This sexy Texan was only a one-night stand.Until he became her client—then her fake fiancé! Penelope Brand’s hookup with billionaire Zach Ferguson was casual. Until he announces her as his fake fiancée to avoid scandal—and she discovers she’s pregnant. Now Zach demands they say, “I do,” for their child. But Pen won’t settle for a sham marriage. If Zach wants to keep his Lone Star lover, it’s his … wants to keep his Lone Star lover, it’s his whole heart or nothing…
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“The pretending has become real.”
I’ve been in a bad headspace for a week now, and so it took me a while to get into this book. I wasn’t feeling it, much as I wasn’t feeling like myself. But when it gets you, it REALLY gets you, and this book got me.
“Your place.” She said it with an eye roll, and offered a droll, “But only because there’s no one at my house who kisses me like that,”
I’d met Zach before in the Billionaire Bad Boys series and I was happy to get to see him again and to know more about him. You need to give the guy a shot – yes, he’s sort of a caveman, very protective and he doesn’t know how to let go. He knows what he wants, and he goes after it. Yes, he is impossibly hot and his Texas drawl is likely droolworthy (yeap, I keep imagining it in my mind).
“How is she?” “Healthy. Gorgeous. Stubborn.” Impossible, he mentally added.”
I had met Penelope in the same series before, and she doesn’t disappoint. She’s relocated for the sake of her professional career and due to her jackass ex-boyfriend. She’s not looking for anything specific in her life, she’s looking to make the best of it in a new place with new clients for her PR firm. She is tough, and she is empowered, and she is sweet all at the same time.
What happens when they both meet and have a one-night stand while not exchanging any personal information? What happens when they meet again and realize who they really are? Sparks fly, wild chemistry, scorching hot scenes… yes, it’s all here.
And how about a fake engagement to add to the mix, with a side of unexpected pregnancy?
“Her life wasn’t glass slippers and godmothers. It was pumpkins and practicality.”
The thing about these two is that they don’t realize what’s going on because their attention is elsewhere. They don’t expect anything, they’re living day by day, until one of them realizes they need more. They deserve more. I was cheering for them to realize what was obvious to everyone else.
“She played with the longer hair at his nape, in need of a trim, and whispered two words that made Zach more grateful than he’d ever been in his life. ‘Merry Christmas.'”
Opening up. Trusting. Realizing that person will be there for you. Realizing how much you miss that person in your life. This was all needed for Zach and Penelope’s love story. These two could never settle for anything but their happily ever after. And it’s so great they didn’t have to.
This one took some time to get into, I usually don’t like the billionaire thing. But I am happy I didn’t give up because I ended up enjoying it! Nothing wrong with the writing, just a personal thing 🙂
Loved this book! I was hooked from page one. Penelope and Zach were a great couple but they were also great on their own.
After a one night stand and then a chance meeting two weeks later Penelope and Zach were hooked on each other. When these two got together it was hot! Zach announces Penelope at his brother’s birthday party to draw attention away from his crazy ex wife. Penelope goes along with it because she likes him and the sex is off the charts. Then Penelope finds out she is pregnant and Zach is all in except after a bad relationship in his twenties he won’t ever fall in love again. Penelope goes along with it until she realizes she loves Zach and can’t handle being with him knowing he will never love her. Zach has feelings for Penelope but he just can’t admit to himself that what he feels is love.
I liked Zach’s family a lot even though his mother came across as harsh right away but it was more in defense of her son. Stef, Zach’s sister, becomes a close friend to Penelope and I can’t wait for her book! Chase, Dallas mayor and Zach’s older brother, gives Zach advice about his relationship and actually helps Zach admit to himself that he really does love Penelope even as much as he was denying it.
This was the start of a great series and I am excited for more!
I loved Pen and Zach when they were introduced in the Billionaire Bad Boys, so I was very excited to see them get their own book. Even more fun to see them in Lemmon’s first Desire title. The fun, sexy, snarky line is a perfect fit for this couple. Classic Jessica Lemmon with a recognizable red Desire cover: the best of both worlds.
