Series: Bishop Brothers, #2
Rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥
Release Date: January 29th, 2021
Add to Goodreads | Amazon.in (Available on KU)
Marrying the man of your dreams after crushing on him for the last decade should be cause for celebration. So why am I crying alone in the honeymoon suite on my wedding night? Because there’s just one problem – it’s a fake marriage. Purely for appearances as part of a business deal between our fathers’ companies.
But I can’t sit idly by pretending this is only a platonic relationship, especially as sparks begin to fly between us. So what will I have to do to convince my stoic Prince Charming I want him for real? And what will I risk along the way?
-Archer-
The plan is simple – act like a husband in love publicly after I foolishly got myself involved in this fake marriage, and behind closed doors keep things separate. But the longer we continue this charade attending events and staging selfies, the more I’m unsure what’s fake and what’s not, especially when things start to heat up in private.
As the successor to my father’s billion dollar company, work has been my life. Focusing on my job has never been harder, though, when there’s a temptress living in my guest bedroom. What are the chances this business deal of a marriage could turn into the real thing? The last person I ever expected to fall for is… my wife.
“I’ve never had a problem with self-control before I met you.”
Allie Winters has done it again! The Bishop brothers are such an interesting bunch and the second in the series is absolutely perfect. While it works as a standalone, I would still recommend that you read Resisting the Billionaire to fully understand the world and the characters. I loved Mackenzie and Gabriel in the first book and watching them fall in love was absolutely beautiful. But Serena and Archer? Stunning, sexy and steamy.
Marrying the Billionaire picks up right where the first book leaves off – with Gabriel saying that he can’t marry Serena and Archer stepping in and saying it’s because he’s in love with Serena. Serena, however, has been in love with Archer her whole life. And when she was forced into this marriage of convenience by her father and the Bishop patriarch, she was hoping for Archer only to be disappointed by getting Gabriel. So standing at the altar and hearing the man of her dreams say that he loves her is the best feeling in the world.
Except, Archer doesn’t. He doesn’t even know Serena and he’s doing it just to protect his brother and the family business. And everything that happens following this is just so incredible.
Serena and Archer are living this fake life, but for her, it’s more real than she’s letting on. Archer is a workaholic, he’s a bit of a grump and doesn’t have time for relationships or any of that. He’s very buttoned up, is running a business and is stiff and tightly wound. Serena is sunshine and joy and she’s helping abandoned animals, so basically the opposite of Archer. Even if she’s come from money, Serena isn’t a vapid blonde – not the way we thought she was in Resisting the Billionaire. I love how much of her heart and soul we get to see through this book, because Serena is so much more than just her beauty and her money.
“Something about her touch both lit me up inside and soothed me. How is it possible to have two contradictory reactions?”
This trope of the woman making the man unravel and come undone is a favourite and I haven’t read a lot of these stories to truly love it completely. But Serena takes her time lowering Archer’s defenses and it’s absolutely beautiful. She knows that if Archer gives her a little time, he can see that she could be so much more than just his fake wife. There’s some lingerie involved, there’s also some massaging, some flirting, some teasing, some heart and soul opening and it’s all kinds of beautiful. I really loved how Serena was the one in control in this relationship and how she was slowly and steadily making Archer see the bright side of their relationship.
Like in the first book, Harold Bishop is an awful human. He’s a money hungry monster and he just tosses his kids around when they don’t comply with his wishes. So after disowning Gabriel, he’s got his claws in Archer and he’ll do whatever it takes to keep his eldest son under his thumb. Including getting in the middle of the slowly growing relationship he’s building with his wife. Ugh, Harold does some pretty nasty things that will make you wish death upon him, because he’s so horrible! And I worry for Connor (the youngest Bishop and star of Book 3), because he’s going to face all of that wrath.
“I want to belong somewhere. With you. I want us to be together. For real.”
But let’s ignore Harold, because Serena and Archer are absolute perfection. Their slow burn is just so delicious. It’s giving me goosebumps just thinking about how insanely hot they were together. She played him like a fiddle, but in all the good ways. To see them together was such a treat and I love this kind of falling in love, because it feels real even when everything around them is absolute chaos.
And yes, brace for the chaos.
I loved this book with my whole self and I cannot wait to read about Connor and his adventures now that both his older brothers are just doing whatever the hell they want, with no regard for their father.
Thanks to Allie Winters for generously providing me with an ARC in exchange for an honest review.
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