He’s her next makeover project. She’s his next mistake.
Ivy
I’m Ivy Anders, popular romance novelist and small-town success story. Or so they say. I tell myself I’m only back in my hometown because my father had a heart attack, but that’s not the full story.
I can’t go home. And the longer I stay, the less I want to. I’m drawn in by my part-time job at Ziggy brewery, which I took to research for my next book, and by the mystery of Lou, my father’s stuffy lodger, a temporary transplant from New York.
Normally, I wouldn’t look twice at someone like Lou. He’s a rules guy, and I’ve never met a rule I didn’t want to break just for the fun of it. But it’s obvious he needs an intervention to avoid becoming an old man at thirty-four, and I am going to make that happen.
Lou
I came to Highland Hills to hide. It’s not every day a man loses his professional integrity, his fiancée, and his pet fish all in the same week.
The last thing I want is for smoking hot Ivy Anders to get it into her head that I should be her project. But she has, and it’s hard as hell to say no to her. Believe me, I’ve tried.
The more time we spend together, the more I realize that I have another problem on my hands: Ivy’s everything I’m not—young and wild and free—and she’s all I can think about.
*****
Review:
I’ll be honest, I expected Ivy to get on my nerves. There’s something about “party girls who have commitment issues” that usually comes off more as flighty and annoying, but Ivy was actually fun. She had a sense of adventure and a penchant for poking her nose in where it doesn’t belong (mostly to have an excuse to not look at her own troubles). She’s a good foil for Lou’s more serious demeanor and tendency to be a little too responsible. As their relationship develops and turns into something more, they blend together well. Ivy’s issues because of her childhood and the way she was treated by her mother were definitely going to prove to be a stumbling block but it’s done in a way that left me very satisfied.
With quirky humor, steamy (and sometimes surprising) sexy time, and a very Ivy & Lou HEA, Matchmaking a Roommate finishes the Highland Hills on a high note … with just enough of a hint to tease us about what comes next.
(Part of a series but can be read as a stand-alone.)
I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own.
He’s her next makeover project. She’s his next mistake.
Ivy
I’m Ivy Anders, popular romance novelist and small-town success story. Or so they say. I tell myself I’m only back in my hometown because my father had a heart attack, but that’s not the full story.
I can’t go home. And the longer I stay, the less I want to. I’m drawn in by my part-time job at Ziggy brewery, which I took to research for my next book, and by the mystery of Lou, my father’s stuffy lodger, a temporary transplant from New York.
Normally, I wouldn’t look twice at someone like Lou. He’s a rules guy, and I’ve never met a rule I didn’t want to break just for the fun of it. But it’s obvious he needs an intervention to avoid becoming an old man at thirty-four, and I am going to make that happen.
Lou
I came to Highland Hills to hide. It’s not every day a man loses his professional integrity, his fiancée, and his pet fish all in the same week.
The last thing I want is for smoking hot Ivy Anders to get it into her head that I should be her project. But she has, and it’s hard as hell to say no to her. Believe me, I’ve tried.
The more time we spend together, the more I realize that I have another problem on my hands: Ivy’s everything I’m not—young and wild and free—and she’s all I can think about.
Denise Grover Swank is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal best-selling author who writes romance mystery and romantic comedy.
She lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, MISSOURI. (So many people think it’s in Kansas.) She has six kids—three out on their own, one in college, and two in high school. She has three dogs. She spends her free time binging Netflix, drinking wine, and reading. Not necessarily in that order.
ANGELA CASELLA is a romcom fanatic. Writing them, reading them, watching them—she’s greedy, and she does it all. She writes the Fairy Godmother Agency series solo, and she’s lucky enough to collaborate with Denise Grover Swank on multiple series.
She lives in Asheville, NC. Her hobbies include herding her daughter toward less dangerous activities, the aforementioned romcom addiction, and dreaming of having someone else clean her house.
He wants to destroy her show. She wants to get on Santa’s naughty list with him.
Rowan
No man wants to be nicknamed Cupid. My family’s run a matchmaking business for years, though, and my sister’s a romance novelist. You get the picture. To make matters worse, my narcissistic grandmother just sold a reality dating show to network television. Thanks to her, our small town is about to become a hotbed of tourists and opportunists.
Her show needs to be stopped, and I’m exactly the man to do it. Cupid, reporting for duty
The star of the show, Kennedy Littlefield, isn’t my type at all. She’s a wealthy heiress with an unhealthy obsession with Christmas.
There’s just one problem: I can’t stop thinking about her.
