Title: Marriage Auction
Author: Audrey Carlan
Publisher/Year:  Blue Box Press 1.24.23
Length:  354 pages
Series: Marriage Auction #3

Overview

Four young women enter into a clandestine auction to be married to the highest bidders. For no less than a million dollars a year, for three years, each woman will do what it takes to secure her future. Entangled in a high-stakes game of money, lust, power, and the hope for absolution, this group of women becomes a sisterhood unlike any other.

Once chosen by a man she’s never met and agrees to marry sight unseen…there is no going back. Hidden secrets, wicked desires, fiery couplings and intense family drama are all part of the deal when you willingly enter into The Marriage Auction.

You may now kiss the bride…

My Thoughts

Again, no new summary, but for you guys – i’ll share that we get the continuation of the stories of our couples. We see that they are starting to settle into their new dynamics and even with that, life is going on around them and not always in the best of ways.

Sutton and Kota are still going strong in Montana, and it’s truly enjoyable to watch how they grow together. For two people who have known each other their whole lives, it’s so interesting to see how one sided things are with knowledge about life and history. It makes you feel really bad for what Savannah and Dakota had to go through and the information that was shared with them as it wasn’t the truth. Kota asks Sutton to share what he knows about the family history and when she learns things that she doesn’t want to hear and believe, it’s an eye opening situation to uncover the truths. It’s a true Hatfields and McCoys or whatever that old timey reference is on families feuding. They have a few additional rollercoasters to. deal with in this installment – they need to catch Dakota’s father as he’s a menace and when we see him, he’s up to no good. there’s attempted murder, arson and who knows what else he’s capable of. There’s also one more curveball thrown at this couple at the end of this book that I won ‘t share but you should read that gives us a glimpse into just how complicated things are about to get for them.

Then there’s Erik and Savannah. They are enjoying all that life can give them in Norway – his family has taken to her with open arms, and even when Jarad gets more into the mix with a call and whatnot, we see how well Erik handles things and how it’s clear that Savannah is happy with the choice that she’s made. These two are in such a good place that they decide to move ahead quickly with all the wedding plans, and that takes them back to Montana, where they are faced with the unexpected. Not all of it good!

Next we can go to Faith and Joel – we know that this one is going to continue to be incredibly messy and that it is. Just when life seem to be settling for them in Vegas – they have a nice blended family and Faith is truly learning what it’s like to be with someone that you can trust, she learns that Aiden, her ex, has done the unimaginable. He’s burned down her father’s restaurant and if that wasn’t enough, we find that her father is then kidnapped. Of course this means that they have to do an immediate trip to Vegas to figure out how to get Aiden under control (if not worse) and get life back to how it needs to be. When plans go into action, there are mass casualties, and still the problem isn’t solved. What results is a wedding – as Faith wants to ensure that Eden is cared for, then there’s a hint from her father (who was rescued) at another secret (which I think we can all figure out) and the desire for blood – as Aiden has Faith’s sister now. She goes against Joel’s wishes, and now we’re at a cliffhanger of danger.

Last but not least, we have Ruby and Nile (and Noah). We know that Ruby made her choice and frankly I think it’s the right one. The dynamic between the two is so much better, more authentic and I think that they suit each other well. There’s a lack of maturity that we see in Noah throughout this book that really makes me not like him so much. They forge ahead with the plans for their wedding In just over a week’s time and plan out what their life will look like. Parallel to that though, we have Noah and Opal. Opal is not aligned to living in the UK and they are working to set her up in school so that she can finish her degree per their plan. There’s another plan though that Noah devises which I frankly don’t care for and has the wrong motivations and I have a feeling with blow up in eveyone’s face. So if for nothing else, it’ll make for some entertaining reading.

So, we know that there’s a lot going on and a lot that still needs to resolve in book 4. We get a lot more passion and heat in this book now that the couples are not so new to one another, and that also helps speed up the progression of the stories and the speed of reading them too. I’m excited to see how it plays out and what’s nice about these stories is that we’re seeing more of Madame Alana throughout, and we’re getting a tease into what the next ‘season’ of this series will bring with Jack Erik’s friend) and potentially Memphis. So, on that note, I need to quickly dive into the last book to see if there’s a thing as a happy ending, ad will leave you all to enjoy!

