PACKAGED HUSBAND (Trophy Husbands #3) by Noelle Adams-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date January 15, 2019

On a Wednesday afternoon, Owen Masterson asks me to marry him.

I’ve never met the man before.

All I wanted was a job repackaging his image. He needs to ramp up his cool-factor to attract partnerships with better designers for his family’s department store. But he wants me to be his temporary trophy wife instead.

I need to get out from under my grandfather’s control and don’t really care how I do it. Honestly, I’ll rock the hell out of being a temporary trophy wife.

So maybe I’ll marry him for a year, even though he has no social skills and he’s a lot older than me. But I’m not going to fall for him.

I hope.

•••••••••

REVIEW: PACKAGED HUSBAND is the third instalment in Noelle Adams’ contemporary, adult TROPHY HUSBANDS erotic, romance series. This is forty-one year old, businessman Owen Masterson, and twenty-four year old Chelsea Greyson’s story line. PACKAGED HUSBAND can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous instalments is revealed where necessary.

Told from first person point of view (Chelsea) PACKAGED HUSBAND follows the marriage of convenience between forty-one year old, businessman Owen Masterson, and twenty-four year old Chelsea Greyson. Owen Masterson needs a total make-over: from fashion to hair-cut, attitude and emotion, Owen’s outward appearance is a direct representation of the family owned business Masterson’s Department Stores, a business caught in a time-loop, barely able to survive. Enter twenty-four year old Chelsea Greyson, the youngest granddaughter of Pop’s Greyson, and a woman struggling to find her place in the world. Knowing Owen is desperate, Chelsea offers to become Owen’s wife, an offer with an expiry date after one year. What ensues is the slow building and awkward relationship between Owen and Chelsea, and the potential fall-out as Owen panics when his feelings become real.

The relationship between Chelsea and Owen begins as a business arrangement. Chelsea has no experience in the working world, and offers herself up to be the store’s latest intern. As the weeks turn into months, feelings develop between our leading couple, feelings that may not be reciprocated –in one way or another. The $ex scenes are intimate, passionate and intense without the use of over the top, sexually graphic language and text.

We are re-introduced to Chelsea’s sisters and their significant others: Trevor and Melissa (Part-Time Husband #1) Hunter and Samantha (Practice Husband #2), as well as their grandfather Pops Greyson, and Chelsea’s best friend Eva.

PACKAGED HUSBAND is a story of family, friendship, desperation and love. Owen’s cold demeanor, and lack of any personality is less than engaging-even our heroine calls him ‘grandpa’ and ‘old fuddy-duddy’, and in this Owen is a difficult character to like or get to know. The premise is entertaining; the romance struggles in the face of misperception, misunderstandings, and the lack of knowledge about one another; the characters battle issues of self-esteem, issues that are continuously reinforced throughout the story. PACKAGED HUSBAND is some-what heart-breaking in that Chelsea Greyson is hoping for love while Owen Masterson, out of touch with the real world, is oblivious to his wife’s fracturing heart.

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy