Billionaire's Contract Engagement

Kings of the Boardroom #3

by Maya Banks

In this reader favorite story by #1 New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author Maya Banks, a fake engagement leads to very real passion.

He’s wanted her for six long months. And now the opportunity has finally arrived to make Celia Taylor his—at least temporarily. Billionaire businessman Evan Reese knows she’s desperate to get him to sign with Maddox Communications. Maybe he will. But first Celia needs to accompany him to beautiful Catalina for a family wedding...as his fake fiancée! There he’ll wine, dine and seduce the stunning ad executive…for he knows she desires him, too. Yet what happens when this counterfeit engagement becomes more than just an act?

Originally published in 2010 as Billionaire’s Contract Engagement.

Genres: Romance, Contemporary Romance, Harlequin, Contemporary, Adult, Audiobook, Harlequin Desire

192 pages, Mass Market Paperback

Published March 16, 2010

About the author

Maya Banks is the #1 New York Times, #1 USA Today and international bestselling author of over 50 novels. A wife and mother of three, she lives in Texas.

Reviews

[Sammy Loves Books · Rating 4 out of 5]

This Billionaire's got a Crush
4.0 Explosive Stars



Evan Reese owns his own sportswear line. He's in the market for a new advertisement company, and all the competitors are fighting to get his account.

Evan Reese



Celia Taylor is determined to get the Reese account. She just has to resist his charms. She would never want to be accused of winning his account by sleeping with Evan. But his looks smolder, and her resolve is weakening.

Celia Taylor


I totally enjoyed these two. Evan pursued Celia like a bull in heat, and he was insatiable. This was an adorable story with very little angst. It's book 2 in the series, but it makes a great standalone read.

There was only one thing that bothered me. Celia was betrayed by some one that she worked with. Her boss was determined to find the culprit, but that never happened. We never found out who the bad guy was that was. I'm not sure if the author forgot to reveal that info, but I hate it when a mystery goes unsolved.

[Lady Gabriella of Awesomeness (SLOW) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Super Abrupt and unfinished ending.Would have felt more complete,if it had Atleast a page of epilogue.

Sad.This had the potential of being a 4.

[StMargarets · Rating 2 out of 5]

So many underdeveloped tropes in this one!

Trope #1
The central conflict is that the heroine was falsely named in her boss’s divorce suit and earned a reputation for sleeping her way to success. She fled NYC for the west coast and has continued to work in advertising. The problem is that she is attracted to a potential client (hero) and feels she must resist temptation.
Hero is having none of that and manages to seduce the heroine within a week. He is also unfazed by her reputation and subsequent tabloid reports. He is only angry when the heroine is more worried about her reputation than their relationship

Trope #2
Hero’s jealous brother seduced hero’s fiancé away and hero keeps breathing a sigh of relief. Hero had zero angst about this woman.

Trope #3
Nevertheless, hero pretends heroine is his new fiancé at his brother’s wedding in order to make his mother happy? Heroine is angry about being “used” but then gets over it in a second.

Trope #4
Heroine delivers the best ad campaign and the best spokesperson – but the best spokesperson is her baseball star brother – so is she really that talented or is she well-connected?

I don’t know. There were a lot of sex scenes to distract the reader from flimsy emotional payoffs, the characters were likable and no one whined – so two stars it is.

[Cheesecake · Rating 3 out of 5]

I listened to this on audio a while ago so I don't remember it in detail.
I do remember it being one of the least angsty books by Maya Banks that I've ever read.

Celia is a strong female lead for the most part. She likes working and doesn't have domestic skills. No talk of children. But she's been hurt in the past (not the usual bad boyfriend way) and it has made her wary of wealthy men. Being a woman in a man's business world, she is very conscious of appearances and wants to be known for her work and not sleeping her way to the top.
Evan has been jonesing for Celia for months and believes he has finally figured out how to get her under his... -er- thumb...

He tricks her into posing as his fiancee and she's sure that it will only be for show, but of course, how can she resist him?

I liked that they were both adults and communicated. She is not a doormat.

But then her worst fear is realized and when she asks Evan for his understanding, he is anything but.

The grovel was nicely done with a fitting HEA.

Safety is good as far as I recall. His conceited, jealous brother 'stole' his fiancee, Bettina just because she was with Evan. But Evan was relieved to get rid of Bettina so she's not really competition. Not that she doesn't try to stick her barbs under Celia's skin.
I don't think either of them slept with others in the months he lusted after her.

