The Unwanted Wife

De: L. Steele

Narrado por: Shane East, Roxy Isles

Amazon #5 bestseller

He’s my brother’s best friend
My fake husband...
And doesn’t believe in love

Nathan Davenport, CEO of the Davenport empire is my complete opposite.
He hates chocolate. I’m a size sixteen dessert chef.
He only wears black. I love glitter and pink.
He’s grumpy, while I look on the brighter side of life.
Too bad his piercing eyes, and high cheekbones haunt my dreams.

When he offers to loan me the money to save my bakery.
I have no choice but to agree.
Except he has conditions:

I must pretend to be his wife for a year
I must fake my feelings for him so his family believes our relationship.
I must stay by his side for the duration of our arrangement so he can claim his inheritance.

I don’t even like the man, surely I can get through this charade without developing feelings for him?
Except living in close proximity with him, our chemistry escalates
I know I am falling for the wrong man.
For when I tell him: “I love you,” he growls: “Love was never part of the equation...”

This is an opposites attract, forced proximity, one-bed, marriage of convenience, and a brother's best friend, billionaire romance with a plus size FMC. It is a complete standalone.

©2024 Laxmi Hariharan (P)2024 Laxmi Hariharan

Hot and steamy

The only complaint I have is that I was not in the right space of mind for the ptsd, and other mental issues that popped up towards the end of the book. I cried for the last few chapters, my heart felt too much of the story. I loved the happily ever after though, very satisfying.

Steele knows her way around the heart.

Steele knows her way around the heart. From the waltz of temptation to the two-step of heartache, The Unwanted Wife tangos it's way into your soul. Skylar and Nathan turn a conveniently, inconvenient marriage into an accidentally perfect second chance. Sweet and sultry never loses sight of the emotion that romance entails.

The twist!!

This was spicier than I expected, and it had a big twist I also wasn’t expecting! I really enjoyed Nate and Skylar’s love story. They’re definitely destined to be together, despite their crazy history. This audio was fantastic, and I can’t imagine anyone could’ve been better as the narrators than Shane East and Roxy Isles. I loved the narration!

I can’t wait to listen to book 2

The Unwanted Wife is book 1 in The Davenports series by L. Steele. This was my first time reading a book by L. Steele and now I can’t wait to listen to book 2 on audio!

Skylar is a plus sized bakery owner who loves spicy books and is super witty. Nathan is a broody billionaire and ex-marine with PTSD. He is also Skylar’s brother’s best friend. On Skye’s 18th birthday she kisses Nathan and despite kissing her back, he ends up walking away. Fast forward a few years and Nathan is standing in Skye’s bakery offering to help save her bakery from closing, but with one catch - she has to marry him first.

I really enjoyed this story! I will say at one point I felt a little confused and was wondering if I had missed something, but then there was a huge twist that left me in tears. There were actually a couple of twists that both had me crying, which I did not expect! Nathan’s possessiveness was over the top and I ate it up. I loved Skylar’s quick wit and playful personality. I have officially started using TV show names in place of swear words now too. 🙃

The narration was fantastic! It had been awhile since I have had the pleasure of listening to Shane East, and he did not disappoint. He portrayed Nathan’s dominant and demanding personality just as I imagined. This was my first time listening to Roxy Isles and she was amazing! Between the writing and her performance, she had me laughing and crying. I can’t wait to listen to more from her.

Bland

Everything was just mediocre to me, the story, the performance; no doubt they are both good narrators separately but together there was no spark and quite dull. I liked that she was a plus size girl who loved sweets but that’s about it.

Brother's Best Friend - Marriage of Convenience

The Unwanted Wife by L. Steele is a brother's best friend marriage of convenience romance that I listened to on audio narrated by Shane East and Roxy Isles. This is the first book in The Davenports series.

