Customer Reviews

Hollywood Husband, Contract Wife (Romance Large)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(4)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

It just did not work for me. I usually like the Alpha males even when other reviewers claim they are the biggest jerks and should not have been forgiven in the end. What I like is their change and how they redeem themselves in the end. That just did not happen in this book. Instead, the author placed the entire blame on the heroine's insecurity. I don't think there are many woman out there who would be secure enough in a marriage of convenience to withstand her husband spending all his time and effort on the woman he supposedly really loves and can't be with. But what really ruins this book is the fact that, although he spends the entire book telling her what to do and getting angry at her, the moment she asks him to put her first he walks out on her. And is gone for months!!!! Then when he comes back and she calls him on it he shrugs and says "you issued me an ultimatum". That to me shows a complete disregard and disrespect for her feelings. In the end, the author tries to redeem the hero somewhat but it was a very minimal effort and just was not enough.

Alexandra (Alex) Shanahan had moved to Lost Angeles to make her way in Hollywood. But despite her talent, she's stuck as a low-level go-fer in a large studio. When she gets an unusual offer, she has to think about it. If she'll act as top movie star Wolf Kerrick's girlfriend for a month or so, he'll pay her more than she makes at the studio, give her wonderful clothes, access to fashion and makeup consultants, and guarantee her an assistant director slot in an upcoming major film. Persistent rumors that he's involved with a married woman threaten to destroy his career.

The offer would be too much to even consider rejecting--except Alex had a brief failed past with Wolf--a past she's certain he doesn't even remember since it's been years, she's lost weight, and, well, a man like Wolf doesn't dwell on the past. Finally, though, Alex agrees. She can do it, pretend to be his lover, fake an interest in a man she's had a crush on since she was a girl and saw him in an early film.

The act seems to be working--the tabloids instantly latch onto her as Wolf's latest flame, but the married woman, an acting super-star, keeps up the pressure. When, in a freakish coincidence, Alex is drugged and almost raped, Wolf decides he needs to marry her to protect both of their reputations. One thing Alex is certain of--if they're married, sex is definitely going to be part of the story. Still, there's the important matter of the other woman--Alex just isn't up to sharing.

Author Jane Porter (see more BooksForABuck.com reviews of romance by Jane Porter) does a great job delivering on the fantasy--Hollywood stylists and mega-exclusive hairdressers transform plain-Jane Alex into a glamorous beauty, Wolf's unlimited funds and plans for an African film, mean they can travel, dine in top restaurants, and be treated like American royalty. I found it hard, though, to suspend disbelief enough to buy into the whole date of convenience/marriage of convenience thing. Double-standard or not, male actors are not condemned for their affairs with married female actors--the female takes the blame. Insisting on marrying her when the tabloids took her alergic reaction to a date-rape drug as evidence of attempted suicide strained my credulity a bit too far. Alex should have reported her assailant to the police, and the police report would have served as better proof of Wolf's innocence than any marriage.

I did like Wolf's attraction to Alex's innocence (again, delivering the Cinderella fantasy), with the plot twist/complication this brought. Ultimately, despite Porter's engaging writing, I just couldn't buy the whole plot device.

Alexandra Shanahan left her Montana home and family to try to make her way in Hollywood and try to become her own individual self. While tabloids are screaming about his affair with a married woman, heart throb Wolf Kerrick, the big movie sensation, needs to repair his image. What better way to divert the tabloids? He gets a new girlfriend and makes sure their orchestrated romance is in front of the cameras! One dinner here and one opening there; a matinee here and a party there ---all in front of the celebrity hungry public. One spilt drink on her party dress leads to a marriage.....to a man she hates and then one misstep after another.

I enjoyed seeing the fun, crazy places that Jane Porter led her heroine. I only wish that she had added a line or two to explain why Wolf went to Alexandra in the beginning. I also would have liked her to flesh out a bit more the relationship between Wolf and Joy or Wolf and his family to prepare the reader just a bit more for the departure scene and the resolution. Nevertheless, this is novel is a thrilling read.

What a fun ride Jane Porter makes for her characters and her readers!

The heroine Alexandra is the youngest child of 6 and the only girl who grew up on a ranch and was now in Hollywood to make a name for herself. Even though she's only a go-fer where she works, for some reason she's recommended to Wolf Kerrick, a superstar actor, to play his fake girlfriend. The press is all over the fact that he's been having an affair with his married costar and he's hoping to drop the bad rep in time for his new movie.

