An Offer From Mr. Wrong by Niobia Bryant

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I read the previous book in the Cress Brother's series The Rebel Heir where we got our first wind of Lincoln. The Cress family drama gripped me the last time so I needed to know  how things would go down.

Lincoln is in New York to connect with the father and younger brothers he's recently learned about. One of the first things he does is track down the PI who blew his world apart to tell her off, but when his newfound family feels overwhelming he asks her to pretend to be his girlfriend.

The time jumps in this book kept breaking up the momentum for me. It felt like a lot of the drama was happening off page and then on page would be spoken about on page and then there would be a time jump of a few days then a few weeks then a few months. We don't get to see Bobbie and Lincoln spend but one scene together because we skip a few days and are told they've since become fast friends. And I feel like the scene in which we were told that should've been a scene used to show how they were becoming friends and letting their guards down. Not just declaring it had already happened so now we're going to fast-forward to the part where they're comfortable with each other.

As much as I enjoyed the steamy moments between Lincoln and Bobbie, I could've done with one less scene if it meant fleshing out some of the other aspects better. Lincoln keeps avoiding actually building a relationship with the family he's supposed to be in the states getting to know. It was also confusing that his last name was Cress and everyone in his hometown knew his famous father was his father but his father didn't actually know. We're to believe this family is full of very popular celebrity chefs yet somehow that was kept a secret.

Too many obstacles were thrown in during a short amount of time and the one that broke them up mostly played out off page and in between months passing so it was hard to find it believable. There were also too many tropes being used here from secret heir, grumpy/sunshine, fake dating, surprise death, and secret illnesses. It was a lot to try and execute and the book ended up completely falling off for me at the end.