The audio reader, Harry Berkeley does a fine job.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a classic contemporary romance by Maya Banks.

Celia is working round the clock to land a big advertising contract with Maddox communications, which means that despite her attraction to Evan Reese, a feeling that is reciprocated in spades, Celia must avoid a romantic entanglement to avoid having her reputation tarnished.

It's important for Celia to prove she won the account by hard work, not by having an affair with Evan. She is also fighting the old fashioned values of over protective father and brothers, who do not understand why she wants to have an career instead of a traditional marriage and family life.

If you read this book now, it might feel a little bit dated, and does have a slight feminist twist to it. I liked Celia's principles, and how she handles Evan's tactics with grace.

Evan was not the easiest person to warm up to at first, but he grew on me as the story progressed.

Overall, this is a dependable contemporary romance and is an enjoyable read.

3.5 rounded to 4

[Stella · Rating 4 out of 5]

I started reading this for 2 reasons: because 1) the blurb sounded interesting and 2) because of the cheesy cover and the ridiculous title. Thought it would be good for a laugh. But Billionaire's Contract Engagement is surprisingly good: the plot is not overly simplified, the characters are interesting with some history, and there is an array of wonderful supporting characters (LOVED the heroine's family, especially her brothers they were such sweeties!). The romance between the H/H is steamy with the right amount of sweetness. Billionaire's Contract Engagement is a nice contemporary romance, perfect for any Nora Roberts fan, if only the cover and title wouldn't scare off so many readers who avoid trashy romance novels. This novel was executed very nicely, give it a chance!

[Siobhan · Rating 2 out of 5]

Maya Banks grabbed my interest with The Darkest Hour, the first book in the KGI series, and it left me willing to grab more of the author’s work. When I stumbled upon a collection containing Billionaire’s Contract Engagement, I decided to dive in and see what happens.

Although this is the third book in the Kings of the Boardroom series, it works perfectly fine as a standalone novel. There were characters I was interested in finding out more about, and it’s nice to know they have their own stories, but you do not need to read any of the other books to understand this one.

As much as I love a good fake relationship storyline, this one failed to wow me in the way I had hoped. There were some three-star moments, but as a whole I found it to be underwhelming. I was expecting more, I thought there would be a stronger connection, but as it was I was mostly indifferent to the details.

All in all, this could have been a fun read, but was too underdeveloped (not to mention, it had too many unresolved elements) for me to love it.

[Shxrxn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Seems a shame to waste time on such unpleasant thoughts. Crap happens. It happens all the time. Get over it.
- Celia
I won’t be sorry to see her suffer for the choice she made.
- Evan
You're as diabolical as I am, face it.
-Evan
I could have used some of your evilness in the past. That's for sure. I'm a little envious of how you don't mind poking your finger in the eyes of those who have screwed you over. I need to learn how to do that.
- Celia
And sometimes I think if you were mine, I just might let you.
- Celia
We're adults in charge of our own destiny. There's no problem we can't solve together. Trust me.
- Evan
If you change your mind, don't bother to come crawling back. I think you've made it abundantly clear what I'm good for.
- Evan
If there was any crawling to do, it would be him doing it. In the mud. Over broken glass.
- Evan
I'm through caring what they think about me. The only people in this world who matter to me already believe the best of me. What more do I need?
- Celia
As long as I have the support of those who love and respect me, it doesn't matter what the rest of the world thinks.
- Celia
So will you? Marry me? Put me out of my misery?
- Evan

[Melanie♥ · Rating 3 out of 5]

I always seem to want more than I get with Maya Banks' Silhouette books. It was enjoyable and I'm glad I read it, but it does not get close to the keeper shelf. Looks like it's going to be a series...the book ended with some unresolved issues and the set up for 2 or maybe 3 more books.

[Lisa · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was going along fine until you get to the end and realize that absolutely none of the storylines are being paid off. And the resolution to the hero and heroine’s Big Misunderstanding was so saccharine that it gave me diabetes and made my teeth fall out. What happened here, Maya?


The story begins at a party where Celia Taylor and Evan Reese are making eyes at each other from across the room. We’re told that they’ve been doing this dance for 6 months though I’m a little unclear as to what exactly their relationship was during that time. When the book opens, Evan’s highly successful athletic-wear company is shopping for a new advertising firm. Celia works for one such firm and they really want to score this account. As things progress, Evan makes a lot of noise about how he wants to move quickly on locking in a new company and therefore there’s not a moment to lose on hearing pitches….so what have they been doing for the last 6 months?

