The Marriage Bargain is book one of Jennifer Probst's Marriage to a Billionaire series. I saw this book cross the circ desk a few times, so I gave it a read. My first thought? This is a category romance in "real" book form.
Category romances are the small paperback romances that are uniform in appearance, published monthly by various publishers. One of the most well known would be "Harlequin Presents" published by Harlequin. They send out six books a month in this line, with the general formula of an older, experienced, super rich hero and an inexperienced (virginal), younger, usually vulnerable heroine who meet, clash, discover LOVE, and live happily ever after (HEA). There are several well know story lines used to bring the two together, and create conflict that must be overcome to get to the HEA.
The devise used in this book is the good old "marriage of convenience"
A marriage in name only . . .
To save her family home, impulsive bookstore owner Alexa Maria McKenzie casts a love spell. But she never planned on conjuring up her best friend’s older brother—the powerful man who once shattered her heart. Billionaire Nicholas Ryan doesn’t believe in marriage, but in order to inherit his father’s corporation, he needs a wife and needs one fast. When he discovers his sister’s childhood friend is in dire financial straits, he offers Alexa a bold proposition. A marriage in name only with certain rules: Avoid entanglement. Keep things all business. Do not fall in love. The arrangement is only for a year so the rules shouldn’t be that hard to follow, right? Except fate has a way of upsetting the best-laid plans . . .description from http://books.simonandschuster.com/Marriage-Bargain/Jennifer-Probst
I found this a quick, light, fun read. Problem was, I kept thinking I should like it more then I did. He was a nice guy. She was quirky. There were animals (dogs from a shelter, and a fish). There was arguing, there was making up, there was some sex. I thought that this would be a good recommendation to introduce a non-romance reader to the category romance style. This book struck me as being sort of "chick-lit" like without the first person narrative and shopping. While not a true "small town" romance, there was a "family" vibe to it. The I picked up another book in the series:
The Marriage Mistake: book 3 Marriage to a Billionaire series
Carina Conte has had a crush on her brother Michael’s best friend, Max Gray, since she was a teenager back home in Italy. Now she’s earned her MBA and come to work at Michael’s new venture, America’s fastest-growing bakery empire. But some things never change: her overprotective family still treats her like a child. With three drop-dead gorgeous siblings, she’s still the ugly duckling of the bunch. And Max, the company’s new CEO, still barely notices her.
Max knows Carina Conte is strictly off-limits, for the sake of his job and his friendship with Michael. But hot-blooded lust wins out at a conference when the two share a scorching one-night stand—and are busted by her mother! Now, forced by old-world Italian tradition into a marriage he’s not ready for, Max is miserable—and Carina is furious. Her new husband is about to realize that hell hath no fury like a woman transformed. . . .from http://books.simonandschuster.com/Marriage-Mistake/Jennifer-Probst
Soooooo... Max and Carina are in Vegas, and Carina's mother walks into the hotel room and finds her daughter, naked, in bed after having spent the night in unmarried bliss with Max, so she (Mama Conte) calmly sits down with Max and suggests Max and Carina get quietly married, seeing how they're in Vegas, and its the right thing, the moral thing, and blah blah blah, and I realized why I didn't enjoy these books. It's as if all the edginess that chould be, should be part of the story isn't there. No one seems to have anything to loose.
I actually stopped reading on page 86 because I just couldn't invest in the story. Vegas and mom are on page 232. SPOILER: In the end, she becomes an artist, and Max realizes " his wife's talent crackled with a passion and depth that could rock the entire art world." Wow. The entire art world. And she's a business woman. And they plan to have kids. And everyone is perfect and calm and it all works out in the end.
I'm going to try reading book 2 The Marriage Trap to see if I like that at all. It's a second "marriage of convenience" plot. I'm trying to keep an open mind.
In the end, I did buy these books for my library. These romances, while sexually explicit, don't tip over into hard core erotica (in my opinion, for what it's worth). While the heroes are billed as "billionaires", there are no exotic locations, no big houses staffed by servants, no mention of big ticket items or big lifestyles. In fact, I saw these guys as solidly middle class business owners until I saw the "billionaires" label for the series.
Jennifer Probst has published other books that are in the erotic romance genre. Probst website is http://jenniferprobst.com/
The Marriage to a Billionaire series are published by Gallery Books, Simon and Schuster.
Simon and Schuster are at http://search.simonandschuster.com/_/N-/Ntt-jennifer%20probst
