Roomies with benefits and the potential for so much more in Marriage Lessons by Katie Ruggle, writing as Katie Allen Falling for your boss–no matter how fast he makes your pulse race–is such a cliché. But it’s one Annabelle Shay can’t seem to avoid. Gallery owner Louis Dumont is stupid hot. Plus, he’s sweet, sensitive and a brilliant artist. But he’s also oblivious. Which is good because … because Annabelle loves her job too much to risk it.
Louis hasn’t been with a woman since he was wounded in Afghanistan, remaining guarded about his body and his heart. But Annabelle is different. She keeps him grounded. Which is why protecting her–first pretending to be her husband to ward off unwanted attention, then inviting her to move in after her landlord kicks her out–feels so natural, even if it invites rampant temptation.
Try as Annabelle might, there are some desires you simply can’t shake. Louis repeatedly joke-asking her to marry him isn’t helping, especially when their unbearable attraction upgrades them to roomies with benefits. But Louis is still keeping pieces of his past to himself, leaving Annabelle to wonder if he’ll ever truly be vulnerable with her–or if she stands to lose everything.
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This book is approximately 75,000 words
Carina Press acknowledges the editorial services of Deborah Nemeth
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Let me start by admitting that I’m a Katie Ruggle fan, and it wasn’t until seeing this title that I learned she was writing under the Katie Allen pseudonym, that she’d started writing the Off Guard series, and so this is the first novel of hers I’ve read under that pseudonym and in that series. There were things I very much enjoyed about this novel, and things I didn’t, resulting in my giving it a 3-star rating.
What I liked most was the verbal banter and often hilarious conversations between the two principle characters in this novel, Louis Dumont, a wounded warrior with a rather unfortunate first name for a sexy hero–he’s an artist who owns his own art gallery, and his gallery manager/personal assistant, Annabelle Shay, who’s been lusting after him since the day she was hired, and whom Louis always refers to with both her first and last name, which I found more than a little strange. While both characters are extremely likable, very little happens aside from the witty repartee in the first half of this novel, and except for the fact that we learn that Louis is missing part of one hand and part of one of this legs, these two are more than employer/employee, they are friends, no matter how much Annabelle would like that to change to something more serious, but she doesn’t express those feelings to Louis at all. It was simply too much fluff that went on for far too long. When Louis gets a case of painter’s block, he insists on taking Annabelle to the movies, but if you’re expecting any kind of necking or hand holding, you’re going to be disappointed.
Things don’t pick up between these two until Annabelle’s landlord refuses to renew her lease, and Louis practically begs Annabelle to move in with him, giving her drawer and closet space as well as his bedroom, while he moves to the sofa, and the fluffy dialogue continues. We do eventually learn that Louis hasn’t had sex since receiving his injuries, and is fearful of showing what’s left of his body to anyone. One of the main reasons I requested an advance reader copy of this novel, was that I love wounded warrior romances (I’m married to one), and I expected far more about Louis’ issues from this author in the way of drama than was provided by his merely being reluctant to show anyone his injuries. Although these two characters do eventually spend a lot of time having sex all over Louis’ home, Annabelle’s curiosity about seeing all of Louis naked takes center stage for most of the second half of this novel, and when she finally does, it’s no big deal, Louis gets over himself, and the ongoing talk of marriage continues, but there was no real romance to this romance.
As what I can only refer to as filler, there are gallery showings and clients to attend to, a cast of less than stellar and sometimes rude and annoying secondary characters, and a mystery that is hinted at but one that doesn’t really come into play until almost the end of the novel, at which point it seemed like far too little far too late, and exactly what were the marriage lessons referred to in the title? As far as I could see, this was more a friends to lovers story rather than a wounded warrior novel, and it worked far better as the former trope than the latter one.
If you’re looking for a light, quasi-romantic comedy with witty dialogue I think you’ll enjoy this novel, but if , like me, you’re looking for a serious, dramatic, wounded warrior novel to sink your teeth and your emotions into, this novel will probably disappoint you as much as it did me. It may just be that I’ve come to expect so much more from Katie Ruggle than this novel provided.
As stated earlier, I voluntarily requested an advance reader copy of this novel. The opinions expressed are my own.
This was just okay. The writing was okay, but I didn’t feel like there was really anything happening until almost the end of the story. The chemistry between Annabelle and Louis was non existent in my opinion. They had banter in their conversations, but it felt more friendly than anything. I felt like the title was a little misleading. The whole “marriage” thing isn’t even really a big part of the story. It was a struggle for me to finish this one. This was a first for me from this author, but I would be willing to read her again.
I voluntarliy reviewed an advanced readers copy of this book.
Marriage Lessons is adorable. The kind of adorable that has you grinning non-stop. It’s sexy and sweet too with the jovial gallery owner and his assistant. If you don’t end this book with a big old crush on Louis Dumont, you aren’t human. I definitely think he will be getting his own fan club. I had no trouble lusting after the handsome gallery owner. He is personality and his demeanor is easy to fall for. And fall I did!
Marriage Lessons by Katie Allen is book Three in the Off Guard series. This is the story of Louis Dumont and Annabelle Shay. I haven’t yet read the previous books, so for me this was a standalone book.
Annabelle has a crush on her boss, Louis but they are friends too. We see in this book most of their friendship and somewhere close to the middle is when I thought their feelings took another turn to what Annabelle was looking for. But nothing is easy so there is story there to build into a great read.