Title: Three Day Fiancée

Author: Marissa Clarke

eBook

Pages: 168 (Entangled says 228 pages, however there is an excerpt for another book. My eBook file says 184 pages. However, 168 was the complete content of the actual story.)

Publisher: Entangled

ISBN: 9781640635074

Release Date: 5-14-18

Book Details: It was an eBook, so you can customize your reading experience.

Where To Find It: I found it on the Entangled website and then purchased it from Barnes & Noble

Time that the story takes place? Current day

POV? Third person.

What caught your eye? I’d read the other two books in the series and had to see how the third one went.

Did you enjoy it? I really did.

Was it predictable? Not really. I mean with all romances, you kind of get a sense of how a scene might play out, however this author has a lovely knack for making you think the predictable will happen and then turn the whole thing on its head. I love that.

Was it sexy? Tame? It was pretty sexy. Nothing tame about this one. I can’t believe the snow didn’t melt in the one scene!

Did you find it funny? Entertaining? A very amusing read. I never laughed out loud, but I was certainly smiling on certain scenes.

Would you read it again? Absolutely.

Is this part of a series? Yes. This is part of the Animal Attraction Series. I read them all out of order! The other two books are Love Out Loud and Dear Jane, review to both in the link.

I love discovering an author that already has some backlist going, I hate waiting for the next offering. Thankfully this entire series was ready to go, so I burned through them pretty fast.

First off, I have to say, I love, absolutely LOVE the fact that all three books were vastly different. There was no similarities in the three stories. Sometimes an author will get bogged down with one or two ways to fall in love and develop a relationship and it always comes out feeling manufactured. Not this author, all three books just felt so wonderfully different and refreshing. And as I stated above, I didn’t read them in order and I never felt I was missing out on anything.

We’ve got lovely Caitlin, a woman who’s getting her life back together after her divorce from a crappy husband. She’s back in New York with her two best friends and working at Animal Attraction as a dog walker while she studies for her CPA test so that she can be the accountant for the company.

Taylor is a helicopter pilot who never seems to have time for anything. Even dating. The poor man is being run ragged by his bosses flying them everywhere and anywhere at the drop of a hat. And he has a giant St. Bernard who just swallowed something very valuable and precious. An engagement ring. His grandmother’s engagement ring.

He needs Caitlin to stay with the giant dog all day in case a biological action takes place and the ring is expelled, and well . . . you get it. 

Caitlin is not having it. She doesn’t take orders from anyone and refuses to stay, she’s got other clients to care for and on top of that, she’s had the worst morning ever, she doesn’t need to wait for a ring to appear.

Taylor skips out while Caitlin is on the phone with Jane (from Dear Jane and one of the co-owners of Animal Attraction) and leaves her no choice but to stay with the dog.

Thankfully, Caitlin notices that the dog is acting like his mouth is bothering him and discovers the engagement ring around a back molar. After cleaning the ring, Caitlin tries it on and it gets stuck. Wickedly stuck, we might have to chop off a finger stuck, okay not that bad. But that sucker is stuck.

Enter lovable Grams who has popped over to see her grandson and believes that Caitlin is engaged to Taylor. “You all were going to wait and tell me at the anniversary party!” No matter how much Caitlin has protested that she’s not marrying Taylor, Grams thinks it’s all a cover up.

Of course, Taylor sees this as a golden opportunity to finally get his grandmother off his back about dating and getting married. He convinces Caitlin to come with him, just pretend to be engaged to him for the weekend. To make his sweet grandmother happy. It’s only a weekend.

Yeah . . . we all know how this is going to turn out.

Of course we could say this was predictable. They’re attracted to each other, they have their own cabin, they’re surrounded by a picture perfect Hallmark movie set up, things are going to happen. And happen they do. In the best possible ways. It’s hot.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed about Marissa Clarke’s work is that while the main characters change, they don’t change so much that they’re completely different from how they started. Growth is happening (for the betterment of the characters) but it’s never so drastic that you’d scoff and go, “Yeah, no one changes that fast for anyone.” All the change happens in such small amounts that it’s all believable.

A key scene that sticks out for me is just before Caitlin and Taylor are about to engage in some sexy time. Caitlin has snow pants that are stuck over snow boots, however Taylor is not letting that slow him down. Caitlin is in a bit of a stunned/shocked/this is funny emotion and tells Taylor, “No.” And at once, Taylor stops what he’s doing and sits back on his haunches as he thinks that Caitlin is telling him no (as in, no sexy time). He’s patient and waits and of course is immensely relieved when she means that she can’t make love or fool around with her snow pants trapped around her ankles.

If you liked the film, While You Were Sleeping, I think you’d probably like this. Granted there is no one in a coma, there’s no other brother that macks on the leading lady, however if you enjoyed the family dynamic of While You Were Sleeping, then you’ll enjoy the family in this book. They were lovely, simply lovely.

Reflecting on all three of the books, the one thing that I just realized is: for once (at least in my reading experience) the men are the ones that make the big sacrifice/the big change. The men are the ones gambling on love. They’re the ones that realize that they need something more out of life, that they’re missing out on life, and that they want all the stuff they’re entitled to in life. Normally it seems like the women are always giving something up for the men, so they can all live happily ever after. Not here. Marissa Clarke has written lovely men with believable flaws, quirks, and insecurities who are going to go after that woman they’ve always been searching for.

The other thing that I really loved in all three of these books is that while growth happens with both lead characters, it isn’t so much that they’re unrecognizable by the end of the book. The introvert isn’t magically transformed into a raging extrovert. The klutz isn’t transformed into a graceful never-miss-a-step swan. And the woman trying to get her life back on track after the bad divorce manages to stay on track to become a CPA.

Again, all of the characters are believable and likeable. Seriously, I wish I knew these people, they seem like a blast to be around. I’m looking forward to reading more by this author, I’m really loving her.

As a series: two big fat thumbs up, five gold stars, all the awards possible, and in the end . . . 

READ THIS SERIES. Trust me, you’ll enjoy them.