Arranged

By: R.K. Lilley

Narrated by: Jason Clarke, Summer Morton

Length: 9 hrs and 16 mins

Publisher's Summary

"Fatally beautiful. Gut-tightening intensity. Off the charts sexual chemistry and a love story unlike any other. You will devour this tale by RK Lilley and only want more." (Audrey Carlan, number one New York Times bestselling author)

"Classic RK Lilley with all the angst, steam, and edginess she does so damn well. I loved it!" (Kylie Scott, New York Times and USA Today bestselling author)

“Some books are simply better than others. This is one of those books. Calder Banks Castelo is a jerk of epic proportions. Jerk-a-licious perfection. Banks and Noura together light this on fire. Sensual, angsty, exquisite. Don’t miss it.” (Jana Aston, New York Times bestselling author)

There were rules in the cash-for-beauty game. The money held the power. The beauty followed the rules and jumped through the hoops.

The Bride

I knew what everyone would think if they knew the truth about my marriage. They'd be shocked and appalled. And rightly so. I was a young, modern, independent woman, and I'd done the unthinkable. I'd sold my virginity to a spoiled rich boy. To a stranger who didn’t love me. And yes, I'd done it all for money.

The Groom

My bride was as gorgeous as she was unwelcome. As desirable as she was unwanted. I wanted nothing to do with her, but that didn’t seem to matter exactly the second she got close enough to touch. I wanted her to hate me more than she loved the millions she’d sold herself for. I wanted to spurn her, but unfortunately, I wanted to f**k her more.

Arranged is a standalone erotic romance.

©2019 R.K. Lilley (P)2019 R.K. Lilley

What an Arrangement!

Great storyline! Well written. My only complaint is that Jason Clarke has such a small part!

Fabulous narration & fantastic love story combined

★¸¸.•*¨*•★Spoiler Free Review★•*¨*•.¸¸★

What I loved most about this contemporary novel…
The almost historical throwback premise / Engrossing & quick audiobook listen / Entertaining / An eclectic & intriguing mix of characters / Original / Well-timed steamy moments / Romantic / HEA / Epilogue
•*¨*•
My Top Favorite Reflection:
‘Life is full of giving, taking, borrowing, and moving on.
And balance.’ ~Noura

I ❤ how Noura and Banks eventually figured this out.
•*¨*•
Writing style: Dual POVs (Noura’s & Banks’)
Cover gush: The colors (purple and pink especially) are so gorgeous, and I love the overlay of images as well.
Collected in Dual Formats – Yes or No? Yes!
I own a copy in Kindle e-book & Audible audiobook as well.
•*¨*•
Characters:
Noura aka ‘Duchess’ – our 18-year old virgin heroine bride; an international model

Calder Banks Castelo aka ‘Banks’ – our older late twenty-something or early thirty-something (either his age never mentioned or I totally missed it) groom and hero; an entrepreneur and one of many male heirs to his parents’ fortune

Chester – Noura’s # 1 bodyguard and friendliest comrade-in-arms

Vincent – Noura’s quiet 2nd bodyguard

Jovie – an emancipated 14-year old female model that Noura takes in as a roommate

Diana Castelo – Banks’ mother; a former model now in her fifties and a warm mother-in-law

Pasco Castelo – Banks’ father; a very rich but relatively down-to-earth man born into a billion dollar empire

Asha – Noura’s assigned but ultimately vengeful personal assistant

Fatima Banks’ devious and vicious ex-fiancée
•*¨*•
Ratings
Overall ★★★★★ It was the perfect listen and helped me get through a 5-hour session of laundry at the laundromat last Saturday.

Performances ★★★★★ each Jason Clarke and Summer Morton delivered flawless and fantastic vocal performances. I absolutely love this narrating duo!

It’s always a pleasure to hear them team up because both make great vocal acting choices and can do decent opposite gender voices – no easy feat! I am so picky about the latter skill. There are a couple of narrators that I loved early on in my audiobook listening / reading that eventually I got burned out on because I have a hard time listening to them do ear-grating opposite gender voice acting. So, it’s always a relief to discover male and female narrators who do both genders realistically well. I will always be eager to listen to either of these narrators on future audiobooks.

Story ★★★★★
I loved the unusually anachronistic concept of this novel. This wasn’t just an erotic novel with a few moments outside the bedroom thrown in for seasoning. Their fall into lust and then their gradual fall into love was fascinating to me, and I very much enjoyed the secondary characters and how they interacted with our heroine and hero.

I also enjoyed our hero’s stubbornness to win his lover’s trust and heart after things went south for them. My personal impression is that kind of determination is not common in a lot of Real Life relationships. It’s so much easier for couples to write each other off if there’s too much work involved to win the other back.
•*¨*•
Final thoughts:
This love story totally ranks among my favorites / reread worthy audiobooks. Bravo, R.K. Lilley, Jason Clarke and Summer Morton!

