I’ve never hidden my homosexuality. And as a prince, no one is out of my reach…except my best friend.It doesn’t matter who I go home with, I always imagine it’s him. I know it’s pathetic. He’ll never love me back, not in the way I want him to. But I can’t help it. I love him so much, and I love his little girl as if she were my own.Keeping my distance…being a good friend…I tell myself it’s good … myself it’s good enough. Until the day he comes to me with a request: Marry him so he can keep custody of his daughter.
There’s nothing I wouldn’t do to protect him and his baby girl…even if it means breaking my heart. He thinks this is just a marriage of convenience, but for me, every moment is torture. He’s so close, but I can’t touch him. He’s right beside me, and yet, he’ll never be mine.
Only one thing is certain: he can never know my secret. That when we exchanged vows, I meant every word I said.
No matter what happens, I’ll love and cherish him and his baby girl forever.
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Quin and Greg were friends from childhood but Quin married and had a child.
Quin and Greg’s childhood friendship had matured into friends with benefits but Quin was in love with Greg who was commitment shy. Quin meets Wendy and marries her when she gets pregnant hoping that this will cure his love for Greg. Then when his daughter Adley was nearly two he come home and finds her playing by herself with music playing very loud. He turns the music down but then hears noise from the bedroom and walks into his bedroom to find Wendy getting it on with another man. He demands a divorce which he had been considering for a while and gives her the papers he had already prepared.Prince Gregory of Raplen gets a message for his friend Quin saying he needs him he drops everything and heads out.
I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.
Quin is getting married to his Wendy, who is pregnant with his daughter. However, he is madly in love with Greg (who is a Prince) and has been for years, and is silently hoping Greg will stop the wedding…but he doesn’t. A year later Quin calls Greg because he’s getting a divorce. Unbeknownst to Quin, Greg also is in love with Quin and he thinks that they finally have a shot. A couple drinks later in L.A. and Greg and Quin end up married, now it’s up to Greg to convince Quin that their marriage is not a shame and he wants Quin forever.
I really wanted to like this book. I’ve been saving it in my “to read queue” because the book description intrigued me and I thought that the friends-to-lovers trope was right up my alley. However, this book was very disappointing and unfortunately I would NOT recommend this particular book by the author. I would say I have read other books by this author and I did enjoy them, this book just wasn’t for me.
SPOILERS
I was confused throughout this novel. The plot was very fast and as a result it plowed through some circumstances that needed more explanation and more indication that time has significantly passed.
First, the novel begins “1 year prior” where Quin is getting married. Then it jumps to “1 year later” where Quin is getting divorced. His reaction is vastly different at first glance. At his wedding the reader knows he doesn’t love Wendy but he’s marrying her because of their baby. But then when he calls Greg, Quin seems distraught about the end of his marriage and I felt perplexed because this doesn’t sound like the same man who got married a year earlier… maybe he did have love for her. It’s only pages later when we find out this was NOT the case. There is a disconnect here and I think it should be addressed early on to clear up confusion that Quin is happy for the divorce, in fact he initiates it, because when he calls Greg the reader gets the opposite impression.
Second, logistically speaking I don’t believe there was enough time between Quin’s divorce from Wendy and his marriage to Greg. This is apparent because all the reader knows prior to Quin marrying Greg is that he is THINKING of getting a divorce from Wendy and he served her the papers. So, my impression was he married Greg while he was still married to Wendy. The reader doesn’t find out till later that he did divorce Wendy recently. This still doesn’t make sense, because if he gave the papers to her on Thursday/Friday most likely they would not be able to handle his case on Friday, and especially not on the weekend, the courts would be closed. For that matter, they also have the issue of custody to deal with because Wendy says she will fight Quin for full custody of their daughter, so their divorce proceeding wouldn’t be this smooth transition that the author paints it out to be. Regarding all this information, there is NO WAY Quin could marry Greg that same weekend. It just seems impossible.
Lastly, I literally cringed when the characters made sexual references, saying “I want your man meat in me.” I do NOT find this at all romantic, sexual or cute. It makes me cringe and question the connection they have, because it just feels wrong and makes me want to laugh, who really says “man meat” when they’re about to get it. I guess to each their own, but definitely NOT for me!