satisfying romance from a favorite author, I love KH's sparkling writing, The story is lovely with not a lot of high flying angst, It is rather the story of a couple who meet in a cute way, help each other out and are really attracted to each other.
But after a romantic interlude the heroine decides that their lifestyles and what they want out of life are not compatible so she breaks it off.
Then she turns up pregnant of course and the rest of story is how they find a compromise.
Both of them are decent people and the writing is lovely with wonderful use of the English language.
A category romance that beautifully illustrates the brilliance of categories: Emotional punch, And that while staying with the structure of a category, it felt fresh, I loved that the heroine was rich, but worked, So often it's only the heroes who are allowed to be rich but professionally engaged, The side characters were welldrawn, people in their own right, Great story. A keeper.
Plus, the title is fantastic, Rating:./
An archaeologist whips up a pretend fiancé to please her dying godmother, Turns out this figment of her wild imagination actually exists, Sort of. Charlotte Greenstone, meet Greyson Tyler, the man of your dreams, Lots of sassy banter, sexy times and complications ensue, This story was especially laugh out loud funny, There are a number of snippets I adore, including this:
"What particular book of etiquette are you working from" he said.
"Mine. "
"Don't suppose you have a spare"
"It's all in my head, "
There's a classy element to Hunter's characters and the situations they land themselves in that is so palpable.
It is quite like watching Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy battle it out on screen with all the sparkling wit and zest that makes them such compelling viewing.
Or in this case, reading, I can see the fun with this author, the couple is totally likeable and their interaction is snappy and what sex there is is quite hot.
But with onlypages on my ereader the setup of this story was a lot of tellingnotshowing because there simply wouldn't have been time otherwise.
That's why the few other characters, except for Grey's mom and his wannabe fiancee impressive, considering she only shows up once, come across as plot puppets especially Millie until Millie and Derek get drafted to be rehearsal people to confess Charlotte's pregnancy to that was hilarious!.
In sum Marion Lennox, who has aboutpages more, seems to write her stories more wellrounded, but Kelly Hunter definitely is unique in her own way.
If she had more space she could be amazing,
Then the pregnancy wouldn't be necessary to get Grey and Charlotte into each other's lives again, and neither would the accident.
It has never taken me longer to get through a Harlequin book than this one, Usually I read those in a couple hours, but it took me days to get through this one.
I really wanted to flounce it, but I like to torture myself, so I kept on reading.
One of the things that annoyed me to no end was the "said she/exlaimed he" crap that littered this book.
You know, author, we don't live in Jane Austen times, You're not Charlotte Brontë, so give up the verb before the pronoun, It's nothing short of annoying and the sole reason why I rate this book with astar.
I really wanted to transfer this book to a word document and go to town on it.
But I'm not getting paid for it, so I didn't want to waste my time, But seriously, this book needs heavy editing from the very first paragraph to the last one, and Harlequin needs to rethink what kind of books they put out there for the public to pay for and read.
This time around, I really feel cheated,
Overall, the story itself does have potential, but with the grammar reading like it was writtenyears ago, this book is a flop.
To comfort her beloved dying godmother the heroine Charlotte pretended to have a fiance, which Charlotte had a great time imagining and describing.
When work colleagues hear about her 'fiance' Charlotte tries to play down the relationship, only one of her friends gets in contact with the company he supposedly worked for asking for a photo to be sent for Charlotte.
Instead of the photo Charlotte actually gets a box full of stuff belonging to a Dr G Tyler, who by some strange coincidence shares both the same surname and job as her madeup fiance.
The hero Greyson tracks Charlotte down in order to reclaim his stuff, which was sent by an incompetent secretary while he was away doing research.
In another strange coincidence it turns out that Greyson also has a madeup significant other, done so in order to make his ex realise things are truly over.
He asks Charlotte to play that role and attend a family gathering and in return he'll play the doting fiance for her friends.
They also act of their attraction to one another and begin a shortterm affair, But when this leads to an accidental pregnancy both of them know they will have to make changes in their lives.
This was a really fun read, it was fast paced, modern, sexy, fun and chock full of witty dialogue and sizzling chemistry.
Yes, this story is based on a set of very strange and, lets face it, unrealistic coincidences but it is brought down to earth with believable characters, and at the end of the day its fiction and not everything has to be deadly serious!
I loved both characters Charlotte was so feisty and independent that I couldn't help but love her and Greyson is both charismatic and aloof! I really enjoyed how both characters had careers that they loved and were both highly intelligent.
