Alexandra Stewart is dating the man of her dreams. But there’s a catch. The date is a masquerade and her Mr. Hot-Choc is gay, or so she thinks...
Family oriented Alexandra Stewart, known as Alex to family and friends, is in desperate need of money for her dad’s heart surgery. She is stoked when gorgeous, billionaire Jayden McCartney unexpectedly barges into her life and offers to help. On one condition. She must pretend to be his girlfriend. One look at Jay tells her to run in the opposite direction. He is too good-looking, too successful, and too rich for her liking. When she is told Jay is gay and that his family is matchmaking him with a woman he doesn’t love, she feels sorry for him. Thinking that she’d kill two birds with one stone, Alex agrees to the proposal. Now, the only problem is how does she prevent herself from falling madly in love with Jay when the way he looks at her makes her heart tremble and his touches set her body on fire?
Hot, recently single Jayden McCartney has to bring his girlfriend to his sister’s wedding in order to stop the matchmaking his grandmother has planned for him. Not in the mood for dating or a new woman after the discovery of his cheating ex, he hires a perfect candidate as his girlfriend in Alexandra Stewart. Alex, however, thinks he’s crazy. It’s only when he commits a sinful lie that would damage his manhood severely does she agree to help. He convinces her that he is gay and that the possibility of his family finding out would ruin them financially and socially. Now, Jay has to pretend to be batting for the other team, which turns out to be no easy task where the geeky turn sexy Alex is concerned because he wants her, and what Jay wants, he certainly will get.



Spoilers ahead!






I'm slightly disappointed that my first book review on The Honest Bookclub is a low rating but as the title says, it's an honest review. And honestly? I felt this book was slow. When I was reading it, I kept putting the book down and doing other things, putting off reading, and I hate it when that happens. I want a book that keeps me hooked and it's just me and the book. Sadly, this didn't happen with His Hired Girlfriend.

 First off, let me start with the plot. I love stories like these, the one where they're strangers who are in a charade of pretending to be lovers and in the end, they fall in love. I adore them. Here, however, I was left unsatisfied. For one, I absolutely hate stories that have added unnecessary drama in it, this book was filled with things like date rape drugging, attempted rape, cheating, fights and so much more. It got to the point when I was rolling my eyes because it just got ridiculous

Sarah and Britney: I'm going to get that bitch for the 60000th time

Just stop already, it's getting embarassing now. Britney, some jealous girl in the book, just wouldn't quit. She teams up with the girl who cheats on our main character, Jayden, to completely destroy his new "relationship" with Alexandra. It gets to the point when you're thinking that these girls have absolutely nothing else going on in their lives that they'd rather just be bitter bitches.
Then incomes Kyle, Jayden's ex-best friend, who's the one who is made to drug and rape Alexandra.... I mean really, surely he'd have common sense and be like 'look, you're obsessed, just stop it already with this, it's getting way out of control' but no, he's just as messed up. 

Sigh..

And then we have the main characters, Jayden and Alexandra. I wasn't really massively into them either, their relationship just felt a little unbelievable and flat. It wasn't very realistic, he first pretended that he was gay and was incredibly shit at making that believable - but let's not forget, Alexandra fell for it because she's kind of dim. They finally got together and we hardly saw any of it! We saw more when they weren't together and I just felt there was no communication between them unless she's just re-assuring herself and reminding him that he's gay. Why keep bringing it up?

I also don't understand why she's kissing him when she thinks he is gay? It doesn't make sense

Although I still don't get why he hires someone in the first place because it seems like an odd reason. He hires her because he doesn't want to be set up. Jayden, you're an adult. Just explain that you don't want to be set up with someone?? Your family love you, they'll understand.

And one last thing about this story, it's the ending. MY GOD, I haven't laughed that much in a while. What made me chuckle is, okay you know in Romantic Comedies when the villains get caught out and they end up working for the main character or something. IT HAPPENED IN THIS BOOK. Britney and Sarah were maids, working for the family dressed up in their maids uniforms and serving drinks at Jayden and Alex's wedding. Brilliant! Just like the films. They were even getting told off and breaking things aswell, just to make them more miserable than they already are. If I were Alex though, I'd be like 'no, why are you hiring them?' because Britney got Kyle to DRUG HER. Sarah also tries to drug Jayden. Why would you want them to serve you drinks? DUMB.

And why is the main guy always a millionaire?

Right. What I did like about this story - because believe it or not, there were a few things I liked - was mostly the setting. I absolutely love the idea of going to New Zealand and when I saw it was called Kiwi Bride #1, I was like 'oooh Kiwi! It's set in New Zealand!' and to top it off, we also get the amazing city of New York aswell. You can't go wrong with that.

Although it wasn't written how I'd like, I still loved the idea of these stories, I've read a few before about people pretending to be someone's boyfriend/girlfriend, so I'm very fond of these books. It did make me chuckle a few times too.

A generous 2 stars for this one.




RATING: * *
GOODREADS: HIS HIRED GIRLFRIEND (KIWI #1)