Cat's Books: Romance

I love make believe so Contemporary Romances featuring Pretend Engagements are catnip to me. 

There are tons a reasons to create (and then have to find) a fake fiancee apparently.

Check out all these plot lines and maybe you might find a need to conjure up your own engagement. 

1. The Boss's Fake Fiancee by Inara Scott 

s she his worst nightmare…

No relationships, that's billionaire Garth Solen's rule—especially not with a woman like his new employee Melissa Bencher, who thinks with her heart and not her head. But all bets are off when Melissa’s attempt to make her jerk ex-boyfriend jealous by suggesting that she’s dating Garth. To protect his ailing grandmother, he is forced to play the part of Melissa’s adoring fiancé.

...or a dream come true?

Melissa couldn’t begin to imagine all the trouble one impulsive act could cause. Now she’s trying on rings and posing for the paparazzi with her gorgeous boss. The game is clear: for one month, they play the part of an engaged couple, and then they part ways. No emotions. No entanglements. But when it comes to matters of the heart, Melissa's never been good at following the rules…

2. Rocky Mountain Angel (Six Pack Ranch) by Vivian Arend 

Allison Parker needs a convincing excuse to come home to Rocky Mountain House. A hopelessly romantic reason that won’t let her mother suspect the truth—that Allison has discovered Mom is keeping a terrible secret from the family.

Gabe Coleman is struggling with two of the roughest parts of ranching: dealing with his bull-headed mule of a father, and making enough to pay the bills. When his old friend Allison offers to help him develop his ideas for organic ranching—in trade for pretending to be her fiancé—it sounds like the perfect set-up.

Yet the deception leads them in an unexpected direction, where their shared daily hells are erased by nights of heavenly distraction. It’s not supposed to be real, but once the gates are opened, there’s no denying they’ve found in each other a little bit of Paradise.

To break free of the past and face the future, though, will take more than temporary pleasures. It’ll take putting their hearts on the line.

3. Strange Bedpersons  by Jennifer Crusie 

Tess Newhart knows her ex-boyfriend Nick Jamieson isn't the right guy for her. He's caviar and champagne; she's take-out Chinese pot stickers. He's an uptight Republican lawyer; she was raised in a commune. He wants to get ahead in business; she just wants…him. But there's no way Tess will play second fiddle to his job.

Yet somehow she finds herself agreeing to play his fiancée on a weekend business trip that could make or break Nick's career. And while he's trying to convince Tess that he needs her in his respectable world, Tess is doing her best to keep her opinions to herself and her hands off Nick

4. Yours To Keep by Shannon Stacey 

Emma Shaw needs a husband, and fast! Not because she's interested in romance—after all, she's too busy with her landscaping company—but because Grandma Shaw is coming to town, and she will have nonstop questions about Emma's (stagnant) love life.

Sean Kowalski no sooner leaves the army than he's recruited by Emma to be her fake fiancé. Sean doesn't like the deception, but he can't help his attraction to the feisty brunette. A little pretend kissing won't hurt anyone—especially when there's no chance he'll fall for a woman with deep roots in a town he's not planning to call home. But when fake, innocent kisses lead to very real, explosive sparks, Emma and Sean discover that their big ruse might just lead to happily-ever-after….

5. Temporary Fiancée by Judy Rogers

Haley Marchand needs money. So when a request comes for her to be both temporary secretary and fiancee, she jumps at the chance. As luck would have it, she falls on her face in the driveway. Entrepreneur Rand McNeil naturally says she won't do. Things take a turn for the worse when he degrades her elfin face and wild hair. Now Haley's on the defensive, and heaven help "Mr. nobody-should-look-this-good.

Because he lied to his former fiancee, Rand needs someone who, in addition to having topnotch secretarial skills, can pose as his fiancee for one evening as he finalizes a pivotal business merger. He needs someone tall and classy, and instead gets someone perky and cute. No way his high-and-mighty ex and her father will believe he'd be engaged to someone like her.

Can Rand keep the unpredictable Haley from turning his life, and emotions, into total chaos? Can Haley keep her attraction to hot-and-cold Rand under control as she challenges his diehard conviction that marriage is only for idiots?

6. Rules of Entanglement  by Gina L. Maxwell

District Attorney Vanessa MacGregor firmly believes that structure and order are the stuff that dreams are made of. Happiness can be planned—and it starts with the seven rules she’s laid out for her future. But as she’s organizing her best friend’s wedding in Hawaii, all of Vanessa’s best-laid plans are about to meet their match in a wickedly hot MMA fighter…

 Jackson "Jax" Maris is focused on surfing, training, and fighting. That is, until he opens up his big mouth and finds himself having to pretend he’s engaged to his little sister’s best friend, Vanessa. When they’re forced to share a romantic bungalow, however, their little charade suddenly takes a turn for the seriously sexy. And while Jax is definitely not part of Vanessa’s long-term plan, he has seven days—and seven naughty nights—to turn her seven-rule plan upside down.

7. Engaging the Boss by Noelle Adams

For years, Jonathan Damon has buried himself in his scientific research, but now his uncle threatens to pull the funding for his lab unless Jonathan makes strides toward marriage and family. So he decides to bring a fake fiancee to his cousin's wedding to mollify his uncle. And the only convenient candidate for this particular experiment is Sarah. 

Sarah has been Jonathan's assistant for years, and she knows he's never thought of her in any other way. She's happy to play the part of his fiancee, but being thrown into unusual intimacy with her brilliant, sexy boss stirs up feelings she has never been able to admit before. 

8. My Fake Fiancée by Nancy Warren 

The Rules of Fake Engagement

The Terms: Caterer Chelsea Hammond will live with insurance broker David Wolfe for three months in order for him to clinch a massive promotion. Newly returned from Paris, Chelsea will use his kitchen for her new catering business.

9. Make-Believe Wedding by Sarah Mayberry 

Everyone in Marietta, Montana, is in love and getting married - at least that’s the way it feels to Andie Bennett the night of the Valentine’s Ball. As she watches the man she’s loved from afar for half her life dance with another woman, Andie allows herself a moment of sheer fantasy as she fills out a stray entry form for the Great Wedding Giveaway. Andie channels years of fantasy and yearning for Heath McGregor onto the page, but she never intends to actually enter the Giveaway. Only a crazy woman would do that. But fate has other ideas…. 

When Heath learns he and Andie are last minute finalists in the Great Wedding Giveaway, he’s completely baffled. How on earth could anyone make such a ridiculous mistake? When it becomes clear that Andie will be humiliated if the slip-up becomes public, Heath does what any good friend would - he suggests they pretend the engagement is real until the Giveaway is over and then quietly “break up” when no one is paying any attention. It’s the perfect solution, except Heath very quickly realises that pretending Andie is his is no hardship at all. In fact, it may just be the best thing that’s ever happened to him… 

10. The Marriage Trap by Jennifer Probst 

o satisfy his late father’s wishes, hot and single billionaire Michael Conte must find a bride—someone who will fit into his traditional family back home in Italy—and fast, so his engaged sister will be allowed to wed. With no intention of being tied down, Michael “proposes” to fiery, free-spirited photographer Maggie Ryan: if she will play the part of his fiancée during her trip to Milan for a photo shoot, he will keep away from her married best friend, Alexa, and stop making Maggie nuts with their too-close-for- comfort flirtations. 

But once in Italy, sexual tension sparks the hottest no-strings- attached arrangement on any continent. Could marriage be the most enticing trap of all?

Do you have a favorite Contemporary Fake Engagement Romance? I would love to know. 

To vote on the best of the best of Pretend Fiancees, go to my Goodreads list: Best Fake Fiancee Romance.