Love for Hire

The Helena's Grove Series, Book 2

By: Ivy Alexander

Narrated by: Jennifer Groberg

Length: 3 hrs and 21 mins

Publisher's summary

Sweet Romance with a twist!

Annie LaFaye is a small-town girl going to college in the big world. She’s talkative, polite, fun, and…single. She dreads going to the holiday dinners by herself, until her roommate suggests something that’s so outside Annie’s comfort zone that it just might work!

Annie finds a date for the holidays in Marcus; a confident, handsome, curly-haired blond who has everything going for him. Annie feels lucky to be with someone who has it so all-together. But complications arise when Annie and Marcus find they can’t hide behind appearances.

Desperately, Annie tries to remind herself of the commitment she made; however, she eventually realizes she must choose between her head and her heart.

Will Annie’s feelings ruin everything?

Love for Hire is light, entertaining, and full of romantic moments. Curl up with this sweet story and you’ll find yourself falling in love!

©2015, 2022 Ivy Alexander (P)2022 Ivy Alexander

Warm sweet romance

The second book in the series does stand alone but I recommend reading /listening to both. This is another sweet romance by Ivy Alexander. It is just over three hours but Ivy manages to create a great story in that time

The narration by Jenifer Groberg is very good. She makes the story enjoyable.

I would read and lsiten to more books by these two people.

I was given this book at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Charming!

Annie LaFaye doesn't care if she dates​ since s​he was dumped by her boyfriend ​​two years ago. ​It's just that it seems hard for her to do and her confidence is barely there. During a family get-together, she's put on the spot about her dating life, Annie lies and says she has a new guy she's been seeing​, Marcus.​ ​Aunt Gabby has invited the entire family for Thanksgiving, and Annie realizes that she needs a fake date. ​Her rather sullen roommate, Roxy, knows a guy who knows a guy, and Annie calls to hire a fake date. "Marcus" is perfect; tall, blond, gorgeous, but he has a secret ​and he makes sure that Annie knows this is a professional business deal and there won't be any intimacy between the two of them. Marcus is polished, suave and wins the family over, and Annie is beginning to see him through different eyes. They are sweet together, their chemistry is on fire, and Marcus doesn't treat her like a business deal at all. But when Annie confesses her feelings, Marcus nearly runs away, telling her that he's too damaged and she doesn't want him this way. With a little help from her best friend, Jenn, there's hope that he will change his mind. Their journey is very sweet with a HFN ending. It was wonderful to revisit the characters from Love Finds You​, to see what has happened in their lives. I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised that Roger has begun to redeem himself.
The narration by Jennifer Groberg is spot on, with her well-modulated voice that's lively and fun. Each character has a unique sound and individual personalities. ​

The Grove Of Love Grows On

Loved it! The story moves forward in a truly touching way. Thanks so much

second in the series

The characters from book one are back for book two in the Helena’s Grove series! This time Annie is the focus. And like the first we have a sweet and clean romance.
Poor Annie: She is the eternal single gal and it is starting to get to her, especially now that her brother Zach is in a relationship with Jen. So much so that at Thanksgiving dinner Annie let it slips that she is dating someone, and of course Aunt Gabby, Zach and Jen want to meet Marcus! But Marcus doesn’t actually exist…

This enters the trope of fake dating/ buying a date. And I think I like this trope! Annie just keeps digging herself into a bigger hole with each lie she creates. Like with Love Finds You, you know where this story is heading, but this time I had some doubts. I actually shouted “YES!” when I got to the part of the story where it went in the direction I wanted.

This really is a fun, sweet series, and the books are of novella length. Therefore, they can be read or listened to quickly. Sweet stories can be such a refresher that we need when life becomes difficult. Love for Hire would make a cute Hallmark movie!

Jennifer Groberg narrates again. She does a good job, though at one point I was getting Aunt Gabby mixed up with another character with her narration. That only happened once and otherwise I could keep the characters straight. She did really goof with her interpretation of Annie and Annie’s feelings.

Many thanks to the author Ivy Alexander for sending me an audiobook copy to listen to!

Love for Hire

Annie is just the sweetest. I think I would have said it didn’t work out before going to that trouble! I was annoyed with Marcus for basically wanting to stay and charging her. But it ended perfectly and the bully got hers! Fantastic and fun story! This Family is really a good one.
Great job on the narration.

Another sweet and wholesome romance

This book is a clean contemporary romance with a HEA. This book is just as sweet and wholesome as the first book.

I’m used to reading romance novels that are heavy on physical attraction and sexual attraction but are kind of light on romantic attraction/connection. So, I love how this author subtly shows how a story that is full of romantic attraction and is light on physical attraction makes the overall romantic connection deeper and more satisfying. And it shows that a romance story doesn’t have to include sexual attraction to be fulfilling.

The romantic attraction between the two main characters, was done so naturally and organically, that I didn’t notice it at first. Which just adds to the wholesomeness of this book and series.

I like how the author expanded the world building in this book compared to the first book. The author accomplished this without having to create a dozen extra characters. Just by having the characters go to different stores/locations/events in the small town you start to get a sense of the community.

Once again the author did an excellent job at developing the backstories of the main characters.

I will be reread this book in the future. I’m going to start the next book in the series today.

Truly Enjoyable

Interesting we'll written, heartwarming story with easy to relate to characters and superb narration. I appreciate its wholesome style as the main characters unexpectedly fall in love.

Loved the 2nd book!

I found it interesting to hire a man for a date and glad it worked out. It wasn’t boring - quite the opposite. The narrator did a great job with it!

cute fun

I love this cute, fun story. Annie is insecure in herself..She lacks confidence, and self esteem. She is a fun, caring and quirky. She lied to her family at Thanksgiving, that she had a boyfriend, she was challenged to bring him at g.
she hired a charming, man to be her Marcus. He brought out her confidence, It was only a job.
She felt uneasy lying to her famIly, and dreaded when the time to stop and step away.
Jennifer Groberg brought out the quirky, insecure personality of Annie, the self assured Marcus and also the insecure Adam. She made this an enjoyable listen.

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Touching

Annie hires a boyfriend to take home for Christmas. Instead of it bring for three days they stay for a week. Marcus is the perfect guy to schmooze her family and friends. Annie feelings blur the contractual lines. It turns out she is not the only one. This touching story of deep loss and the fear of emotions was beautifully narrated by Jennifer Groberg.