Võltsabikaasa

Hometown Heartbreakers #6

by Susan Mallery, Piret Baumann (Translator), Anneli Sihvart (Editor)

Armastuslugu, milles teeseldud abielu toob kaasa täiesti tõelised tunded

Hannah Pace vajas võltsabikaasat ja kiiresti! Ees ootas kohtumine bioloogilise emaga, kes andis ta kunagi lapsendada. Ema aga eeldas, et Hannah ilmub tema ette koos peiuga. Hannahʼl ei jäänud muud üle, kui palgata sellesse rolli kodulinna paha poiss Nick Archer. Too ei ole küll iga ema unistus, kuid Hannahʼ fantaasiatesse sobis mees väga hästi...

Keeruliseks läks lugu siis, kui Nick oma rolli liigselt sisse elas: peadpööritavad suudlused, kuumad pilgud, õrnad puudutused. Iga hetk hakkasid Nicki palgatud liigutused järjest ehtsamad tunduma. Ei kulunud kaua, kuni Hannah tajus, et tahab Nicki päriselt oma abikaasaks...

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

288 pages, Paperback

First published April 1, 1997

About the author

#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Mallery writes heartwarming and humorous novels about the relationships that define women's lives—family, friendship, romance. She's best known for putting nuanced characters into emotionally complex, real-life situations with twists that surprise readers to laughter. Because Susan is passionate about animal welfare, pets play a big role in her books. Beloved by millions of readers worldwide, her books have been translated into 28 languages.

Critics have dubbed Mallery "the new queen of romantic fiction." (Walmart) Booklist says, "Romance novels don't get much better than Mallery's expert blend of emotional nuance, humor, and superb storytelling," and RT Book Reviews puts her "in a class by herself!" It's no wonder that her books have spent more than 200 weeks on the USA Today bestsellers list.

Although Susan majored in Accounting, she never worked as an accountant because she was published straight out of college with two books the same month. Sixteen prolific years and seventy-four books later, she hit the New York Times bestsellers list for the first time with Accidentally Yours in 2008. She made many appearances in the Top 10 before (finally) hitting #1 in 2015 with Thrill Me, the twentieth book in her most popular series, the Fool's Gold romances, and the fourth of five books released that year.

Susan lives in Washington state with her husband, two ragdoll cats, and a small poodle with delusions of grandeur. Her heart for animals has led Susan to become an active supporter of the Seattle Humane Society. Visit Susan online at www.SusanMallery.com.

Reviews

[Donnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sweet romance with good chemistry.

[Andrea Lujano · Rating 3 out of 5]

Personajes: Nick &

Profesiones: Ambos Policias.

[Mιss •kαthєяίиє• Τhε Emεrαℓd Pяίиcεss® · Rating 5 out of 5]

Something that isn't mentioned in the book page is that this book is one of the last in the series of Susan Mallery, Hometown Heartbreakers. The story of the long-lost half-sister to the Heyes family.

Hannah had never met any member of her biological family before. So when her mother Luise contacts her she feels many things. But in the letter, it is mentioned to bring with her her husband.
Two things are clear for her: one, her mother must be very ill because she mentions that she doesn't have much time left so she has to go and she her. Two, she and her husband even though they lived apart for years, divorced only some months ago. So who is she going to present to her newly found and ill mother?

Nick Archer is an undercover cop. He has to hide for two weeks until his case is closed. But he has nowhere to go to hide. When Hannah decides to go out with him for a drink, he finds the best way to solve his problem.
He agrees to play Hannah's husband.

The problems though don't stop there. Hannah lies to her new family but deep inside her she hopes that everything is as she would have liked it to be. When Nick finds that he is attracted to the Heyes now beloved half-sister he has to make some choises.

Will the future seperate their lives?

This book was an interesting story and I really liked it. After Jordan's and Holly's story (the only other story from the series that I have read- unfortunatelly), Hannah and Nick will have to find for themselves their happily ever-after!

[Nightwitch · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was turned off by the premise, and oddly it wasn't the part of the premise you'd think - I really, really hated the heroine's background: she was put up for adoption, her adoptive parents died, and she grew up in foster care. Now she's reuniting with her birth mother (her "real mother") and is immediately welcomed into a vast and lovingly protective birth family. Issues surrounding the adoption and her feelings of abandonment are dealt with so glancingly that they might as well not be there. Anyway, I read it, but I skipped the sex scenes, and the main premise is also dumb. (The heroine is a cop and thinks her fake husband is a criminal mastermind; he is actually an undercover cop. Both parts of the preceding sentence annoy me. Why would you, a cop, ask a criminal to be your fake husband? And really, an undercover police officer who nonetheless decides to pose as the husband of a regular police officer? What kind of nonsense do they teach at police academies in this fictional world?) I hoped the book would win me over. It did not.

