read in 2025
The author gave me an advanced readers copy (ARC) version of this book so maybe some of these kinks are worked out.
Dev is a billionaire on vacation in Hawaii he left home to get away from his parents trying to set him up in an arranged marriage. First day of his trip he is looking at the scenery and sees a couple taking photographs but shortly after this he notices that the couple has an altercation and the lady storms off in tears throws her ring in the ocean then goes and sits by a fountain closer to his balcony. Dev is a caring guy and doesn't want to see her hurting so he gets dinner then sits by her at the fountain... magically at this point he realizes that it is his elementary school friend Emily he hasn't seen her since 2nd grade but knows it's her because of her "honey brown" eyes (this is a main plot point as it is mentioned multiple times). After his first dinner he invites Emily to second dinner which she accepts.
Emily and her husband to be have split up instead of calling off the wedding because none of her family/friends coming have met him yet anyways Emily decides the next best thing is to simply find another groom for her wedding in 10 days named David or Dave... something similar (prediction... Dev sounds like Dave). Dev agrees to be the groom because it will help solve his issue of avoiding a family arranged marriage and he is at least having a say in who he marries.
What I did like about this book is it has multicultural representation and I appreciated that aspect of it. The marriage of convenience trope is a hit or miss for me and I think this one is a miss for me but other people might enjoy it. While Dev's family is a close group and sometimes meddle in his affairs they welcome Emily with open arms and begin to teach her their customs (Indian). On Emily's side pretty much only her grandma is there for her and her grandma is ill her dying wish is to see another member of the family get married and Emily wants to make this happen for her.
Dev is shown as "sweet" ish throughout the book towards Emily, other times it feels like he is talking to her like a child (Now Emily swim away from the turtle, don't touch the turtle). Dev mentions many times he wants to give a real relationship a try and hopes they can fall in love in the year time frame they decided on to make their marriage work. Instead of talking through issues Emily tends to give the silent treatment and/or cry. Emily has a secret that she hasn't told Dev and it's a big one but instead of talking to him about it she approaches his best friend and puts him in the middle cause she doesn't want to hurt Dev... which of course leads to hurting Dev.
The writing felt robotic to me I had a hard time getting into it the dialogue felt unnatural and somewhat repetitive (Emily has had 5 serious relationships and Dev has had 3; Emily has lots of shoes Dev doesn't yep noted). Dev said Emily's name like every time they spoke (even if they were already in conversation) just doesn't feel like how a real conversation would go and took me out of the story.
Have you read anything by this author? would you recommend any of their other books?
*billionaire *marriage of convenience *Dual POV *destination wedding
*friends --> More *multicultural romance *vacation romance *reconnection of old friends
*insta love *some spice *under 200 pages *happy ending
More possible spoilers that made me almost DNF this book -->
Again not sure if this might have been fixed in editing but the book could have used some more research into different things the couple were doing together and different things happening in the book: some examples *they went snorkeling and they were diving down under the water but wearing life vests which doesn't make sense you can't free dive with a life vest.* The couple are adults but Dev seemed to not be aware there were other forms of birth control (other than the pill until he talked to his friend who is a doctor). *If someone is on Hospice they would not be attached to a bunch of tubes and wires. *People in the book are doctors but are talking about other peoples medical issues without a release being signed (HIPPA). *At the end of the book there is mention of burning shoes inside of a home... burning shoes can release toxic chemicals depending on what it's made of and they were burning multiple pairs of shoes inside of a closed space.
*possible spoilers/somewhat me on a soap box
I had a hard time liking the main characters early on after they take a trip to the mall and Emily asks Dev's opinion on colors for bra and panty sets and he tells her she looks "fat" in green (ouch!)
Same trip to the mall Emily has located 3 David's working at different stores/food shops our lead characters describe one David as "bald, one having crooked teeth and one with a butt as big as Russia" ... none of them asked to be the new husband leave these David's alone!. Maybe this is a me thing but describing your lead characters as basically having perfect beach bodies is fine (good for them) but having your lead characters body shaming others isn't cool.
Possible triggers: body shaming
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