Kennedy
I’m lucky to be doing this show. Maybe I’ll start believing it if I repeat it enough…because I’m supposed to be dating eight men, and they all suck. I’m not here to fall in love—I’m trying to save a non-profit with the publicity from the show—but I’d hoped for a Christmas miracle.
I love Christmas, only it hasn’t come to the set because the show doesn’t air until spring, and no one—with the exception of me—wants to watch a Christmas show in March.
There’s only one thing I want more than Christmas cheer: the ornery grump who keeps hanging out around the set.
*****
Review:
Kennedy doesn’t particularly want to be on a dating show for rich people, especially after seeing the men that Nana has picked out, but she really needs the exposure for the non-profit she loves. She’ll just have to try her best, remember why she’s there, and rely on help from some new friends.
There’s quite a bit about the reality show that didn’t track for me (it definitely didn’t come across as big budget or well put together) but the personal & romance portions more than made up for it. I really enjoyed getting to know Kennedy and seeing more of Rowan’s softer side. He may be grumpy but he’s got such a big heart. His history makes it so that he feels the need to help kids in his community truly be able to enjoy Christmas. He also wants to help those he cares about be happy, which means keeping Nana Mayberry as far away from them as he can. If that gives him a chance to ruin her latest project, the one that can only mean bad things for the Mayberry name, then even better … then he meets Kennedy. Sweet and giving, big-hearted, everything her parents aren’t, and definitely not what Rowan expected. Before long he finds himself wanting to make sure she gets everything she needs, even if it goes again what he wants.
I gotta say, as much as I enjoyed Rowan & Kennedy together and seeing them figure out their way to a HEA, it was Harry that stole my heart. A little bit of awkward wrapped up in a whole lotta goodness, I cheered every time he was on the page. It’s those kinds of interactions, the characters with their merits and their foibles, that make these authors a go to for me time and time again.
(Part of a series but can easily stand on its own.)
He wants to destroy her show. She wants to get on Santa’s naughty list with him.
Rowan
No man wants to be nicknamed Cupid. My family’s run a matchmaking business for years, though, and my sister’s a romance novelist. You get the picture. To make matters worse, my narcissistic grandmother just sold a reality dating show to network television. Thanks to her, our small town is about to become a hotbed of tourists and opportunists.
Her show needs to be stopped, and I’m exactly the man to do it. Cupid, reporting for duty
The star of the show, Kennedy Littlefield, isn’t my type at all. She’s a wealthy heiress with an unhealthy obsession with Christmas.
There’s just one problem: I can’t stop thinking about her.
Kennedy
I’m lucky to be doing this show. Maybe I’ll start believing it if I repeat it enough…because I’m supposed to be dating eight men, and they all suck. I’m not here to fall in love—I’m trying to save a non-profit with the publicity from the show–but I’d hoped for a Christmas miracle.
I love Christmas, only it hasn’t come to the set because the show doesn’t air until spring, and no one—with the exception of me—wants to watch a Christmas show in March.
There’s only one thing I want more than Christmas cheer: the ornery grump who keeps hanging out around the set.
DENISE GROVER SWANK is a New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal best-selling author who writes romance mystery and romantic comedy.
She lives in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, a suburb of Kansas City, MISSOURI. (So many people think it’s in Kansas.) She has six kids—three out on their own, one in college, and two in high school. She has three dogs. She spends her free time binging Netflix, drinking wine, and reading. Not necessarily in that order.
ANGELA CASELLA is a romcom fanatic. Writing them, reading them, watching them—she’s greedy, and she does it all. She writes the Fairy Godmother Agency series solo, and she’s lucky enough to collaborate with Denise Grover Swank on multiple series.
She lives in Asheville, NC. Her hobbies include herding her daughter toward less dangerous activities, the aforementioned romcom addiction, and dreaming of having someone else clean her house.
On a scale of one to ten, how bad is it that I want to see my fake boyfriend naked?
Marnie
What’s worse than being left at the altar? Becoming a meme because one of your nearest and dearest took a video of you running—and falling—down the aisle and made it internet famous.
Yup, I’m that Marnie Jones. My sister is for-real famous, which only makes people more interested in my predicament. Is it any wonder I’m feeling down?
My best friends will try anything to cheer me up…including setting me up with the Fairy Godmother Agency, a maybe-crazy husband and wife private investigator-slash-life coach team who promise to find the person who sold me out. Better yet, they lend me a fake boyfriend to make my ex jealous and appease my sister.
