just a few short weeks, the shocking news of her pregnancy ensures that she’s definitely broken rule 1!
Born illegitimate and branded a mistake, there’s no way Gael will ever allow the same fate to befall his child. Obliterating all his own rules, Gael now must get Goldie to agree to the role of a life time as his wife!
158 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 1, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews
July 2, 2018
2.5 stars.
Yeah, this was boring and disappointing. It was kinda cute and interesting at first but then it started to fizzle out after the MC's had sex. The H had issues because his mother had been his father's mistress and he hated being illegitimate. I could've empathized with him if this novel was set 50 yrs in the past, but the guy's rich, independent, sexy and leads a life that many impoverished folks would die to live. Ok, I know money isn't everything but I honestly think this H just blew everything out of proportion and was a bit of a drama king. The heroine had problems that were a lot more realistic: poverty, an alcoholic mother she was often forced to babysit and an irregular paycheck because she's an actress.
They meet at a casting session where the H sees her being propositioned to by one of the minor directors and he assumes that she's a slut. Then they have a second encounter where he ends up saving her from a mugger who did succeed in stealing her purse. They spend a little time together and most it is is just bland back and forth useless arguments which lead to a rather tepid one night stand. The H is shocked that she's a virgin but he behaves like a classless asshole and leaves some money for her, as if she's a whore. She gets all mad and turns up at his office, where she proceeds to insult him in front of an office full of his colleagues who are all there for an important conference call with the director of the movie he's producing. Before all of this happened, there was one interesting OTT scene where the heroine is confronted by one of the H's former lovers. That OW was neurotic, jealous, obsessed with the manwhore H and spiked the poor heroine's drink with alcohol, even though the heroine made it clear that she's not a drinker of alcoholic beverages at all.
The director thinks that she's doing a dramatic audition for the movie and so the hero ends up hiring her for the role. This part was interesting but then the storyline gets boring after she starts to film the movie in South Africa and the H turns up to find out that their one night stand resulted in a pregnancy. There's a little bit of the usual angst that accompanies this type of storyline but I didn't like the MC's all that much and they only seemed to have sexual chemistry rather than a deep seated emotional connection. This novel was OK but it didn't work for me personally. I felt like the MC's kept going around in aimless circles:
I had to force myself to read all the way to the end, but I was more intrigued with the first novel in the duet; that one deals with this H's older half brother Alejandro and it's called A Deal with Alejandro. Alejandro and his heroine sound a lot more interesting than the MC's in this novel.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 7, 2019
Rating: 2 1/2 stars to 3 stars
Low rating simply because I keenly disliked the H Gael who was a psychological mess from being illegitimate. Go to counseling, get some therapy, Gael. Really. Change your name perhaps.
And Goldie. After having a mother so messed up and knowing all the ends and outs of co-dependency and dysfunction, she would have run away from Gael. There was nothing to redeem this guy as a hero. He sucked. Goldie's infatuation with him made her seem childish. For a tough, hardworking ambitious actor, she lost all her grit and commonsense when it came to this arrogant Spaniard. He did in the end grovel quite well. Working the Latin Lover charisma with tons of "amantes" "queridas", you get the picture. That made it a higher rater. (Plus, Maya Blake is an amazing writer! I just hated Gael, sorry Maya).
But was that enough to save this story? You decide.
I still despise this character, Gael Aguilar, and he is NO hero.
Low rating simply because I keenly disliked the H Gael who was a psychological mess from being illegitimate. Go to counseling, get some therapy, Gael. Really. Change your name perhaps.
And Goldie. After having a mother so messed up and knowing all the ends and outs of co-dependency and dysfunction, she would have run away from Gael. There was nothing to redeem this guy as a hero. He sucked. Goldie's infatuation with him made her seem childish. For a tough, hardworking ambitious actor, she lost all her grit and commonsense when it came to this arrogant Spaniard. He did in the end grovel quite well. Working the Latin Lover charisma with tons of "amantes" "queridas", you get the picture. That made it a higher rater. (Plus, Maya Blake is an amazing writer! I just hated Gael, sorry Maya).
But was that enough to save this story? You decide.
I still despise this character, Gael Aguilar, and he is NO hero.
December 25, 2016
Dnf'd on page 38. Boring underwhelming storytelling. Too much time focused on hero's business which was boring. Finally introduced to heroine in chapter 3 and she annoyed me with her bitchiness plus I'm not fond of actress heroines. The antics of real life actresses annoy me.
October 8, 2016
I was bored maybe I wasn't in the mood.
December 5, 2020
Oh dear. This was slow and strange. Lots of padding and slow moving.
The blurb sounded interesting but that particular scene when she flings the ten thousand dollars he’s left her, doesn’t occur until well into Chapter 6.