[Deb · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute. A bit old fashioned but is an older book.

[Cruth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Author: Susan Mallery
First published: 1997
Length: 3660 kindle locations
Setting: Contemporary. Glenwood.
Sex: Explicit. Infrequent.
Hero: Sherriff
Heroine: Mother of one. Does something… bookkeeping?

A bit better than the other two books I’ve read in the series.

Independent, stronger heroine who has a problematic past, but not one that is brushed aside. Hero has a real job and a reason for keeping himself separate and maintaining secrets. A nice tie-in to the rest of the series (but a shame I have been encouraged to read them out of sequence).

However, an admittedly forced and unrealistic plot. Rapid romance and rush to love and marriage. Requires much suspension of disbelief.

2.5 stars, rounded up.

Hometown Heartbreakers:
Book 1 The Best Bride - Travis Haynes and Elizabeth Abbot
Book 2 Marriage on Demand - Rebecca Chambers and Austin Lucas
Book 3 Father in Training - Sandy Walker and Kyle Haynes
Book 4 Part-Time Wife - Craig Haynes and Jill Bradford
Book 5 Full-Time Father - Erin Ridgeway and Parker Hamilton
Book 6 Holly and Mistletoe - Holly Garrett and Jordan Haynes
Book 7 Husband by the Hour - Hannah Pace and Nick Archer
Book 8 Good Husband Material - Kai Asbury and Gage Reynolds
Book 9 Completely Smitten - Haley Foster and Kevin Harmon
Book 10 One in a Million - Stephanie Wynne and Nash Harmon
Book 11 Quinn's Woman - D.J. Monroe and Quinn Reynolds

Note:
Read in Susan Mallery’s Hometown Heartbreakers, “three” books presented in an odd order.
~ First book Father in Training (Book 3) plus an excerpt from The Girls of Mischief Bay
~ Second Book The Best Bride, which has Part 1 The Best Bride (Book 1), Part 2 Father in Training (Book 3 again) and Part 3 Husband by the Hour (Book 7), an epilogue for all the Haynes family plus an excerpt from Daughters of the Bride
~ Third Book Marriage on Demand (Book 2) and an excerpt from Thrill Me

References:
Author's website: http://jillshalvis.com/book-list/

(Read in Hometown Heartbreakers ISBN 978149217233)

-CR-

[Jack Vasen · Rating 4 out of 5]

Book 7 and I've read them completely out of order. The stories stand alone, but some background detail flows through the whole series. It would probably be a bit easier to read them in order.

I had no trouble keeping interest because there is a lot of interaction between Hannah and Nick, but also with many of the rest of the family. Much of the dialogue is good with decent funny material. There is some excitement at the end.

Hannah is another very wounded lady lead. At times you want to shake her to wake her up to the love around her. She lost her adopted parents at 4 and spent the rest of her childhood in the system which taught her to build walls. For much of the book, we are teased about her real ex-husband where the marriage lasted 5 days. I was never really satisfied with what we learned about that.

Nick had some childhood woes also and he doesn't want to be hurt again. He's supposed to be a shady con-man but he's actually an undercover cop but he can't tell anyone. He's a pretty decent guy.

Mature themes: there are some very steamy moments. Although there is a threat, no violence is described in any detail.

[Susannah Carleton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very good story about Louise’s daughter, Hannah, who, in Haynes family tradition, is a police officer. Her mother believes she is married, which she technically still was when Louise’s PI found her, although the marriage lasted only five days, and neither party bothered with the divorce for years.

But now Hannah has promised to visit her mother, and she needs a man to play the role of husband, at least for a few days. The man who volunteers and whom she chooses, Nick Archer, is (she and the world believes) a real estate guy and probably a con man. What she doesn’t know us that he’s also a cop, from another Southern California city, taking part in a long-running sting operation that’s nearing its end. Nick needs to get out of town for a few weeks until the sting plays out and all the arrests are made.

Neither expects the big, boisterous, loving Haynes family. Neither expects to be accepted with generosity and open arms and hearts. Neither expects to come to care, deeply, for the other. Is it possible for a relationship that begins in such a way to lead to something more?

