READ: Feb 2023 

FORMAT: Audio 

BRIEF SUMMARY: 

In this contemporary romance, broke aspiring actor Hayden comes across a man’s strange ad offering $1.2 million for another man to marry him for a year. Cautious but curious, he responds to the ad and quickly finds himself meeting up with the attractive son of a man of great renown. Jesse’s father is a household name in Hollywood, and the magnate is considering a career in politics, running on a platform of false progressive pretenses with insidious intent. Jesse needs to do everything he can to reveal his father’s true beliefs to the voting public, and he is going to need to marry a man to accomplish that. 

ENTERTAINMENT VALUE: 3.5 / 5⭐ 

I was decently invested in this story for the majority of it. There was a turning point where the tone shifted from humorous and took on more of an angsty note (which coincided with my drop in enjoyment), but for 75% of the story I was having a good time. 

This book tries to tackle the differences in lifestyle between living paycheck-to-paycheck and being born into money. I’m not sure it ever goes far enough to paint the picture of poverty. There’s a whole thread about buying a vehicle, and some talk about having to choose between groceries and making rent, but the tone is largely, “And now I don’t have to worry about any of that, isn’t it just so nice!?” 

Hayden is coming from a situation where his family faced potential good fortune and comfort but, due to an accident, all that stability was taken from them before they ever saw it. Jesse has all the financial support in the world, but his access to those funds is controlled by toxicity and manipulation. His family is founded on (and obsessed with) appearances first and foremost; love and affection don’t belong in the equation. 

TECHNICAL / PRODUCTION: 3.75 / 5⭐ 

This book was a bit longer than it needed to be, and it had some repetition issues that were a bit tedious. Some of the jokes were charming and funny at first, but then got run into the ground. If I were ever to do a reread, I’d have to keep a running tally of how many times the door’s size or Nigerian-prince-serial-killer-clown-porn (or any combination thereof) gets mentioned. A lot of the main characters’ thoughts and introspection are also repetitive, hitting the same beat too many times and leaving me ready to just get on with it. 

So the first time I read something by Witt, I was quite pleased by it. Everything I’ve picked up by her since was, unfortunately, lacklustre in comparison; it therefore came as a bit of a surprise that I enjoyed this one as much as I did. Thinking further on it, I realized that the two books I liked were both consumed in audio format while the others were digital e-books. 

I’ll say it: Boudreaux and Ferraiulo’s performances are where this story shines its brightest. Boudreaux is a voice I have appreciated many times over, even narrating one of my favourite reads of the previous year. Ferraiulo is new to me, and I find myself very impressed with his work. He emotes and he flourishes in all sorts of natural ways that just makes the listening so much more interesting than a clinical read would. I’m excited to look up more books narrated by him! 

FINAL THOUGHTS - OVERALL: 3.5 / 5⭐ 

This book has its tropey moments, but it does have some fresh ideas that aren’t overplayed. I have no regrets about reading it, even if I’m not completely in love with it. 

This book has representation gay and bi sexualities. At least one character is portrayed with a Latino background. 

The following elaborates on my content warnings. These may be interpreted as spoilers, but I do not go into deep detail. 

This book contains: highly strained family relations; an emotionally (and sometimes physically) abusive father; deeply traditional views (homophobia, racism, etc.); mentions of eating disorders; alcohol use; and, mentions of substance abuse.

 

This was boring, a lot longer than it needed to be, and the romance suffered because of too many other competing elements.  The story is 1/4 family drama and politics, 1/4 Hayden worrying about or obsessing over money (not having it, or having a lot of it), 1/4 unnecessary scenes and ramblings, and 1/4 romance development.

I struggled to pick moods for this and ended up with the seemingly contradictory lighthearted and tense.  I tagged lighthearted because the romance itself isn't really dark or angsty.  Jesse and Hayden are friendly and nice to each other the whole time.  The majority of the story's conflict comes from Jesse's family (particularly his dad).  Those parts were pretty heavy, hence the tense mood.  The current top moods based on community reviews are emotional and funny, but this did not conjure up a lot of deep feelings for me, nor did I find it particularly humorous.

The main reason I chose to listen to this book is because it's narrated Michael Ferraiuolo and Greg Boudreaux, two of my current favorite narrators of M/M romance. 

I loved Ferriauolo’s narration for Bey Deckard's Baal’s Heart trilogy, but unfortunately did not like it here for Hayden’s chapters.  He uses a higher pitched, over-the-top voice that annoyed me.  And because the point-of-view is first person, he stays in that character voice all the time.  Boudreaux’s narration was fine.  He uses a higher pitch for Hayden in dialogue, but it was just enough to differentiate the characters.  I think both narrators worked hard to inject some life into the bland characters and story.  I honestly don’t know if I would have been able to finish it if I hadn’t listened.

Series: None, this is a standalone

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Tags: M/M, marriage of convenience, fake relationship, bad dad, class difference, working class MC, celebrity MC, twin MC

Setting: modern day in Los Angeles, California

MC1: Hayden Somerset, aspiring actor

MC2: Jesse Ambrose, make-up artist for TV/movies, comes from a famous Hollywood family

Point-of-View: 1st person, past tense, Hayden/Jesse alternating perspectives

Length:  102k words, 370 pages (novel)

Format: audiobook borrowed from Hoopla, ebook borrowed from KU

Narrators: Michael Ferraiuolo (for Hayden), Greg Boudreaux (for Jesse)

Read Date: 17 Jan 2023

 

Heat Index: 1.9 🌡️🌡️

This was very entertaining. At first I thought the plot was gonna be kind of cheesy and Hollywood-ish. But I do think he was executed nicely. I kind of wish there was more romantic interaction with Hayden and Jesse. The steam is a 2.5 out of 5. I also thought that the ending was very realistic, like very!