Romancing His Rival by Jennifer Shirk – a Review

Amazon / B&N / Kobo / iTunes / Google Play / BAM / Book Depository

Description:
Hopeless romantic Elena Mason doesn’t often hate people, but she hates her ex-fiancé’s insufferable best man, Lucas Albright III. She just knows Lucas is the one who talked her ex out of getting married—so Lucas is clearly the cause of all her problems. 

And now she’s expected to work with him? Oh, heck no.

Lucas Albright wants nothing more than to make partner at his advertising firm, and he knows he works best alone. But then Elena ends up as his partner on an account that could win him a promotion. He had a great reason to end her engagement, not that she’d ever believe him. Still, he’s willing to try working as a team. 

Unfortunately, his new “partner” wants him dead.

Elena knows she’s going to have to give in and work with her nemesis, though nobody said it had to be easy for him. But what happens when fighting starts feeling a whole lot like falling in love? 

Review;

I’m finding that I’m becoming quite the Jennifer Shirk fan.  Once again she didn’t disappoint me with Romancing his Rival.  This story was full of humour, sexy flirting and just general fun between Lucas and Elena.  I really enjoyed getting to know these two characters and watch them slowly fall in love with each other.  I do have to say that at first I wasn’t sure about Lucas given the little I knew about him from Elena’s point of view.  However, I quickly learned that he wasn’t all that bad and not the bad guy that Elena was painting him out to be.  Actually he was trying to save Elena from impending heartbreak without coming right out and letting her know her fiancé is basically a cad.  Being best friend’s with Elena’s ex fiancé kind of put Lucas between a rock and a hard place because he didn’t want to hurt either of them, but at the same time felt he should do something to warn her.  I’m glad he did in the end because I felt that Lucas and Elena were much more suited to each other.  They got one another on a level no one else did and their chemistry just clicked from the get go.  They had a certain vibe that just jumped off the pages and kept you  coming back for more wanting to see how their adventure would end.

 Again Ms. Shirk kept the story moving at a fairly good pace but never once did that affect Elena and Lucas’ adventure.  They were able to tell their individual stories so that we are able to see where both are coming from when it comes to relationships and HEA’s.  Throughout the story we also get to see why it’s important for Elena to have the HEA she’s always dreamed about, albeit to me was a little far fetched but I was able to see why she needed things to happen according to her plan.  I could also see why having Lucas come into her life at this exact moment and stir things up for her would cause her some anxiety and confusion, but it’s also the starting point for the fun and games that ensue between Elena and Lucas as they try and meander through a working relationship all the while trying to deny the growing friendship and feelings they are developing towards each other.  I found it rather funny that everyone else around them could see this but they couldn’t.  Of course the two of them have to take the scenic route so to speak in finding their way to each other but that’s also part of the fun and adventure between this cute couple.  The epilogue was sweet and charming and shows just how much Elena changes from when we first meet her to where she and Lucas are now in their relationship.  I really liked his proposal, but I liked it even more that Elena decided to create something special just for them when she finally said yes. 

If you haven’t had the chance to read anything by Jennifer Shirk my question is what are you waiting for?  She’s got a way of drawing you into her stories and keeping you there till the very end and does that once again with Romancing his Rival.  It’s a fast paced read but filled with fun, flirty dialogue, and two characters who run away with their story keeping you engaged till the last line. 

Until next time, happy reading everyone!

Reviewed by Marcie

Copy provided by Publisher