A second chance at a first love… woman he ever loved—and lost—on the other side of the world. He’s only in Auckland for one night, but he can’t bear to say goodbye to Noelle when he’s only just found her again. Jokingly, he asks if he can hire her as his wife for his business trip to Wellington. To his shock and delight, Noelle says yes.
It’s just an act and a chance to catch up on old times before he leaves again for the UK. But the passion that was between them has only been dormant, not extinct, and when it flares up again, it’s going to make parting a second time the hardest thing they’ve ever had to do.
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BRIDE FOR HIRE is a standalone read with a HEA. #5 in the series this is Noelle’s story. She is the mother of a large family. All her children are grown and live close by. She has been a widow for 2 years, at 52 is feels that the part of her life with love and sexual excitement is over. She is in business with her daughters, owning and running a bridal shop. She is content with her life being close to her children, running a business and friends close by.
At 17, living in London she met the love of her life. They were first loves and very passionate with one another. At 18 her parents decided to move to New Zealand. Being their only child she felt she had to go with them. She feared she would never see them again if she stayed in London. So she left her love behind. Cameron was 2 years older, his family, friends and life was in London. He was in the middle of his university studies and didn’t feel he could leave, plus he felt as though she didn’t really love him if she wanted to leave him.
Thirty years later they meet again at a charity ball in New Zealand. He is in that country on business and he sees her across the dance floor. She looks exactly as he remembered her. He had no idea she was still in the country. He crosses the dance floor and asks her to dance. Since is it a masked ball she doesn’t recognize him She had lifted her mask for a moment and he had seen her face.
They both have a past and a lot of misunderstandings took place but he has no intentions of lettering her get away again. There is a lot of drama as they catch up on their lives and reconnect. It is a great story. I loved it. I really enjoy stories where the main characters are older. They have experienced life and have learned what is important to finding happiness. I definitely recommend this book. All the books in this series are very good and I recommend them as well.
I was not paid for this review. I am not a writer nor do I know one. I am not kin to this author. I am a reader and this is my opinion, nothing more, nothing less. 10/13/18
I thought it was so great that Cam and Noelle were in their 50’s and getting their second chance. I loved that they could still love each other, and have an intense romantic and sexual relationship that is usually only attributed to couples in their 20’s and 30’s.
This was a story of putting regrets behind you, moving toward the future, and loving with a maturity that you didn’t possess the first time around.
I, for one, am so glad to see more romance books being written about the 40+ set. It seems like so many writers are focused on the 18-35 range that once you hit 40, you are pretty much forgotten about in the romance genre.
This book was well written, sweet, sensual, romantic, with a bit of angst, and a HEA.
I voluntarily read and reviewed the Advanced Reader Copy.
Bride for hire
I absolutely loved this book. The whole series is a favourite. I was intrigued to read a romance with characters in a higher age group but it was handled so well it didn’t detract from the romance at all. If anything it made it more special. Who doesn’t remember their first love. Noelle and Cameron got to fulfill a dream and it had its fair share of bumps along the way but love as always finds a way. I love the way Serenity writes about New Zealand and intertwines her stories with each other. I feel like I know them all so well. I cannot wait for the next book!
Great read!!!
I love this series!
Bride for Hire, Bk 5 in the Bay of Island Brides series by Serenity Woods, is a delightful and welcome departure from the trope that only young love is interesting and sexy. This second chances romance between mature adults was very well crafted, fun, on point, and sexy. As a mature person myself, I really enjoyed it and I volunteered to write a review of the ARC I received.
5 stars
Exquisitely sensitive and volcanically steamy
I had high expectations for this fifth addition to the fantastic “Bay of Islands Brides” series, and this one exceeded all of them! I came to really like Noelle before in the series as the family matriarch, and now I love her and her reunited first love, Cameron.
Noelle, 52, is a beautiful mother of 5 grown children and a widow of 2 years. She co-owns with 2 of her daughters a thriving bridal boutique in the Northland of New Zealand. Cameron, 54, is a divorced rich owner of an underwater archaeological consulting business. [Now, I know archaeology, and there is no way that someone could become a billionaire doing underwater archaeology, but we archaeologists can dream. I will go along with that little fantasy, because underwater archaeologists are hot!]. Anyway, Cameron and Noelle were each other’s passionate first love in their late teen years in England before Noelle moved to New Zealand with her parents. They pined for each other, but now they meet by chance in New Zealand after more than 30 years apart. It melts my heart like s’mores on a campfire.
I love this couple! Don’t let the older age of the couple keep you from buying this book. They have such great conversations, and then the bedroom scenes are a sensual haze of blazing hot passion! These love scenes are wonderfully intimate as well. Noelle and Cameron have one of the best second-chance romances that I have ever read. I highly recommend this beautiful novel to anyone who loves steamy contemporary romance.
I received a free advanced reading copy from the author, and I voluntarily wrote this honest review.