But anyway, Evan really wants Celia’s body and she’s definitely attracted to him too. Evan feels that it will be no problem to keep their sexual relationship completely separate from his evaluation of whether or not to select her advertising firm….and yet has no qualms whatsoever about using her desire to land his account to essentially blackmail her into going on a romantic weekend with him.

Evan’s backstory is that he doesn’t like his rich, jewelry-tycoon father or his whiny, spoiled younger brother. So rather than going into the family firm, he struck out on his own and made a much bigger success of himself than his father ever did. What’s more, his father’s company is headed for financial trouble because he refused to change with the times. And the spoiled brother was just named CEO and he’s good for nothing so the company is doomed. Evan experiences quite a bit of relish about this since it proves him right…but never spares even a slight thought for all the people whose jobs will be lost as a result.

A few years ago, after achieving his financial success, Evan decided that he wanted the perfect little wife and family to complete the picture. In his mind, this wife would be of supermodel good looks, but put him 100% first in all things. She’d stay at home, minding the house and children, and then greet him at the door wearing an apron and holding a perfectly prepared casserole in her perfectly manicured hands. After she’d fed him and cleaned up the dishes, she then would, of course, service his every need in the bedroom. And she’d do all of this with an adoring smile, happy in the knowledge that she was so lucky to have him. Seriously, that’s what he wanted.

So he stood up, looked around, and saw one such gorgeous woman who had no ambitions beyond being some man’s arm candy, and he proposed to her. She wanted a quick wedding but he didn’t. And as time went on, he kept putting her off because he was perfectly happy with the status quo and really didn’t give a damn that she wasn’t. Eventually she slept with his spoiled brother. Evan found out and of course broke off the engagement. He didn’t really care that she’d cheated on him because he’d never even come close to loving her. He even says that she could have done so with his best friend or his business partner or anyone really and it wouldn’t have bugged him. But the fact that she’d cheated with his spoiled brother was the one thing that got to him. Because his brother had spent a lifetime taking the things Evan had worked hard to achieve.

Now the brother and the ex-fiancée are getting married and Evan’s somewhat airheaded mother has guilt-tripped him into agreeing to attend. His ex has been telling everyone that Evan is still hung up on her and that’s why he hasn’t dated anyone seriously since their breakup. Evan – who Maya Banks spends a GREAT deal of time explaining doesn’t care one whit what other people think of him – is so incensed at the idea of everyone looking at him as the poor cuckolded fiancé hopelessly still in love with his brother’s wife, that he decides he simply must bring a gorgeous woman to the wedding and pretend they’re engaged. And who better than the woman he’s currently obsessing over, Celia?

So he tells Celia he has to cancel their current appointment because he’s going away for the weekend but invites her to come with him. He deliberately implies that this is Celia’s only chance to get some of his time to pitch her ideas and that if she passes it up, her firm will be out of the running for the contract. She of course accepts because she has no choice. But she’s got huge reservations about spending a weekend away with Evan when the sexual chemistry between them is so high. She knows that if word gets out that they spent this time together, everyone will say that she was sleeping with him to secure his account.

They head to the island where the wedding is taking place and have an entire plane ride in a private jet during which he could have explained that he needed her to pretend to be his fiancée for his little scheme, but doesn’t. Instead, they land and are immediately ambushed by Evan’s parents, brother and ex-fiancée. He surreptitiously slips a ring onto Celia’s finger and then blindsides her by introducing her as his fiancée. Celia was appropriately pissed off about the ambush when it first happened but gets over it ridiculously quickly. When they were next in private explained the whole sordid business I outlined above, and his petty revenge game, making it a point to underline that Celia is even more beautiful than his ex, a fact that will really hit the ex where it hurts. And in record time, Celia is laughing about the whole thing and admiring that at least Evan was willing to admit and own how chauvinistic and petty he is, like admitting it somehow excuses the behavior itself.

So she agrees to play the role of devoted fiancée. She does this even after Evan makes it VERY clear that he fully intends to get her into bed as soon as humanly possible, despite her swearing to herself that she can’t get involved with a prospective client. She makes a few feeble protests to Evan to this effect and he even insightfully realizes that she must have been hurt very badly in the past, but completely discounts her fears. He wants her, she wants him. They are GOING to have sex. End of story. And of course they do and it’s earth-shattering. The more he has her, the more he wants her. They even discuss sexual fantasies, which are all pretty tame, but I liked that Celia had her share of them too. She wasn’t promiscuous, but she wasn’t some virginal miss either.

