A little white lie. A little white wedding. A pair of roommates in over their heads.Days before she’s set to move across the country and start a prestigious graduate program, a con artist leaves Emmy with no where to live and less than zero dollars in her bank account. But her day doesn’t seem quite so bad compared to Beckett’s–his fiancée called off their wedding just days before they tie the … before they tie the knot. Now he’s single and ineligible for his place in married student housing.
So what are a girl without a home and a guy without a wife supposed to do? A quickie wedding in Vegas will solve both their problems. It’s a business arrangement, and no one even needs to know. They’ll just get an annulment in a few months. What could go wrong?
Only Beckett forgot to mention his new apartment is a one-bedroom. And neither of them counted on their new friends at Middlesex University thinking they’re a great couple.
The platonic newlywed game might be harder to play than Emmy thought. Especially when it starts to feel less than platonic.
I Temporarily Do is a Stand-Alone Romantic Comedy
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Loved it!!! Two friends trying to help each other out and end up in love.
A fake marriage that changes into love.
I have always been a fan of the fake marriage genre and Beck and Emmy are a perfect example of what can happen. They were friends and roommates during college and then had to play married to have an apartment for grad school. But as time went on, friendship gradually turned to so much more. What a great romance!
A solid story that had me up all night reading and swooning with all the warm fuzzies. Emmy and Beck were lovable and I found Emmy’s word vomit moments hilarious. While it wasn’t planned or expected on their part, I loved watching the small tender moments and subtle feelings grow into something more. This was my first time reading this author and I really enjoyed the writing style and her ability to present an engaging story that stands out from the pack.
Such a cute story! Marriage of convenience! I giggled and laughed! Love finding new authors!
This was a fun read. The characters had chemistry from the very beginning, and I loved seeing it develop into something more than just friendship. This was a fun spin on marry first, fall in love later. I mostly see this type of story in regency romance, but I loved seeing it in a contemporary novel. Definitely recommend!
This was a book you could stretch out with, have a hot or cold drink and enjoy yourself.
I enjoyed this book very much. Original plot and fast reading.
Loved it!!
A surprisingly sweet and fun journey! I loved every bit of this book!
Great book
Unnecessary bad language. Don’t recommend this to anyone. I only read the first few pages, then removed it from my device. Not appropriate for my eyes!
Review of audiobook version of PG-13, fake marriage, roommates-to-lovers, slowburn, New Adult romance
Emmy and Beckett have been friends for the past four years. They are both 22-year-old, recent college graduates with science degrees. Both have been accepted to the same graduate program for pathology assistants at a small, Midwestern college. They have known each other since the beginning of their freshman year at a university in Southern California and, because they were in the same degree program, have had classes together for the whole four years. In addition, along with four other close friends, they have been roommates since their sophomore year. Shortly before they are due to drive across the country together to get to their new school, they both suffer personal catastrophes that put their upcoming college living situation at risk. Beckett’s long-distance girlfriend of the past five years, who was supposed to marry him within the next few days and move into married-student housing with him, sends him a Dear John email. Which means Beckett is on the verge of being homeless because, without a wife, he will lose the campus apartment reserved for him. As for Emmy, her bank account has been cleaned out by a woman she met through a Craigslist ad for a roommate in their college town, leaving Emmy dead broke and imminently homeless as well. To solve their mutual lodging crisis, the two of them come up with a rough-and-ready scheme. They will swing by Las Vegas for a quickie wedding in order to have a legal marriage certificate to present to the college housing office, and they will then become platonic roommates, as they have been for the past three years, in the married-student apartment reserved for Beckett. They assume they will be able to carry off their charade by keeping a low profile. But from the first moment they move in, their friendly neighbors, and later their fellow grad students in the pathology program, form a constant parade through Emmy and Beckett’s apartment, which forces them to work far harder than anticipated to make their status as newlyweds look convincing. Unfortunately, the better they get at faking it, the more real their marriage feels.
There are multiple things I really liked about this New Adult novel:
1. Unlike virtually every NA college romance I’ve ever read, or read the synopsis for, the hero is not a promiscuous, “alphahole” “bad boy.” Instead, Beckett is a sweet-natured, Beta hero who has only had sex a handful of times with one woman, his ex-fiancée. In addition, Emmy is not an utterly naïve virgin, but has a similar amount of sexual experience to Beckett’s, making their relationship coequal in that significant way.
2. Beckett is portrayed as having the all-important muscular physique of a romance hero, but he gains it honestly by working out at the college gym with several of his fellow pathology grad students.
3. I personally adore a “geeks in love” plot, and this one is very well done. We learn just enough about the demanding graduate program that Emmy and Beckett are enrolled in to give a sense of what it involves as well as the personalities of their fellow graduate students, but not so much technical information that it becomes confusing or boring.
4. This is a “slowburn” romance with no sex until about 80% through the book, and the few sex scenes included are very light on details. Instead, the author provides what all excellent romance novels should, sex scenes that focus on advancing the romance between the protagonists, rather than existing as sex that is merely a crude, lustful page filler.
5. The narration of the audiobook version of this novel by voice talent, Stacey Glemboski, is well done. Her voice is pleasing, she narrates in a smooth, natural style, and she portrays both female and male characters convincingly.
My few quibbles with this book are the following:
1. This novel is written in the first-person, single point of view of the heroine. That choice is more typical of the Young Adult and Chick Lit genres, not adult romance novels, which are conventionally written in close-third-person, from the point of view of the hero as well as the heroine. It is difficult to get to know the hero well when we never experience his thoughts.
2. My PG rating for this book is due to the frequent, excessive alcohol consumption of Emmy, Beckett and their friends, twice to the point of blackout drunkenness. There is also lots of cussing, including F-bombs.
I rate this book as follows:
Heroine: 5 stars
Hero: 5 stars
Subcharacters: 4 stars
Romance Plot: 5 stars
Setting: 4 stars
Writing: 5 stars
Audiobook Narration: 4 stars
Overall: 5 stars
3.5 stars
I would have normally rounded down to 3 stars just based on the story, but I went in to this book expecting for it to be just okay, and it was so much better than what I thought it would be. I have no reason for thinking that going in, it was just a feeling I had. So, 4 stars it is.
This was a sweet and fun story. I always love fake relationship stories and this one was no different.
This is my first read by Ellie Cahill but it won’t be my last. I usually don’t bite on the marriage of convenience trope but this one sounded original and believable. The book was such a pleasant surprise with great characters and a slow build to love. Highly recommend!
Loved this story. Two friends help each other out and accidentally fall in love! Great read!
It’s cute and enjoyable and hit the right notes overall for a romance novel.
A light, romantic comedy and easy read. Enjoyable and fun.
Enjoyed reading something light and entertaining.
There is a lot of settling up the relationship. Little relationship. Then the conflict. Then ended. The ending was a little bit disappointing. But I guess it’s a happy one.
A little hard to read