Here’s the deal. I’m sixteen and I’m getting married. Super weird, I know.
It was just my me and my dad. We lived on a cattle ranch in Montana. He died suddenly, leaving me an orphan (which is still a thing). I’m sixteen months away from being a legal adult, so I have two choices.
A foster home or marry Jake Talley. My Dad’s foreman and really, my best friend.
It’s legal. It solves all my problems. Except now I’m living with Riverbend’s hottest cowboy - my husband in name only - and I’m still in high school. Where no one wants to date Weird Married Ellie.
Still all we have to do is wait until I'm eighteen to get a divorce. Then Jake and I can go back to being normal.
We’ve got this. Right?
Jake
I never saw this coming. Married. To a kid I’ve known her whole life. But there was no way in hell I was going to let her live at a foster home. The ranch is where she belongs.
Sure we’re married but it’s not real. Just a piece of paper. My girlfriend is furious. But I know I’m doing the right thing. For sixteen months, it’s me and Ellie against the world.
Awww, I like him. I like how his mind works. Luckily we have his POV or I would've hated him for her, but even when he's with his gf as well as a potential friend-with-benefits, I was always aware that they didn't matter much to him. He treated them respectfully but he didn't need them for anything other than the benefits of having a gf / sexual partner. He's so cute in his awkwardness LOL He's a nice honest guy... as much as he can be, anyway. He's loyal and kind and caring and just a wonderful man who has no idea how to deal with his heroine. He's rational and calm (unless she's hurt or sick, then its balls-to-the-wall-don't-fuck- with-me time) compared to her unreasonableness.
She's a real firecracker - his total opposite. She's impatient, argumentative and demanding and he's doesn't know his ass from his elbow with her LOL Fun to watch . . . . SPOILERY: . . . . . . *** Edited to add *** Their story is told in 4 installments, split over a few years The first 3 instalments are their journey to their HEA. The 4th one is after their HEA.
Hxh get married for business reasons. She is 16 and has lived in a small town, on their ranch, since birth. He's mid 20s, with a girlfriend of 2 years. Initially the gf accepts their marriage because he isn't going to change his mind. However, it's not too long that the H and ow break up because she cant handle it after all. He doesn't have another gf after that.
So because the Hxh are married in name only, he can date if he wants to. When an attractive female comes on to him, he's attracted to her and the h does NOT like it, but he's trying really hard to do the right thing by distancing himself from her because she underaged. Nothing steady comes from the H and ow's attraction. The h is not interested in any one particular guy but she IS interested in exploring her sexuality. (Much to his dismay, but he's accepting of it because he wants the best for her, even if its not with him)
As much as they talk, they don't communicate about the important things so there are too many unnecessary misunderstandings. It's predictable but I enjoyed her shenanigans and his absolute discomfort in the face of her openness, her stubborn wild ways.
And he cries for her....on his knees cry and everything... yet never loses his man card.
I cannot lie, when I saw this was a story where the 16 year old h had to marry a 26 year old cowboy in order to avoid going into foster care I was expecting a slightly shady taboo smutfest. I’m pleased to say this was much better than that. It had a slow burn tension, yes, but it was a coming of age story too, following both characters as they grew up in together in this weird arrangement.
I couldn’t put this down.
Originally published in three parts, this box set contains the complete story and it’s available on ku. There’s an extended bonus story (called ‘The Baby’, wonder what that’s about?🤨) that I had to read because I wasn’t ready to leave this world yet.
Minor but annoying niggle with the editing in this, quite a few errors especially in the final part and a couple of times whole conversations were repeated when the pov switched which jarred a little but otherwise this was a fab read. Recommended.
** I already left my review, this very same one, in the first book of the series. "The Bride"**
This was such a surprising read.
It is a marriage of convenience story but honestly the least clitché one I have ever read, believe me, I read lots of marriage of convenience books, I am sucker for those! It is also an age gap romance and a friends-to-lovers. This is a clean story, if you want smut you won't find it here, and it's also slow burn, be prepared. Big warning: this is a trilogy, so if you dislike that, don't get it! The three books end up being very expensive to buy, keep that in mind, so unless you have KU it is certainly ridiculously pricey, but I'll talk about that later.
