Hanging by a Thread: Riley O'Brien & Co

by Jenna Sutton

[Lynn]

Bindu 'Bebe' Banerjee is an educated and successful professional with two problems. One, she's still a virgin and two, she wants to rid herself from a fiancé she has no intentions of marrying. She's liked her best friends brother for a while, but he clearly dislikes her as much as she tries to mask her liking for him with insults. So, she surprised when he approaches her to help with one of her 'problems'.

As heir to the Riley O'Brien empire, Cal O'Brien has never lacked female company but he craves a woman that's off limits – she hates him and he's more than happy to trade insults with her to mask his true feelings. That's until he overhears a conversation which results in a proposal to help Bebe. Only, his gesture has far wider consequences than he dared to dream.

The arranged marriage scenario is well thought out. I know from person experience that even professional people living on opposite sides of the world will agree to such an arrangement to please their families, so the author did a worthy job with explaining Bebe and Akash's relationship. I liked Cal and Bebe together a lot. They balance each other perfectly. He's all worldly and experienced, whereas she's somewhat naive.

I loved Cal. He's the real deal. He's smart, funny and yet has a wonderful sense of compassion and warmth with regards to his family. He's incredibly romantic and I particularly liked his thoughtfulness with regards to Bebe's 'problem', that he's determined to be far more than her first lover. He wants to be her first everything.

I didn't agree with how Bebe kept her other secret from Cal, but can understand why she's closed off about it. She's a highly intelligent woman but has no practical experience for sharing her emotions and problems with anyone close because her family is so frigid towards her. It's heartbreaking that such a clever woman would even contemplate agreeing to an arranged marriage in the hope her family will accept her. Even sadder that she hoped the 'problem' would somehow disappear.

This is my first book by this author. Hanging by a Thread is book three in the Riley O'Brien series. It's fun, sexy with hilarious dialogue and a cast of likeable characters.

4 stars

***arc generously received courtesy of Berkley via NetGalley***