Pretend You Love Me
Stacia WolfContemporary romance
Available from Samhain Publishing
ISBN: 1-59998-177-7
November 2006
| Cassandra Ariel Delistraty (Cassie, to her friends) had always known Mike Ashford and he had always seemed to rescue her when she got into trouble. When she was 17, at her high school graduation party, they had kissed for the first time. It was surreal! The fact that Mike was her twin’s best friend hampered the possibility of a relationship. Now, years later, Cassie was an attorney who had left her latest partnership and divorced her husband, Ken, when she caught him cheating. Mike had also been married but his wife had never been faithful; then he was injured during his firefighting duties and had to retire. He went into partnership with another officer who had been injured previously; they opened a bar called “The Electric Wave.”
Cassie and Cal, her twin, along with Mike, had been next-door neighbors and friends for years. The biggest difference in their circumstances was that the twins were related to the Delistraty’s clan and had clout and money! Mike, while not poor, certainly could not equal their wealth and standing. That fact never seemed to bother them unless they were thrown together with Cassie and Cal’s grandparents. With that kind of background, you might wonder why Cassie and Mike would knowingly enter a charade to feign they are a couple. Ms Stacia Wolf does an amazing job of explaining this saga in a fresh new way. Her writing style is a rapid read which involves not only the couple, but both their families. The use of sub-characters enhances the story and extracts both the positives and negatives which plague this couple. The differences in the families, as well as the hostilities between the previous next-door neighbors strengthen the resolve needed to maintain this “couple” position. This book is so extraordinary that I, literally, read it in one setting and it is not a short story! I became engrossed in the story immediately; Ms. Wolf does not start slow and move forward. She started the story with a jolt and it progressed from there. I wholeheartedly recommend this story. It is definitely a winner!
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Reviewer: Brenda Talley |