Yet another great addition to this series! I love this author and the characters in this Bay of Islands series. Cameron was such a great character for Noelle, and having been a woman in her mid years looking for love, it warmed my heart with these two. Loved the passion that picked up after the 30 year absence, and torn my heart apart when Noelle made the obvious choice to do what meant most for her life and heart. But OMG, when a book brings you to tears in the end, that is a total success in my eyes. Loved everything about it!
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC copy of this book.
It’s not often that I’ve come across a romance with a Silver Fox and Silver Vixen. The story of Cam and Noelle, and their second chance at romance thirty years in the making was great. We can wonder about what might have been, but we have to live with the decisions we’ve made. I loved these two and was excited to read something different than the usual young love romance. Don’t get me wrong, I love those too, but it is fun to mix it up at times. Don’t pass this one up, because it’s just as hot as the other books in the series.
*I voluntarily reviewed an arc of this book.
Bride for Hire by Serenity Woods
Bay of Islands Brides #5
First love gone awry but then given a second chance decades later… Loved this story of Cameron Taylor and Noelle Acton Goldsmith meeting again and finding a way to a HEA they missed out on years before.
When they were they were young they sizzled together but a decision made by Noelle saw them part and then live their lives half a world away from one another. Noelle married and had a family and made a life for herself in New Zealand. Cameron finished his education, built a mega-business, married and had a family in England. Neither forgot the other through the years but they lived their lives distant from one another and seemed content…until they met at an event in New Zealand and they realized that they still had feelings for one another.
I think what intrigued me about this story is that one is never too old to fall in love. I enjoyed the insights into what Noelle and Cameron were thinking and what they wanted as they got to know one another again and their relationship grew. The thoughts both had about pros and cons and emotions and the past and family and so much more seemed so real and made me think what it would be like to be in their shoes if I had found myself widowed at fifty. I love this series and am a bit sad to think that there is only one book left before I will end. Oh! There was something else I truly enjoyed and that was references made to previous book series written by this author because as I read about the lingerie or sweets or wine purchased it triggered memories of other book-friends I have met and made me want to reread their stories, too.
Thank you to the author for the copy of this book – This is my honest review.
5 Stars
5 Star Review of Bride For Hire (Bay of Islands Brides #5) by Serenity Woods
The fifth book in the Bay of Islands Brides series and is Noelle Goldsmith and Cameron Taylor’s story.
I absolutely loved that this story is about an older couple (probably because I am also in my 50’s) who accidentally get a second chanced at love.
Noelle has resigned herself to a life without romance since her husband died 2 years ago so you can imagine her shock when she runs into Cam. To Cam, Noelle was the one who got away and he went on to a relatively loveless marriage and family, which ended in divorce 6 months ago.
When a surprise reunion puts them together again, Cam asks Noelle to pretend to be his wife to help him secure a business deal. After all it will give them a chance to catch up before he heads back to the UK. What could go wrong?
Bride For Hire is a well written, beautiful love story full of romance, humour and let me tell you just because the main characters are more mature it did not lesson the heat and intensity of the relationship between Noelle and Cam.
There is so much to consider, Noelle is concerned that her children will not understand her blossoming relationship with Cam and will resent it. Whilst Cam has no such fears as his relationship with his children is not close, he understands Noelle’s hesitation but he still wants her back and being a real Alpha male he refuses to consider defeat.
Convincing Noelle to go back to England with him for a visit, he is certain he will be able to convince her to stay. However the course of love, does not run smoothly and Noelle returns to New Zealand.
I really love how Ms.Woods embraces the whole family in her stories; it is heart warming and I love to see what has been happening to previous characters.
Will Cam come to his senses and realise he is in jeopardy of loosing his second chance or will Noelle and Cam take a leap of faith that will bring them together once and for all. One click and find out.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.
Passion is not just for the Young.
Parted for more than thirty years, living on opposite sides of the world, a chance meeting reunites them but how long before they are torn apart again? A widowed mother and grandmother, Noelle is blindsided by the renewed strength of her feelings for Cam, her first love but their responsibilities seem to be an insurmountable barrier to any future together. Loved this story which can be read as a standalone.
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book from the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
Book 5 in the Bay of Islands Brides Series and this time we get Noelle’s story and it’s very different from previous books because this time it’s about an older couple getting their second chance at love and as an older reader I found this book to be like a breath of fresh air it was great reading a hot story about a couple over 50 it was great reading a book that didn’t have your love life ending as middle age hits……..
Noelle who was widowed two years ago bumps into Cameron an old flame at a charity ball the last thing she is looking for is love and up til now Cameron has no interest in a lasting relationship but Noelle was the one that got away the girl that broke his heart many moons ago. Will this couple finally get a second change at love or will Noelle be too scared of what family and friends will think to take another leap into romance…….
A beautifully written love story that was funny and hot, I loved the characters and I loved how real fears were introduced into this story “how will my children react to me finding love again when their father has only been gone for 2 years “. This author makes you feel part of the group of family and friends who live in the Bay of Islands and I loved my latest visit with them all.