His Contract Christmas Bride was a sweet story but I couldn’t actually get into the storyline. Okay maybe it was not the storyline because it was a good one but there was so much internal speaking and not enough engaging with what was happening. I know that I love when things are explained well but this one story there wasn’t enough dialogue between Lucy and Drakon. Now as for Drakon he was sometimes a complete jerk and I couldn’t stand him he didn’t deserve a woman like Lucy. I felt bad for her because I could see that she was falling in love with him. I loved that she spoke her mind and she challenged him but in the end things didn’t end well between them. Now that is when my hatred escalated for Drakon because of the mean things he told Lucy she didn’t deserve it.

This book is part of the Harlequin Presents series, # 3762. Sharon Kendrick is a favorite of mine and I usually pick her books up without reading the blurb. Drakon has just become guardian of his orphaned nephew and convinces Lucy to marry him for the sake of the baby. This is a typical Harlequin romance and is a quick and easy read for the Christmas season. I received a copy of this ARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Lucy hasn't heard from Drakon since their 3-day fling 6 months ago. When he shows up on her doorstep, she is stunned. She's even more stunned to hear that he wants her to marry him, not because he can't live without her or because he realized he loves her, but because he has become the guardian for his nephew and needs a mother for him.

He wants a wife, an over-the-top wedding, and hot nights in the bedroom, but he doesn't want her heart and he won't give her his. Can Lucy live with those terms?

Sharon Kendrick has become one of my favorite HP authors. I ALWAYS buy her books! This one was a good one.

3.5 Stars
His Contract Christmas Bride by Sharon Kendrick is the story of Drakon and Lucy.
Drakon has found himself taking guardianship of his nephew. This leads Drakon to settle in that he needs a wife and who better than Lucy. Lucy was left heartbroken by Drakon once but her heart goes out to his nephew and so she agrees to this marriage of convenience. But it doesn't turn to convenient when their feels start to become more.
This book was a good read with the Harlequin traditional story type line that I grew up with.

Heat Factor: Their relationship is based on hot sex, so...
Character Chemistry: The victim/a**hole dynamic makes for chemistry challenges
Plot: Greek billionaire needs mother for orphaned nephew
Overall: Thought it would be an absurd bit of fun. Was so disappointed.

I love a little fun category romance! I read the blurb for this book and thought, sounds like a ridiculous category romance! Let’s do it for Christmas! The whole premise of having to get married because of a baby in a contemporary romance is so out there that it’s all about a little fantasy here, right?

We were initially off to a reasonably good start. Drakon has custody of his orphaned nephew and decides that he wants the baby to have a proper family life like he and his brother never had, so he thinks through his internal rolodex of available women and comes to the one who was unlike any other. Pure, gentle, a nurse. A virgin, until she took a holiday on his private Greek island. She’s nothing like the high-flying ladies of his billionaire existence.

So we begin with:
1. Arrogant billionaire
2. Virginal, poor heroine
3. Baby

Lucy Phillips is alone and making ends meet. Her father passed away, then her brother was killed in action, and then her mother wasted away from grief. Lucy is living in the family home outside London, working for a catering business (and saving up to buy the catering business). She met Drakon at an event years after he’d left the school where her mother had worked, and he invited her to visit his island, so she went off on holiday. Naturally, Drakon showed up, chemistry sparked, and they had sex all weekend. Then Lucy went home and hoped for Drakon to call while knowing he never would because he’s a player and way too busy/fancy/important for a little nobody like Lucy.

When Drakon shows up at Lucy’s door unannounced to propose marriage, Lucy is, reasonably, like, “WTF, dude!?” Kendrick tries to make this whole marriage of convenience for the sake of the baby reasonable with Drakon’s argument that the baby needs security and stability and with Drakon flying all over the world for business all the time, he can’t provide that, and he doesn’t want the baby to be raised by servants instead of parents like he was. I was ready to get behind this line of reasoning, but then all his behavior later demonstrated he didn’t actually want the kind of family he had said he wanted, so it fell a bit flat.

For her part, Lucy is ready to tell Drakon to step off, but then she thinks she might be able to get everything she ever wanted and thought she couldn’t have. You see, Lucy is infertile (!!!) so now she can have the baby that she wanted so badly. She agrees to the proposal so she can be a mom. I was also ready to get behind this line of reasoning, but then Lucy struggles a little to assert herself as the baby’s mother, and she also fixates on what she wants from Drakon while hating the assertive/aggressive things he does. But she constantly - constantly - CONSTANTLY - positions herself as the victim. Hi Lucy, you made this choice, please own it.

Given the trope, I expected a certain level of this sort of he’s powerful/she’s making the best of it dynamic. But it went on and on, and when we got past the 50% mark, I was over it, because eventually, for this to work, the victim/asshole dynamic has to shift. It really doesn’t. Drakon thinks to himself that she’s there to serve his needs or his idea of what a family should be (which, as discussed, does not seem to match the description he gave Lucy when he proposed). Lucy resents how Drakon controls her life or the family dynamic, but she never takes the opportunity to dictate how she thinks this relationship should look. To be honest, considering the clinical way they go into the marriage, they really should have discussed expectations a little more. But of course they didn’t. Lucy eventually decides to do two things:

1. Be Drakon’s wife on his terms - focus on the sex and make the best of the relationship.
2. Push Drakon to be a father to his nephew - engineer a situation where they’re together as a family.

