GRR Reviews The Billionaire Bride by Marquita Valentine

Kate Von Lichtenstein came from a rich family, and with her inheritance due upon her marriage, even richer. But she'll be surrounded by fortune hunters (male golddiggers)... so she has a plan. She will marry a man of her own choosing... a fake marriage of convenience, of course. And she has the perfect candidate in mind... the charming Yank Noah. // Noah sold his tech company for millions and wanted to get into real estate, but lost it all when his partner developer stole the fund from him. Noah can use some money, so when Kate made him a proposition, he's eager to accept. However, he does not believe in sham marriages... now, how to convince Kate...

Not feeling much here. While making the woman with the money needing a sham husband is cool, the threat against them was trope. Basically Kate's evil parents, who resorted to kidnapping and 'a deal he can't refuse' plus framing him "he took the money and left" by directly wiring money to his account just comes across as "meh".

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Rich heiress needs a fake husband, but her candidate wants a real marriage...

Overall Rating: 2/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Reviews Love So Hot (The Lawson Brothers) by Marquita Valentine

Love So Hot is a "firefighter romance" mixed with the age-old question "can a man and woman just be friends"?

Sydney McKnight, a bank teller, has a strange relationship with Brody Lawson, fire captain, in the town of Jessamine. Brody wanted Sydney for years, but they forced themselves to be only best friends if such a thing was possible between a man and a woman. Brody even has a bombshell girlfriend, Cherry. When a rookie firefighter Davis wanted to put the moves on Sydney, Brody shut him down fast, because Sydney deserved better. But when Cherry sensed that Brody was really pining after Sydney, the girls conspire to force Sydney to win the Fireman's annual Auction for Brody's time... Brody thought he will finally get lucky... until Sydney asked for Brody's help to seduce... Davis the rookie. Now Brody had to pull out all his moves to show Sydney that he is all she needs...

Funny, poignant, and sappy at times, this rom-com will make you laugh and go "awww". My only regret is the plot twists are standard romance tropes.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Girl and Guy deny their attraction to each other until new factors forced them to confront their real feelings

Tropes: firefighter, friendsd to lovers, triangle, learn sex

Overall Rating:  4/5 (rounded up)

GRR Reviews Burn For You (Boys of the South Book 6) by Marquita Valentine

Burn For You has a pretty standard "fall for the nanny" plot with a parallel plot of a custody fight with the ex. Neither character has to change much to achieve what they wanted, which was really ho-hum.

To recap, Beau Montgomery is rich, famous, and a racing driver, and part of the Montgomery racing clan. But his history of women wasn't as clear-cut, for right now he's sharing custody with an ex-wife of a daughter Mia that he wasn't sure was his biological daughter. When a chance to race in Monaco came up, he had to go there for a month, and he needed to hire a babysitter. And he got... Landry Basnight. Landry is a broke college student who's hot, and had nothing else to do and likes kids. It didn't hurt she liked Montgomery Racing family. So when Beau turned on his charms, she finds it hard to resist. But when Beau's ex-wife re-enters the picture, is there a future between Landry and Beau?

The ex Paisley was portrayed as just a nasty bitter girl which was too shallow and only at the end did we discover why. (Sorry, no spoilers) Could have dropped some hints earlier, sheesh. Amateur plotting mistake. Just sight of Paisley the ex is enough to send Beau's blood pressure soaring. So he's pretty easy to manipulate, and Landry? All around nice girl. What did these characters learn? Very little. No character arc. All in all, average everything.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Racing Driver Needs a Nanny, found a nice girl to romance AND be nanny, until ex came back...

Tropes: Athlete, triangle, nanny, single parent, fling to a thing

Overall Rating:  3/5