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Review

4.5 stars

A brother’s-best-friend, childhood crush, friends-to-lovers, fake marriage romance, this book has all the tropes, and it’s such a gorgeous read!

This is the second book in the Creed Legacy series featuring the Creed family siblings. The first book, [book:Fire: A Forced Proximity Rockstar Romance|239228106], rocked my world, and while you can read this as a standalone, don’t miss that first book because it’s so freaking good.

Presley and Hollis met as teenagers. He was her brother’s best friend, and he ended up living with her family for a year when his mother took off. During that time the two of them grew close and became each other’s ‘person’, but when Hollis had to leave, they lost touch. It’s 12 years later when Hollis suddenly reappears in Presley’s life. She’s living in California running her family’s bar, and he is the owner of a club in Nashville, so their reconnection happens over the phone until Presley finds herself alone in Vegas, and Beck spontaneously decides to join her. They wake up married, and decide to stay that way, faking it for her family so that Hollis can help Presley with some business troubles she’s having.

It’s not the most convincing reason to stay married, but neither of them seem too interested in parting ways, and I was more than happy to go along with the forced proximity fake marriage. There are flashback chapters to the past to show us Presley and Hollis’ relationship as teenagers, and even though they were never officially together, the feelings were certainly there so there are some gorgeous second-chance-romance vibes. They have anger and grief from the past to work through, but there is this epic sense of longing and reunion that really brings the feels, and I loved seeing these two come back into each other’s lives.

“You are my home, Pres. The only one I’ve ever had.”

While struggling to contain all of those feelings, they’re having to pretend to be married in front of her family, and the longing glances, touches, public displays of affection and “my wife” declarations just add to the wild chemistry between them, and the anticipation is so good!

“The next time we kiss, it won’t be for show, Pres. And there will be nothing platonic about it.”

Their fake relationship (which, honestly, never actually felt fake) shifts easily and naturally into reality. They open up about their challenges and they are there for each other without question, taking each other’s backs and supporting each other through ups and downs, and together these two are something special. The love story is steamy and emotional, and so beautiful, and these two are so very clearly meant to be.

“You have all of me, Pres. You always have.”

I loved seeing so much of Presley’s family, and there is some lead-in to the next book of the series, and I’m so excited to continue on.

Such a gorgeous read, I loved this one.

4.5 stars.

 

The Creed Legacy