Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

Last Chance Proposal- Barbara deLeo
Published by: Entangled Publishing, on 9 December 2013
Genres: Contemporary, Romance
Pages: 169, Format: eARC
Source: ARC Netgalley

wife he needs. The woman he desires.

Cy Hathaway needs a wife, fast, to win custody of his son, Jonty. He returns home to discover the childhood sweetheart he once left behind has become a vibrant, beautiful woman. Even though wanting to sweep her off her feet wasn't part of the plan…

For Ellie, Cy's sudden reappearance awakens a flood of memories—and resentments for the way he’d abandoned her all those years ago. But she has a life now, a career. She can't simply drop everything and get hitched, even if the sight of him still makes her heart race.

But after Ellie meets his little boy, she can't refuse. Certain she has a grip on her old feelings for Cy, she agrees to marry her first love until he gains custody. But when did helping out a friend become something with the capacity to hijack her heart?

*I received a free ARC of Last Chance Proposal from Entangled Publishing via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*

Last Chance Proposal is the perfect holiday romance – it starts with a fake relationship to help Cy win a custody case against his son’s grand-parents, and he thinks the best way to do that is to marry his childhood sweetheart Ellie. It doesn’t really matter to Cy that he and Ellie haven’t seen each other in ten years, and that Cy didn’t exactly leave her on the best of terms. I love stories where a couple meet again after they have both matured and changed a little, and in this one, there are more obstacles in the beginning than in most.

Cy has only one goal in life, and that is to make sure he’ll win custody of his son Jonty from Jonty’s grand-parents. I have no idea where he got the idea that he should be married for that to work out for the best, but apparently, he did, and so he is going for it. This makes for some very funny scenes, though, starting when Cy first sees Ellie again after all this time. Cy is pretty much a typical male (sorry men!!) in that he still thinks about Ellie as the 18-year old she was when they last met, and he is immediately mesmerized by the beautiful and confident woman she has become. It doesn’t stop him from asking her what he came to New Zealand to ask her for, though, and he was right about one thing. Ellie still has her big heart and is always ready to help other people.

Little by little, Last Chance Proposal shows the readers what happened before, and we also learn about a big secret Cy has been keeping for Ellie for all this time. I was amazed at how the story could unfold so fully in only 169 pages, because I really got exactly what I needed. Character development, romance, story and plot are all present and makes for a fun and fluffy read, with some major obstacles in the way for the protagonists.

I will definitely check other books by Barbara deLio, and I look forward to reading one of her longer stories soon. In order to not spoil anything in Last Chance Proposal for you, I’ll simply leave you with some quotes that show how good this is, and let you run to get your own copy for a few hours of contentment.

He was grateful to have her back in his life. Maybe it could be permanent if things went well. A second chance had always been on his mind. Running from her was his single greatest regret.

She loved Cy. Sucking in a breath, she clutched her body as her heart swelled to bursting. Of course she loved Cy. She always had.