ARC REVIEW: The Marriage Merger (Marriage to a Billionaire #4) by Jennifer Probst

Title/Series: The Marriage Merger | Married to a Billionaire #4
Author: Jennifer Probst
Publisher: Gallery Books
Expected Publication: July 30th 2013
Format: eBook | Pages: 400
Genre: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Source: NetGalley
★★★ (3/5) Stars!

Jennifer Probst | Twitter | Facebook | Goodreads

Her sisters have found wedded bliss with their wealthy, wonderful dream men, but not Julietta Conte. She’s stayed on terra firma as top executive of the family’s corporation, La Dolce Famiglia bakery. Work is her passion, and her trendy Milan apartment her sanctuary . . . until Sawyer Wells, a masculine masterpiece in a suit, lures her out of hiding with an irresistible offer: an exclusive partnership with his international chain of boutique hotels.

Julietta’s been burned before—and trusting her brother-in- law’s friend, whose powerful gaze alone has her rethinking the best use of a conference room, is the riskiest proposition. But with a once-in-a-career chance to take the bakery global, will she mix stone-cold business with red-hot seduction?

I received a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. I've read the first book in the Marriage to a Billionaire series and now this one. I haven't had a chance yet to read 2 or 3 so this was my fist time meeting Sawyer and anybody in the Conte family, well, besides Michael briefly in the first book. While on the whole I enjoyed Sawyer and Julietta's story there were a couple of things that drove me crazy that I'll just get out of the way right now. They can actually be lumped together and honestly I very well may be alone in this but, I found this book to be overly descriptive. How can that be a bad thing am I right? But it was like every time there was a new room, scenery what have you, every single tiny detail was given about it. Sometimes less is more. Even clothes labels! If I had to hear about Prada or Vera Wang or Gucci one more time... It just got to be a bit much and it kept distracting me from what was a fun story.

Enough complaints on with the fun stuff! This book is told in the dual POVs of Julietta and Sawyer. Julietta Conte is very career driven. She throws herself into running the family business in Milan. She spent years trying to form any sort of deep connection or intimacy with men to no avail. She's a bit of an ice princess, something she herself basically admits to herself, at least when it comes to love and men. She eventually just gave up and written that side of herself off and dove into what she was comfortable and successful with. Business.

Her mind might have craved physical intimacy, but her body was steeped in ice.

Sawyer Wells is 100% alpha male, in every aspect of his life. He has worked his way from the bottom all the way to the top in the hotel business. Stepping in and turning things around for a few months and making them profitable then moving on to the next project. He's made quite a name for himself in the business world. Sawyer's had it rough, his childhood is heartbreaking and in a lot of ways so hard to read and has deeply scarred him. He likes to keep people at a distance and doesn't let anybody inside the walls he's built around himself. He especially doesn't do relationships. With everything he's gone through he feels like he's sort of toxic and not good for anyone.

His heart beat and air filled his lungs. Blood pumped through his veins. But inside, he was empty, a soulless being with a past that would never go away and that would continually remind him he was nothing.

With all of Julietta's siblings happily married, they all worried for her and wanted nothing more than for her to find someone of her own to love. Then youngest, Carina, had been trying to get her to cast a love spell that she swears is what worked for her and Max (I seriously can't wait to go back and read the rest of the family's stories). After constant calls and text messages and bugging, Julietta finally gives in and reads the spell, after a very long day, figuring if she at least read through it she could say she'd done it and get Carina off her back. One thing leads to another and she actually does it, while feeling pretty foolish, and and sent her sister a text to say it's done now back off!

Carina believed if Julietta cast this silly love spell, Mr. Right would show up at her door and change her life.

Sawyer is in the process of seeing his dream vision of a world wide chain of luxury hotels come to life and he wants nothing but the best of everything to be associated with them, which includes the Conte family bakery La Dolce Famiglia. He sets up a meeting with Julietta to offer her the business merger of a lifetime. Though when they meet Sawyer realizes he wants to mix in a little pleasure with business. As much as Julietta attempts to push him away and keep things strictly business there's so much chemistry and sexual tension building between these two. He knows it and so he offers Julietta another sort of...deal. *Grins* Things get really interesting from there.

There's a whole set of fun supporting characters as well including the characters from the first 3 books making appearances. Let me just say that, in the right situations, I love meddling mamas. And Mama Conte is perfect at it. I loved how she worked her magic on this love story! And there's also one special young man named Wolfe, who Sawyer has taken in under his wing and is grooming/mentoring him. Wolfe will steal your heart along with Sawyer. They come from similar backgrounds and situations and they're so much alike. It's through Sawyer's relationship with Wolfe that you get to see the vulnerable side of him. The caring side I don't think even think he himself knows exists.

This was quite a fun read and I'm really looking forward to going back and reading the other Conte sibling's stories. Just the brief glimpses I got of their personalities when they appeared were so much fun. Thanks NetGalley and Gallery Books for approving this book for me to read and review!