Sonia's Reviews > Arranged

2.5 stars

If I’m ever going to read a “cheating” book, I’d hope it’d be something like this. Did I love it? No. Did I hate it? No. But I wish some things were done differently. I will say, Lilley definitely got me to feel (rage and stomach aches were among those feelings lol) and it’s been YEARS since I read her books (sigh. I was in love with James Cavendish back in the day. And… AND… I was somehow able to stomach reading Tristan and Danika😬🫣)

Noura’s (18/19) a model and needs money. She signs a contract to get married to Calder Banks (26) and immediately gets groomed to be the perfect trophy wife (the things she has to learn to do 🫣). She signs a prenup (duh) along with things she’s expected to accept in her marriage, including being available to please her husband at any point and… ugh… never asking where his d has been.

Calder HATES gold diggers, especially women like Noura. He’s been burned before and he’s scarred because of it. He meets his wife less than an hour before they get married and is forced to consummate their marriage that night (horrible night 🥴 no prep work for her v 😵‍💫 and… it lasts seconds 😬). His dad’s controlling him with this marriage (he’s ALSO getting money from this) and he despises his beautiful wife because of it.

What I liked: spoilers ahead
—how jp Calder gets. Omg. These scenes were delicious. He gets jealous of her SMILE. Yeah. Her SMILE🤣. Don’t get me started on her laughs 😂😂😂. Ermagod. The way his thoughts go and how much he wants to torture the people around her that bring her happiness because it’s not him had me smiling 😅. When he’s still hating her, he wants to know the name of the masseuse that learned of her erogenous zones 🤣. And then when she posts a nude ish selfie, he goes ballistic. These. Scenes. Are. GOLD!!! 💅

—OMD scenes. I knew going in that this was a cheating book, so it made me appreciate the OM scenes even more. I generally love OMD scenes, and the few ones we get are pretty good. Too bad they don’t go anywhere 🙄. Not one kiss. Not one caress. Sigh (I’ll address this down below)

—the steamy scenes 🔥. Calder has to make up for the horrible wedding night debacle, and man, does he ever 🥵💦. He needed to erase her memory of that night and he makes it his job to do that 😅😉. You do you

—when she finds out about the cheating and everything it entailed, she dips. That’s right. She divorces his @$$💅💁🏻‍♀️. She decides to continue living her life away from him (but he doesn’t let her move on)

—the side characters, more specifically Chester and Vincent. And well Jovie too. They made Noura seem more human and approachable since she comes off as cold and callous when the book begins

—the grovel. Yes. There’s a grovel👏🏻. When Calder finally signs the divorce papers, he requires Noura to meet with him for an hour one time a week. It goes on for many MANY months and Noura doesn’t cave💅… for while (until she eventually does). I looooved LOOOOOVED how cold and standoffish she was during these meetings. She got the timer ready to go and then sit there… awkwardly… until the timer rang 🤣😅. Man. Calder was sweating BU!!€TS 😅💁🏻‍♀️. BUUUUT… I wanted more 🤣. I was completely satisfied with this 🫣😬😅

—the firing of disrespectful people 🥹. This was actually VERY swoony 🥰🥰🥰. He makes sure Noura is respected and taking care of herself. I loooved this

—celibacy during the separation. Both are celibate (but I wish Noura hadn’t been 😅🤣🤣🤣)

What I didn’t like/wanted more of: (spoilers)
—the grovel. Although I’m happy that there WAS a grovel, I wanted more 🫣🤷🏻‍♀️. He “cheated” on her for the first month of their marriage, basically abandoned her, and she caved in too quickly *FOR ME*. Yes, I know. They had NO feelings (and many don’t even consider this cheating), but it happened… and there’s so much drama and angst because of it. The woman he HATED and had been smexxing for years gets pregnant… which created lots of not-great feelings in me 😏. Sigh. I mean. It got me angry 🤷🏻‍♀️. And it definitely felt like a huge betrayal since Noura and Calder were doing well when it all came to light

—the owd. Not only is Noura forced to hang out with Calder’s previous f buddies early in the book when they’re getting to know each other (feelings were still developing), she has to endure the ow he cheated on her with. I WISH we had seen Calder put her in her place or put Noura first in front of her. It’s more like he wanted to avoid confrontation and just left it as that 🤷🏻‍♀️. Show me she’s your one and only (well, hard to say that considering that she wasn’t for the first month, but afterwards she was).

