This is my second book in this series. All of the books are standalone novels so you don't have to have read any of the others to get into this one. In fact, the other stories are occurring simultaneously so many of the events described in the books haven't happened yet in the other books. In every book in this series, Jessica Claire takes imperfect heroines and heroes and builds them a compelling romance story with some pretty steamy sex. This book is Sebastian and Chelsea's story. The unusual thing about Sebastian is that he doesn't really do anything. Sebastian is from an old money family turned reality stars but he doesn't have any actual career of his own. Chelsea is beautiful but has been traumatized by a horrific incident in her past. A significant feature of her trauma is that she has panic attacks in certain unique situations that most people would find difficult to avoid on a daily basis. Chelsea deals with her history by playing roller derby, it allows her to vent some of her pent up aggression and hostility.
When Sebastian meets Chelsea they both need another person to act as their romantic interest in order to ward off the world so they decide to be each others plus one. For whatever reason, they fake a marriage. I didn't really get why it was necessary to go that far but I'm not going to be overly critical because I love a forced marriage story. Chelsea and Sebastian become friends but Sebastian is attracted to Chelsea and that's where things get interesting.
What I liked about this book is the interactions between Chelsea and Sebastian. The relationship is well built, there is plenty of character interaction and I love Sebastian's protectiveness. The reason this book wasn't more stars for me is because the sexual issues and the way Sebastian and Chelsea resolved them was just too ridiculous for me. It might be a real life solution but I just thought it was stupid and I couldn't take any of the sex scenes seriously. I also, could NOT understand why Chelsea didn't tell Sebastian about roller derby. It made no sense to me that she worked as hard as she did to keep it a secret.
At the end of the day, I liked the book but I didn't love it. It's got a really sweet romance but I prefer characters with a bit more personal ambition.
**ARC provided by Publisher**
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