Reviewed by Kimberley
TITLE: First Comes Marriage
SERIES: Dreamspun Desires
AUTHOR: Shira Anthony
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 262 pages
BLURB:
Their marriage was supposed to be all business….
When struggling novelist Chris Valentine meets Jesse Donovan, he’s interested in a book contract, or possibly a date. The last thing Chris expects is a marriage proposal from New York City’s most eligible bachelor!
Jesse’s in a pinch. To keep control of his company, he has to marry. So he has valid reasons for offering Chris this business deal: in exchange for living in a gorgeous mansion for a year, playing the doting husband, Chris gets all the writing time he wants and walks away with a million-dollar payoff. Surely Chris can handle that. He can handle living with the most handsome and endearing man he’s ever met, a man he immediately knows he wants in the worst way and can’t have. Or can he?
REVIEW:
I really enjoyed reading this book. The premise is something that’s been done countless times before but this story didn’t come across old or tired.
I also liked how the author switched it up by making Jesse’s character this interesting mix of shy and sweet, powerful and self confident. She could’ve wrote Jesse’s character to be this arrogant multimillionaire but she choose instead to make him this endearing, sweet, shy closet geek with a slight speech impediment who is also a gorgeous and highly intelligent CEO of a multinational corporation.
Chris’s character is this struggling writer who works in a coffee shop and living with his best friends. He’s a struggling writer but he’s confident yet humble, sweet, kind and beautiful. Both of these characters as well as the surrounding characters with the exception of one or two were quite likable and well written.
The author’s surrounding character’s dialog and interaction with the story’s MCs were written perfectly. The supporting characters had their own dialog with their own stories but they were brilliantly woven into the MC’s lives without taking the focus off of Jesse or Chris. The POV shifts could’ve been a bit clearer but they weren’t too bad as you were able to figure out which MC was speaking one or two words into the new paragraph or chapter.
I especially liked how Jesse and Chris’s relationship with Wenda plays out. Be sure to have tissues at the end. You’re going to need them. This story was sweet but not overly so and the characters were interesting and well written.
RATING: 
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