Cat Johnson Braves Doll Lil’s Word Association Challenge!

Author: Jennifer Probst
Title: The Marriage mistake
Release: November 6, 2012
Series: Marriage to a billionaire #3
Reviewer: Mona Leigh
Source: Publisher/Netgalley
| Book Depository

Carina Conte has had a crush on her brother Michael’s best friend, Max Gray, since she was a teenager. Now she’s earned her MBA and come to work at Michael’s new venture, America’s fastest-growing bakery empire. But some things never change: her family still treats her like a child. With three drop-dead gorgeous siblings, she’s still the ugly duckling of the bunch. And Max, the company’s new CEO, still barely notices her.

Max knows Carina Conte is strictly off limits. But hot-blooded lust wins out at a conference when the two share a scorching one-night stand—and are busted by her mother! Now, forced by old-world Italian tradition into a marriage he’s not ready for, Max is miserable—and Carina is furious. Her new husband is about to realize that hell hath no fury like a woman transformed…

Carina Conte has put her teenage crush on Max Gray behind her. She’s a grown woman now, and realizes he will never love her. After growing up in a family that smothered and cloistered her, she’s ready to spread her wings and live, and having hot, uncommitted sex is at the top of her to-do list. After completing her education, she moves to the U.S. to work in the family business only to have brother Michael assign her to train under Max.

Max Gray has kept his distance from Carina out of respect for Michael and both their families. When he’s instructed to train her in the family business, he’s angry and resentful she’ll take over a position that should be his. When Carina arrives and Max is no longer the object of her desire, he’s a bit crestfallen. He hides it well, though, by dating unsuitable women – women he would never marry.

I love Carina. She’s determined to live life on her own terms, and her spark lights up the page. I sympathized with her as she kept reminding herself that Max wasn’t the one for her, and cheered her on as she tried to get on with living. When Max used scare tactics on her would-be suitors, I felt her frustration.

The tension between the two kept me turning the pages way past midnight, and the resolution of all that heat, with its accompanying fallout, took me by surprise. However, that wasn’t the end of the book. The ending had me melting with satisfaction and sighing with contentment.

Mona's first grade teacher, Mrs. Stanford, gifted her with the love of reading. For that, she'll always live in her heart. But reading took over Mona's life, eclipsing everything but playing sports, and has continued to be a huge part of her life. Although she has always written poetry and stories for her self, last year she decided to try her hand at writing fiction. She is currently editing her first urban fantasy and hopes to have it ready for the agent by summer's end. Besides reading, Mona loves speed in the form of fast cars. The faster, the better! In her next life, she plans to drive race cars (or whatever happens to be their replacement in the future) all while reading and writing. She has also taken up rune reading, and find it to be disturbingly accurate and exciting.

Doll Mona Leigh

View all posts by Doll Mona Leigh
Mona Leighs website