Which is good...except it’s still not satisfying her, so even when she’s pushing things in a direction she more-or-less wants, she’s still casting herself as the powerless victim in the relationship.

The other frustrating thing for me about this book centered on Lucy’s alleged infertility. Content warning. I personally do not have endometriosis and I did not struggle with infertility, but I was still extremely frustrated with the way this book handled this situation.

1. Lucy thinks she’s infertile because apparently some (presumably) medical professional told her she was infertile because she has endometriosis. She’s completely bought into the belief that she can’t have children rather than that it might be difficult for her to have children. (Apparently ⅓ of women with endometriosis have no infertility issues. For reference, apparently 10% of all women struggle with infertility.) The idea that endometriosis = infertility is extremely problematic in terms of perpetuating a false/simplistic understanding of a condition that is specific to women.

2. Lucy feels like less than a woman because of her infertility. This is, I am sure, a real and legitimate emotion for many women who are struggling with infertility. But the notion that one cannot be a whole woman WITHOUT having children or the ability to have children is, frankly, revolting. That distills womanhood to broodmare status. You may well ask, “Why did you pick up this book, Erin? Weren’t you expecting this?” To which I would respond, “It is, in fact, possible to execute this sort of story without reducing the role of woman to broodmare victim without agency.” Hard fail here.

3. I don’t want to get into spoiler territory, but I will say that if, hypothetically, Lucy miraculously becomes pregnant after declaring herself infertile, that is a bit of a slap in the face to women who are actually infertile. Of course things can happen (and do!) for some families after years and years of trying or after fertility treatments. But going from “I can never have children” to “I’m pregnant after all when we weren’t even trying” - which is typically how this sort of narrative goes (again, no spoilers, so I’m not saying for sure…) - seems to me to be a fantastically insensitive way to treat this very real struggle.

Big. Fat. No.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

Lucy had tried to blot Drakon from her mind. Because only an idiot would want to remember the man who had introduced her to pleasure and then walked away so fast. Or to recall her own participation in what could only have been an impossible fantasy. But he was here standing on the step. The first thing she thought was how different he seemed from the man who had seduced her on his Greek island of Prasinisos. Suddenly Drakon bore more resemblance to a rock star who spent the night on the tiles, rather than a powerful oil baron and shipping magnate, with the world at his fingertips. Her memories of drakon were mixed ….. And complex….. And the overriding feeling she had left when he walked away was that it would be better if she never saw him again. Better to forget those three blissful days and nights which she expected ruined her for all other men. But he was standing here and she couldn’t ignore him. He had taken her virginity , so she forced as wide a smile on her face as she could and said “ Drakon”, “This is…..unexpected.” he said maybe he should have called. Lucy said yeah since it’s a busy time of the year for the catering industry. There are a lot of pre- holiday functions coming up. Lucy works for Caro’s Canapes. Only Lucy would accept the limitations of what he was about to ask her and only Lucy would understand the truth. Drakon had known Lucy from his school days and had invited her to the island. He’d done it because he felt sorry for her because she was hard working and poor and had a rough time. And yet, against the odds, he seduced her, even though she was nothing like his usual course of bed partners. He was not and never had been a player. Drakon told her that he had a reason for coming to her place. Niko his identical wilder twin brother was dead, he’d died of a drug overdose the month before. His brother had married another addict, but she had managed to stay clean during her pregnancy. Now drakon had custody of his infant nephew Xander. Than Drakon asked Lucy to marry him and be Xander’s mother. Lucy had since Drakon again at a school reunion. She was working for Caro’s canapes at this event. She’d been serving sandwiches when Drakon arrived.and he had looked at her. She’d had a crush on Drakon when she was fourteen. It came back to life at the reunion and she was still attracted to him. He drove her home and she told him that her brother had been in the Army and died like their father before him but in a different war. Her mother lost the will to live and faded away. Drakon told her after he proposed, he had never wanted to marry or have children of his own. He than added he didn’t believe in love. It’s something he never felt nor wanted to feel. To his mind love was nothing but an invention which seems designed to excuse the most outrageous forms of behavior. But now he had an heir, whether he liked it or not, who carried half of his genes. Providing Xander with a suitable mother and giving him a real family. She thought could it work? Could she provide what Little Xander needed and in so doing gain for herself what she had thought had been lost forever? She knew she should say no.
I loved this book.It was an easy sweet read. I loved Lucy and Drakon together and how they interacted. I didn’t like how Draki=on reacted when Lucy told him she couldn't have children. I loved that immediately lucy cared for Xander. I loved the descriptions of places and things the author gave us. I loved the plot and the pace of this book. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this book and i highly recommend it.