Another great element to this
book was that the secondary characters played quite a significant role in the book, and helped to ground the book even more, as well a some nice little comic interludes!
This is a nice read that is light and funny, it will have you laughing out loud but still feeling warm all over like any good romance novel.
Originally posted at sitelink blogspot . I really enjoyed this book, Charlotte the h is an archeology professor at a University in Sidney, Her parents died when she was very young and she was raised by her Godmother, Her Godmother is dying and is worried about Charlotte being all alone, so h invents a fictional fiancee to relieve her Godmother's mind.
The fictional fiancee's name is Thadeus Jeremiah Gilbert Tyler, known as Gil to the h, TJ to his mother and Tyler to his colleagues.
The invented fiancee is all things wonderful and fortunately not available as he is a botanist working in the field in PNG in a very remote location.
After GM dies the h again very imaginatively kills him off, heroically of course, and no body is found as it's intimated that he might have been taken by cannibals.
All of this occurred in the first couple of pages of the prologue, The prologue is hilarious, fall on the floor laugh out loud and shed tears of laughter.
Do not read in a public setting if you're easily embarassed by people seeing you snort with laughter.
The H is Dr, Greyson Tyler, who coincidentally is a botanist who was working in PNG in the same remote location as the fictional fiancee.
Through a series of errors the h ends up with Dr, G. Tylers research and office paraphanalia and the h/H meet,
The rest is their romance including an unplanned pregnancy, The chemistry is good, the obstacles are believable and the HEA sweet,
This is a must read for HP fans who like a nice easy read, with lots of fun witty dialogue and humor.
Overall good story but the abrupt ending was so not good, Also no epilogue. Really who does that. With this Fling was a light read, Charlotte makes up a fiancee for her dying godmother, she's an archaeologist, so were her parents who were legends in the field and she has travelled extensively with her godmother but for the past five years she's been teaching since she's tired of the travel.
Her made up fiancee results in someone's belongings coming to her office and that person is Greyson.
He likes his job, the constant travel and moving around so when Charlotte confesses what she did he has a proposition, she can help him out with an exfiancee that still won't take the hint and he with what she had sown.
They start a fling but when Greyson asks Charlotte to come with him she refuses, hurting him but thinking it's the right thing since they want different things in life.
Of course she finds out that she is pregnant and calls him, He asks for marriage, she for some time for them to get them know each other.
The book was realistic in a way when it comes to demanding careers and the power of compromise, Greyson just didn't suddenly develop the feeling that he no longer wants to travel instead they work things out keeping each others needs in mind and also Charlotte is wealthy.
Rating. As soon as I started reading this book I couldnt help but notice the similarities to another book I had recently read.
A young woman makes up a story about a fake fiancé to appease the worries of her dying godmother.
Insert Grandma worrying, but not dying about her granddaughter and youve got the same setup as Yours to Keep by Shannon Stacey.
Only in With This Fling you get a more cerebrally matched duo in Associate Professor of Archaeology Charlotte Greenstone and Dr.
Greyson Tyler, botanist.
It started out innocently enough and with the best of intentions when Charlotte Greenstone manufactured her imaginary fiancé Thaddeus Jeremiah Gilbert Tyler.
Whoaaa that's a mouthful! Her Godmother Aurora was dying and the stories of Gil as Charlotte called him, eased Auroras worries in her final days.
And after Aurora passed peacefully, . . Charlotte killed off Gil as well, No harm, no foul.
Except Charlottes coworkers found out about her “fiancé” and before Charlotte knows how to stop the runaway train, her nonexistent fiancé arrives in Sydney the form of Dr.
Greyson Tyler.
Greyson Tylers come to claim his belongings inadvertently sent to the esteemed Dr, Greenstone and really hes quite understanding as he discovers the part hes played as Charlottes imaginary fiancé.
Not one to pass up an opportunity, Greyson decides to take advantage of the situation since it seems he finds himself in need of his own fake fiancée for a family function.
Who better to play the part of that loving fiancée than Charlotte herself,
Grey and Charlotte are good together and with all cards on the table they agree to engage in an equally and mutually beneficial relationship with no strings attached.
Beside Greys a traveller, always on the move for his job and Charlottes been there and done that and shes not interested in doing it again.
In the long term they could never have a “real” relationship, Well maybe they could especially with the unexpected surprise they are about to get in say.
. . nine months time.
No theyve got a whole new set of problems to deal with if they are going to become a real family.
Its going to require compromise, sacrifice and big adjustments to make their relationship work, . . if its even possible. .