—the OW tattoo. 😑🥴🤬. It takes him MANY MANY months AFTER the divorce to get it removed. Like. What?!?!?! 🥴 why is the ow, whom you supposedly hate, STILL ON YOUR BODY?!?!?! Makes no darn sense to me!! This angered me so much 🤬

—Noura remaining faithful through it all. She owes Calder NOTHING and she doesn’t even TRY to see other men? No dating. No kisses. No anything. I. Was. P!SS€D! She doesn’t even flirt with OM 😑. I wanted her to actually try to see if maybe there’s another man out there for her, but… NOTHING 🙄🙄🙄. Sure, it's not in her character, but basically, Calder has her in his pocket because he knows how she is. He should've been sweating bullets and shitting bricks, not just waiting for her to "get over it" and take him back... sigh... there was great potential here for there to be some angst on Calder's part. Once they start f’ing again, she tells him they need to stop so she can get over him, he says I don’t want that. Well duh 🤷🏻‍♀️. SMDH Noura.

—Noura needing to get his attention. The first time she posted the nude-ish selfie, I thought it was great since Calder reacted so *violently* with his jealousy lol, but then she had to do it again with a male model friend so that Calder sees her and goes back to her. Why is SHE chasing him... She's already done this, let him do some chasing💁🏻‍♀️, which leads me to…

—the amount of times Calder leaves Noura alone. As in, there are many times he doesn’t see her for weeks or many days. In the beginning, it made sense, but then once he started developing feelings for her, he should’ve been actively pursuing her 🤷🏻‍♀️

—Chester needed to get some play time😏. Bahaha! I mean, I wouldn't have minded adding this book to my "bodyguard" shelf lol That way, at least Noura knew what it was like to KISS another man 🤷🏻‍♀️ (after the divorce). I LOOOVED that he had a nickname for her... and it made Calder so jealous lol. Or, you know what would've been even better? Going out with the OW's ex-hubby (the one the OW cheated on with Calder). THAT would've been the cherry on my sundae

—the rushed ending😐. Sigh. Listen, I know we can't always get the types of epilogues we all want, especially in these older books. But... really? We get an epilogue 6 years later where Noura FINALLY caves and says yes, and then that's it... like... what? What happened in the meantime? What happened after she caved and decided to give him another chance? Why did it take so long? What did SHE stipulate for the relationship? SOOOO many questions



—the damn contract saying she couldn't ask Calder where his d's been was just gross🥴... it made my tummy hurt. I get it; it's not a marriage where they're in love... but still... still made me feel icky... I wish we had clarification on whether or not he had done other things with other women besides his ex lover during that month he was actively cheating. It's almost implied that he didn't, but Noura never asks (I feel like I care more than she did 😅)

—Noura caving so quickly. I think the reason why it seems like she caves so quickly is because we don't see all of the required dates in their entirety. I would've loved to have seen a lot more, from beginning to end, from the awkward silences to the angry goodbyes. GIVE ME MORE lol. He asks to talk privately and she agrees... like...what? Even Chester doesn't think it's a good idea 🤣😅. He double-checks to make sure that she's serious lol. Chester for the win *whispering* Chester. Pssst. You should’ve tried wooing her… maybe 🤣.

—more of Calder's POV. There were pivotal times his POV should've been in the book, like when he talks to the OW privately or even during the separation after the divorce. We get some chapters, but not enough. I REALLY REALLY wanted to see his POV when he was talking to the OW. When Noura gets released from the hospital, he's MIA for like 8 days. EIGHT DAYS!!!! During which he was seeing the OW to talk about the surprise pregnancy situation. Sigh... this would've made ME feel better about the direction of the book or even the grovel that we got from him. But, we don't see any of the good "put the OW in her place" scenes 😑. Also, earlier in the book, there’s a scene where the OW makes an appearance while Calder and Noura are together. He goes to her and whispers something in her ear. What did he whisper???? 🤔

Overall, I didn't hate it, but I didn't love it. I devoured it, so there's that

⚠️safety squad⚠️ SPOILERS
-no sharing
-technical “cheating”- he slept with his previous lover for the month following his wedding
-h hangs around with a bunch of his previous hookups (from his younger years) including the bridal party
-OW- the ow is still in the picture. The H even has a tattoo of her. He slept with her after the h
-praise kink
-OM- there’s a man that grabs the h. Her bodyguard quickly paws him off. OM2 lightly kisses h on the lips during a photo shoot. OM3 wants to date her. He’s the OW’s ex. H goes ballistic during all of these
-the H gets jealous of everyone that makes her eyes twinkle, her lips smile or even laugh.