Friday, December 14, 2012

The Marriage Trap (Marriage to a Billionare #2) by Jennifer Probst

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Source: Purchased audio book

From Goodreads:

WIFE WANTED…

Italian billionaire seeks faux fiancée. Willing to agree to anything in return...

In order for his sister to marry, Italian billionaire Michael Conte has to find himself a bride – and fast! When he learns that photographer Maggie Ryan is going to be in Milan, Michael hatches a plan to introduce her to his family as his “fiancée.” Never mind that Maggie is confident, independent, and a control freak. Never mind that she’s everything he doesn’t want in a wife… and everything he wants in his bed!

Convinced that Michael is in love with her married gal pal, Maggie agrees to keep up the ruse if he’ll keep away from her friend. Besides, she’s not attracted to charming, ridiculously hot billionaires who drive her nuts. Once they’re in Italy, however, everything changes – and the sexual tension between Maggie and Michael goes from simmer to naked nuclear meltdown!

But have they found the perfect arrangement… or are they trapped in a make-believe marriage?


My Thoughts:




3 stars- Pretense heightens the steamy chemistry in this one

Since I listened to this book, let me first comment on the narrator.  This book was narrated by Madeline Maby.  At first, I liked this reader better than the one for the first book.  But as the story went on, I found that her voice for Michael just didn't work for me.  Her voice made him sound old and not sexy.  I had a hard time relating the sexy actions to the voice.  I'm sad to say that I do think it affected my enjoyment of the book.  Not sure I would recommend listening to this one.

Trying to put the voice aside, I did like this story but not as much as I did the first book in this series.  I really didn't take the magic spell that is cast in both books very seriously and yet the whole series revolves around who gets the book with the spell in it.  The third book was set up with the book being passed along to the next female in need of love.  While I guess it's cute, it didn't work for me and I wish that very small piece of the plot had just been left out.

In the first book, I really loved Alexa.  She brought the book alive for me.  In this book, I'm not a Maggie fan.  She's just down right mean too much of the time for me to like.  I get that she's in protection mode but I saw the real her enough to know that she doesn't need to act that way.  It frustrated me.  I do like Michael but not as much as I did Nick in the first book.  The characters I did like were secondary.  I loved Michaels mom the most.  She was so on to them and yet that part of the story never gets wrapped up.  That made me sad.  I also loved Carina, who will be the star in book 3.

I liked the story and it had lots of hot sexy scenes but it lacked the "show" of the first book.  I found myself wondering why the author needed to explain so much instead of showing me.  Maybe I've been reading too many Urban Fantasy books lately, but I really had a hard time with the internal speeches that led to realizations.  And Maggie had bounced back and forth so many times, I might have had whiplash trying to keep up.

Okay, I really did like this book but it was just a let down after reading the first one.  I might pick up book 3 if I have the time.

If you like your sexy on the steamy side, then this one is a good choice.

4 comments:

  1. Ugh, I hate it when I end up with a reader that doesn't seem to go with the story. I love audiobooks, but sometimes the reader can really ruin my enjoyment of a book. On the other hand sometimes they make it even better. It's too bad that this isn't as good as the first one, but it still sounds good. Great review chick!

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  2. This one was least favorite, but I still enjoyed it. I understand what you mean about the narrator. I think it's tough to listen to a book when a female reads the male parts. Especially sexy scenes. I do hope you pick up the third book though. The third one was my favorite in the series so far.

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  3. I'm not a big audio book fan because I'm always scared of about the narrator voice.. It really can effect how much you enjoy a book or not. I haven't heard of this book, it does sound interesting :) Loved your review!

    Magen Corrie

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  4. I love audiobooks, but a poor narrator will ruin a story. I did not like the narrator for the Soul Screamers series.

    I've been meaning to start this series. It sounds like great, sweet romance.

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