My Darling Bride by Ilsa Madden-Mills

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

In a sizzling romance that sparkles with wit and depth, two wounded souls meet by chance in the desert and agree to get married, and their lives will never be the same.

On a normal day, Emmaline Darling isn’t a car thief. She’s just a simple girl who runs a bookstore and adores cats. But when she’s stranded in the desert and needs to get away from her dangerous ex-boyfriend, she picks her only option: swiping the keys to a famous football player’s Lamborghini and speeding away.

Football star Graham Harlan is in chaos. First he took a hit on the field that left him with a near-death experience, and now he’s promised his brother he’ll get married to secure the family inheritance. Trouble is he isn’t even seeing anyone.

Then a mystery woman steals his car. With his usual stubbornness, he tracks her all the way to Manhattan and gives her an ultimatum: marry me or I’ll press charges.

Her choice is obvious, only neither of them expect the sparks that ignite between them.

As the end of their arrangement looms, will Graham take a chance on love or let his darling walk away forever?

My Darling Bride

Terrific fake marriage sports romance!

The following ratings are out of 5:
Romance: 💙🖤💜❤️💖
Heat/Steam: 🔥🔥🔥
Story/Plot: 📕📗📙📘📔
World building: 🌏🌍🌎🌍🌍
Character development: 😟🤭😤😘🥰

The heroine: Emmy Darling – she works at a fantastic bookstore in New York City. She grew up in a family where she saw her dad mistreat her mom and has basically raised her siblings. She has always known that marriage is not for her, though her boyfriend proposed to her yesterday, on the same day he nearly choked her to death in Las Vegas. She got out of there and is now holed up in a crappy motel near Tucson Arizona.

The Hero: Graham Harlan – he plays football for the NFL and does well at it. His last play in the championship game ended with him being knocked unconscious, his heart stopped, and he had a near death experience. He not only saw his life flash before his eyes, but also the life he could have and possibly the woman that would one day be his. The experience shook him, especially because he isn’t finished living yet and has so much left to do, including helping out his brother.

The Story: Graham’s brother Brody is gay, and he wants to buy a gym with his husband that caters to athletes. However, they didn’t qualify for a loan. He won’t accept money from Graham, but Graham thinks if he gets his inheritance from his mother’s family, he can give the money to his brother and Brody can get his dream. The only problem is that the terms to get the inheritance are that they have to be thirty and be married to a woman (apparently the grandmother was homophobic). Since Graham is nearly 30, he just needs a wife.

When Emmy’s abusive ex-boyfriend shows up at the motel, she freaks out a bit and splits in Graham’s Lamborghini. When he catches up with her, he gives her an ultimatum to marry him, or he will report her for auto theft. Though Emmy knows Graham wouldn’t really put her in jail, he is able to convince her it is best for both of them to get married, so they do.

I liked this book a lot for several reasons. First is that I love Ilsa Madden-Mills’ sense of humor. There were funny lines and character quirks. She is also great at writing supporting characters and there were a bunch in this book, including both main characters’ families and some of the people that worked at the bookstore. I really liked the importance of the health issues in this book and how much information was given on each. Graham nearly died from a bad concussion and Chronic Traumatic Encephalopathy (CTE) is a big fear for all professional football players. Emmy also had Afib, and recently had a procedure to help fix her heart, so that was part of the story that was interesting as well.

I also loved the fact that Emmy didn’t fight her feelings like I thought she would, especially considering the fact that she never wanted to get married because of what happened with her parents’ marriage and the fact that she was just out of a bad relationship experience. The characters were great, the sports part was terrific and I just loved the romance in this one. These two got along great and I loved the fact that they cuddled quite a bit. The bookstore where Emmy worked was also fantastic and sounded like a place where I would love to hang out. Lastly, I usually hate when a man uses Darling as a term of affection, because it just sounds old fashioned to me (though I do love a southern man saying Darlin’). Though in this book, it fits well since it is Emmy’s last name. I wonder if she is related to Wendy?

I voluntarily read & reviewed an advanced copy of this book. All thoughts & opinions are my own.

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