Breaking The Rules For Daddy!
Ben is a rather immature womanising playboy although he does work very hard for his father’s business. Whilst bedding a nameless female he ignores his phone ringing which was to tell him that his father had died. At this point I thought Ben was a jerk and I didn’t particularly like him. Life must go on and after the funeral his father;s solicitor gives him a letter which stipulates certain conditions to him inheriting the family business. His father was obviously a wiser man than Ben and to try and make him ‘grow up’ and get over being such a player and settle down and marry a woman and they must live together for a year. Ben is horrified as he doesn’t want to give up his lifestyle. Whilst on a business journey he chats to the stewardess, Pam who is a single mother at 40 who has a daughter called Jessica who is going to med school, and unloads his problem. She tells him to think of it another way to find a solution. He thinks about it and days later he finds Pam and asks if she will be his fake wife for one year. She talks it over with Jessica and agrees on the condition that they are to be friends and no more. Ben is delighted that he’s getting away with having to marry and Pam and Jessica move into his home. Why Jessica needed to move in I don’t really know as she was off to medical school? Anyway, as soon as Ben and Jessica meet it’s light lightening has struck them both and they are in major lust with each other. Ben, as we know is just a male ‘whore’ and he has sex regularly with his intern at work [sexual harassment at work?] to keep his mind off Jessica – again I think he is awful using some poor woman just to keep his mind off another woman! Eventually he ‘gives in’ to his lust for Jessica who is also a virgin and says that they must keep their ‘relationship’ a secret. She loves her mother Pam and yet does this to her? I know Pam has said that she only wants to be friends with him but this is still in taboo territory for me. Will he even stay with Jessica once her novelty wears off? Will the Board at work find out? What will they think if he is still with Jessica in 12 months and leaves Pam for her daughter? Now let me make it clear that I love Amy Brent’s stories. She writes great storylines and the characters are so well developed that they practically leap off the pages to you and grab your attention to find out all about their stories. I did love that we were ‘listening’ to Ben and Jessica’s thoughts but also that she had added Pam’s thoughts too! It’s this later element that really saved the story for me as I found Ben so difficult to like. Technically he wasn’t cheating with Jessica but it was rather too taboo for me. Pam was a wonderful lady and far nicer than she could have been. Jessica was rather naive and had some growing up to do but I think she should have made Ben go for a sexual diseases testing to check that he was clear after all his bedding of just about any female. So to summarise my feelings about this book: it is extremely well written and the characters were 3-dimensional that did leap off the pages to me and kept me reading this page turner. As for Ben I wouldn’t have put up with him under any circumstances no matter how wealthy or handsome he was and I’m really not certain whether he could be trusted to be monogamous with Jessica as he went and had sex many times with an intern after he met Jessica. Having said all that, this is a piece of literary fantasy and, as such, it perfectly fits the brief of what a 5 star rating would be. Engaging, excellent writing, interesting characters and a real page turner. I voluntarily reviewed an advance reader copy of this book.
DEFINITELY RECOMMENDED