REVIEW: Little White Lies by R.C. Matthews

When attorney Madalyn Russell dumps her fiancé at the altar, she temporarily escapes the scrutiny of her friends and family on her honeymoon cruise. Too bad she forgot she is assigned to dine at the “newlywed” table on the fully booked cruise. Goodbye exquisite cuisine, hello standard buffet fare. Nothing will tempt her to enter that lion’s den. Or so she thinks.

When the board of directors orders devilishly handsome Royce Spencer to seek rest alone on a cruise, he sets his sights on Madalyn and offers a deliciously indecent proposal to her dining room dilemma. He’ll pose as her husband in exchange for companionship during the cruise. Royce is a gifted liar with a great sense of humor that has everyone at the newlywed table laughing and no one suspecting the truth.

Is the opportunity to enjoy all the ship has to offer worth the little white lies they'll have to tell? What is it about Royce that makes Madalyn want to engage in a fling at the age of thirty for the first time in her life and toss her tightly held beliefs overboard? The whirlwind love affair catches them both by surprise. Is it possible that in the midst of all the little white lies, they will each discover their soul mate? And when Royce is accused of white collar crime with Madalyn as his key witness, will Madalyn finally learn that life is not always as black and white as it seems?

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REVIEW:

RATING:       4.5 Stars

 

‘Little White Lies’ is a fun, relaxing love story.  Most of the book takes place on a cruise, which adds to the fun. The characters are likeable, and on this ship, romance is all around.

 

This was supposed to be Madalyn’s honeymoon cruise, but she’s taking it by herself.  No, she wasn’t dumped – she’s the one who bolted from the church, finally realizing that she and her fiancé just weren’t compatible.  She hopes going on the cruise alone will give her a chance to recover from the embarrassment.  Everything is looking good, until she heads for her reserved dinner table – only to get a painful reminder that when she made the reservations, she asked for the Newlywed Table.

 

Madalyn requests a new reservation, but there aren’t any available. She has already made a few shipboard friends, including a very attractive man named Royce.  So that she can actually enjoy the elaborate dining room, rather than have all of her meals at the informal buffet, Royce ‘proposes’ that he pose as her new husband.  Thus starts a vacation full of lies, large and small, and they both turn out to be skilled performers. Neither one wants to admit that not everything is just a performance, but there are happy surprises yet to come.

 

I really enjoyed reading this book.  The cruise was very believable; the characters were fun; and all those little (and some not-so-little) lies were very amusing.  There’s a good amount of heat, both physical and emotional, but the romance itself takes precedence over the sex, which always pleases me. The conclusion is truly beautiful, true romance without forgetting the humor.

 

I recommend ‘Little White Lies’ to all fans of straight romance; no suspense, no scary threats, no physical pain and suffering, no over-long sex scenes: just a fun love story, well told.  I give this book 4.5 stars.

 

I am grateful for the free reviewer’s copy I was given.

 

Reviewed by: Roberta