The wedding is pretty much glossed over without discussion. At the reception afterward, Evan’s brother makes it a point to poke at Evan and then steal a dance with Celia just to piss Evan off. Evan falls for this completely and then grabs Celia, drags her to the elevator and as soon as the doors close he slams her against the wall and starts roughly kissing her to re-establish that she’s his property, no one else’s. Then they spend the rest of the trip in bed.

Back home, they say their goodbyes on the runway beside the jet. Celia gives back the fake engagement ring and I liked the description of Evan standing there, holding the ring and watching her drive away. He decides that he’s not ready to let her go, so he stays in her town (San Francisco) and shows up unannounced at her office the next day to demand they go to lunch. He gives no thought whatsoever to how this might look to the people she works with. And he knows full well that she won’t dare refuse because she’s still desperate to land his account. He has no qualms about using this to force her to come with him and even gets irritated when she says she has to go back upstairs to get her purse before leaving. He touches her in a way that would make anyone watching suspect they were in a non-professional relationship and growls at her that he doesn’t like to be kept waiting, which seemed really over-the-top and unnecessary to me.

At lunch Celia weakly wails that they can’t keep seeing each other like this. People will notice. They’ll say she’s trying to prostitute herself for the account, etc., etc.. Evan doesn’t care. He tells her that he’ll send his driver to pick her up and bring her to his hotel that night. She meekly agrees because their attraction is just too strong to be denied. That night as she’s being escorted through private entrances and given the key card to Evan’s room by studiously blank-faced hotel staff, Celia admits that she feels like a mistress being brought to a rich man’s bed for his convenience and that everyone involved must know that's what she is. But she finds this idea more exciting than degrading.

Before they part company the next morning, Celia remembers to invite Evan to opening day of the local baseball team. Her brother, Noah, happens to be the star player and she’s used her personal connection to him to secure his willingness to endorse Evan’s company’s sportswear. She used this to really seal the deal with landing Evan’s account, but deliberately kept it from him that she and Noah are siblings. When she invites Evan to the game, she also doesn’t explain that the point is so he can watch and then later meet Noah. Evan mistakenly thinks she’s just asking him out on a date and is pleased that she seems to be getting on board with the idea of them dating publically.

This all seemed to be building up to a Big Misunderstanding where Evan saw Celia and Noah embracing or something and assumed that they were lovers, but that’s not what happens. All the build-up led to a weak one-sentence question where Evan asked if they were involved and then immediately knew they weren’t by Celia’s reaction and that was the end of it. Lame. Then Celia basically dumps Evan on Noah so they can “talk business” while she goes home to prepare for the big presentation tomorrow.

The next day she and her team make the big pitch to Evan. During this part, MB made it a point of telling us that there’s been one guy at the advertising company named Ash who has been acting strangely and he gets a phone call just before the pitch begins and says that he has an emergency and needs to leave for several days. Everyone basically shrugs this off because making the pitch is more important than anything else right now. The pitch goes perfectly, of course, and Evan agrees to use their firm for his advertising.

That night when Evan and Celia are preparing to get busy, he talks about how turned on he was during her presentation. That seeing her being so take-charge and passionate about her work was highly arousing. So really, his whole assertion that he can keep their relationship separate from the work seems like a lot of hooey because I don’t see how he can be that enamored by her and yet not have it influence his perception of the presentation even a little bit.

Next thing you know, all of Celia’s worst fears come true. Pictures of her and Evan that were taken at the wedding are published in the newspaper along with none-too-subtle suggestions that this is how she landed the big contract. She’s blindsided by this at work and everyone is staring at her, either with pity or with speculation. Her boss supports her, which was solid of him, and they establish that these particular photos were on her work computer and therefore someone must have hacked into her computer/email account. The manager vows to investigate.

She hides in her office all day and then slinks home. Evan is waiting for her, pissed that she kept him waiting for an hour and half. He can see that she’s upset but when she shows him the newspaper he basically shrugs it off. She tries to explain what this has done to her reputation. That now she’ll have to endure endless snide comments about how the only reason she’s achieved success is by sleeping her way to the top. That some clients will refuse to deal with her because of her perceived immorality while others will seek her out and expect her to pay for their business with her body.