Griffin is gorgeous, attentive, and a very convincing actor. He’s perfect for the job.
Too perfect.
Griffin
After a lifetime of practice, I’m good at pretending. But the more time I spend with Marnie Jones, the less I have to feign my interest in her.
She may be down, but she’s not out. She’s beautiful, funny, and just the right amount of weird. All she needs is someone to remind her of that.
If I weren’t such a screw up, I’d have half a mind to do it myself.
“Aw, you two are staring into each other’s eyes like you’re teenagers,” Sinclair says, slicing her way into the moment. I shift my attention to my sister’s face on the iPad. Her words are sweet, but she’s obviously not appeased. To be fair, she’s spoken to me nearly every day for the last month, and I’ve been feeling down for a while. Now, I’m suddenly in a relationship with a man who looks like this, wearing a nighty that could have been stolen from the set of her Netflix show. She probably has whiplash.
Then again, maybe she thinks I could never find a man like this without bribing him. It stings, even more so because she’s right.
“What can I say? Mitchell makes me feel like I’m a teenager again,” I tell her, my tone tight.
“The same age you were when you pretended you had a boyfriend?” She grins at
“Mitchell,” that thousand-dollar grin that’s on dozens of posters. “See? I have my reasons for suspicion.”
Old hurt wells up inside of me. My sister was a beautiful TV star, and I was an awkward teenager who couldn’t attract a second glance from a guy unless he was teasing me. So, yes, when she asked if I had a date to prom, I claimed I did. Rupert Wrightman.
Crap. I’m really bad at coming up with off-the-cuff names. Actually, considering I told her this handsome stranger next to me is called “Mitchell Mountainbottom,” I’ve probably gotten worse at it.
I look down, but suddenly strong fingers are touching my jaw, tipping my face up. Then I’m looking into Mitchell’s eyes, which look hot, like caramel starting to boil in a pan, and he shocks me by leaning in for a soft kiss. It would have lasted for only a few second, just long enough for me to register his soft but firm lips, the brush of his short beard, and his spicy scent, but my mouth parts in surprise, and then I find myself pressing into him, electricity arcing between us and gluing us together. He’s the one who pulls back, a slight smile on his face as he lifts his hand to my jaw and softly traces it.
“Seems to me there must’ve been plenty of guys half in love with her,” he says, still looking at me, and my pulse is galloping in my chest, so alarmingly fast I think I might actually die. “If she did pretend to have a boyfriend, it was probably because she wanted to let them down easy.” He lifts a hand to my jaw again, tracing it. “She’s thoughtful like that.”
I’m at a loss for words. Actually, I can’t do anything but gape at him. Should I be pissed at him? Probably. Maybe I would be if I could form a single coherent thought.
It’s for the best that Sinclair takes over. “You guys are too cute.” There’s a bit of an edge to her voice. She’s still suspicious, although I’ll bet she’s not altogether sure why she’s suspicious.
“Yes, we are,” Mitchell says with a smirk. He’s still looking at me, though.
I’m the one who finally breaks the stare. Glancing back at my sister, I clear my throat. “We have to go. Talk to you later?”
“Where do you have to go?” she asks. “You haven’t even finished your breakfast.”
Mitchell gives her a suggestive grin. “Isn’t it obvious? It was nice meeting you, Scarlett.”
Marnie may have taken a bit of a hit when her fiance walked out on their wedding, but she’s not out. She just needs someone to show her the strong, confident person hiding underneath her baggy Star Wars shirt. Griffin wants to be that person, he just needs some help to fight his own demons and realize that he’s worthy of love.
I’ve only read one other book by Casella and I have to say I’m missing out. Marnie and Griffin’s story was fun, sexy, and easy to read. I loved all the quirky characters and the slightly off the wall, entertaining storyline. Lying as a central part of the story is tricky for me but it works here. And while with a fake boyfriend story you could expect a lot of “is it real” drama, Casella does a good job of avoiding that trap. Instead we get a low angst, light-hearted, slow burn romance with a good dash of humor and a bit of heat. I’m pretty sure I need to add this author to my must read list!
*****
Author Info:
ANGELA CASELLA loves writing romcoms, particularly with the lovely Denise Grover Swank. They write together as Angela Denise. Angela also writes the Fairy Godmother Agency series. She lives in Asheville, NC with her husband, daughter, and two geriatric dogs. Her hobbies include herding her daughter toward less dangerous activities, stress baking, and marathon watching TV shows.
Romantic Reads and Such 