Groom by Arrangement

by Susanne McCarthy

A perfect stranger asked me to marry him today...Why? Because he's found out that my stepfather has full control of my business until I turn twenty-five or marry -- whichever comes first. I need to gain control because my stepfather is a crook. This could be the perfect proposal....Of course, it's ridiculous! I've only just met this mysterious Hugh Garratt. I certainly don't know if I can trust him -- or his motives. But then, he is the sexiest, most seductive man I've ever met....

Genres: Harlequin Presents

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

I'm a Londoner, though now I live in Devon, a twenty-minute walk from the sea. I love nothing more than walking my pretty Cavapoo on the beach in the rain (well, OK, I don't object to the sun, but when it's raining we usually have the whole beach to ourselves.)

Back in the day I had 25 novels published by Mills&Boon. After a long gap doing other things I found my love of writing again, and self-published three new novels.

But I knew that to reach more readers I needed an established publisher. Step in Joffe Books. They were top of my list so I was delighted when they accepted the first novel I sent them.

This could be the beginning of a beautiful friendship.

Reviews

[Naksed · Rating 3 out of 5]

Our heroine is the owner of a casino on a small private Caribbean island. Her stepfather is in charge until she is 25 years old or she marries, whichever comes first, and he is acting shady as hell. Our hero is a tycoon who shows up to the casino with an axe to grind with the heroine's stepdad. Apparently, unscrupulous stepdad bilked hero's naive, young nephew out of hundreds of thousands in gambling debts. Hero takes his revenge by hustling the stepdad to the tune of half a mil. It's like Cool Hand Luke, but with poker. Stepdad goes nuts. Apparently, he owes a lot of money to some shady mobsters in Florida and desperately needs the heroine to sell the casino to them at a bargain basement price. So he locks her into a cellar until he gets her signature. Heroine escapes, with the help of her stepdad's hooker with a heart of gold girlfriend and decides to enter a marriage of convenience with the hero, so she can kick out the stepdad from her casino. Stepdad tries to kill them both and as they both dive in front of each other to save the other's life, they realize it's twu luv after all lol. Stepdad is taken to jail and the tycoon and heroine have their HEA, including converting the casino into a first class hotel resort. It was ridiculous and over the top and filled with unintentionally comical purple prose but it was entertaining for what it was, just like a night at the casino.

[Live2Read · Rating 3 out of 5]

Could be worse, could be better. Romance took a backseat with this one with suspense in the front. While there was strong chemistry between the hero & heroine, the romance did suffered due to the other stuff going on in the book. No real character development, didn’t feel their connection. Despite the hero’s reason to be at the casino, I think he really was just bored with his life so he hopped on a random island humoring everyone with his wicked eyes, wicked smiles as he amuses wickedly before he ditches them all. Ohhh, what a wicked guy!!!
The marriage actually doesn’t take place until almost at the end of the book. By then, they knew each other for 48-72 hours...the span of the book was about a week. So either everything happened real quick or real slow, you pick.

[More Books Than Time · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lots of fun with a bit of suspense seasoning the love story

[RomLibrary]

A perfect stranger asked me to marry him today...
Why? Because he's found out that my stepfather has full control of my business until I turn twenty-five or marry -- whichever comes first. I need to gain control because my stepfather is a crook. This could be the perfect proposal....

Of course, it's ridiculous! I've only just met this mysterious Hugh Garratt. I certainly don't know if I can trust him -- or his motives. But then, he is the sexiest, most seductive man I've ever met....