Well, having said that, I really enjoyed the story, it kept me totally hooked. I downloaded the three books on my Kindle cause I detest cliffhangers, and in general I dislike series so the way I looked at it having downloaded the books at once, was that I was reading a standalone but be warned these are actually 3 short novellas.
This is the story of Ellie, a 16-year-old girl marrying an older man, Jake, 10 years her senior, so that she can stay out of foster care. I found that so original, I had never read marriage of convenience with that premise, and the wonderful and surprising thing for me is that it didn't feel cringey at all, I was anticipating a little bit of that being the heroine underage. But no, not at all. This is a tough topic, and I thank the author for creating Jake as never once creepy, no inappropriate actions. Jake for me was totally swoony, such a nice guy, a gentleman but also manly and a sexy. Jake and Ellie were really close, really like family, friends from birth and I loved to see how Jake came to her rescue, respected her while she was under 18 and how they matured together and formed their own family. Obviously you have to read the three books to get their HEA.
Their interactions were so intriguing and the book kept my interest the whole time, I didn't skip a single word. She had obviously teenage things going on for girls her age, otherwise, it wouldn't have been realistic but thanks God the author didn't portray her annoying, she was actually responsible, sassy, sweet-naive, spontaneous, and really, more mature than you would expect. She was empathic, used her head to think over things, and had initiative. Jake is also responsible, mature, a little bit of a mess at interpreting Ellie, and disgusted with the thought that anyone would think he was sleeping with an underage girl. I absolutely have a sweet spot for him, well, who am I lying? I loved him! I think he always meant well, and that is so swoony for me that it's actually hot, it was also mentioned how he was a hot cowboy so I can definitely picture him as book boyfriend material :) There were times I wanted to slap both of them on the face really bad, but it didn't get me overly annoyed, just overly anxious for these two to get romantic and allow themselves to delve into their love. I sighed in relief when they finally pulled it off, good God!
Now, the negative part... in my opinion this story was incredibly written, it can't have been an easy book to write, BUT I hated it had three parts. I know the author is free to do as she wishes, but I believe the story could have been easily condensed into ONE book, it would have been a regular length romance novel. Plus, having it like this in three parts, the total price is ridiculous, and I don't think it's a good business move to price the books so high when they are really novellas. I am a paperback kind of girl and I refrained to buy the paperbacks cause they were not priced accordingly to what they were, novellas and part of a trilogy. Obviously you expect the reader not to like being left stranded at cliffhangers so I don't think many people will be willing to spend that kind of money to read all three of them at their regular price. I wasn't, and I'm not stingy with entertainment (I pay happily for my reading entertainment) but I found the price tag unreasonable.
Now, ignoring that, which infuriates me and would be reason to detract points, and given the fact I could read it in KU, I did truly like the story very much and it's definitely 5 stars for me.
I had hoped for these books to come out ever since I read the blurb for “The Bride”. It intrigued me, and I’m a sucker for childhood friends-turned-lovers’ trope. But as I read, I realized this could have been one big book instead of 3. The 4th and 5th are a novella and a related history but not about the main characters, respectively, so you can skip them if you want.
The trilogy in itself could do with a lot of editing on some parts, because, like I said: it could have been JUST ONE BOOK. So, to be honest, I skipped most of “The Bride” text, went straight to the final few chapters —if not the last one— read what happened, and then read “The Wife”. I was tempted to skip a lot of this one too, but decided against it. It’s not that Ellie and Jake got on my nerves (they did at some point, though), but rather because it was mostly a circle, a “he loves me, he loves me not” sort of thing, and I was getting dizzy like in a freaking carrousel.
One word: MISCOMUNICATION.
That’s like a disease in our society, so no wonder.
Here we have Ellie, a strong girl with a lot of bad shit happening to her. I understood some of her drive to do things, but others I simply was rolling my eyes or just scowling. But I gave her the benefit of the doubt. After all, she was just a teenager.
Enter Jake. I liked him, honestly, but I think I wouldn’t have had I read the first book entirely. He was supposed to be the adult, but then he’s fighting what he’s feeling. Yes, I get their circumstances weren’t ideal, and I get the fact that he was having not so friendly thoughts about his best friend while she was a minor. That there is probably rising a lot of eyebrows, because you have the excuse of the marriage and all the legal mumbo-jumbo, but still. The saving grace was that nothing serious happened with them while she was a minor. Sorry for the spoiler… no, not really.
