Sweet and spicy marriage of convenience
This is a lovely conclusion to a three-book series centered around childhood friends Gigi, Jo, and Millie. Millie is a shy librarian who was neglected as a child and who pours her abundant love into her friends and her job at the community library. She's been in love with Ford, her friend Gigi's brother, for most of her life, but she never expected her feelings to be reciprocated. When Ford needs a wife mere weeks before his birthday in order to access his trust fund and start his own law practice, he finds himself thinking that no one seems better suited for it than Millie, and he starts viewing her in new and unexpected ways. Both Millie and Ford are good people, likable and easy to root for. The book is character- and emotion-driven and unfolds at a steady pace under a sure authorial hand. Ford in particular is adorable as he progresses from suddenly noticing his sister's friend is cute to being positively plagued by lust. When the two of them finally come together, it's deeply intimate and scorching hot, and enhanced by Millie's propensity for dirty talk (which is a nice character detail that arises from her love of romance books and highlights her natural sensuality that stands in contrast to her inexperience). I am so happy that this wasn't a high-angst story. There were a couple of possible spots where things could've gone off the rails, but Millie and Ford handled misunderstandings like mature adults. In the words of their friend Jo: communication! Overall, I loved the book. It's a gentle yet spicy tale in the vein of Noelle Adams novels, featuring a caring, romantic heroine and a hero who sees all of her and cherishes her with everything he's got. A very satisfying, feel-good read.