The Accidental Marriage

A Grumpy Billionaire Romance

By: Nadia Lee

Narrated by: Ryan West, Emma Wilder

Having been kidnapped by his mother at age ten and left to die in a fire, billionaire lawyer Ares Huxley trusts no one. But he needs a wife to get a critical promotion at his law firm, and wakes up the morning after a friend’s bachelor party to find that he’s somehow married to an eccentric blonde he doesn’t even remember meeting!

He immediately plans to annul, but it turns out she needs a husband to receive her inheritance. They have nothing in common, but if he plays along, she promises to be his dream wife.

The rules are simple: Share the marital bed every night, no real feelings, and the marriage ends in six months when they both have what they want.

But living with this accidental wife doesn’t produce the respectfully indifferent marriage he envisioned. Despite her innocence, she’s feisty both in and out of bed. His family adores her, and when he learns that her family treats her badly, he finds himself wanting to protect her. And maybe more.

Ares can’t stop thinking about his unexpectedly adorable, irresistible, and wonderful fake wife. But despite his evolving intentions—and emotions—she abides by their fake marriage rules a little too well.

Ares realizes the one thing his wife wants from him is the one thing he can no longer do: Let her go.

The Accidental Marriage is a standalone romance. If you love:

* fake marriage
* forced proximity
* he falls first
* he falls harder
* a scarred hero (and wait til you see just how scarred...)
* an unexpected virgin
* a runaway bride
* amnesia / mistaken identity
* soulmates
* a protector
* a found family

The Accidental Marriage is for you.

©2025 Hyun J Kyung (P)2025 Hyun J Kyung

I love it but…..

So I absolutely love this book! I love that we finally got to meet Ares and learn more about his past. I absolutely love the whole idea of him searching for the girl who saved his life. Love that his soul instantly recognized Queen even if he didn’t. & the way this booked had me listening nonstop!!! Omg I just love it. & let’s not forget about Lareina! Her story was amazing and I love that everything connected back to Ares.

BUT!!

The last two chapters seems to be rushed out. The whole story seem to be going AMAZING until it got to the end. Maybe I needed more of a WOW factor when Ares & Lareina discovered the true, but the ending killed it for me.

Don’t worry they got HEA but I felt like it could have been better.

Overall, I loved it. Great start to a new series. ❤️

P. S. Ends in a cliffhanger for book 2 (the next brother)

If you love soap operas, this is the one...

This is another book that I preordered and jumped on the audio for when the listings were announced. I do that for every Nadia Lee release. She's quickly become one of my faves in the past year and a half. I'm still catching up on some of her backlist while keeping up on the new releases. When sign ups for the arcs for this came up, I jumped, because I was so excited to get into this new series. Thanks to Give Me More Books and Nadia Lee for the arc opportunity. This released during a week I was swamped with arcs and home life in general (recent move), so the release happened right when I was able to start my arc. In comes my audio at the same time. Even better, I was able to multitask and listen to my preorder at the same time. Emma Wilder and Ryan West were great as Lareina and Ares and bringing this story to life.

This book had a bit of everything. It was very much like a soap opera. So much plotting to steal inheritances. Arranged marriages. Marriages of convenience. Poisonings. Art fraud. Childhood trauma. Love that grows unexpectedly despite it just being a marriage on paper for mutual benefit. This book really covers so much ground and all the while you know the entire time it's all going to work out for the two of them because they're perfect for one another and exactly what they need.

Bring on the next Huxley. I'm ready to get my preorder in today. :)

4/5 story

I liked the male narrator, the female sounds like a robot, the story is good but it was sooooo long for no reason. Overall 4.0/5

Really great!

I really liked this one! Such a great story! I really enjoyed the intrigue, romance and steamy bits. Lots of fun and substance included here. Everything you would expect in a Nadia Lee book - and the narrators are fantastic as well. Absolutely worth the credit!

Awesome

I loved this story so much. The story line kept me interested. I love this series by Nadia Lee.

Ares Huxley and Lareina Hayworth

*****SPOILER ALERT*****

The Accidental Marriage by Nadia Lee. The Huxleys series, book one. eARC and audiobook review. Dual POV. Duet narration. Contemporary billionaire romance, damsel and hero in distress. The audiobook is listed as 12 hours 24 minutes; I listened at speed 2.50 for 4 hours 58 minutes. Narrators Ryan West and Emma Wilder both read well, but Emma's pace seemed a bit faster than Ryan's, which made listening at any speed a bit off-putting. I prefer dual narration in part because it seems like it's difficult/impossible to match up the reading pace of narrators who don't record together. It did not sound like they did to me. My apologies if they did. Content warnings: abductions; child and adult abuse/neglect; two fires; both MCs are drugged multiple times; FMC's parents and grandfather died under seemingly suspicious circumstances; both MC's families are manipulating them for different reasons; and both MCs suffer amnesia.

Ares Huxley (32; lawyer) and Lareina Hayworth (29; heiress/artist) both have tragic backgrounds but find their way back to each other under unique and extraordinarily stressful circumstances. Their HEA is hard-fought and well-deserved. I look forward to Bryce's story next.

I very much enjoyed the story. For some reason, I was expecting it to be much darker. I still have quite a few unanswered questions about multiple storylines, and I look forward to discussing it openly once more people have finished reading it. JP

2 out of 5 on my spice scale.

1st read 04-02-25 (eARC)
1st listen 04-03-25

what a great story

so I was sorry to see the lastger brothers all done because I enjoyed them so much but I have to say I what a great story to start off with I'm anxious now for the rest of these huxley's to stories to be told I think this is going to be a great Series this this story was a great story the female character I love it I love it that she was 10 times richer than he was which was funny actually I'd love to how she was so strong he was a bit of a jerk but all in all he ended up redeeming himself the narrators did an excellent job of bringing these characters to life Ryan West was superb and so was and a Wilder but I'm a big fan of Emma Wilder so she can do no wrong

Great read

Nadia Lee gives another great book. I love following characters we met in the Lasker brother's series. Great plot twists. The narrators did a fabulous job bringing the characters to life.

good narrative

Great story, easy to follow. very engaging.funny at times. love this author. descriptive characters. Really made you feel characters pain.

Phenomenal!!

Beautiful. Broken. Believable. This story is inspiring. While it's harrowing in parts, it conveys such an important message, that healing IS possible. It is not sugary sweet, it does not hide the dark shadows, and it isn't going to pretend that everything is magically fixed. You will truly fall in love with these wonderful characters and definitely enjoy their story. Lareina & Ares are genuine and their emotions are real, absolutely loved their connection. You will experience a rollercoaster of emotions while reading this book. I absolutely loved this fake marriage, billionaire romance. This is a MUST READ...don’t hesitate, just head on over and one-click this book now!!

Emma Wilder & Ryan West are remarkable bringing the characters to life. They do more than giving their characters their voices, they fall into the roles giving us all of the emotions with the perfect inflections.