What an unexpected turn of events

In the beginning of the book, I was frustrated with Nora the female lead, and wanted to knock Calder/Banks the male lead, upside his head for his behavior. But as the story unfolded and you got to hear their "why's" and know them better, it eased the ache a bit. I love the Woman Nora "grew" to be and how Calder came down more than a few Pegs. He fell in love with her when he wasn't looking, and took care of her needs, whatever she asked for. They grew up and met in the middle where they balanced each other out nicely. As for the ex, she got what she deserved in the end. Very engaging book. I didn't want to pu this book down, all day and night. Not one dull moment. There was a bit of mystery, a lot of "romance" and some drama but not scary/horrifying drama. The Narrators did their job and brought the characters to life. The author made me feel like Iw as with them during every scene. It was an amazing read. Just get it. You won't regret it

Good story, but not my favorite from RKL

Jason Clarke is sexy as Banks, of course. He could read Black’s Law Dictionary and make it sexy. I didn’t love the female narrator, but she was better than Erin Mallon (who I can no longer handle listening to). The story was good, but I kept wanting it to measure up to Tristan and Dannika. It doesn’t measure up. Overall, I liked it, but I will not listen to it again, like I have with all of RKL’s other books in this genre.

R.K. Lilley does it again!!

I love this trope and R.K. Lilley's writing so basically this was a home run for me. I loved the push & pull among the characters, I loved how Nora was strong and tried always to make the most out of her situation and I loved the fact that redemption and hope felt like an underlying theme of this story. Outstanding narration on both performances. They really gave emotional depth and truth to their storytelling and I was outstanding.

Just Okay 💜

This was book was okay because IMO I thought it could’ve been better.
The storyline was good and characters were good but it didn’t seem to hold my attention for some reason.
Although there was an HEA I didn’t care for the end.
The narration was very good however, I was disappointed that Jason Clarke didn’t have very many chapters.

Sisters Spotlight 💜
ssbookcorner 💜

Had potential

Both of them agreed to the terms of this marriage. It was an arranged marriage where both were getting what they wanted from it. Noura would get the security that money would bring and Calder would get the backing to restart his business. Okay, so I really wanted to love this one. I love R.K. Lilley’s Up in the Air series but this one does not have the same feel. Noura is too willing to take whatever Calder tosses at her and I just cannot like that trait. Even with her justifications that it is an arranged marriage that Calder was somewhat forced into, I cannot condone how Calder treats her. I think that if this had been a series where we get the two together and happy for longer than the last chapter or two, I might be more forgiving. There is just too much that Calder does to Noura for me to like him…at all.

loved this book

This book was amazing and hit every emotion little bit of drama but not extreme the perfect love story with great narrators!!!!

Excellent!

The narration was great. The story was well written. All in all I couldn't have asked for anything more.

Banks and Nora

What an arrangement this is... apparently Nora must really need her status to put up with Banks. The question is why did Banks do this as well? I enjoyed this story but it just didn’t have the wow factor for me. Narration was good also.

Wonderful

Thoroughly enjoyed listening to this book. I thought the story was superb, the narration was on point and the whole thing together was a well rounded story and I loved it. well worth the money and a very good listen. well done!!😍😍

I loved it!

I really liked this book. I know the content wasn’t to everyone’s liking but it was after all a marriage for money and not love. I loved the storyline and the characters, and as I’m new to RK Lilley I’m excited to read more from her. I highly recommend. Fantastic narration too!

A messed up story with such repelling characters

DNF @ 56%

No, no, no and just no... I usually don't rate books that I haven't finished but I think a listened to enough of this one to say I wouldn't change my opinion about it even if I make myself finish it. This is my second attempt to read and like this author and it just doesn't work for me. Maybe it’s a case of it’s me, not the book, but I have to say I didn’t care to finish this story.

I love arranged relationships as a trope but this was so messed up I don't know where to start from... The hero was such a major Grade A Jerk that I don't think I've read a more repelling male character lately. Yes, he didn't like the setup, that we found out 10 ways to Sunday, but he could have been more civilized about it. He was constantly degrading the h and telling her names. And she just stood there and let him. Yes, she signed up for that, but up until 56%, we didn't understand at all her motives for doing it. So in my eyes she was not different than a common whore to put it blantly.

I couldn't connect with either of the heroes. None. They were all disgusting and I didn't see a positive character in this book. Maybe the driver and the bodyguard were the only decent people. Can you imagine that to be the highlight of your story? And with the horrible way the H treated the h, I just couldn’t stomach all the insults and was simply pissed off.

And what drove me even more insane was the way she turned to mush from a single glance from him Come on, lady! Have some self-respect! He wanted her for her body, used her for it and treated her like shit. How is that supposed to make me like him? Or her, for that matter, for allowing this type of degrading behavior? It was obvious this was a highly erotic book, but I didn’t get the feelings that drove them, so everything else seemed fake for me. After the 10th sex scene out of nowhere, I just gave up.

I was seriously wondering why the high ratings and went to check what changed for people to like this story cause I struggled to enjoy it, but I just couldn't accept either of their behavior... and then I saw his behavior didn't change up till 80% of the book and things even got worse... no, no, and no! That was enough for me to call it quits. Giving up on this story and this author for good... I was eager to listen to this because of Jason Clarke but he doesn't make an appearance till after 40% mark and I was so angry and disliked his character so much that I didn’t want to hear him narrate this terrible male H and ruin this amazing voice... Well, despite everything, he did a great job and so did Summer Morton. Hence, the 2 stars. My 1 star is for their part reading this story. But what a waste of good narrators and great cover...