[Bookcrazy · Rating 2 out of 5]

Ein belangloser, seichter Liebesroman der so vor sich hindümpelt, jetzt aber auch nicht grottigfad war. Mehr als zwei Sterne kann ich dem Buch aber dennoch wirklich nicht geben.

HANDLUNG:
Er ist Undercover-Agent und sie die eisige Prinzessin(Polizistin), die ihn für einen Kriminellen hält und ihn aber braucht um ihre vermeindlich kränkliche leibliche Mutter zu besuchen, die denkt sie sei verheiratet.
Das ist im großen und ganzen auch schon alles, hinzu kommen noch ein paar Brüder, ebenfalls Polizisten und eine wenig überraschende, wie originelle Handlung.

Meine Meinung bezieht sich auf die Hörbuch-Ausgabe.
Leider, mein bisher schlechtestes Susan Mallery Buch.

[Jennifer German · Rating 5 out of 5]

A quick easy read

This book was cute and it keeps within the pattern of the author she mentions fears and doubt for the main characters but they are usually resolved superficially on the surface. There was no depth to the story. I was looking for an emotional moment between Hannah and her family but all I got was... "you are my sister here is some money"... "you are my
daughter please call me mom"

So if you like quick reads, sunshine and bubbles all through out then this book is for you.

[Lynne M · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cute story, albeit a bit old fashioned given the book is quite old at this point. I found Nick way more interesting than Hannah, despite her background being the story's main focal point.

You have to suspend reality with this story- would any cop in real life really take the risk of having someone she thinks is a criminal mastermind pose as her husband? Obviously this story was written well before the days of Google and cell phones too.

[Sarahs bunte Welt · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nette Geschichte, mit vorhersehbaren Ideen, die jedoch für meinen Geschmack zu künstlich umgesetzt wurden. Mangelnde Spannung, dazu noch ein verpatzter Schluss. Kann man lesen, wennnicht, nichts verpasst.

[Audrey Ettinger · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reread part of an old favorite series. Susan Mallery strikes a nice balance of romance and happy family stories. Hannah is the half sister of the Haynes brothers from earlier in the series, so we get to see them and their kids, too.

[Mum · Rating 3 out of 5]

Better than the previous book.

[Moey17 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Silly over the top premise and complete brain candy. Gave it an extra star just for it being by Mallery!

[Stephanie · Rating 4 out of 5]

The electronic version of this book is missing a lot of punctuation and it drove me nuts.

[maggie rodriguez · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cops all around

I really enjoyed this book. It was heart warming to have a nice lonely woman find her family of brothers and all cops like her and at last live.

[Debbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5 stars

[Marie-Theres · Rating 3 out of 5]

Der 48-Stunden-Mann von Susan Mallery ist eine leichte Lektüre für zwischendurch. Es geht um die toughe Polizistin Hannah Pace, sie hat nach 28 Jahren plötzlich Post von ihrer leiblichen Mutter bekommen. Durch einen Irrtum geht Hannah davon aus, dass ihre Mutter nur noch wenige Wochen zu leben hat und engagiert daher den "Betrüger" Nick Archer, um ihn als ihren Ehemann auszugeben.
Natürlich kommt alles ganz anders als von Hannah erwartet, denn sie wird plötzlich Teil einer großen Familie.
Nick ist aber nicht der für den ihn Hannah hält. Beide merken, dass aus dem Deal mehr wird als geplant, leider haben beide in ihrer Vergangenheit sehr viel mitmachen müssen und jeder muss über seinen persönlichen Schatten springen.

Die bissigen Wortgefechte zwischen Hanna und Nick haben mir besonders gefallen 😁. Der übersetzte Buchtitel ist allerdings nicht korrekt 🤔, da sich die Geschichte nicht nur um 2 Tage sondern 2 Wochen erstreckt.

[Barbara · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ich muss gestehen, dass ich zunächst ein wenig skeptisch war, was diesen Roman betraf. Ich habe zwar schon einige Mallery-Romane gelesen und fand sie auch alle gut. Allerdings schien mir dieser Roman doch ein wenig zu fern der Realität, als ich den Klappentext gelesen hatte. Ich war aber dennoch neugierig und wurde dann beim Lesen auch positiv überrascht. Der Roman braucht zwar etwa 50 Seiten, um so richtig in Fahrt zu kommen.
Die ersten Seiten erschienen mir ein wenig holprig und ich hatte das Gefühl, dass die Autorin ein wenig zu sehr bemüht war, die beiden Hauptcharaktere so unterschiedlich wie nur möglich zu gestalten. Wenn man aber die ersten Seiten überwunden hat, dann wird man sofort in den Mittelpunkt der Geschichte und in dessen Bann gezogen.