The heroine doesn’t elicit any sympathy or liking from me and the hero is a nasty, unpleasant jerk. There was absolutely no sense of them falling in love.
The hero’s grovelling was great but far too late.
This author can write, but I disliked this story and found it unengaging and unpleasant.
The blurb sounded interesting but that particular scene when she flings the ten thousand dollars he’s left her, doesn’t occur until well into Chapter 6.
The heroine doesn’t elicit any sympathy or liking from me and the hero is a nasty, unpleasant jerk. There was absolutely no sense of them falling in love.
The hero’s grovelling was great but far too late.
This author can write, but I disliked this story and found it unengaging and unpleasant.
October 8, 2016
loved it, a bit far-fetched but a great sleepless read
July 25, 2018
This story is about Gael, a streaming media guru, whose parentage and a few overheard words lead him to have a very low opinion about Goldie, though he is impressed by her acting prowess. Goldie is an aspiring actress who is mugged and is injured while going home from a late night audition. And in comes Gael, her knight in shining armour, well, not quite as you are imagining it. After a one night stand with him leaves her pregnant, Gael steamrollers into her life to protect his child from the humiliation he had to feel as a kid.
I loved this story. Cheers to Goldie for her deception to get into Gaels' office to humiliate him (serves him right, the way he behaved with her was preposterous)! I loved her, what spunk she has (and I loved Gaels' driver too, what a cheek he is!).
They get their happy ever after, together with all the issues solved between the two brothers, and they are a big happy family at last.
(Gaels' elder step brother Alejandro Aguilar's story is contained in Book 1 of Rival Brothers Duet. I haven't read it yet).
I loved this story. Cheers to Goldie for her deception to get into Gaels' office to humiliate him (serves him right, the way he behaved with her was preposterous)! I loved her, what spunk she has (and I loved Gaels' driver too, what a cheek he is!).
They get their happy ever after, together with all the issues solved between the two brothers, and they are a big happy family at last.
(Gaels' elder step brother Alejandro Aguilar's story is contained in Book 1 of Rival Brothers Duet. I haven't read it yet).
‘Goldie, honey, what did you do to the poor man?’ the plump companion, originally from New Orleans, stage-whispered. Goldie snorted. ‘Sometimes I just need to breathe the wrong way.’ Muffled laughter ensued, quickly cut off as Gael strode to the car and opened the door.
June 23, 2017
I detest the character of Gael. I really do. He’s got issues with women, starting with his dear old mama. She slept with a married man, bearing him a bastard son, Gael. Whenever the adulterer gets the old lech for her, Gael’s mother runs right back to him, certain that this time he really is going to leave his wife for her. Gael grew up being shunted around to minders and caretakers whenever his father showed up to whisk away his deluded mother.
Gael wants a woman who’ll want him for himself not his cash. But he’s become hard and cynical, certain that every woman he meets is out for his money; somehow he always winds up with gold-diggers and scheming sluts in his bed. Not surprising, if he’s willing to bed any beautiful woman who stokes the fire between his legs.
Enter Goldie Beckett. Her mother wanted more from life than her father could give. So she left him, tried to find more on her own and wound up getting used and discarded by a succession of lousy jerks. Fearing to become like her alcoholic mother, Goldie vows to remain celibate and concentrate on her career.
So what happens to their fine intentions? Gael sleeps with Goldie within hours of meeting her. Then he leaves the money on the dresser for her in the morning. She gets pregnant. They get married. Insert facepalm here.
Gael despises Goldie because he saw her apparently accept a proposition from a director. He’s certain she’s just a money-grubbing tramp like all the others he’s bedded. His behavior towards her wavers from heated lust, care for her (baby) and veiled contempt. He’s a slut on wheels but he resents that she might be for hire. Hello, double standard.
Gael is one of the most detestable kinds of males found in romance novels. He’s relentlessly pushy, aggressive, domineering, bullying and bent on getting his own way. He treats Goldie like a whore and then takes exception to her acting like one. He’s jaundiced about marriage but insists on marrying a woman he knew for one night. He figuratively twists Goldie’s arm into getting married, offering her money (again!) with a pre-nuptial contract or threatening her with using his considerable wealth and clout to wrest the baby away from her once it’s born. He gives her two days to make up her mind and then pins her between his arms after one day. “Say yes, Goldie,” he demands and it IS a demand. It was a demand when he made that statement just before they have sex for the very first time and it’s a demand at this point, too.
What kind of husband would such a man make?! If he’s not willing to honor a simple agreement such as a two-day waiting period after a marriage proposal, what would marriage to him be like? You don’t marry a man like this. You certainly don’t bear his child. Get an abortion, set up adoption papers, get the hell out of Dodge! But don’t marry him, girl! Marriage to such a man would be a never-ending hell of arguments, threats and recriminations.
