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–Synopsis–

The bad boy feels the McQuaid legacy of love is out of his reach. Maybe it’s closer than he realizes.

After a bad breakup, country music star Brock McQuaid finds his ratings tanking as fans begin to question whether he’s really experienced the love he sings about so passionately. To salvage his reputation, he agrees to pretend to fall in love with supermodel Venus Vargas, because she needs his help too.

Venus always thought she would marry her best friend Reed. But when he throws a surprise party celebrating his engagement to another woman, Venus finds herself scrambling to make sense of her relationship with him. To keep from being humiliated, she agrees to fake date Brock McQuaid.

The power couple makes headlines, but how long can they keep up their charade? Or is it a charade? The more time they spend together, the more real the relationship begins to feel. Will they be able to overcome the obstacles holding them back from love before their sham comes crashing down and crushes them both?

–Review–

If you enjoy famous people putting on a fake relationship and yet, falling fast and hard for each other, you should enjoy this book. As another dual-POV story following the Country music star Brock McQuaid, and the model love interest Venus Vargas.

The world feels much bigger then the first book since you experience different countries a bit due to the nature of both Brock’s and Venus’s careers. There is a short stent at the family’s ranch, but it only takes up a few chapters in the book and is actually when one of the major plot developments happen. While it was nice to experience the beautiful Colorado ranch once again, I am glad it took a back seat in this book since we explored it pretty extensively with Tyler and Kinsey’s love story.

I will say, I am not a big fan of having celebrities as the main characters since that lifestyle with all the assistants, managers, publicity stunts, etc., is really annoying and overwhelming to me. However, I thought it was handled rather nicely in this story. It was difficult to relate to Brock and Venus, but they genuinely were down to earth people, so it made it much easier to become invested in their stories.

Brock McQuaid has been struggling to find his true love and fulfill the McQuaid family’s legacy of falling fast and hard with their soul mate. Being front and center in the public eye, all of his past relationships have been highly scrutinized, even going so far as effecting his career. After all, writing and singing songs preaching about love, while coming off as somebody who cannot commit, feels a bit disconnected. He is quick to agree to fake dating Venus for this very purpose. Throughout the book he struggles with his true feelings towards her and feeling the pressure from his father to get the girl. He remains an utmost gentleman and is honestly a very loveable and agreeable person.

Venus Vargas personifies the Covergirl top model that is celebrated in our own culture today. Honestly, I was afraid I was not going to be able to enjoy her character due to the assumption I made that she was going to be whiny, egotistical, and one dimensional. As it turns out, she retained her humility and professionalism, so she was rather an enjoyable character to delve into. Due to her own negative past with relationships, a lot of which stems from the fact her own mother has been on the lookout for her next serious relationship since Venus’s dad walked out on them, she developed some feelings for her childhood friend who just so happens to be marrying someone else. She is quick to agree to the fake relationship as well with the idea of making her initial love interest jealous. She is a mature and realistic person who is scared to fall into love, so she tends to push and pull instead of accepting the love that is offered. She has the biggest character development in the book for me.

The relationship between Brock and Venus is deliciously slow burn. It begins with some superficial flirting and physical contact for the cameras and evolves into some deeper attractions and emotions. The kissing scenes were electrifying and you could feel the tension and sparks of these two. Brock’s singing career came in clutch with the romance since he began using her as inspiration for his music, leading to a very romantic moment at the very end of the book. The ‘chasing’ segment of their story felt more dramatic than the previous book which I enjoyed a lot. The added distance between them made the tension feel so much thicker and genuine for me.

All in all, I thought this was a nice continuation of the ‘Healing Springs Ranch’ series. The next book seems to follow the only daughter in the family and the supposed romance with a fake prince, so that sounds interesting to me. This was a nice book for me to jump back into reading and reviewing a lot more regularly once again.

-About the Author-

Jody Hedlund is the best-selling author of over seventy books and is the winner of numerous awards. She writes sweet, clean romances with plenty of sizzle (but without the spice).