Im Mittelpunkt der Geschichte steht die junge Polizistin Hannah, die den wie es scheint zwielichtigen Grundstücksmakler Nick Archer dazu bringt für ein Wochenende ihren Mann zu spielen, um ihre leibliche Mutter, die sie damals zur Adoption freigegeben hat. Nick hat schon lange ein Auge auf Hannah geworfen und hofft ihr so nun nahezukommen.
Während Hannah nicht nur ihre Mutter kennenlernt, sondern mit ihr auch noch vier Brüder samt Ehefrauen und Kindern dazugewinnt, entwickeln sich zwischen Nick und Hannah Gefühle, auch wenn Hannah sich diesen nicht hingeben mag, zumal Nick nicht der zu sein scheint, für den er sich ausgibt.

Dieses Hin und Her zwischen Hannah und Nick macht die Geschichte lesenswert. Der Roman weckt eine Vielzahl von Gefühlen: Man lacht, schmunzelt, fühlt und fiebert mit … kurzum man ist schnell mitten im Geschehen.
Die beiden Hauptpersonen sind sehr sympathisch gezeichnet, auch wenn sie nicht so lebensnah geschrieben sind, wie sie es verdient hätten. Die Tatsache, dass Hannah auf einmal nicht nur ihrer leiblichen Mutter gegenübersteht, sondern auch noch vier Brüdern, bei denen sofort der Beschützerinstinkt geweckt ist und die sich auch dementsprechend verhalten, sorgt für wundervolle Turbulenzen.
Auch wenn man als Leser Nicks Geheimnis von Anfang an kennt, sorgt dies nicht für ein geringeres Lesevergnügen. Man wartet regelrecht auf den Moment, wo Hannah herausfindet, wer Nick wirklich ist, nur damit Hannah sich ihren wahren Gefühlen hingeben kann. Und als das Geheimnis dann in einem spannenden Höhepunkt gelüftet wird, ist es als würde alles ein Sinn ergeben.

Mir hat dieser Roman auf jeden Fall mit leichten Abzügen gefallen. Da ich mir die ersten Seiten jedoch ein wenig zu holprig waren und die Charaktere nicht immer besonders lebensnah erschienen, bekommt dieser Roman von mir 4 Punkte.

[Hina Tabassum Khatri · Rating 5 out of 5]

Starting with disclosing the secret that Nick Archer is an undercover cop, the story goes on to show how he has been playing a shady real estate developer to put some criminals behind the bars. He had been undercover for almost an year and still needs to remain so for the time being and he is advised to lay low for the time being as his supposed accomplices (the criminals) are arrested and an arrest warrant in Nick Archer’s name will be issued as well.

This is where Hannah Pace enters the picture. She is a cop and has been in constant company of the notorious Nick Archer who happens to spend most of his time at the station bailing one or the other of his accomplices. Though she finds Nick stunningly attractive, she keeps her emotions and ideas in check because she is a cop and Nick a criminal (at least from what she knows).

Nick was brought up by a drunk for a father. The man turning to the bottle after the death of his wife. A childhood that did not have much happy memories and resulted in Nick becoming a man who did not find it in himself to trust people or welcome people to become an important part of his life.

Hannah Pace was adopted at birth and her adoptive parents died when she was four. Since then she had moved from foster home to foster home. The journey has exhausted her easiness to trust and love as she has started to believe that she is not worth being loved and nobody really needs her beside them or even in their lives.

When Hannah’s birth mother contacts her, her emotions are all over the place. She is happy and quite not confident about meeting the woman who deserted her all those years ago. Because when her mother had found her Hannah had been married (and divorced since) she asks Nick (or rather Nick persuades her) to come along with her and pretend to be her husband. A role for which he will get $400 from Hannah. Nick goes along as he needs to basically go into hiding for the time being.

They move to this town and Hannah does not only gets introduced to her mother but there awaits for her an entire family. Her family. Her four half brothers and their wives with crowds of nieces and nephews.

The time spent with this loving family helps both Hannah and Nick see what they had missed in their lives and that they wanted to have all of that together. And once they realize that, they of course get married.

P.S. This family(Hannah’s) have this legend going on for them that if a couple is truly in love they will have a daughter but if they are not, the baby is going to be a boy!

