A Modern Day Marriage of Convenience…Ellie Here’s the deal. I’m sixteen and I’m getting married. Super weird, I know.It was just my me and my dad. We lived on a cattle ranch in Montana. He died suddenly, leaving me an orphan (which is still a thing). I’m sixteen months away from being a legal adult, so I have two choices.A foster home or marry Jake Talley. My Dad’s foreman and really, my best … Jake Talley. My Dad’s foreman and really, my best friend.
It’s legal. It solves all my problems. Except now I’m living with Riverbend’s hottest cowboy – my husband in name only – and I’m still in high school. Where no one wants to date Weird Married Ellie.
Still all we have to do is wait until I’m eighteen to get a divorce. Then Jake and I can go back to being normal.
We’ve got this. Right?
Jake
I never saw this coming. Married. To a kid I’ve known her whole life. But there was no way in hell I was going to let her live at a foster home. The ranch is where she belongs.
Sure we’re married but it’s not real. Just a piece of paper. My girlfriend is furious. But I know I’m doing the right thing. For sixteen months, it’s me and Ellie against the world.
No big deal.
Or is it?
The Bride is Book 1 in a 3 part series.
more
Really great sweet story, not too slow or fast paced it went along perfectly. Jake is such a hard working sweetie and Ellie is a smart spitfire. You just have to love them both and the relationship they have as it evolves. I am immediately going to be reading the next book in this series.
This was such a surprising read.
It is a marriage of convenience story but honestly the least clitché one I have ever read, believe me, I read lots of marriage of convenience books, I am sucker for those! It is also an age gap romance and a friends-to-lovers. This is a clean story, if you want smut you won’t find it here, and it’s also slow burn, be prepared. Big warning: this is a trilogy, so if you dislike that, don’t get it! The three books end up being very expensive to buy, keep that in mind, so unless you have KU it is certainly ridiculously pricey, but I’ll talk about that later.
Well, having said that, I really enjoyed the story, it kept me totally hooked. I downloaded the three books on my Kindle cause I detest cliffhangers, and in general I dislike series so the way I looked at it having downloaded the books at once, was that I was reading a standalone but be warned these are actually 3 short novellas.
This is the story of Ellie, a 16-year-old girl marrying an older man, Jake, 10 years her senior, so that she can stay out of foster care. I found that so original, I had never read marriage of convenience with that premise, and the wonderful and surprising thing for me is that it didn’t feel cringey at all, I was anticipating a little bit of that being the heroine underage. But no, not at all. This is a tough topic, and I thank the author for creating Jake as never once creepy, no inappropriate actions. Jake for me was totally swoony, such a nice guy, a gentleman but also manly and a sexy. Jake and Ellie were really close, really like family, friends from birth and I loved to see how Jake came to her rescue, respected her while she was under 18 and how they matured together and formed their own family. Obviously you have to read the three books to get their HEA.
Their interactions were so intriguing and the book kept my interest the whole time, I didn’t skip a single word. She had obviously teenage things going on for girls her age, otherwise, it wouldn’t have been realistic but thanks God the author didn’t portray her annoying, she was actually responsible, sassy, sweet-naive, spontaneous, and really, more mature than you would expect. She was empathic, used her head to think over things, and had initiative. Jake is also responsible, mature, a little bit of a mess at interpreting Ellie, and disgusted with the thought that anyone would think he was sleeping with an underage girl. I absolutely have a sweet spot for him, well, who am I lying? I loved him! I think he always meant well, and that is so swoony for me that it’s actually hot, it was also mentioned how he was a hot cowboy so I can definitely picture him as book boyfriend material 🙂 There were times I wanted to slap both of them on the face really bad, but it didn’t get me overly annoyed, just overly anxious for these two to get romantic and allow themselves to delve into their love. I sighed in relief when they finally pulled it off, good God!
Now, the negative part… in my opinion this story was incredibly written, it can’t have been an easy book to write, BUT I hated it had three parts. I know the author is free to do as she wishes, but I believe the story could have been easily condensed into ONE book, it would have been a regular length romance novel. Plus, having it like this in three parts, the total price is ridiculous, and I don’t think it’s a good business move to price the books so high when they are really novellas. I am a paperback kind of girl and I refrained to buy the paperbacks cause they were not priced accordingly to what they were, novellas and part of a trilogy. Obviously you expect the reader not to like being left stranded at cliffhangers so I don’t think many people will be willing to spend that kind of money to read all three of them at their regular price. I wasn’t, and I’m not stingy with entertainment (I pay happily for my reading entertainment) but I found the price tag unreasonable.
Now, ignoring that, which infuriates me and would be reason to detract points, and given the fact I could read it in KU, I did truly like the story very much and it’s definitely 5 stars for me.
Ellie is 16 and orphaned with a multi-million dollar ranch to run facing a year in foster care, so she decides to marry her ranch foreman who her father treated like a son. Yep it comes with some really awkward problems, but it was a pretty fun little read. My problem is that there is no way this story ends happily ever after without lots of drama because there are two more little novellettes and I know how these things work! So now I have to decide if I want to be upset or if I just imagine it all works out HEA with no speed bumps…it might be worth it because I am enjoying these characters!
*Now how it sounds*
Elle, a sixteen-year-old orphan. Jake, her father ranch foreman, and a long time family friend. He saves her from having to leave the only home she has known by marrying her — a marriage of convenience.
The author wrote this in first person flipping back and forth between Jake and Ellie and the eighteen months of marriage until she was eighteen. Being in the first person let me see first hand how they were feeling. The story so far is clean, sweet, innocent with a little sadness with a touch of humor.
I am looking forward to the next book and what’s in their near future.
It’s not what I expected when I downloaded the book but it turned out to be a good different. I think Jake and Ellie are put in a very complicated situation but they are handling the best way they can given their circumstances. I’m definitely hooked.
Ellie finds herself orphaned at the age of 16 when her father, a cattle rancher, passes away unexpectedly. As a minor, she faces the prospect of being sent to a foster home for the next 16 months. All seems lost, until Jake, the 27 year old ranch foreman and Ellie’s best friend, steps forward with a plan. He’ll marry her and they’ll run the ranch together until her 18th birthday and then they’ll divorce. Simple. Yeah right!
This author is new to me and, having now read this book, I don’t understand why I haven’t come across her novels before. I absolutely loved this story. The characters are intelligent and witty and the banter between them had me laughing out loud in places, as did their inner dialogue. Their tough life as cattle ranchers is wonderfully described and the story has a lovely flow to it. It’s told from alternating PoV, which I love, as I enjoy getting an insight into their different thoughts and feelings. Despite there being moments of grief due to Ellie’s loss, this book has a very positive feel to it and is certainly not full of angst.
Ellie is a strong character, who doesn’t take any nonsense and Jake is her rock, tough and capable, always there when she needs him. She is a straight talker, wise beyond her years, except when it comes to sex! However, there’s no insta love here, no jumping into bed together, just a simmering something that I can’t wait to see develop over the course of the series.
This is not a standalone and as such there is a cliffhanger. However, there’s not too long to wait between releases and I am eager to read the next instalment of this delightful tale. I would highly recommend you one click now.