Alexandra hates Wolf because she used to idol-worship him and she'd actually met him a few years before, but after her bungled attempts to unzip his pants he realized that she had no experience and dropped her. But with the promise of a very healthy paycheck and being able to direct a big name movie if she agrees, she becomes his fake girlfriend.

The story is extremely detailed in the settings and the clothing. So detailed it's like reading Entertainment Tonight, and that's not a good thing. There was more attention paid to where they were going, staying, and the history behind each thing as well as what she was wearing and who made it than there was to the actual character development, story development and relationship between the hero and heroine.

When it finally gets to the point where we can get some emotion put into the story, the whole thing goes sideways when her logical to me reasons turned into her insecurity that eventually he was going to cheat on her because he was a superstar and she was just ordinary. I saw that one coming, not.

The potential for a good story was there, but it was lost in unimportant details and lack of follow through on the relationship between the hero and heroine. There was nothing in the story to make it bad simply because there really wasn't much story.

Think he has a hidden agenda but not sure what it is as we don't get his point of view really. Only hers so we have all her doubts and insecurities and interpretations of his actions and words that he says to her. He shows that he cares about her early on in the relationship but he never gives the words either. In one scene where we are enlightened with his thoughts he claims to not like the women there in Hollywood. They are fake, worried about their bodies, fixated on how they look, etc., yet from day one he wants to make over Alexandra. He says she doesn't even try. So she has to have an initial makeover and then before every date a stylist comes over to help her prepare for her date with Wolf and have the right clothes.

He never really opens up about Joy to Alex or why he feels he needs to help her. He just tells her not to believe everything that is in the tabloids. He lets Joy basically rake Alexandra over the coals at a press conference and he NEVER does anything publicly to correct this. He tells Alex, "I don't care what Joy said. I'm telling you the truth. And it's me you need to believe. I'm your husband. I`m the one you turn to when you need something, when you doubt, when you question sanity. It's me. Understand?" Yet when she does he doesn't provide any of these things. If given the choice between Joy or his wife, Alex, he chose Joy. He walks out when she tells him she needs him. Wolf is gone for months and months with no contact with his wife . . . nothing until she finally emails him stating that she is going to file for a divorce. He doesn't reply to the email but she sees him at a party later on and she sees him pull a woman to his side. . . Joy. Wolf confronts Alex at work the next day. She says that this isn't the time that she is working and he says, "And work is more important than us? Than our marriage, our family?" She says that he chose to stand by Joy and of course he offers up his reasons with her being an alcoholic and struggling and she says he should have stood by her. Of course he says he did. He's here and he is contesting the divorce. Um . . . Where was he all those months before? Where was he when Joy called repeatedly like he was her sponsor? Her counselor? Then suddenly the whole thing turns and it is all based upon Alex's insecurities how she is insecure in the whole relationship and that it really isn't anything to do with Joy. Who wouldn`t be insecure in this relationship? It started with a contract and at no time did Wolf mention that he loved her. In fact he mocks her for being a virgin at 23 and holding out for a hero. All of his actions showed him supporting Joy over Alex. When Joy had humiliated Alex, Wolf didn't say anything to disabuse the press of what Joy had said. When Wolf was given an "ultimatum" his words he chose to walk away and give her time to think. Well she thought and she decided to divorce him. Of course he comes running back then. If Alex was so insecure don't you think she would have been wondering if or who Wolf was hooking up with in the meantime? Wouldn`t she have tucked her tail between her legs and returned home to her father and brothers?

Wolf was 35 and he lived in Hollywood if he was so worldly don't you think he would have put it together that the first step for an alcoholic is to admit they have a problem. No one else can do that for them. They have to seek the help. For the most part Alex was a good character at least until she became the fall guy for the whole relationship. I think her only fault was believing the romance and giving up her morals and values to achieve what she wanted quicker than working her way to it. She should have run not walked away from Wolf. Wolf well perhaps he is guilty of believing his own press releases. If the ending could have been cleaned up a bit more with a bit more of a resolution to the story and not blaming the heroine for some supposed insecurities that the hero never even tried to rectify then this would have been a keeper book. I think Wolf should have been shown that he really wasn't there for his wife and the reader should have been privy to that too. Maybe then that could have redeemed his character.

Back Cover:

Leading man Wolf Kerrick is always in the headlines. This time the sexy Spanish superstar has taken Alexandra, an unknown, ordinary girl, and turned her into an instant celebrity, then into his Hollywood bride. But all the glitz and glamour of their lavish wedding is tarnished by a dirty secret- and if the tabloids find out, there'll be shock waves throughout the world...

