Overall: 4.5 rounded to ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Readability: 📖📖📖📖 (I really was interested in this one and wanted to keep reading it, but at some points it felt long and I lost that strong motivation. Almost a 5 though!)
Feels: 🦋🦋🦋🦋
Emotional Depth: 💔💔💔💔
Sexual Tension: ⚡⚡⚡⚡
Romance: 💞💞💞💞
Sensuality: 💋💋💋💋
Sex Scene Length: 🍑🍑🍑🍑
Steam Scale (Number of Sex Scenes): 🔥
Humor: Yes
Perspective: First person only from the heroine
More character focused or plot focused? character
How did the speed of the story feel? slow
When mains are first on page together: Immediately
Cliffhanger: No, this ends with a happily ever after
Epilogue: Yes, 4-5 years later
Format: I started the paperback from the library, but then realized it was on kindle unlimited and switched to that and then realized I had the audiobook even though when I initially searched for it, it was showing up that I had to buy it (from the edition change??) so then I listened to most of it.

Should I read in order?
This is a stand alone novel.

Basic plot:
Vanessa has had enough of being Aiden’s doormat. She thinks she’s getting her life on track when he shows up at her apartment and proposes a shocking bargain.

Give this a try if you want:
- contemporary romance
- former employer/employee romance
- football player hero (plays defense)
- fake relationship vibes
- heroine wears glasses
- thunderstorm cuddles
- artist/graphic designer dreaming heroine (who is an assistant/cook/housekeeper for our hero when the story opens)
-

celibate hero

- size difference – heroine is 5’7” and hero is 6’4”
- bargain - 

  Aiden will pay off Vanessa’s student loans and buy her a house if she marries him to get him a visa to the country 

- low steam – there is only one full scene at the end of the book

Ages:
- Hero is 30, heroine is around 26

First line:
I was going to murder his ass.

My thoughts:
So I'll be honest I loved it WAY more than I thought I was going to. My expectations were low for some reason, maybe just because it was contemporary and I saw how long it was haha.

I have a few minor complaints. I do think some of her scenes/conversations went in circles for too long. There were a couple scenes I felt like we had already went over this a time or two and was ready to move on.

I really wanted Vanessa to break away from her abusive family. I have suffered with an abusive family and sometimes the only option for your own safety and mental health is no contact. The best and desired outcome doesn't have to be a working relationship with those people. And what killed me was at the very end of the book, Vanessa is STILL blaming HERSELF for how the relationship hasn't been as good as it could have been. No. No no no no no. I wanted her to get more confidence and self love by leaving her family in the dust This is totally my personal trauma talking but it bothers me immensely.

I think Aiden was a jerk and kind of stayed a bit of a jerk through the whole book (certain situations with the lack of talking to her and telling her to shut up/kind of assuming she should know what he’s thinking...it definitely gets way better as the book goes on and he doesn’t mean it maliciously.) And if you know me, you know I love that. But - with Vanessa being such an empathetic person and always feeling like she should do more, that she is in the wrong, her self confidence is usually on the low end and I think that remained a bit too unbalanced. She would be over the moon with him doing the most basic kindness to her and while I was loving those scenes and placated by his turn around, I still think it was a little unbalanced by the end. I wanted him to cry over her. Not The Land Before Time.

Now I know this book wouldn't have been the same at all with Aiden's perspective because those revelations at the end are so heart melting. But....but! I love hero POV and missed it here.

The word penis.

I know that kind of seems like a lot, but it’s not overall. I really enjoyed this book. I found myself eager to come back to it and I read it way faster than I have a lot of way shorter books recently and that says a lot about how much I was into this story!

Some things I loved -

I was worried they weren't going to be on page together a lot in the book and was so happy that they spent the entire book together pretty much. I never was left with a feeling of wanting them together more.

I adored her relationship with Zack and how Aiden supported it. Loved that so much. It was really refreshing seeing a male/female relationship that doesn’t turn awkward because it turns sexual and I loved that Aiden wasn’t threatened by it.

I loved the slow burn. It built up so much great character depth and tension and longing for me. It definitely makes the sex so much more powerful to me when we get there. I didnt even mind that there was basically only one scene because I was melting over them at that point.

I adored all the time spent on all those little things that I adore in romance. So, so many scenes of little things, growth in the relationship, changes...and I feel like I miss it so much in so many romances. It's all I want haha. There were so many little interactions and scenes that I just loved. (Elevator scene, Dragon Ball Z watching, thunderstorm cuddles…)

He's a fucking vegetarian!!!!! omg loooooooooooove.

I absolutely am more eager to read more by her now.

Endearments

The hero calls her ‘muffin’. 

Content warnings: These should be taken as a minimum of what to expect. It’s very possible I have missed some.

- the hero is a bit of a jerk
- marriage fraud is a plot point
- domestic abuse remembered by mains, and off page of side character
- child neglect and alcoholism (heroine’s mom)
- child abuse, physical abuse, attempted murder by a family member
- being trapped in an elevator without power resulting in a panic attack

Locations of kisses/intimate scenes:

 
Safe sex: 

No, he comes inside her the first time but it mentions it before and they’ve both been celibate for awhile (no talk of STD checks, but Aiden hasn’t been with anyone since high school) 

 
Hows the consent? 

It’s good. There’s one full scene and he asks before. 

 
Chapter 25 – kiss
Chapter 28 – kisses
Chapter 30 – sideways in bed?, then her on top
“I want to come inside you,” he whispered into my ear.
//
“You have no idea what you do to me, Van. No idea.” He repeated the motion. “Do you want to know how many times I’ve jerked off to you in this bed? In the shower?”