I read another Christmas romance novel recently, one I actually more or less liked! A Suitable Husband by Jessica Steele is about sisters Jermaine and Edwina meeting brothers Lukas and Ash Travinor. There are some major love triangle (or quadrangle even) vibes going on, but it’s handled pretty well. So Jermaine is the uglier, responsible, down-to-earth sister to the beautiful, spoiled, aspiring-to-be-a-trophy-wife Edwina. Jermaine knows who she is and works hard for what she’s got. Edwina lives off of daddy’s money and spends her time stealing her sister’s boyfriends and looking for that rich husband. That is also how this story starts: Edwina has stole Jermaine’s boyfriend Ash, but she actually has it out for Ash’s rich and successful brother Lukas. She managers to find herself at Lukas’ house (where Ash is staying) and fakes a back injury so she has to stay and have the boys take care of her. Luckily, Lukas sees right through that but since his brother is so enamoured, he can’t just kick her out. So he enlists Jermaine to come to his house and take care of her sister (who she knows is faking). And then this starts:
Lukas Travinor demanded that Jermaine move into his home to nurse her sister, Edwina, who was claiming to have hurt her back in order to stay with Lukas… To add insult to injury, Lukas insisted Jermaine act as his temporary secretary!
Determined to resist such an arrogant man, Jermaine was infuriated to find that their working relationship left her wanting more from him. Only, the scheming Edwina already had Lukas in her sights! But just as Jermaine began to give up on Lukas ever noticing her, he started to pay her very close attention indeed…
Now, I don’t really agree with this description. Lukas did not insist that Jermaine act as his secretary. She knows that her sister is faking and wants to make herself useful, so she starts helping out Lukas to do just that. Yes, Lukas is demanding, but it’s not like her forces her to work for him. He does force her to come take care of her sister, because he feels like that is her family’s responsibility and he knows that she is faking. Yes, the works he lets her do is something that he doesn’t need, but he understands that she wants to make herself useful and he lets her. I think he understands her very well, almost as soon as he meets her. He doesn’t go full throttle because he senses something is going on between her and Ash and he respects his brother. When he realises they used to date but she is completely over Ash, he goes all-in to get his girl and doesn’t back down. Love it!
And our daily advent calendar haul:
Happy reading,
Loes M.