Wow, what a great story. One usually doesn't expect a lot from a 180 page harlequin paperback, but this story really had depth. The characters were completely fleshed out, the story was compelling...this was a "can't put it down" kind of book.

Alexandra is a lowly assistant who gets the chanCe of a lifetime, playing the pseudo-girl friend of Hollywood's biggest heart throb. Wolf Kerrick, the enigmatic sexy hero, needs damage control in the form of a wholesome beauty to eclipse a recent scandal. The whole cast of characters (Alex's 5 older brothers, a jealous actress) make this a rich and satisfing read.

Book Description: Leading man Wolf Kerrick is always in the headlines. This time the sexy Spanish superstar has taken Alexandra, an unknown, ordinary girl, and turned her into an instant celebrity, then into his Hollywood bride! But all the glitz and glamour of their lavish wedding is tarnished by a dirty secret--and if the tabloids find out, there'll be shock waves throughout the world...

Wonderful story incorporating Hollywood's media machine, public images, false impressions, travel, a dash of world and social issues, family issues, health issues, etc.; just enough to give the story depth. To this add a nice hunky actor (with more depth then the surface suggests), an ordinary girl (who could be any woman), the required interfering "other" female (the kind you just love to hate), romance, passion, and a well written story. The story of Tynan Wolfe Kerrick and Alexandra Shanahan all adds up to an enjoyable quick read (under 200 pages) and a pleasant way to spend an afternoon.

No synopsis here, people have been there,done that. This guy is an emotional cheater, just as bad as a physical one really. He spends his time going out with his friend( getting photographed)to support her? He doesn't even tell his wife what his friend's problem is. He doesn't call his wife and give her a head's up about the appearances together or photos taken. He appears at parties with the friend ( drawing her closely to him) and doesn't speak to his wife. She should never have married him. He pulled himself out at the end. Excuses,excuses. Run little girl, while you've got the chance!

Warning spoilers a head: Wolf is a world famous movie star and Alex is just an average Jane but that doesn't stop her from taking the job of Wolf's pretend girlfriend to keep the press off his back about his relationship with his sometimes co-star Joy. Wolf has a unhealthy co-dependent relationship with Joy who is an alcoholic while Wolf is her enabler. Everything that Wolf does is for Joy, even starting his relationship with Alex.

There is nothing really wrong with this book but the ending really bugged me. Wolf spends the whole time attached at the hip to Joy, always ALWAYS putting her first and never telling Alex how he feels about her, only promising that he and Joy are only friends. But what woman wouldn't have issues with her husband staying out until all hours with his gorgeous "friend" or talking to her on the phone more than two teen aged BFFs do? When Alex calls him on it, he tells her she is being selfish, petty and insecure and he walks out on her leaving her crying even after her apologizing for wanting her husband to just once put her first. Pathetic.

Honestly what woman wouldn't be insecure if their husband was obviously emotionally cheating and had never once say he loved her? In the end he never even tells her he loves her. After he abandons her, doesn't come back for months and never gets in contact with her, she files for divorce and only does he finally come back a few weeks later, still attached at the hip to Joy and publicly canoodling with her. He tells her that he "loved her" and "would have done anything for her." Not love, not will, but the past tense. He never apologizes for his treatment of Alex, of constantly ignoring her while showering his attention on Joy. We are supposed to believe that because Wolf had an alcoholic parent he is going to behave this way towards Joy and it makes no sense. His behavior could only hurt Joy, not help. He enabled her ever step of the way and this cop out that Alex was the one with the problem was not only utterly incorrect but insulting! What woman in her right mind would accept 15 minutes of sex a night as a man giving his all to a relationship? What man can even call himself a man if he considers his wife begging for his support as an ultimatum. In one line Wolf says something like, "Alcoholism is disease and you are lucky not to have it." I couldn't help but thinking if Alex did have it he might spend more than 15 minutes a day with her. I disliked the ending because Wolf never owned up to the fact he caused 90% of all the problems in their marriage. The last few pages ended any of the enjoyment I had for this book and I hope in the years to come this author can give it a rewrite.

2 stars, it would have been 4 stars if Alex wasn't forced to take the blame for her husband being a total narrow minded prick.

it was a breath of fresh air for me haven't read that much romance novels with this concept but i thought the end with the brothers was great for me wonder if she'll do a story about the brothers...