But, wait, I forgot. This is a romance novel in which a man commands, a woman capitulates and it all works out to a happy ending. The man’s awful attitude is justified when he finally learns to wuv. This is romantic tripe and it stinks as such. Then again, that may be because I vomited all over it.
Gael wants a woman who’ll want him for himself not his cash. But he’s become hard and cynical, certain that every woman he meets is out for his money; somehow he always winds up with gold-diggers and scheming sluts in his bed. Not surprising, if he’s willing to bed any beautiful woman who stokes the fire between his legs.
Enter Goldie Beckett. Her mother wanted more from life than her father could give. So she left him, tried to find more on her own and wound up getting used and discarded by a succession of lousy jerks. Fearing to become like her alcoholic mother, Goldie vows to remain celibate and concentrate on her career.
So what happens to their fine intentions? Gael sleeps with Goldie within hours of meeting her. Then he leaves the money on the dresser for her in the morning. She gets pregnant. They get married. Insert facepalm here.
Gael despises Goldie because he saw her apparently accept a proposition from a director. He’s certain she’s just a money-grubbing tramp like all the others he’s bedded. His behavior towards her wavers from heated lust, care for her (baby) and veiled contempt. He’s a slut on wheels but he resents that she might be for hire. Hello, double standard.
Gael is one of the most detestable kinds of males found in romance novels. He’s relentlessly pushy, aggressive, domineering, bullying and bent on getting his own way. He treats Goldie like a whore and then takes exception to her acting like one. He’s jaundiced about marriage but insists on marrying a woman he knew for one night. He figuratively twists Goldie’s arm into getting married, offering her money (again!) with a pre-nuptial contract or threatening her with using his considerable wealth and clout to wrest the baby away from her once it’s born. He gives her two days to make up her mind and then pins her between his arms after one day. “Say yes, Goldie,” he demands and it IS a demand. It was a demand when he made that statement just before they have sex for the very first time and it’s a demand at this point, too.
What kind of husband would such a man make?! If he’s not willing to honor a simple agreement such as a two-day waiting period after a marriage proposal, what would marriage to him be like? You don’t marry a man like this. You certainly don’t bear his child. Get an abortion, set up adoption papers, get the hell out of Dodge! But don’t marry him, girl! Marriage to such a man would be a never-ending hell of arguments, threats and recriminations.
But, wait, I forgot. This is a romance novel in which a man commands, a woman capitulates and it all works out to a happy ending. The man’s awful attitude is justified when he finally learns to wuv. This is romantic tripe and it stinks as such. Then again, that may be because I vomited all over it.
July 29, 2017
2.5 I wanted to like this book but I couldn't. Something about the characters, I never felt that they loved each other. What attracted me to the book was that the cover, it wasn't the same girl with blond hair and blue eyes and that I had read the first book. I don't think that Gael ever got over his family issues or addressed them. The first book was better, it gave you the reasons why each of them acted this way. Before reading this I thought that Gael was a guy with women issues and acted like a jerk after reading the book I realized that he's just a jerk and ass even with the family issues. If this was real life, I feel he would be cheating on her in a year.
November 18, 2016
Just okay
I thought the H was hot and I really loved Goldie but the story was just okay. It was predictable and a typical HP romance. I still gave it four stars simply because I love H's like Gael. Very alpha. And hot!!!
I thought the H was hot and I really loved Goldie but the story was just okay. It was predictable and a typical HP romance. I still gave it four stars simply because I love H's like Gael. Very alpha. And hot!!!
November 28, 2016
As to be expected, I love a good Harlequin but the epilogue left me wanting and guessing for more.
October 1, 2020
The blurb on the back of the book really sold it to me. Great blurb but the book was not so great. It was heavy going from the get-go. The start was loaded with back story stuff, and other ho-hum stuff, I was left wondering what was going on, when were the H & h going to hook up, and why I had to read this stuff? Mills and Boons are relaxing entertainment, I love a combination of angst and humour. So I thought the promised boardroom scene would be hilarious, angsty and embarrassing. I ended up skipping pages to find the boardroom scene which was good but then I gave up on the book. I didn't like the hero - too cold and too on and off.
Also I don't like actress/actor H or h - I don't really know why - so that didn't endear me to the book either.
In conclusion: I didn't finish the book. Two stars for the boardroom scene.
As an aside, Lynne Graham writes a good heroine-barging-into-a-crowded-boardroom scene in chapter two of Married to a Mistress. After the h has embarrassed the hero, the furious hero drags her off to his office where the heroine throws some money for a loan he now controls at him. I also like how this hero in Graham's Married to a Mistress gets soaking wet in the rain more than once chasing after the heroine. Cute. I digress.