All in all, these are books you can read fairly fast. Not too long, not even 120 pages, and there’s a lot of thoughts around there. I liked they were friends, like I said, one of my favorite clichés in literature, but at the same time, how Jake came across like a caveman some times, but Ellie knew that’s the way he was, and not because he was bad, just because he cared a lot for her. This sounds like an oxymoron when you read (over and over throughout the entire thing, mind you) that she’s a feminist. But I have to say I don’t like caveman types (or alpha dudes excessively alpha; well, I’m a feminist at heart too), yet Jake was someone you could easily fall in love with. He thought about Ellie, about how she got mixed up in all this, about how she didn’t have a choice, and he put his life on hold and helped her.
At the same time, Ellie understood all this, and while sometimes she thought she was being selfish, I think she wasn’t. Human being and all that. We think we’re doing things that’ll benefit others, but, more often than not, we don’t have the whole picture.
I’m being cryptic as hell because I don’t to spoil these for you. Yes, there’s a lot you can skip. Yes, there’s a lot I WOULD EDIT OUT, but there’s also a lot of things I’m pretty sure you’ll enjoy.
This is a difficult one to review, one the one hand, the premise is so intriguing and new that I couldn't wait to start it, but on the other there were so many things that annoyed me about this book that after a week of thinking about it, I'm still conflicted about my feelings.
Ellie, at the age of sixteen becomes orphaned after her father dies suddenly and unexpected. Queue Jake, the man who works for her father, helps run the farm , who is ten years older than her and is now going to be her new husband. The three books together follows the story of Ellie and Jake as they marry and start to figure out their lives together in a difficult situation. But when feelings become involved and it becomes harder to stay under the same roof, things start to become awkward. Throw in a vet that seems to want to stir things up and you have one hell of a ride.
Now, the first thing that annoyed me about this book; the miscommunication. The amount of times so many things could have been avoided by just talking about it would have saved so much stress and heartache for the two characters. Jake sometimes acts like a teenage boy in his need to bottle things up and not talk about, a grown man would have said something a long time ago. Ellie wasn't much better and used the excuse of her dad and her situation way too often to justify things.
Secondly, the part where Jake 'goes away' for a few days in the first book just didn't sit well with me. I don't know what it was but it seemed to try to make it seem like Jake couldn't keep it in his pants for longer than five seconds. Which adds to the point when the vet lady, whatever her name was came into the picture. He seemed to jump on that wagon way too quickly in my opinion and seemed to use her to get away from Ellie.
Thirdly, the editing in this book needs a lot of work.
The series was good, but with some editing and adjustments it could be so much better.
Wow. What a phenomenal story. Jake and Ellie. The inner workings of the heart. The wisdom of Ellie's motives. The emotional angst. The way a man thinks. A man like Jake. Breezed through 3 books without a glitch. I was surprised at how much i loved it. What was amazing was how the author described the inner workings of each character, especially Jake's. The responsibility he always obligated himself to, yet resented it. The honesty required that Ellie pushed him to reveal. The build up of what a relationship took. All there. Don't know if I will read the rest of the books. To me, this was a perfect ending. No more drama!
This three book series is absolutely charming, if a bit predictable. I enjoyed the heart and courage in the stories, and really enjoyed how the character development came along. It had enough moments throughout the book to keep me interested, and turning the pages. It is a great series for an afternoon of curling up and enjoying!
This was a sweet 3 book series (that could have been pulled into 1 book) that told of the journey of a young “orphan” who married the ranch hand that saved her from losing not just her father, but her home too.
Their relationship slowly grew from a platonic one to a full fledged love story.
Really enjoyed the story. I loved how Jake and Ellie were so close, like family, and then grew up and matured together forming their own family. Editing could have been better. 5 stars!
Such a good series once you start reading you won’t want to stop till the end. Brilliant characters that have you laughter but also cry . I cried a lot whilst reading this .
Beautifully written, interesting turn of events. The only issue is with the many typos in the book. But the story was so good and well written that they didn’t bother me too much!