This is a soap opera in book form. The many plot twists (lies and betrayal! family secrets! dark pasts!) should have made this book interesting but halfway through I started getting really bored. I think there was just too much going on, too many plot threads, that there was little room for much character development and when I don't have a firm grasp on the characters, I don't care about them and I stop enjoying the book. I really think the author bit off more than she can chew. The main plot, a marriage of convenience between the sons of two feuding families, offers enough material for a whole novel. By adding in subplots involving their families, the focus was taken away from developing the relationship between the main characters so that when they finally admit their feelings for each other, it seems forced because we haven't seen enough of their interactions to know why they fell for each other. Physical attraction is one thing, but their progress from antagonizing each other to exchanging "I love you"s was far too fast to be realistic. The multiple plotlines were not handled that well either. The conflicts didn't feel that real and were resolved too easily. Everything tied together in the end for the required happy ending, since this is a romance novel, but it wasn't at all satisfying to read.

The author has a solid writing style, though it tends toward telling, rather than showing. I would have liked a more focused story that has less plot twists and melodrama. This one was alright during the first half, and then it got bogged down with too many elements (subplots, characters) that none of them were developed fully. ( )

Riley Hayes, second son of the Hayes family, leads a charmed life. His family owns the incredibly successful Hayes Oil. And with Riley's father, Gerald, nearing retirement, he'll surely leave it to his children. But when the plan for control is outlined, Riley learns he'll be getting far less than his older brother. That is, unless he gets married--for love--and stays that way for a year.

Riley's beyond upset, but he has a plan to get back at this father. He contacts Jack Campbell, son of one of Gerald's biggest rivals, with a proposition. Jack's gay, and Riley enlists him to get married to fulfill the terms of Gerald's agreement. Jack's reluctant, obviously, but one thing Riley has learned as a Hayes is how to manipulate people. And so Riley's plan to get his fair share of the company while upsetting his father by masquerading as gay and marrying into a rival family looks like it might just work out.

But there are a few things Riley didn't quite count on. For one, Riley's father and brother will not go down without a fight. And they both might just be even more heartless than he'd ever imagined. There's also the issue of Jack. As Riley spends more time with him, he can't help wondering if maybe he wants something more than what their contract stipulates. But could that really be true? And if it is, could Jack want him back?

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We all have those moments when we can't help thinking our family is dysfunctional. Some of us have them more often than others, but they're still there. But what we don't ever realize is that maybe we're not quite as bad as we think. Unfortunately for Riley, the opposite is true. And he's stuck trying to sort through the question of whether our family can define us. Or can we really rise above it all to be our own person?

Riley and Jack are such an unlikely pair. And it's interesting to see how they come together--not only just the two of them, but their families as well. Though it's all very intense. And way more any two people should have to go through.

Content warnings: violence, domestic violence, discussions of sexual assault ( )

What a great story! What started out as a business deal for tons of money turns into love. I love it when authors write characters who aren't as they seem. It is hard to write two personalities and make them gel and make sense, and when an author can succeed, it is brilliant. RJ did that with Riley. Riley was, on the outside, what everyone expected him to be but he had so much more depth. Jack was such a caring family man. It was nice to see these two get together and protect the family members they love. The mystery did seem a bit obvious at times but it had so many details that it made me doubt and question and wonder until all of the details were out. Overall, this was a great book. ( )

Riley Hayes is the playboy of the Hayes Oil family, and the younger son--but he's also the oil brains of the family. Family patriarch Gerald Hayes has his own reasons for preferring his older son, Jeff, as the next head of the company, but his stated one is maturity. In deciding to apportion control of the company among his offspring (48% to Jeff, 22.5% to Riley, and 22.5% to Eden, the youngest, the girl, and the only one not working in the business), he also specifies that if Riley marries someone he loves within three months, and remains married for at least a year, he'll reapportion the company shares more equitably.

In one sense, you only have to look at the cover image to see where this is going.

Jack Campbell is the son of the man Gerald Hayes cheated, along the way to becoming the sole owner of Hayes Oil. Also a second son, he's running the family ranch, still struggling economically, but starting to develop a really successful horse breeding operation. Also, he's gay, which is fine with his family, but is another reason, beyond guilt at having swindled his father, for Gerald Hayes to hate him. Elder brother Josh is a lawyer, doing quite well enough to support his own wife and two children, but more interested in doing good than in getting rich. Their younger sister, Elizabeth, was born with a heart defect, and has needed several major surgeries before finally becoming stable enough as long as she doesn't do anything silly like get pregnant.

Of course, Elizabeth is pregnant, though her mother and two brothers don't know it yet.

Riley does, due to Elizabeth having confided in the only mutual friend Riley and the Campbells have. And since Gerald's contract requiring Riley to marry carelessly doesn't explicitly require him to marry a woman, he decides to blackmail Jack into marrying him, offering both money for the upgrades the ranch needs, and the money needed for the best possible medical care for Elizabeth and her baby.

This might not sound like the best start to a marriage of true hearts, but, hey, it makes for a more exciting story, right?

Honestly, it's a fun and often charming story. Some explicit gay sex. True love blossoms, and justice catches up with various members of the Hayes family, with Riley growing into a better man than the one he'd been on track to be. Dark Family Secrets are uncovered.

Not great literature, but fun and enjoyable.

I bought this audiobook. ( )

Oh, this is the BEST of the BEST of the BEST of the Forced/Arranged Marriage/Mating/Bonding genre! It, honest to god, does not get ANY better than this!

MC Riley Hayes is rich, beautiful, straight, single and ready to mingle until his father decides to put a stipulation on giving up control of the family company to his son. Riley must marry for love and STAY married for a year in order to retain his portion of the company. So, Riley decides to stick it to the old man by marrying the son (the stipulation never said anything about the wedded partner being a woman!) of his biggest rival, MC Jack Campbell. Oh, and it is delicious! The two boys are bitter enemies and Riley is straight while Jack is gay. Then things start to get all soap-operay and the boys get all hot and bothered about one another and the sex is AMAZING and then they fall in love and WOW! Fucking fabulous book! Plus, [a:R.J. Scott|3432558|R.J. Scott|https://d202m5krfqbpi5.cloudfront.net/authors/1362662970p2/3432558.jpg] has blessed us with, like, a million sequels with these delightful boys. But nothing will ever measure up to this original. It is a wild ride and absolute soap opera perfection.

Highly, highly recommended.

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