[Aarann · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book had a strange flow. The first 70% or so was pretty good, if a little flimsy. Hannah is a cop who needs a fake husband to meet the birth mother who gave her up for adoption, so she asks Nick, a man who she believes is a white collar criminal, to come home with her, only to realize her mother isn't a frail, dying old woman who wants Hannah to be settled before she goes toward the light. Then Nick and Hannah have to keep up the charade for Hannah's mother and half-brothers. I mean, come on. It's a simple misunderstanding. This could have been cleared up after the first day or so. That's what I mean by the plot being flimsy. Still, it was fun to watch Hannah and Nick dance around each other. They had good chemistry and I was enjoying them both slowly warm up to the idea of not just being together, but instantly having a large family through Hannah's mother and brothers. Then, around 70% of the way in, I dunno, but it started to lose me. The paper thin plot got even thinner and suddenly it wasn't as fun to read, as though Susan Mallery realized she had a deadline and needed to wrap things up. Don't get me wrong -- it was kind of nice to have a hero who, once he realized he was in love with the heroine, accepted it with a minimum of fuss. But... I really can't put my finger on it, but there was some sort of tension missing from the last 30% of the book that was there for the previous 70%. Also, I find myself curious as to what ever happened with Hannah's biological father. I haven't read the previous books in the series, but what I read in this one makes me intensely curious to know what his reaction was to having a full-grown daughter with the woman he loved, even though it sounds like he was a huge douche-canoe. I was a little bummed the Epilogue didn't address this.

Either way, the book was... good. But just that. Good. Not great. Not wonderful. Not fantastic. Not even something I particularly want to re-read down the line. Just good. This one would be a great recommend for someone who wants a lighter read, something with a bit less angst on the way to happy ever after. For me, it's like eating a Peeps for an afternoon snack. Sure, it's yummy while you're eating it, but it doesn't really fill you up and it's ultimately forgettable half an hour later.

[Teresa · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 Stars. I have nothing against this book really, but it wasn't anything great either. It didn't make sense to me that Nick decided to stay and help her connect with her family, when he himself has avoided forming connections to people his whole life. Her family was kinda fun, but mostly just felt like a reunion for readers who've read the rest of the series and therefore care about catching up with the Haynes family. There were sections of the book that were kinda repetitive, but it wasn't too bad. Not a bad way to spend an evening, but nothing worth owning or rereading.

[Gwen S. · Rating 4 out of 5]

3.5***** Spoiler Alert!

The plot possible, while the characters development and writing were proficiently done. However Hannah's independent, lonely, isolated portrayal of police communications/ex-foster childhood did not meld with her choice of scamming, crooked Nick as a possible mate, even if he was an undercover policeman. Nick was charming and grew into his role well. The meeting of the Haynes brothers and the running premise of female offsprings of true loves, was hilarious, yet a blatant reminder to the Haynes men that they were a byproduct of a loveless relationship.

[Mullgirl · Rating 1 out of 5]

So--understand that I didn't get past the hungover drive to mommy's house. Very early in the book, but I just couldn't bring myself to continue. The beginning was too... what's the word? abbreviated? pinched? hastily cobbled together? There was just not enough foundation to make sense or make me care. So disappointed. I have really enjoyed other books by Mallery. She's a fantastic writer. This one just wasn't of her usual caliber.

[Donna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Really enjoyed this story. It can be read as a standalone but reading the books in sequence does provide more depth to the other members of the family who appear repeatedly throughout the series. There was a surprising amount of depth to Hannah and Nick's characters, some humour and suspense, and an epilogue that appeared to wrap things up for this large and finally happy family. Definitely one of the better books in this series.

[June · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hannah's birth mother has had a P. I. find her. Her mother contacts her by letter and has asked to meet her and her husband before it is too late. Thinking her mother is dying, Hannah doesn't want to admit her marriage only lasted days and hires a local con man to play the part. What she doesn't realize is that she has half brothers who are in law enforcement. Then there is Nick, who seems to be enjoying playing her husband all too much...

[Donna · Rating 2 out of 5]

I liked Nick and I thought the ending was great, but this book was otherwise not very engaging. Hannah was so insecure that it was just annoying and I just found her feeling that she had to lie about having a husband just not credible at all.

[Marijayne Stegman · Rating 4 out of 5]

pretend husband storyline which is always an odd thing for me. Can't imagine any really doing this. Whole scenario is a little out there but kind of a typical Harlequin scenario. Susan Mallery's writing is always enjoyable and she made the story and the romance part of it great.

[Emily Higgins · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hannah Pace's birth mother had finally found her and asked her to come visit. Because her mother believed she was still married, Hannah asked Nick Archer to go with and pretend to be her husband. Hannah believes that Nick is a con artist. Good story.