I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this novel.
A steamy and oh-so-satisfying introduction to the Dallas Billionaires Club! With her signature voice of bringing a cast of feisty, fun-loving characters to life, Jessica Lemmon does not disappoint in her Harlequin Desire debut! We jump into the fray of a well-off Texas family who seems to attract scandal no matter how much their big brother tries to ward it off. With this first book in the series, we meet the younger brother Zach and his fake fiance Pen. The story line is well developed with equal amounts of strife and passion as they strive towards that happily ever after. I really enjoyed this family and look forward to more to come in the series!
If love makes things happen, denial must get the ball rolling. When it comes to matters of the heart Zach and Penelope are the worst of liars. If actions speak louder than words, why aren’t they listening? Lone Star Lovers is an amusing reintroduction to a couple of old friends. Fire has begun to melt the ice, but the real complications have yet to begin. The true gift of an author is to take you out of the real world and entangled you in your imagination. Jessica Lemmon has that gift. Saucy and sweet.
“Lone Star Lovers” by Jessica Lemmon is book one of her Dallas Billionaires Club miniseries and marks her debut with Harlequin Desire. What a fabulous debut it is!
Filled with a lot of sexy times, the chemistry between Zach Ferguson and Penelope Brand is hotter than a Texas summer.
Zach is CEO of Ferguson Oil and met Penelope for the second time in a Dallas jazz club (the first time was in Chicago). He liked what he saw, as did she, and they had their one night never expecting to see each other again.
Penelope, a PR maven, relocated to Dallas to start over. She’s hired to clean-up the mess made by the mayor’s sister, Stefanie Ferguson. It isn’t until the mayor’s birthday party that Pen finds out who Zach really is.
Then the fun begins.
Zach is all about fun – not wanting to give his heart to another ever again. Pen has been burned before by mixing business with pleasure. But when Zach has a PR issue of his own, Pen agrees to be his fake fiancé. Then she discovers she is pregnant and Zach and Pen have to decide if their fun times together will turn into happily-ever-after.
“Lone Star Lovers” is an irresistible read starring two people who find it difficult to resist each other.
This reader is excited to see what Ms. Lemmon has in store with the next book in the series.
Copy for review provided by the publisher
***ARC Provided by the Publisher via NetGalley***
There’s a challenge to writing books in which the heroine is pregnant for a good portion of the book. The author, at least in my opinion, has to convince the reader that the couple would be together even if there was no baby. A lot of books in this trope suffer here, as the romantic relationship relies too much on the baby and isn’t developed to where you believe they are a couple who love one another and their child.
In this case, they were also dealing with having to stay together, or figure out a way to explain splitting up and the baby…because there was also a fake engagement.
Zack and Penelope have everything pointing to them not working: fake engagements; crazy ex’s who shriek like their are in the movies (no spoilers, but best line ever); surprise pregnancies; insane family expectations and relationships. Nothing about the situation is simple, and they face reasons to call it quits often, but they don’t. I loved how well constructed this was, how it heightened the relationship with each test they faced, each conversation really built the relationship and moved it forward.
Penelope wants the romance, and the once in a lifetime love. Zack has closed himself off from ever falling in love again, and thinks a relationship where they are both committed to being parents and really like each other is enough.
I loved how clever this was, to take where so many of these books seem to build the relationship (around the baby and not the romance) and put it in the forefront of the story by making this exactly what Zack is trying to do, while failing spectacularly because he is falling in love with Penelope.
This, really, is exactly what you want from a romance, at least it is what I want, and it is the reason I read them. I want the fairy tale, I want the hero to love the heroine (even if it is in spite of himself) and to realize that a life without her isn’t what he wants, and that the things he thought mattered, and the things he believed, have all changed now that the heroine is in the picture.
Is this a fairy tale? Yes, yes it is. And, this book tells the fairy tale incredibly well.
Challenge accepted and met, Ms. Lemmon wrote a book I believed, and enjoyed. I recommend this title.