Evan doesn’t give any of this any credence. And when Celia tells him that they need to take a step back from their relationship, to let the gossip settle down a little before they’re seen in public, Evan explodes. He says that he’s not going to be her dirty little secret and that they’re through. That she’s putting other people’s opinions before him and that she shouldn’t even bother to come crawling back when she inevitably realized her mistake because he wouldn’t take her back if she begged him. Then he flies back home.

Celia goes to her father’s house to lick her wounds in shame and essentially cries for three days straight. Evan, meanwhile, has been abusing his staff because he’s so angry and hurt over this terrible blow Celia has dealt him. Then he gets an envelope in the mail from some unidentified company in San Francisco. It contains a newspaper clipping of the time Celia spent in New York. All throughout the story we, the reader, have gotten hints that something very bad happened in New York and it’s responsible for her huge fear of even the suggestion of impropriety at work. The clipping says that Celia was involved in a torrid affair with her boss and that it led to her boss’s divorce.

Despite Evan’s current mood, he instinctively knows that the article is untrue because Celia wouldn’t do something like that. And following that thought, he finally pulls his head out of his @ss long enough to look around and see that everything Celia predicted has come true. Her name is splashed all over all the chat rooms, magazines and websites associated with her profession and they all paint her as the whore of Babylon, willing to do whatever it takes to score the account.

He realizes that he’s acted like a jerk throughout the whole process. That he discounted her protests time and again, completely unconcerned by what their relationship could do to her career because he wanted her body and d@mn the consequences. And that when the sh*t hit the fan, instead of standing by her, he’d gotten his poor wittle feewings hurt because she wasn’t putting HIM first. So he flies back to San Francisco and makes a huge scene at her office, demanding to be told her location, which, I might add, would only damage her career and reputation further. He even threatens to pull his account from her firm if they don’t tell him where she is, which would just reinforce to everyone that Celia really HAD landed the account by sleeping with Evan and that his continued dealings with them were contingent upon her continuing in a relationship with him. Even when he’s trying to do the right thing, he’s still screwing her career and doesn’t even realize it.

Meanwhile, Celia has reached some kind of spiritual epiphany that SHE was the one in the wrong. That she really shouldn’t care what the rest of the world thinks because her family, Evan and her boss all know the truth. So she’s decided to go see Evan and apologize, confess her love and beg him to give her another chance.

Her father and three brothers were totally useless in the whole thing. MB made a huge deal about how burly and successful they all were and that they were uber-protective of their baby sister to the point where they chauvinistically didn’t want her to work, but rather just sit at home, look pretty, and be supported by them. And she wasted all this time having all four men do that stereotypical hand-breaking grip handshake thing when they met Evan to evaluate whether he was worthy of being with their little CiCi….and then they didn’t do a d@mn thing at the end. I expected one or all of them to fly up to Seattle to kick Evan’s @ss for being such a jerk. Or to hunt down the person who leaked the photos and feed them their own eyeballs or something. Instead, they did absolutely nothing. AND when Evan was on his rampage to find Celia, one of her brothers gave up her location! She’s in hiding for goodness sake! Why would you tell ANYONE where she is??? And specifically, why would you tell Evan, when you know he broke your sister's heart and abandoned her in her time of need?? It was totally unbelievable and really begged the question of why her family was included at all if they weren't going to follow through.

So Evan shows up at her dad’s house and all the other menfolk leave them alone without even telling Celia that he’s there or finding out whether she wants to see him, thereby allowing her to get blindsided. Nice, guys. Really bang-up job on the protective routine. First Evan asks her to tell him about New York and she explains that her former boss told her she owed him sex in return for a recent promotion and when she refused, he tried to rape her. His wife walked in and even though she knew what was going on, she was elated to have a way to divorce him and gain the most money out of the settlement. So she named Celia as a willing participant and everyone believed it because Celia was young, beautiful and had been promoted ahead of more experienced personnel. Evan is pissed for about three quarters of a second and then totally forgets about all this. Then the two of them fall all over themselves apologizing in an ultra-saccharine and hugely unsatisfying “It’s all my fault,” “No, you’re perfect, it’s all MY fault” “I love you so much,” “I love you more” gagfest. And then the book just ends! There was no epilogue to show our happy couple down the road, having come out the other side of the scandal. No resolution to any of the side plots that were introduced. Nothing!

