This was a 3.5 star book. Considering the conditions, it had lots of potential.
A marriage of convenience between the H/h, a 7 year separation, a heroine who wants a legitimate baby, a case of [purposely] mistaken identity, a drawn out seduction and non-consummating lust, followed by absolutely ridiculously hot love scenes, a cold-hearted hero warming up,some angst and finally a HEA.
It fails in only one way - flow. I've heard great things about Ms. Adair, but this is my first book by her, so this may just be her style. Basically, the scenes were choppy and difficult to see the love affair unfold. I mean, it did happen, and it was easy to see the changes, but it was not smooth. Ms. Adair included some scenes about them gambling together, which I can only deduce that it shows their difference in status, but otherwise, it had no point.
Honestly, its difficult to pinpoint the failings of this book, because there wasn't anything obviously wrong - it just didn't have...enough? It didn't make me fall in love with Joshua, and Jessie was great in the beginning, but became...drab as there was no further character development.
I liked the circumstances in this book, where the heroine is the one who lies to get what she wants, a baby. She legally marries for convenience (his) when she was 21, but now she wants a baby with her husband. What starts of mercenary becomes more emotional and true with time. But, Ms. Adair makes Jessie an adrenaline junkie, trying to add dimension, which kinda falls flat.
You would think that when one marries, one would notice the name of the person you marry, but the hero fails to (and the explanation why actually makes sense). Joshua is this rich guy who marries Jessie to keep his share of the company he had worked so hard to keep. He wasn't bad usually, but he kinda creeped me out when he used terminology from a 100 years ago. Unless he reads HR, I don't know how else he would enough to use in casual allusion.
Overall, Ms. Adair sets up a great stage for a sweet, sexy love story, but it lacked flow and a special umph, making it merely an ok read.