Title: Marriage Auction
Author: Audrey Carlan
Publisher/Year:  Blue Box Press 1.24.23
Length:  324 pages
Series: Marriage Auction #1

Overview

What would you do for three million dollars?

Four young women enter into a clandestine auction to be married to the highest bidders. For no less than a million dollars a year, for three years, each woman will do what it takes to secure her future. Entangled in a high-stakes game of money, lust, power, and the hope for absolution, this group of women becomes a sisterhood unlike any other.

Once chosen by a man she’s never met and agrees to marry sight unseen…there is no going back. Hidden secrets, wicked desires, fiery couplings and intense family drama are all part of the deal when you willingly enter into The Marriage Auction.

You may now kiss the bride…

My Thoughts

One never knows what to expect in a series like this but I think the snackable bites that we have throughout each of the chapters gives us a good sense of what we’re about to get ourselves into. What I almost wish though as i read through this first book of the series is that the chapters or episodes were really enabling us to get full stories for each of the couples. Alas that doesn’t happen but we get a good story regardless.

First there’s Ruby – a woman who’s from Mississippi, and needs to provide a better life for herself and her sister as they have basically nothing, and Ruby wants the world for Opal. She goes into the auction with the hopes of getting enough money to get her sister through college and then making a life for themselves somewhere amazing.

Next there’s Faith – a woman who we quickly learn has a past that is scary and one that’s forced her on the run. She’s returned to Vegas in the hopes of getting the money to support her father and her niece as they need a lot more than what life has given them. We learn though that her past is one that’s haunted and that perhaps her fiance is going to get more than he bargained for.

Last we have sisters Dakota and Savannah. Their family is one of stature in Montana – owning a large farm, but their family history is a bit muddled through the choices of their father – who’s run the farm into the ground. There’s another family in town that’s looking to buy them out – trying to take over and of course there’s a dynamic in town with these two families pitted against one another that manifests in an interesting way later in the story. But, Dakota planned to go to the auction to get money to save the farm, and her sister learned of the plans so she went as well. Shocking surprise but it appears that things will take the path that they are supposed to.

There are 2 others that we were introduced in the beginning of the story – Jade and Memphis who don’t make it through the auction but i’m sure we’ve not heard the last of them.

Onto the men – as they are just as important.

We meet Noah and Nile – two English brothers who go to the auction in order to fulfill a clause that their grandfather had on their inheritance. They were to meet and marry a woman in order to get an extra 2% share of the family business which essentially gives them the majority control of the company portfolio. They’re competitive at heart of course and this is a way to play that out while getting what they need from their family.

Next is Joel – a Greek businessman, hotelier who’s had his share of heartbreak. He was married to a woman called Alexandra who passed away, leaving him to raise their infant daughter alone. He’s got a missing piece in his life that he’s not sure how to fill especially since he’s not sure that he’ll ever be able to love someone in the way that he loved his wife and daughter. He’s only at the auction through the prodding of ‘friends’ and comes out with something that he didn’t expect.

Then we meet Sutton – he’s from a well established family in Montana – (interesting situation there right?) and he’s at the auction for a singular purpose after learning about the nature of this thing. We know that he’s a romantic at the core and it would be ironic if the marriage auction was a way for that to manifest.

Last but not least we have Erik – our viking so to speak – a man from Norway who doesn’t seem to have any bad. qualities of his own. We meet him in the tone of this golden angel of sorts but it appears that his past few years haven’t been the best. There were hints of an accident that has changed his life and who he is – bringing in what sounds like a depression, so this auction is an opportunity for him to find some happiness if he were to find the right woman.

I won’t tell you who ends up with whom in this story – but I will tell you the dynamics and the story lines are starting to heat up just as this book ends. We see kidnappings, trauma and violence and a hint of heartbreak in the form of something being uttered subconsciously that all makes for a good cliffhanger as we look towards book 2. So on that note, I have no choice but to get it and start reading again! Enjoy!