365 books in 365 days Challenge ... book #7

Fiancé Wanted Fast! - Jessica Hart

Mills and Boon Tender Romance

Single title-

Harlequin Mills and Boon, 2003

ISBN: 9780263833720

Reprint -

Convenient Engements By Request

Harlequin Mills and Boon, 201
ISBN: 9780263884319

My Rating

From the back cover:

"Husband in a hurry...

Phoebe is stuck: she has to go to her ex-fiancé's wedding, put on a brave face and pretend her life is just perfect. So her best friends devise a plan to help her out: she can hire their gorgeous new flat-mate Gib to pose as her doting new fiancé! It sounds like a perfect plan - except Gib's not all he seems... He's actually in disguise, to prove that he can be friends with a woman without getting involved!

Easy, Gib thought - but that was before he met Phoebe..."

This is the first book in the 'City Brides' mini-series by Jessica Hart (if you pick up the By Request version, as I did, then this will have all three of them together). I have only read one previous Jessica Hart book ('Juggling Briefcase & Baby' in the RIVA line) and was impressed with her writing style, so I was excited to start reading this! It's definately worth it!

The female character, Phoebe, is still heartbroken after her long term fiancé left her for someone else, said former fiancé is now getting married and Pheobe is expected to go to the wedding. To make matters worse, her and her ex's families are very close and it will be very akward for all involved. Her enthusiastic friends convince her to ask their new (male) flatmate to pose as her new boyfriend and go with her to the wedding. The new flatmate, Gib, is staying with the girls after his friend challenged him to just be friends with women. Gib hides both this and his actual career from the girls but as time progresses both he and Phoebe start to develop feelings for one another.

I really loved this book, and I thought the characters were fantastic. Jessica Hart has the ability to write fantastic 'bridget jones-esq' female characters, hopeless romantics and with the habit of finding themselves in odd situations, they also have this fantastic innate British quality about them! This book has some genuine funny moments and witty banter! The chemistry between the two characters is great, I especially loved Phoebe's exasperation from Gib's habit of embellishing on the 'rules'! This is by no means a passionate romance, but rather a slow paced sweet development of their love, which left me with a smile!

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