A Christmas Proposition
4 Stars

No stranger to scandal, Stefanie Ferguson once again finds her name associated with an obnoxious former suitor and the only way to distract social media is to marry as soon as possible. Unfortunately, the only trustworthy candidate, Emmett Keaton, is the one man who pushes all her buttons. Can Stefanie and Emmett get past their mutual animosity to address the underlying passion that has always been there?

Lemmon saved the best for last.

Stefanie and Emmett's love/hate chemistry is off the charts, and the book avoids the problematic pitfalls of the first two installments, i.e., the heroines' 'doormatish' tendencies.

Stefanie is a lovely heroine who truly cares about people despite her "poor little rich girl" facade. Emmett's backstory is heartbreaking and goes a long way toward his reluctance to form an emotional attachment to Stefanie. Thankfully, he gets some sense knocked into him and alls well that ends well.

Looking forward to reading more Jessica Lemmon books. ( )

This book was recommended to me by one of Harlequin's publicists when I inquired about another title, so I was skeptical. It's the third in a series about Dallas Billionaires and by an author I'd never tried, so I wasn't sure how jumping into the series with this book would go.

I'm happy to say that this book stands alone quite well and it was the fake-marriage fluff I needed when my brain was tired from starting a new job.

Stef made the mistake of sleeping with a jerk a while back, and now he's running against her brother for Mayor of Dallas. He's also friends with a gossip columnist, so he's convinced the world that he and Stef are getting married. Stef feels like a colossal f-up, so she hatches a plan to get married to someone else and prove Blake (the jerk) wrong.

Enter Emmett, her brother's Head of Security for the last decade. Emmett grew up poor, with a father wrecked by the death of Emmett's mother and sister. He feels like an outsider among the wealthy Fergusons, but he agrees to Stef's fake-marriage plan. As long as they don't fall in love, everything will be fine... right?

I assumed I'd hate the family because they're billionaires, but I was able to ignore a lot about the underpinnings of a wealthy oil family and the ways in which they earn/keep their fortune. Lemmon also humanizes Stef in a number of ways that made her a much deeper character than the socialite caricature she could have been.

Stef and Emmett have great chemistry and this was a quick Christmas read without too much angst. Perfect for a lazy winter evening.



Suzanne received a copy of this novel from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )