MARRIED BY CONTRACT by Noelle Adams-review, book tour & Giveaway
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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date July 20, 2016
Three years into a five-year marriage of convenience, Jenn finds herself wanting something she never thought she’d want from her laid-back, ex-military husband. Sex–as a much-needed release of tension from her high-stress job. But weekly sex with Nick, despite their careful parameters, is likely to get messy eventually.
Ever since her father walked out on her as a child, Jenn knows never to assume the people she loves will stick around, so she’s not about to trust Nick with her heart. She vows to stay strong, no matter how much intimacy develops between them in bed.
But what starts as a tension-reliever soon becomes so much more, until it threatens both their practical arrangement and the heart Jenn has worked so hard to keep safe.
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REVIEW: MARRIED BY CONTRACT by Noelle Adams is a stand alone, erotic romance focusing on successful business woman Jenn Castle, and former soldier/ private investigator Nick-her husband of three years.
Told from third person perspective (Jenn) MARRIED BY CONTRACT looks at the marriage of convenience between Jenn Castle, and a high school friend Nick. Three years earlier Jenn made Nick an offer-a financial and business contract for five years of marriage that enabled Nick to start his own PI firm, and for Jenn to climb the corporate ladder at work. Jenn’s image as a single woman did nothing to enhance her ‘domestic image’ to coincide with her company’s baby clothing line, and in this Nick’s position in her life was only a business arrangement and nothing more. What ensues is the building relationship between Jenn and Nick, and Jenn’s reluctance to ‘allow’ Nick into her personal life.
For three years Jenn and Nick lived together as roommates but Jenn’s workaholic lifestyle meant late nights, late dinners and stress headaches requiring Nick to work his magic fingers to relieve the pain and tension. As the story line builds, so too does Nick’s need for the woman he married but Jenn is reluctant to cross the invisible line between friendship and love. When $ex enters into the equation, our heroine ‘renegotiates’ their contract to allow for their sexual encounters-a friends with benefits arrangement that grows into something more. The $ex scenes are intimate and provocative.
MARRIED BY CONTRACT is a quick read; an easy going story with no outside conflict to complicate the premise. Jenn and Nick spend most of the story line playing cat and mouse; the push and pull of want and need; the heroine’s reluctance to lose her heart to a business arrangement. Nick, on the other hand, wants Jenn as his lover and his wife, and tries desperately to refocus Jenn’s attention on something more than her job.
Because of the ‘business’ arrangement aspect of the story I felt disconnected from the characters. Initially, Jenn comes across as cold and uncaring, and there are moments where her personality is acerbic and condescending towards Nick, and I had a difficult time letting go of this image. Jenn is emotionally withdrawn and has some insecurities about abandonment and loss. Nick wants a relationship with his wife but in the end words are spoken in anger, and Nick knows it is time to walk away with some of his dignity still intact. Sadly, I could not connect with this couple although my heart did break for our story line hero. The premise is idealistic but encouraging; the characters are engaging; the romance is a slow build to a happily ever after.
Copy supplied by the publisher through Netgalley
Reviewed by Sandy
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Direct Link: https://youtu.be/U8WA_ojC0oA
“What? Help me with what?” She’d completely stopped moving on the machine now. She was just staring at him, excitement and anxiety both throbbing in her veins.
“Help you work off your…tension.”
“That’s crazy.”
“Why is it crazy?”
“Because…because we don’t do that.”
“We could. I have some tension myself, you know.”
“You do?”
“Oh yeah.”
“And you don’t want to hire an escort?”
“That doesn’t really do it for me.” He’d stepped closer to her and now reached a hand out to help her off the machine.
She took his hand and got off, feeling like she might just melt into the floor. “So you think we should…”
“Work off tension together. Why not?”
“I…I don’t know.” She really didn’t know why they shouldn’t. They were both adults, and they’d always gotten along well. Sex didn’t have to be serious. She’d always known that. In fact, she’d never had any sex that wasn’t casual in her life. At least with Nick, she wouldn’t end up with those sick feelings she used to get when she’d fucked someone she wished she hadn’t.
Nick was smiling at her more fully now, like he already knew her answer. “You want to, don’t you?”
“And you want to?”
“Of course I do.”
“You want…to have sex…”
“With you.”
Noelle handwrote her first romance novel in a spiral-bound notebook when she was twelve, and she hasn’t stopped writing since. She has lived in eight different states and currently resides in Virginia, where she teaches English, reads any book she can get her hands on, and offers tribute to a very spoiled cocker spaniel.
She loves travel, art, history, and ice cream. After spending far too many years of her life in graduate school, she has decided to reorient her priorities and focus on writing contemporary romances.
Connect with Noelle:
Website: http://noelle-adams.com/Home_Page.html
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NoelleAdamsAuthor
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NoelleAdams3
Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/6572847.Noelle_Adams
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