Title: In Too Deep
Author: J Kenner
Publisher/Year:  Martini & Olive 6/9/18
Length:   132 Pages
Series:  Man of the Month #10

Overview

Hannah Donovan is not my type.

Intellectual and career-focused, she’s a lawyer, and an intimidatingly beautiful one, at that. I’d rather pump iron than open a book, and the only reason I’d go to court would be for a traffic ticket.

She’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen. So how can I turn down her plea that I pretend to be her fiancé for one weekend?

But I never expected our pretend kisses to feel so real … or for it to lead to a wild night in bed that will forever stand out as the highlight of my sex life.

Our performance convinces everyone, but it was never meant to be more than a fantasy. A short term gig before reality sets back in.

I can’t imagine ever being good enough for her, but I’m hooked. And now I’m determined to do whatever it takes to make this fake engagement real.

My Thoughts

I really do enjoy the story here even though the whole idea of why they have the contest and what it’s going to accomplish has fallen to the wayside.  What’s nice though is that our amazing author has managed to keep the story lines interwoven while also keeping the plot standalone so you don’t really feel like you’ve missed out should you have not read all the installments

In this 10th book (wow 10 right?) we have the story of Hannah and Mathew.  Hannah is a lead that we really didn’t get much of in the other stories.  she was peripheral at best with some of the stories tied to the others, but i think that it’s about time that she gets to come into her own.  She’s a successful lawyer who’s been stuck in jobs that were making her brain rot.  now that she’s got the potential to break out on her own with Easton, she’s found herself in a situation where she’s without the funding and when she knows how she can get her hands on it from her mom, it means stretching the truth a bit of her life.

Then there’s Matthew, a guy that we know as a friend of some of the other characters and the brother of Selma from the last story.  He like a lot of the others had a rough upbringing, but made something quite amazing of himself, starting a gym, opening several locations and even looking to franchise.

These two know each other and yet won’t admit that there’s a spark until they are forced to put on an act and the chemistry is something that can’t be stopped.  What Ms Kenner does well is give us female leads that are strong and successful but maybe a bit ignorant in all things tied to the heart.  They all seem to put up walls around romance and play more of the ‘guy’ role, and find that the male leads are the ones who are romantic and looking for ways to complete their lives.  This is the exact same instance, but the way that the plot flows is one that’s quite nice – we get to see how both of these characters grow and become something great together.

The questions that we are thinking about here though are to what lengths they have to go in order for Hannah to get her money, and will her parents ever accept her for who she is.  What’s matthews’ thought in all this.  He seems to be so willing to become something that he’s not, yet wants to stay true to himself.  Lastly, when we find that forces pull them apart because appearances are more important to some, well, what will it take to overlook that and maybe find happiness.

So all in all, a story that flows in the same way that the others have, but with enough originality to keep it interesting.  The tease as well for the next installment when we FINALLY get Griffin’s story is a great one and i can’t wait to see where it goes.  Enjoy!