We don’t get to find out who stole the photos from Celia’s work computer. We don’t find out what that Ash guy’s deal was. We don’t see any payoff surrounding the brother and the ex and Evan’s predictions that they’d be miserable together. We don’t get anything on the father/brother’s failing jewelry company. No resolution to Celia’s boss’s budding romance with his secretary. No explanation of who mailed Evan the newspaper article about the scandal in New York. No comeuppance for the guy who tried to rape Celia all those years ago. Nothing.



So this book just really fell apart at the end. Way too many side plots were introduced and then never paid off. Heck, even MAJOR plots were left unfulfilled. Multiple characters were brought in and then served no purpose or behaved in bizarre, unjustified ways. And the over-the-top diabetes ending to the romance plot had me dry heaving out the car window as I listened to the CD. And considering that this audiobook was narrated by a man, I have to marvel that he was even able to get through the scene.

So, yeah. The romance was pretty standard, even if Evan was kind of a self-centered jerk for a lot of the time and Celia was kind of a spineless twit, but when the ending is as big of a letdown as this one was, it really ruins the whole experience.

[Sandra · Rating 3 out of 5]

gave a rating of 3 and that was being generous.
i acknowledge that this is a light read; a generally common premise; guy is rich but not an a-hole, girl is independent but with a secret. it put me on a general feeling of excitement and then it came plunging down to the last few pages. this is it? i was expecting an in depth tackling of her supposed situation back in NY but all i got was a very minute detail and then it was the end. there wasn't even an attempt for retaliation from celia or from evan.

i am very easily pleased but i can't help but be disappointed as i was expecting more and yet it felt short. i haven't any idea if this is part of a series and whatnot but even if it was, i sort of wish it would stand on its own. this is my 1st MAYA BANKS book but i can give the others a try. hopefully, the others wouldn't left me hanging like what this did to me.

[Layeshia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great job done by Maya Banks I'm always ready and willing to read her stories. Billionaire Evan has wanted ad exec Cecilia for quite some time. Six months to be exact. He finally get some opportunity to talk to her and express how he feels about her but she's a little hesitant due to some negative backlash from her last job. These two need each other professionally but Evan is hoping that he can for field more than just a professional partnership with Cecelia. Very nice story believable I enjoyed it.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.
Better than I expected with a simple plot and good writing.

[Octavia · Rating 2 out of 5]

eh

[Melodyofbooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was really good. It had a great back story and well thought out plot. Each character was developed nicely. I really enjoyed the heroine's family! It even had a bit of mystery in the story (which this reader is not usually prone to like-but I was not mad.) I appreciated the fact that the writer didn't make the romance scenes too cheesy or overly exaggerated. The ONLY reason why this was given 4 stars instead of 5 is because I wish that the ending had a little more to it. I was left with one or two unanswered questions, and I feel like at least 2 extra chapters or a very detailed epilogue would have taken care of that. All in all, this was a really good book!

[Madlyn Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

This had the potential to be a great book. It needed maybe an epilogue or something. Just kinda of left you hanging. So what happened after they made their way back to each other after the epic breakup?

[Melis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Canım Evan..

[Marsha · Rating 1 out of 5]

I remember when I saw the movie Dope for the first (and only) time. The title well described the main character, a 1990s-obsessed nerd who let his gonads keep talking to him. Every time he saw a pretty girl, he just chucked common sense out of the window and landed in trouble. First he attends a drug party in order to be with an older girl he instantly fell for (even though she’s already taken) and then with a mean-eyed girl he and his friends meet at her house. She drops her clothes less than half an hour later and—oops!—he tells his friends he’ll meet them later. So guess what? Mean girl is a druggie who vomits on him, passes out and then defecates in public. I thought this movie should have been subtitled “One Stupid Move after Another”.

I don’t care if love makes fools of people. I don’t care if sometimes your gonads are shouting so loud it seems your body is vibrating with the echoes. Common sense is always there somewhere to tell you when you’re making a bad decision. The worst parts about most romances is that common sense is treated as an irritating little sibling tagging along, whining for attention when you’re just trying to have fun. The decent person heeds that crying kid because that’s where its true loyalties lie. The dirtbag drops the kid in the hands of addled losers and runs off to join the circus.

Enter Celia Taylor. She’s supposed to be sensible, intelligent, honorable and hard-working, the kind of woman who’d never dream of having sex with a man in order to land his account. But in walks Evan Reese. He’s a client she’s trying to woo for her advertising company Maddox Communications. He’s also hot smoking man-meat on two legs. Just as in most modern romance novels, he’s a six-foot-plus, robust, sensuous piece of eye candy who has her practically soaking her undies every time their eyes lock.