A truly sweet story of love , romance and family. A wonderful holiday story of romance to cuddle up with and read on cold night!

Drakon Konstantinou is a cynical and cold man but he takes his responsibilities seriously. He can handle just about anything except finding that his identical twin brother and his wife are dead from drugs and they leave an infant with no parents and him as guardian. How can he possibly be a father to a child when all he cares about is the next big deal. Enter Lucy Phillips someone who had spent a wonderful time in his arms before he just up and left her. Used to having his way all the time he tries to talk her into marrying him so that the baby has a mother and father. Might not take too much convincing as Lucy has a big secret, she cannot have children and just the thought of being a mother may make her give in to Drakon. Can her heart handle this cold unfeeling man, is the prospect of having a baby in her arms enough, can that be fulfillment enough without his love. Ms. Kendrick is the master of romance and has always delivered the most wonderful Presents and this is another for the keeper shelf. She keeps you on your toes from page one trying to see if Lucy can melt this cold man's heart. She never leaves the reader with anything but a HEA. Another 5 star romance by an amazing author.

An excellent book! Had fun reading it, and kept me on my toes the whole time. Great character development and fascinating storyline.

Horrible!! I usually love this author, like really love her books. But come one, Lucy is one pathetic door mat and Draken-what a douche.

If the hero (if you could call him that!) thought to himself how she was not someone he would have noticed, not his usual type one more time!) He is so focused on conventional types of beauty. He didn't deserve this girl and she absolutely should have smacked him in the face and left his sorry behind!

I was not a fan of this one at all. So disappointed!

Rich playboy, Drakon needs mousy unattractive Rebecca to help raise his orphaned nephew. Drakon was just plain cold hearted and unlikeable and Rebecca had some serious self esteem issues. The characters didn't share any chemistry outside of the bedroom. Overall I'd rate this a 2.5 star book.

This was just a really cute story. I like both the H and h. They were 3 dimensional in their personalities and pretty likable. The romance was sweet but I could have used a little more page time with that baby.

Drakon comes off as a gruff, a-hole, ‘I thought I’d made it clear that I would pledge to you my sexual loyalty,’ he said coolly. ‘Because I know how destructive infidelity can be. I’m not planning on having anyone other than you as my lover, Lucy...' I really wish Lucy had some lady balls the girl didn't really stand up for herself and I kinda didn't like that. This was just an alright read to me.

Rating 1.5

Okay, this is honest. This was pretty bad. I almost couldn't finish this one. I skimmed some part too.

This had no, I mean no romance for me. Maybe the last chapter or so had a smidgen of it.

We have a heroine who is "not pretty" "wouldn't have noticed her" theme pretty much through half of our story. Well let me be clear that's some of the terminology used at the beginning of the story by the hero. The self esteem for the heroine was low and I was left with an impression of this poor heroine that there wasn't much appealing about her at all. Okay I digress. I'm going to give a little synopsis of the story and the give you some of my issues with this story.

Our hero's brother and wife die of an overdose and Drakon is now responsible for his nephew. He remembers a brief affair he had with the heroine Lucy and thinks she's more the type to raise his nephew then the woman he normally has affairs with. He's not thought about her much, the sex was great but she just wasn't his normal type. She was convenient or in the area and so an affair ensued. It was very satisfying sexually though. So he show's up at her place about three month's later asking her to marry him and look after his nephew. She's sweet, was a midwife and is perfect to raise his nephew, oh and they had great sex too.

The heroine had a crush on the hero when she was a teenager. He went to an elite school and her mother worked there so she has always fancied him. He never noticed her of course. She can't believe that they fell into an affair. She works in catering and helped cater a reunion he had at his home and that's when they had their weekend affair. But she never heard from him again, she had hopes but nope nothing happened. She wasn't his normal beautiful companion but she was glad for the experience. When he shows up and offers marriage she was decided to go for it, the poor nephew needs a family and she strongly believes in family so she agrees. And so they marry and have great sex. But I'm was very frustrated as I really couldn't feel, sense or read much about their love or feelings for each other in most of the story. Especially from Drakon.

This was another book by this author that seemed to be based on their great sex more than their feelings or relationship evolving into love. The hero to me was very unappealing. I would call him cold and calculating, not even alpha really. The heroine had self esteem issues and the way the author describe/wrote her character seemed depressing to me. Maybe it was just me but I found these two characters very unattractive on many fronts. As I stated this is the second book I've read by this author that seemed "cold" or unromantic in my onion. I've like other books she's written but this one and the last have been a miss for me.

Drakon is as rich, handsome and sexy- he also had his dead twin brother’s infant son to raise. So he need wife & mother to help him do this properly and so Lucy came to mind. He had a brief affair with Lucy and she’d been a virgin at the time. He wanted a contract wife, much like an employee but of cause Lucy wanted more. I never warmed up to Drakon and Lucy was like a doormat. I might have like the story more if Lucy had punched Drakon in the face. He was a cold fish and this book was boring. The characters were both cold and boring. I really didn’t like this book at all.