Synopsis:
When you can’t find the perfect date for the holidays you hire him!
Hotshot lawyer Rebecca Madison is dreading the annual family Thanksgiving break where the question on everyone’s lips will be ‘why are you still single?’.
When it comes to her career, she’s the best of the best, hired for her take-no-prisoners approach and sharp instincts. But when it comes to her love life…well, she hasn’t found the loophole for happy ever after yet.
So when she has a one night stand with a gorgeous stranger she meets in a bar, Becca decides to do what she does best: make a deal with Mr One Night to be her Mr Right (just for the holidays).
With an iron-clad contract setting out the terms for their fake relationship, Becca has one important point. Clause 1.a. No kissing, no sex (as mind-blowing as it was), and absolutely no emotional attachment!
But five thousand miles from home and spending every waking moment in the company of a man who makes her feel things she’s never felt before, just how easy will it be for Becca to stick to her own rules…
Review:
I had really high hopes for Love Under Contract. Everyone knows by now that I love a fake dating book, but this missed every single mark for me. The fake dating wasn’t even good. They’d already established a physical relationship so it didn’t feel like they were ever faking it.
Love Under Contract starts with a bang. Literally. I was not expecting the spice to start in chapter two. I think that’s the earliest in any book I’ve ever read. It’s also very clunky. I’m not a fan of any type of description being ‘This happened. Then this happened.’ There’s also a lot of ‘he did this with masculinity’, ‘I’m doing this with femininity’. Which I just find very weird. Possibly my favourite use of this is when Rebecca and Hudson first meet “He exudes masculinity with a capital M.” What does masculinity with a lower case M look like? You’ve piqued my curiosity.
I’m also not a fan of Rebecca so far. She’s giving off major ‘I’m not like the other girls’ vibes. Honestly, her attitude for the entire book sucks. I’m so tired of workaholic women who have no time for anything but work. It’s old. Everyone is over it.
“I’ve always liked Jonathon, he’s a tanned, vital man who plays a lot of golf and likes to be outside when he’s not working.” What is a ‘vital man’? Am I being stupid or is that just a really weird thing to say. The author uses ‘vital’ multiple times to describe various men and I’m seriously lost on what it means in this context.
Here are some of the other ridiculous things that were said in Love Under Contract:
- “You’re just like a hamster, you know?” Words every girl wants to hear after sex.
- “She’s got a hot date with Colleen Hoover, whoever that is. Sweet kid.” Gross, no kid should be reading Colleen Hoover.
- “I round on her and then droop, realising that I, Rebecca Madison, am behaving like a complete tool” It took her 320 pages to realise this. I figured that out on page one.
I don’t want to side with Rebecca on anything, but since when did having curly hair make you unprofessional? Rebecca’s boss makes a point of her needing to look her best during a court case and does so by squinting at her hair. Which she is wearing naturally curly for once. She rightly decides to not justify her hair to him as men’s professional ability is never judged based on their appearance and amen to that.
I’m on board with fake dating but blackmail is taking things too far. Hudson was nothing but a green flag until he forced Rebecca to continue their agreement, but of course he had to go and ruin it.
I can’t get over how just plain horrible Rebecca is. So much so that I’ve mentioned it twice in this review. She thinks Hudson’s mom is ‘barking’ because she likes to make fairy houses. She follows this up with “I can’t begin to imagine how hideous they must be.” Then she finds out what his sisters do for a living and she judges them just as harshly. Like sorry not everyone’s a big hot shot lawyer, she’s actually the worst.
Love Under Contract was a book that could have been fun, but the lack of plot and character development just to have chapter after chapter of smut, was its downfall. I get that this is what gets romance books to sell well these days, but I think authors need to learn when it’s too much. If you’re into that, fair enough.
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