Assessment:
Plot/Idea: The sexy, sizzling character-driven plot builds titillating tension through delayed gratification in the first half, then delivers smut and romance in spades in the second. And while the book's climax and resolution come rather quickly, readers will be more than satisfied with Miles and Stella’s happily ever after.
Prose: Readers will delight in Richardson’s conversational and smarmy voice, which brings Miles and Stella’s to life. Plus, the sensual, kinky sex scenes are well rendered and leave little to the imagination.
Originality:The author is not afraid to embrace genre tropes—from marriage-of-convenience and frenemies to lovers, to Miles’s mysterious cellar and hidden kink. However, Miles and Stella are both fully developed characters with unique journeys of their own, which gives these tropes a twist.
Character/Execution: Both Miles and Stella have compelling internal and external struggles, which they overcome through their burgeoning love. Tortured bad boy Miles learns to love himself and stand up to his father, while Stella shares her grief and depression and establishes her business.
Date Submitted: August 20, 2024
With verve, wit, and randy confidence, the second standalone entry in Richardson’s Ravaged Castles series conjures a delicious marriage-of-convenience scenario, edged with shades of Beauty-and-the-Beast stories, and powered by Richardson’s commitment never to pen a dull scene. Instead, like a skilled lover, she dances with readers’ expectations, teasing and delaying, stirring anticipation for her couple’s slow-burning connection. The premise is pure froth, with a touch of darkness in the self-loathing hero, and a spark of defiance in the sharp-elbowed heroine. After a sexy but inconclusive encounter in Paris a year ago, the marvelously named Miles Ravage—a scion of the wealthy, castle-dwelling American Ravage family—encounters fashion-designer Estelle “Stella” Deveraux, daughter of the founder of one of Europe’s largest charities, in the most surprising circumstances: their fathers, not knowing that the two have previously met, propose that the pair marry, for one year.The scheme is a PR stunt to rehab investment consultant Miles’s reputation as one of the worst bosses in Los Angeles. The prize for Stella: the money to start her own fashion line. Richardson grabs readers from the start with a sultry, unpredictable scene in Paris, which ends with Miles convinced that the “exasperating” but alluring Stella has rejected him for the scar that runs from chest to jaw. The story immediately leaps to the fathers’ proposal, then to Miles’s abashed realization that he needs to go along with it, and then right to what readers most want: these two crabbing over boundaries and logistics while both pretending they’re not turned on.
Dialogue is crisp and memorable (Miles: “We should probably discuss the wedding.” Stella: “That’s one hell of a proposal, Miles.”), and the novel, despite its length, surges along, hinting at Miles’s secrets—he’s a voyeur, for one, with a glassed-in bedroom and a penchant for NDAs—jealousies, and scars both physical and emotional. The escalating scenes of physical intimacy are precise, vivid, and potent, and the happy ending, while inevitable, satisfies.
Takeaway: Superior marriage-of-convenience romance with sharp elbows and vivid clinches.
Comparable Titles: Sara Cate, Shain Rose.
Production grades
Cover: B
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A