This is the first book of L. Steele's that I have read, and it won't be my last. I was hooked from the very beginning and couldn't to see how it would all play out. I really enjoyed the relationship between Nathan and Skylar. I loved that we got both of their points of views throughout the book. It really brought the story to life.

I look forward to jumping into the next book in the series The Imperfect Marriage so I can get Quentin and Vivian's story.

Shane and Roxy did an amazing job on the narration. They both really know how to bring a story to life. I look forward to listening to more of their work in the future.

I would recommend this book if you're looking for a brother's best friend romance, marriage of convenience romance, or a billionaire romance.

Angsty, heavy with ptsd, and amazing narration

Story Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ (0-5)
Narration: 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 (0-5)
Overall: 4/5
Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥 (0-5) public-ish places & mild bdsm

What I’m Starry-Eyed Over:
🤩 The Unwanted Love audiobook (same narrators) is a teaser for this book and totally worked on me, so here I am.
🤩 The duet narration is fantastic—these two are so sensual and make me feel enormous feels! Who is Roxy Isles and where has she been all my life? She’s perfect as Skylar, laugh out loud hilarious, and I definitely want to read more of her narration. Shane East is fabulous as grumpy, shmumpy, shmexy Nate!
🤩 Take me to Primrose Hill—I’l be hanging out at The Fearless Kitten bakery!
🤩 I love Nate’s reaction to Skylar being on a date.
🤩 I’m a sucker for a “You’re so big” moment!
🤩 Shane East doing Nate’s “f-*-c-k!!”
🤩 “You’re mine, baby. You’ve been mine since the first time I kissed you.”
🤩 Oh, goodness, Luna and Arrow put me over the edge in emotions. I bawled. 😭

What I’m Wishing/Dizzy About:
💫 I don’t think I’m a fan of primal play kink, but these two MCs sure like it.
💫 The use of “plus-size body” is overdone, and I really don’t believe Nate would think this way. The other descriptions (curvy, flare of her hips, etc.) yes.
💫 Not enough fun, funny, and steamy to balance out the heavy ptsd type trauma feels (for my preference).
💫 I knew to expect something with her brother, but, wow, it’s extra twisty, dark, hard, and depressing. But it’s definitely cleverly written.
💫 I might have lost my focus during the Davenport family business meeting.
💫 I’m definitely interested in the next book—it’s the ex-fiance’s dad trope.

Nathan Freakin Davenport...yummy

The narrators were perfect. This book had humor, supportive friends, secrets revealed, revenge plan, a dysfunctional family, surprising twists, and undeniable chemistry between Nate and Skylar. The author did an excellent job pulling me into the story. I am excited to continue reading this series by L. Steele.

Fun with emotional turmoil

CURVY MFC
MARRIAGE OF CONVENIENCE
CLOSE PROXIMITY
BROTHER’s BEST FRIEND
GRUMPY MMC
POSSESSIVE MMC

As always Shane Easton and Roxie Isles were wonderful. Shane protested the growly, possessive Nate to perfection. And Roxie held her end with the opposite personality of Skylar. Entertaining and easy to follow along.

Fast paced story with a very possessive, jealous MMC. Nate was over the top possessive. Everything was “my wife” he took a helicopter to her when he found out his brother was with her. He showed up on her “ date” with another man. He was obsessed.

Skylar is a great character. A book nerd who loves the steamy reads. She is a baker. The dessert names make us all want to visit her bakery.

The story was fun to read. The banter was great. It also hit us emotionally. Skylar and Nate had some deep traumas. Together they made each other a bit better.

Good story with solid characters. These is a bit of mystery and a nice plot twist.

Top notch characters and storytelling

Take a curvy struggling baker with image issues, and a billionaire former Marine with PTSD.

Add best friend's sister, forced marriage, revenge, a lot of red herrings, and mix well.

Bake at high heat, drizzling the batter with sex, romance, and a little gentle consensual primal play. (Can you say, "Run..."?)

Serve this enjoyable story with tissues for the inevitable leaking eyes.