So what does Celia (who’s already working under the onus of a past work scandal) do when Evan asks her to attend the wedding of his brother as Evan’s date? She’s supposed to be a professional. She should point out that he’d never put a male executive in such a position. She should tell him to meet her after the weekend or forget the account.

Oh no. She’s desperate to land him (in more ways than one). So she agrees. Then she agrees to pose as his fiancée in order to spite the other woman who threw him over for his spoiled sibling.

You can see where this is going. It doesn’t take long until propriety, common sense and the panties are flung out the door. The two get down and dirty in the sheets—and then her dirty laundry comes into the scandal sheets. Naturally, she’s the one who gets hurt and he’s the one who gets ticked when she tells him to keep his distance. He wants a woman to put him first, you see, and even tells her how he had the 1950s June Cleaver ideal stuck in his head—job, kids and housewife to meet him at the door with food on the table and his slippers in her hands, no doubt. Now I feel like vomiting.

It all turns out all right in the end, of course. But I felt like slapping the main heroine for her stupidity. Maybe some people can tolerate a novel like this, a silly throwback to 1950s ideals and grown people acting like hormonally-challenged adolescents. But I can’t.

[Reni · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh Boy !!! I finished it but it was an effort.

[Sheila Melo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice Read But Forgettable

"He'd slapped a huge diamond engagement ring on her finger while he'd held her hand. Fury simmered in her veins. She mentally counted to ten just so she didn't explode on the spot."

FINAL DECISION: A pleasant read, but not particularly memorable. Enjoyed the premise but didn't think the characters were memorable.

THE STORY: Evan Reese is a billionaire businessman and he has wanted Celia Taylor for months. Celia has wanted Evan as well -- as a client for the advertising agency she works for. Celia has been interested in Evan but she has no intention of mixing business with pleasure because she knows that it would completely destroy her reputation. When Evan proposes that Celia accompany him to his brother's wedding in order to do her pitch for his business, they end up masquerading as an engaged couple. Celia wonders what price she will pay for what seems so right between them.

OPINION: I found this book an enjoyable, if predictable, read. It was not particularly memorable because the characters seemed flat. At times the book fell into dated diatribes defending the idea of women working. I did enjoy the premise of the book and I thought that it was well executed. It was an enjoyable one time read but there is nothing that would interest me in reading it again.

WORTH MENTIONING: This book was originally published as a category romance.

CONNECTED BOOKS: A CONTRACT ENGAGEMENT Is the second book in the Diamond Tycoons series and the third book in the King of the Boardroom series. These are merely loosely connected, however. For the King of the Boardroom series, there are small appearances by characters from the other books, but reading those books are not necessary to enjoy this one. The other books in the series are by other authors.

STAR RATING: I give this book 2.5 stars.

[Zai · Rating 1 out of 5]

My first read by Maya Banks. And it'll definitely be a long time before I dare pick one of her books again, no matter how promising the synopsis is.

Why, this book (or Ms. Banks, I should say) has committed the biggest offense in the history of delightful reading by making the reader feel as if the story is not quiet finished yet.

Aye, this book is in desperate need of a prologue. You see, it just ended with the main character's engagement.The culprit behind the smear campaign against the heroine was never found out. Even the former boss who tried to make a pass on her was not punished.

I just don't like it when the author leaves the problem unsolved. It makes me feel like some cliff hanging in the air.

The only redeeming trait of this book is Celia's family. Ohh, how adorable they are. There's a lot of potential in her three brothers. I just wish that Ms. Banks won't ruin them if ever she plans to write their own story.


P.S: I know I violated the sandwich method, but this is the way I feel as of this moment (though I very much doubt if I'll feel differently if I give this book a second chance, which of course is very unlikely to happen).

[Teena in Toronto · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is the fourth book by this author I've read in the last couple weeks ... I'd downloaded them from the library. These last three have been fast reads.

For a Silhouette Romance, this wasn't too bad. The hero was rich and arrogant but he wasn't an overbearing A-hole. And given the nature of the book, it all happened in about a week or so, of course..

The story was plausible. The characters were likeable. And we ended up with a happy ending.

It seemed like there was one loose end left, though. Someone leaked info towards the end but we never find out who. It causes a lot of problems but the story ended without finding out who it was. Plus I thought one of our heroine's co-workers acted suspicious but no one seemed to pay any attention to them so I guess I'm wrong. Maybe that person was the one who leaked info? Maybe not?

