Fool Me Once

A romance with one of the main characters being a divorce attorney involved in marriages for hire? This doesn't sound like a premise that should work but Catherine Bybee has written another winner! The Alliance crafts marriages between two parties for a certain length of time & compensation. Lori writes the prenup, the contract & deals with the divorce. She also tries to comfort the women if things don't go as planned. She takes three of the women on a cruise to relax & let go after two of them are divorced & the third ends up a widow. Trouble seems to find them onboard & follows them home.

Lori has met the perfect man & the chemistry is intense. Reed is hot enough to make her forget her decision not to get involved. However, Reed has show more his secrets & as events begin to unfold, he's torn between keeping his secrets & protecting Lori. If he tells her he's a private investigator, she'll want to know more than he can tell her & he'll lose her for keeping a lie. Can Reed walk the thin line? Can Lori protect herself & the three women? Can Reed & Lori find a way to make their relationship work?

Catherine Bybee has a way of writing romances with a twist that showcase the power & individuality of women. The characters are all believable & three dimensional. Lori comes across as bossy & jaded but as a reader, I was able to identify with her & become engaged in the story. Ms. Bybee was able to completely illustrate the corner that Reed had managed to work himself into & the way he was able to justify his actions in warning Lori's partner in Alliance. I can't wait for the next book! show less

This is the first book I've read by this author, I've read great reviews of her other series "Weekday Bride". This one is a spinoff of that one, but it was written so well that I didn't really have to muddle through to find out what the Alliance was all about. The Alliance is a special service where a rich, powerful man can arrange to have a "Contract Marriage" for a certain amount of time to the perfect woman of his choice. The marriage is really in name only, a kind of a marriage of convenience if you will, where discretion is a must. Once the marriage contract is over and the marriage dissolves and the woman walks away with a small fortune. It sounds like a win-win situation until something happens during one of the marriages and show more everything the Alliance has worked so hard to build threatens to blow up in their faces. They are in for some serious turbulence and they have to think fast to save what they have built so far, not only is the Alliance at stake but lives are as well. Lori, one of the founding partners of the Alliance is a high-powered divorce attorney who is in charge of taking care of this little problem and she does a pretty good job of it but who can she really trust? This is a fast-paced read full of suspense and it grabbed my attention from the very start and held it until the end. I loved the whole Alliance concept and I'm looking forward to reading the next book in this series.
I would like to thank the publisher and NetGalley for the providing me with a copy of this e-galley in exchange for my honest review. show less

Planned marriages with planned divorces with pre-nups and payouts. If you’re not in it for love, what more do you need? Throw in a sinister family member and some unexpected adventures and you have this book. I had no idea what this book was about, but ended up enjoying it just the same. The narration was good and the story kept my interest; to the point of eventually getting around to book two in the series.

I won this kindle version in a GOODREADS giveaway.