Sunday 17 November 2013

The Marriage Trap (Marriage to a Billionaire #2) by Jennifer Probst

The Book
Release Date: 2 October 2012

WIFE WANTED…

Italian billionaire seeks faux fiancée. Willing to agree to anything in return...

In order for his sister to marry, Italian billionaire Michael Conte has to find himself a bride – and fast! When he learns that photographer Maggie Ryan is going to be in Milan, Michael hatches a plan to introduce her to his family as his “fiancée.” Never mind that Maggie is confident, independent, and a control freak. Never mind that she’s everything he doesn’t want in a wife… and everything he wants in his bed!

Convinced that Michael is in love with her married gal pal, Maggie agrees to keep up the ruse if he’ll keep away from her friend. Besides, she’s not attracted to charming, ridiculously hot billionaires who drive her nuts. Once they’re in Italy, however, everything changes – and the sexual tension between Maggie and Michael goes from simmer to naked nuclear meltdown!

But have they found the perfect arrangement… or are they trapped in a make-believe marriage?

My Opinion  3.5 STARS
Yey.  It's Maggie's story and the delectable Michael Conte.

Maggie is Alexa's best friend and her husbands sister.  She is a spitfire and a professional photographer who works with mostly naked men and under ware with a brilliant eye for a great picture.  She is also a bit of a control freak.

Michael Conte is the man in charge of his families chain of bakeries and looks after his three sisters and his mother.  He too is a bit of a control freak after taking charge of the family business after his fathers death and giving up his own dreams of racing.

Maggie has always seen the close friendship between Michael and Maggie as something other, that Michael is in love with her best friend and is determined to do everything to keep him away from her.  With a call from his sister however Michael's world spins.

His sister cries as her boyfriend has finally proposed, but his mother says that she cannot marry until Michael has done so.  Family tradition that the eldest marries first.  But his sister and her fiancé do not want to wait.  So Michael needs to find someone to pretend to be married to for a while.  The only one who fits the bill is Maggie.

Maggie cannot believe what she hears, but before she turns down his request, he goes for the kill, suggesting that perhaps he talks to Alexa to help him.  Thereby she agrees to help, but only if he never sees Alexa again.  She doesn't want him to interfere with her friend marriage to her brother.

They go to Milan where she has a photo shoot and she charms his family, and a stray cat that know one else can get close to along with his cousins children.  It is obvious that his mother can see the truth immediately and she weaves her own little web.

Maggie and Michael have a tempestuous relationship, fire and passion and dominance all rolled into a flaming ball of heat.  Maggie can see the truth about the family and is not shy at telling him what she really thinks and steps out to help his sisters.  She sees the true heart of them all.

She helps young Carina bloom, one sister to marry the man she loves and the other as a business woman.  She takes some fab shots at the photo shoot with Carina in the shadows that stuns Michael.

With a suspect sudden illness from his mother Michael and Maggie end up actually getting married, and Maggie reveals a secret that she has told know one other than her mother who was less than kind.  But with the revelation and the sudden closeness she runs leaving both unhappy, especially as he tells her he loves her.

Once back Alexa tells her that Michael visited her and told her everything, that Michael really does love her.  Michael on the other hand has decided that he will take another chance to see if he can get his wife to believe him and makes the grand gesture.  Needless to say she sees the truth and runs to him.

A sweet story on marginally better than the first.

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