Reviewed by Marieke
TITLE: The Greek Tycoon’s Green Card Groom
SERIES: Dreamspun Desires #14
AUTHOR: Kate McMurray
PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press
LENGTH: 218 pages
RELEASE DATE: July 15th 2016
BLURB:
Marriage gets less convenient when love is involved.
It started simple: Ondrej Kovac marries Archie Katsaros so Ondrej can stay in the US, away from his judgmental family in eastern Europe. Archie marries Ondrej in exchange for the money to bail out his failing company. It’s a fraud neither man is convinced he can pull off.
But as Archie introduces Ondrej to New York society and Ondrej proves his skill in the office, they start to discover a connection between them. Can they overcome the rocky foundation their relationship was built on, meddling immigration agents, gossip columnists determined to out their deception, and an aggressive executive set on selling Archie’s company out from under him? Only if they can prove to each other their love is worth fighting for.
REVIEW:
Archie has taken over Katsaros Holdings after his father passed away. It’s a mess, and he has trouble keeping his head above water. Then one of his interns turns out to be a very wealthy foreigner who wants to stay in New York but his visa is almost expired. Archie had already noticed Ondrej Kovac the first time walked into the room Ondrej was working in. He was instantly attracted to Ondrej, but didn’t know how to approach him.
But the one of his managers has the brilliant idea to propose a marriage of convenience between them so Ondrej can stay in the USA and invest in Katsaros Holdings so Archie has some breathing room to get the company back on track.
At first the two men don’t know how to act around each other but soon they both admit to being attracted to the other. Friends with benefits seemed like a good idea at that time, but feelings and different opinions on a work project lead to misunderstanding and heartache.
I have to admit that I read a lot of Harlequin stories about wealthy men who fall in love (with women) and could kind of predict the storyline before I even started. If done right these stories can make me sigh and wish for a rich handsome man to sweep me off my feet. (Don’t tell my husband!)
Unfortunately this story didn’t sweep me of anything. It wasn’t bad, but there were no surprises and no major exciting problems and or events. It was a bit plain, to be quite honest.
The arguments between Archie and Ondrej are vexing. It’s like they’re both in a completely different conversation. If one says one thing, the other hears something else entirely. If Archie says he might get his heart broken and needs some space, Ondrej hears Archie doesn’t like being married and only needed his money.
When Ondrej tells Archie he wants to take it slow so they can get to know each other and make this relationship work, Archie thinks he’s being dumped and Ondrej doesn’t like anything other than sex. Is this a man thing, or didn’t the author know how to write a misunderstanding between two people? I get that they need conflict in order to find each other, but this was a bit too far fetched and unbelievable to me…although, men can be completely oblivious, can’t they?
Either way, their discussions frustrated me and had me struggling to get through the book. Their personalities were good, though. I liked how Archie tried to act like his father in public but all his friends called him a marshmallow. Ondrej clearly had a hard time with the language barrier, but the author didn’t use that excuse to explain their misunderstandings. It would be so easy to show a bit of his struggle with finding the right words and making his opinion clear with the words he does know. It would’ve made so much more sense then.
Overall, the story was okay. The problems between Archie and Ondrej aren’t big enough to entertain through the entire book, so I would’ve liked a bit more excitement from the board of the company who had doubts about a project. But the characters were likable and sweet, which made up for some of that.
RATING: 
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