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Blurb
Eric de Vries.
Looks like millions.
Worth billions.
A body like the David with a mind to match.
Unfortunately for this wayward heir, to keep his money, he needs a wife.
And of all the women in the world, he chooses me.
Too bad I’ve hated him for five years, since he took all my tears and tossed me away. The guy slept his way through half of New England and discarded women like hotel toiletries.
Been there. Done that.
Still…what would you do for twenty million dollars?
Would you wear the dress?
Fake a smile for the man who broke your heart?
Or would you run far, far away?
Yeah, that’s what I thought.
I’ll see you at the church.
Author’s Note: The Quicksilver Trilogy is a companion series to the Spitfire Trilogy. Both can be read separately, but readers may enjoy meeting Eric and Jane for the first time beginning in Legally Yours.
Review
I loved so much about this book…. then there were things that I didn’t.
3 oh-so-conflicted stars
Chock full of fantastic romance tropes, this enemies/friends-to-lovers, second-chance, billionaire, marriage-of-convenience romance is fun and sexy with a dramatic edge.
This series is a companion to the Spitfire Trilogy – Eric and Jane were introduced as friends of the heroine from those books, with what seems to be a pretty heavy flirtation during that series, and Skylar and Brandon from the Spitfire Trilogy feature heavily throughout this book. However, this one can also be read as a standalone. I dove in with no prior knowledge and was fine.
Eric de Vries is a Boston lawyer who has just been given an epic ultimatum – to ensure the future of his estranged $17 billion family’s empire, he needs to return to the fold in NYC, take over running his company’s shipping conglomerate and marry within six months – bonus points for producing an heir. Having lived the life of a playboy for years, marriage is the last thing on his mind, but he feels like he doesn’t have a choice, and there’s only one woman he can think of to do it with… even if she hates him.
“I don’t need someone who is going to get attached, Jane, who thinks I’m her knight in shining armor. I need someone who knows the score. Who knows exactly what kind of person I am.”
“You mean the fact that you’re a heartless bastard?” I shook my head. I really had no filter around the man, for better or for worse.
Jane Lefferts is a confident, sassy and unique spitfire who was at Harvard with Eric. The two of them were huge players, and hooked up on and off throughout law school until feelings became too real, and they got their hearts broken when it ended badly. It’s been five years since they’ve seen each other and Jane is in a really bad place – unemployed, in massive debt and trying to figure herself out. So when Eric comes along offering her $20 million to marry him for five years, it sounds like the answer to all of her problems! Neither of them are interested in a real relationship, and they can both walk away when the five years are up – simple! Except for the fact that they still want each other…. badly.
I loved this setup! It was what drew me to the book in the first place, and the dynamic between Eric and Jane is so much fun! They banter and tease constantly. Jane has a fantastic sarcastic wit, and she had me laughing more than once, and Eric gives it right back to her. The fact that they have such a strong history and know each other so well creates a wonderful depth between them and their back and forth is so freaking entertaining,
We passed one couple who were practically horizontal over the pier railing. They didn’t stop. I bit my lip as we passed, trying to ignore the ache flowering in my lower belly. It had been humming there all night.
“Remember when that was us?”
Eric was watching the same couple with…was that longing in his gray eyes? He chewed absently on his lower lip for a minute and squeezed my hand a little harder.
“A bit, yeah,” I said. “We had a little more style, though. You were never one for PDA, to start.”
“I had you in that alley in Allston once. Behind the bakery, remember?”
“Had me? What am I, a pastry?”
The right side of his full mouth tugged up in a smirk. “What do you want me to say? I pounded you like bread dough?”
“I believe the term is ‘fucked,’ sir,” I proclaimed. “It was a shag fest.”
And underneath it all is so much more. With their banter, meaningful looks and touches, and straight out dirty flirting, the chemistry just sizzles off the page. Sure, there’s antagonism there, but it’s hiding a wicked sexual attraction that is absolutely irresistible, and I love watching the two of them battle it out with their unique blend of love/hate/lust.
“Can’t quite keep your cool anymore, can you, Petri?” I jabbed back, before nipping his lip.
Eric yelped, but delivered each kiss, bite for bite, bruise for bruise. His hands flew everywhere. “You’re a pain in the fucking ass, Jane.”
“You look like the dad from Full House.”
Another growl. “You look like a Powerpuff Girl fucked a Betty Boop impersonator.”
I yanked on his tie. “Cartoons? Really? Come up with something better than that, you polo-wearing twat.”
The hand in my hair twisted. “Please. You have ten different colors in your hair. You look like Rainbow Brite on acid.”
“Better than being a poster child for the Gestapo!” My hand slid roughly into his pants and took hold of him—anger, it seemed, turned Eric the fuck on. Well, that made two of us.
And as they navigate their new and unique situation, I loved watching everything begin to shift for them as all of the feelings that they have tried so hard to hide come back in force.
“You used to know how to quiet this crazy mind of mine. You knew how to own it. Did you forget?”
Eric was a statue, but his eyes were stars. “Absolutely not.”He propped a hand against the window, encasing me against its corner. “I remember everything about you, Jane.”
For a moment, I couldn’t breathe properly. That’s what happens when you have six feet, two inches of beautiful blond man cornering you against a window on a summer day, gazing at you with the reminder that he once knew your entire soul.
The sexual tension is fantastic, and I love watching the push and pull between them. We get to see glimpses of their past through flashback scenes sprinkled all throughout the book, and we know they are hot as all hell together, and the sense of anticipation waiting for them to find that again is so good!
“I almost kissed you today,” he said, his gaze dropping to my mouth. “I really wanted to.”
My lips fell open, as I found I needed to remind myself to breathe, as my lungs still weren’t working properly again. “I know you did.”
“I want to now,” he admitted, his thumb just grazing the plump edges of my mouth. “But I won’t. Not until you ask me.”
But there are multiple forces pushing back against them, and as much they are feeling for each other, they have an uphill battle to their HEA, with twists, surprises, and moments where I wanted to reach into my kindle and slap people. And as much as I enjoyed the setup and the love story, there were things about this book that I really struggled with, and I’m feeling really torn on my overall feelings.
Firstly, this is a really long book, and it felt like it dragged a lot for me. There was a lot of unnecessary filler that didn’t progress the story, and descriptions and the inner monologuing went on longer than they needed to.
And then the premise of the whole book – if it was me, I would have sent a huge big F-U to Eric’s family. They are truly horrible people and after what happened in his past, I wouldn’t want to have anything to do with them – even with billions of dollars on the line, and especially because he’s doing it all to help them! And that made it really hard to buy into the story and why they needed to go through it all in the first place. And I got really shitty that Eric didn’t stand up for Jane more when his family and ‘friends’ were treating her like shit.
Then the drama.
So yeah, very torn. There were things that I loved, and things that I didn’t. I’m splitting the difference and rating this book a 3.
An Advanced Reader Copy was generously provided by the author in exchange for an honest review.
The Quicksilver Trilogy
The Hate Vow (#1)
Buy: Amazon | Kobo | Nook | Apple
The Kiss Plot (#2)
Buy: Amazon
The Love Trap (#3)
Buy: Amazon
About the Author
Nicole French is an East Coast/West Coast hybrid creature, Springsteen fanatic, hopeless romantic, and total bookworm.
When not writing fiction or teaching writing classes, she is hanging out with her family, playing soccer with the rest of the thirty-plus crowd in Seattle, or going on dates with her husband.
In her spare time, she likes to go running with her dog, Greta, or practice the piano, but never seems to do either one of these things as much as she should.
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