Reviewed by Sadonna
TITLE: Wedding Bet
SERIES: Fixer Brothers Construction Company
AUTHOR: Raleigh Ruebins
PUBLISHER: Self-published
LENGTH: 227 pages
RELEASE DATE: November 14, 2024
BLURB:
I made a bet: that I’d be his perfect fake boyfriend for this wedding.
Now I desperately don’t want to lose.
My dark secret: all my life, I’ve felt like a fake.
I act like I have it together. But I fry eggs for a living and can barely pay rent. I’m a hopeless romantic but still chronically alone.
So here at my brother’s wedding, in the middle of snowy mountains at a fancy ski resort, I got… desperate.
“Lucky” Landry Lucock is the definition of having it together. Wealthy, handsome, and completely out of my league. Guys like him don’t want me.
…But now he’s calling me boyfriend, even though we’re anything but.
I made a bet with Landry that I could be his fake boyfriend for this wedding week and put on a killer show for his awful ex. Now we’re sharing everything, and I keep ending up in his bed.
I’m telling myself this will never be more than pretend.
But he’s kissing me even when no one’s around.
And I never bet on something fake being so damn addictive…
REVIEW:
Note: This is book 8 in this series. It contains spoilers for the earlier books/couples. It can be read as a standalone, but I think is much more enjoyable as part of this series order.
OMG I loved this story! First it has such a lovely setting – a ski resort wedding in the Colorado Rockies. I love Jamie’s description of being inside a snowglobe (which I happen to love). Then there are SoCal scenes. I felt like I was there, the descriptions were so lovely.
Both Jamie and Landry are familiar characters because they have been side characters in previous books in this series. Clearly they just needed to meet and figure out they were meant for each other 😉 Both were overwhelmed by forces outside their control – Landry by being rejected by his awful cheating ex and Jamie trying to keep his head above water and also keep his mother’s head above water too after she was disabled. Jamie wants forever and Landry has given up on forever. They meet at Jamie’s brother Chase’s destination wedding at the Ski resort where they are both guests. Jamie has scraped everything he has together to be there and bring his mom. Landry is a multi-millionaire who doesn’t even need to work but he loves his company he’s set up with his best friend Emmett, so he’s friends with the whole Fixer Brothers Construction reality TV crew – including Chase who is a cameraman for the show.
Jamie and Landry have a meet cute in the elevator and then things get kind of weird with Landry offering to pay for Jamie which he refuses. Landry makes up for it though 😉 Then they ends up spending some time skiing together. Landry’s ex shows up and Jamie plays fake boyfriend so well that the ex, Parker and his new fiance notice. Landry is grateful and Jamie has fun. They agree to keep the fake boyfriend thing going for the wedding week. However, before long, their obvious chemistry causes things to become a little too real. But Jamie can’t see that he has anything to offer Landry. And it doesn’t matter anyway because Landry isn’t looking for love anymore. Clearly he doesn’t deserve it.
Landry is still trying to protect is heart and so is Jamie – but for opposite reasons. Landry doesn’t want to hurt Jamie and he keeps making some missteps around the money thing that cause Jamie to withdraw. The have a bit of a push/pull until the spend a night together and both of them withdraw. They’ve crossed a line they had previously agreed not to – or only with certain conditions in place. And they haven’t even gotten to the wedding yet!
The wedding is beautiful but Landry doesn’t know hot to feel. He does get some good advice from an unexpected guest though. He and Jamie both have to get real and be honest about how they are really feeling. It’s take some time, but they both come to accept the reality that they are better together than apart. They can each provide for the other that soft place to land without losing themselves.
This is such a sweet romance (although there is steam too 😉 ) and I was rooting for them all the way. I loved seeing the cameos from the other couples as Jamie and Landry figure out what their HEA looks like. I really like this series and I look forward to whatever this author comes up with next. Highly recommended.
RATING: 
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