Also I don't like actress/actor H or h - I don't really know why - so that didn't endear me to the book either.
In conclusion: I didn't finish the book. Two stars for the boardroom scene.
As an aside, Lynne Graham writes a good heroine-barging-into-a-crowded-boardroom scene in chapter two of Married to a Mistress. After the h has embarrassed the hero, the furious hero drags her off to his office where the heroine throws some money for a loan he now controls at him. I also like how this hero in Graham's Married to a Mistress gets soaking wet in the rain more than once chasing after the heroine. Cute. I digress.
August 29, 2018
Took a while for Gael and Goldie to get together. Why? I guess that had they had sex right away the
author wouldn't know how to write a longer story. Misunderstandings, a judgemental a-hole heroe with mummy and daddy issues; and at times (very few) a likeable heroine. An unwanted pregnancy which of course needed to be addressed with a forced marriage. As it usually happens with HQ the heroine couldn't help herself. Goldie gave in, gave up and the a-hole got his cake and ate it too. My insomnia needed something shallow and short, 'One Night with Gael' did the trick.
author wouldn't know how to write a longer story. Misunderstandings, a judgemental a-hole heroe with mummy and daddy issues; and at times (very few) a likeable heroine. An unwanted pregnancy which of course needed to be addressed with a forced marriage. As it usually happens with HQ the heroine couldn't help herself. Goldie gave in, gave up and the a-hole got his cake and ate it too. My insomnia needed something shallow and short, 'One Night with Gael' did the trick.
January 25, 2023
very dull
Wow $5.99 this book cost.
After the 55% stage I skipped thru as I couldn’t read word for word anymore. Slow moving, could not like or identify with characters.
I love Maya Blaze books just not this one
Wow $5.99 this book cost.
After the 55% stage I skipped thru as I couldn’t read word for word anymore. Slow moving, could not like or identify with characters.
I love Maya Blaze books just not this one
October 17, 2016
Review Posted at HarlequinJunkie.com
Being approached by Gael Aguilar would be every woman’s fantasy, but for Goldie Beckett it could be considered a nightmare. The man runs hot and cold. One minute he wants her, the next he doesn’t. But when he leaves her money after spending an incredible night together, Goldie has had enough. Confronting him in a very public setting and then never seeing him again seems like the perfect way to teach him a lesson, except that plan soon goes out the window when she discovers she’s pregnant. Read More
Being approached by Gael Aguilar would be every woman’s fantasy, but for Goldie Beckett it could be considered a nightmare. The man runs hot and cold. One minute he wants her, the next he doesn’t. But when he leaves her money after spending an incredible night together, Goldie has had enough. Confronting him in a very public setting and then never seeing him again seems like the perfect way to teach him a lesson, except that plan soon goes out the window when she discovers she’s pregnant. Read More
December 28, 2016
When aspiring actress Goldie Beckett storms into Gael's board meeting to return the ten thousand dollars he left on the nightstand, she's sure she triggered rule 2. But in just a few short weeks, the shocking news of her pregnancy ensures that she differently broke rule 1.
I give this book 5 stars because you go one this emotional journey with the main characters and you don't expect how it ended. They always fall in love and it is s sweet how something happens. In this book you see the two main character and they are similar but also very different.
I give this book 5 stars because you go one this emotional journey with the main characters and you don't expect how it ended. They always fall in love and it is s sweet how something happens. In this book you see the two main character and they are similar but also very different.
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November 29, 2016received 4 stars @ harlequin.com (as of 11/28/16). To view reviews, go HERE>http://www.harlequin.com/storeitem.ht...
Miniseries: Rival Brothers
Miniseries: Rival Brothers
October 24, 2016
A slow start to the book but once you got past that initial part it developed into a really enjoyable romance.
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November 1, 2016Miniseries: Rival Brothers
Read
February 5, 2017Loved the boardroom scene!
hq-to-read
March 12, 2018Rules for dating Gael Aguilar 1. Six-week time limit 2. No second chances When aspiring actress Goldie Beckett storms into Gael's board meeting to return the ten thousand dollars he left on her nightstand, she's sure she's triggered rule 2. But in just a few short weeks, the shocking news of her pregnancy ensures that she's definitely broken rule 1!
Born illegitimate and branded a mistake, Gael will never allow the same fate to befall his child. Obliterating all his own rules, Gael now must get Goldie to agree to the role of a lifetime as his wife!
Born illegitimate and branded a mistake, Gael will never allow the same fate to befall his child. Obliterating all his own rules, Gael now must get Goldie to agree to the role of a lifetime as his wife!
Displaying 1 - 21 of 21 reviews