The Billionaire's Fake Marriage by MacKenzie Stowe
What's It About?
A marriage of convenience? A business transaction? A temporary situation? Or something more?The Billionaire’s Fake Marriage by MacKenzie Stowe is a little bit of all of those. It’s a Happily Ever After romance with plenty of sexual heat and a unique story concept around which everything else revolves.
The plot is triggered from the last will of Roger Ashton, a billionaire in real estate and construction, a difficult, iconic personality who never made things easy for his children. As expected, the assets of Ashton Corp. are divided equally among sons Ryan, Cole and their half-brother Ethan.
But simply handing over one-third of this valuable entity to each son would be too easy. In his last opportunity to jab a dagger into his offspring, Roger stipulates that the boys must be married for one year in order to inherit their shares. An ironic stipulation to say the least, “spoken from the man who didn’t love his family and certainly not his wife.”
The brothers scour the documents looking for a loophole, but like everything else in Roger’s life, the deal is airtight.
GOTTA GET HITCHED TO GET RICH
Ethan is already married. Cole, a playboy attorney, hooks up with Faith, the company’s head of communications — the two have been best platonic friends since their childhood. And Ryan, already a top executive in the company, asks his right-hand person, Mika, who reports to Ryan, if she will indulge in the charade for a year.
Says Ryan, “I need someone I trust. Someone who won’t take this to the tabloids. Someone who will see this for what it is.”
Ever the businessperson but highly personable and desirable, Mika negotiates a financial and professional arrangement to make it all happen.
From the outset, the attraction between Ryan and Mika is evident, although not directly or immediately expressed. As they become “married” and start to consider the many intricacies of functioning and living under the same roof, the matter of physical interaction is the elephant in the room.
The story alternates chapters with Ryan and Mika as the narrators, which lets readers in on their true feelings before they actually share them with each other.
While Ryan gets counsel from brother Cole, Mika’s sister Jaime provides her with a guiding light, encouraging her to share her true feelings with Ryan.
‘TIL PAYDAY DO THEY PART?
The flirting and dancing eventually reach a peak. The question that follows is whether the two will delete the word “fake” from their relationship and stay together beyond the one-year commitment.
When the press gets hold of information pertaining to the company, the characters face a crisis and scramble to do what’s right while keeping their emotions in check. How will it all end?
With The Billionaire’s Fake Marriage, Stowe has created an intriguing premise, and readers will enjoy contemplating the many nuances of such an arrangement. The reading is light, the sex is hot, and the fun is there for the taking for those looking to add an HEA billionaire romance to their collections.
