Wife For Hire - Book Review

By Christine Bell

Synopsis

He needs a wife for three weeks…

Owen Phipps is out for revenge. His mission? To expose the man who stole his sister’s money and dignity. All he needs is a “wife” who can play along. Too bad his last best hope is an actress who tries to mace him with perfume when he offers her the role of a lifetime.

Lindy Knight is a real sap. She loves too hard, feels too deep, and often finds herself saying yes when she should be saying “Let me think about it.” She can’t believe her good fortune when Owen offers her more than enough money to hold off foreclosure until she can find a job. Three weeks at a resort, money she desperately needs, and she gets to help bring a criminal to justice? Score. It seems easy enough until a couples bonding game turns intimate, and they realize how dangerous their mutual attraction could be.

Can they keep their hands to themselves long enough to find the evidence Owen needs? Or are the close quarters more temptation than they can handle?

Review

WIFE FOR HIRE was an interesting read. The cover looks dark and serious and the blurb also has a bit of a “mystery/thriller” vibe to it. What I was surprised at was the humour involved. You won’t find yourself laughing throughout the entire book, but there are moments of hilarity that will have you laughing out loud and/or shaking your head, all of those moments involving Lindy.

Lindy is a bit of a ditz, but she has a very kind heart and a down to earth personality. She believes in love and wants to see the best in people. She also has trouble saying “No” to people, which is how she meets Owen. She’s in between jobs and is at risk of losing her house to the bank when she answers Owen’s ad on Craigslist. Owen is a wealthy man who will pay $20,000 for a fake wife to help him uncover the scam his half-sister’s ex-boyfriend is currently running. After his sister was robbed of her life savings, Owen is determined to get justice for her and anyone else who may have been conned by the guy. Owen is also a cynic when it comes to love. His father left his mother for another woman and since then he’s refused to give a woman that much power over him. To Owen, Lindy is a breath of fresh air, reminding him that sometimes it’s the simple things in life that are often the best. But he doesn’t do relationships and Lindy doesn’t do casual encounters, so this has emotional disaster written all over it.

I really liked Lindy and Owen. While Owen doesn’t believe in love and ultimately breaks Lindy’s heart when he finds out the depth of her feelings, he’s not a prick as some men are written to be. And Lindy is a beautiful person, often putting other’s needs before her own, but she’s not a total pushover. I liked the background story of trying to uncover the con, but I did think that particular part of the story moved a little slowly until it suddenly came to an end. I enjoyed WIFE FOR HIRE so much that I’ve added GUARDIAN FOR HIRE (book # 2) to by TBR list.

Lindy: This was it, the pivotal point in every horror movie, the one that always had her shouting, “Don’t let him in, you idiot!” at the screen. And still, she kept walking. Surely a guy that handsome could get a girl to live in his basement cage just by asking, right? No need to go hunting for one.