Blog review: http://www.teenaintoronto.com/2011/07...

[HÜLYA · Rating 3 out of 5]

Maya Banks ilk defa okudum.Yazari cok sevdim ozellikle hikayedeki aile sicakligi veren Celia'nin baba ve agabeylerine bayildim..
Reklamcı olan Celia çalıştığı şirketin kötü durumda olması yüzünden Spor malzemeleri üreten önemli bir şirketin reklam larını alması gerekiyordu..Bunun için diğer çalışan şirketlerdeki reklamcılar gibi Evan'a ısrar etmiyordu..
Celia ve Evan ilk karşılaştıkları andan itibaren birbirlerinden etkilendiler..Celia'nın korkusu aşk ile işi karıştırmaktı..Evan ise ilk gördüğü andan beri onu unutamıyordu..Ona reklam işini vermesi ile kaybetmekten korkuyordu..Ama olaylar o kadar ani gelişti ki..ikiside planlarını uygulayamadı..Tavsiye ederim....Ağabeylerine bayıldımmm umarım onların hikayesini de okuyabilirim...

[Gobokairina · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not as I expected to be. I don’t know, I still enjoyed reading it but seems I want more from Maya Banks.

A light reading, common premise; guy is rich, girl is independent and using the business to tie the knot between them. Not-too-dramatic story, thus you can finish it in one sitting.

Liked the supporting characters [Celia’s family] more than hero-heroin. Goshh! Something wrong with me hahaha...

[Dina · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is No. 3 in the series
“Kings of the Boardroom”
1. Bossman's Baby Scandal by Catherine Mann
2. Executive's Pregnancy Ultimatum by Emilie Rose
3. Billionaire's Contract Engagement by Maya Banks
4. Money Man's Fiancee Negotiation by Michelle Celmer
5. Bachelor's Bought Bride by Jennifer Lewis
6. CEO's Expectant Secretary by Leanne Banks

[Olivia · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a nice story. Well paced.

[Carly Ellen Kramer · Rating 2 out of 5]

There's not a lot of substance here, but it was entertaining.

[Skittles Jones · Rating 3 out of 5]

I just wanted a no fuss, quick easy romance with MCs that basically have good backgrounds and not much trauma (except for the FMC here who had a bit of a scandal on her previous job, but since she isn’t guilty, it’s not too dark).

This book of Maya Banks fit the bill. Even during her Silhouette days you can tell her writing is addicting. Even if the story is so-so, I became invested in the Hart brothers, and would have loved to read about their love stories.

Celia Taylors is kick ass in her job in advertising; she wants to land the biggest commission Maddox Communications had ever had, and her ticket is Evan Reese. Problem is, she’s attracted to him, and vice versa. And she can’t have that complication again where people will judge her bagging the account because she slept her way through it. However, after one getaway to Catalina Island where she had to pose as his fake fiancée, Celia had fallen deep into a torrid affair with Evan. Scintillating 😮‍💨

All in all not bad, I appreciate that both MCs acknowledge their shortcomings and decided to be together at the end. Not much angst or heat, just a sweet romance.

Solid 3 stars

[Brittney · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was everything I’ve hoped for and more. At first, I was confused and thought that Celia was going after HER BOSS but in fact she was going after (for business and pleasure) Evan Reese.

I like how Banks hid Celia’s back story until the end since it would have ruined the irony if it was eluded to in the beginning. I also appreciate Evan having a backstory as well, which of course is the reason for the main purpose of the book (and title).

Overall, never a disappointment opening and closing one of Maya Bank’s books - her language is sophisticated, although the intimate scenes are cut off and sometimes not too explicit, they get the job done - because at the end of the day, she gets her point across and we can’t thank her enough for it.

[Nicoline · Rating 2 out of 5]

It's funny how Evan wants a woman that puts him first before anything, but he not even once throughout the book prioritized Celia... and he kept pointing it out too: "I wanted—still want—a woman who’ll put me first." + "He’d never become serious about a woman who didn’t put him first."

But at least he agrees with me in the end, it was just a bit too late for me:

"He’d been selfish and demanding from the start. He hadn’t given one moment’s consideration to how their relationship would reflect on her. It had all been about him. His wants and needs."

And then the groveling he promised? No where to be seen:

"He winced. Holy hell in a bucket but he’d said some horrible things. If there was any crawling to do, it would be him doing it. In the mud. Over broken glass."