4 stars

Rules of Arrangement was the pleasant surprise that I needed in the middle of this reading slump! Sometimes, it is good to judge a book by its (awesome) cover.

This book admittedly started out a bit slow for me but once we met our love interest, it hit the ground running. Romantic suspense and new adult are not genres that I have really delved into before, but this book may have just converted me. Mackenzie does an excellent job of building an actual love story out of a complicated set of circumstances and the tension that the blackmail subplot brings inserts itself enough to both allow the romance to build and add just that little bit of spice.

I think that it is one of the more successful debut novels that I have encountered recently and I look forward to reading more from Maren Mackenzie.

Thank you to NetGalley and Marmack Books for an ARC of this book in exchange for a fair and honest review!

This ARC was provided to me via Kindle, Marmack Books and by #NetGalley. Opinions expressed are completely my own.

This one was more than I expected. It had a lot of story packed into it. I found parts problematic (misogyny, main character).

I had no idea what to expect going into this book. I thought it would have more art heist vibes, but then I saw it classified as a romance. My expectations were all over the place.

Despite this, or maybe because of this, Rules of Arrangement was a lot of fun. The story was so creative, so unlike any other romance I’ve read before. Adelaide Wright is a college senior who sells papers to her peers to get by. Declan, a childhood more-than-friend turned TA finds out and uses this fact to blackmail her into helping him get his art back from Jack Nolan, the art dealer who stole it.

When we first met Jack, I couldn’t help but picture him like Frank Lundy (my roommate and I have been binge-watching Dexter this week), a 60 year old man. I had to keep reminding myself he’s only 38. When I recalibrated my brain to picture Jack as my attractive next-door neighbor, I was able to enjoy the story much more.

On a serious note, Addie and Jack’s relationship was so compelling. I finished this book in two sittings (I had to take a break for sleep and work, unfortunately). While Jack annoyed me at times with his demands and I was a little uncomfortable with the age dynamic, the tender moments between him and Addie were perfect. Not to mention, those sex scenes were ****ing hot.

Mackenzie’s depiction of grief and Addie’s family dynamic were also realistic. It had been three years since her parents’ deaths, and I really felt the grief that came through on certain occasions such as holidays or when talking about her childhood.

I do feel like Addie’s friends, Imogen and Katy, got the short end of the stick. There really wasn’t any great resolution between the friend group in the end. It seems like Addie just kinda forgets about them in favor of her family and Jack.

However, I was really pleasantly surprised by this one. I’ll be interested to see what Maren Mackenzie will publish in the future.

thank you netgalley for this arc which I received in exchange for an honest review.

this was SO much better than i thought it was going to be.

the romance was great. i loved addie and jack. it was interesting, steamy and entertaining throughout and overall just a fun read.

there was serious issues discussed which i didn’t expect which gave it some added depth and the characters didn’t seem at all one dimensional.

enjoyed this! would be willing to read other books by this author.

Thanks to Marmack Books, Netgalley and the author for an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Adelaide Wright is a very intelligent university student who is earning cash doing other people's assignments because she needs the money to pay for tuition. When she runs into Declan, a man from her past who also knows her secret and could get her expelled, she enters into an arrangement with him. He needs to her to fake date an ex-colleague of his, Jack Nolan. Jack is in art dealer and Declan wants help getting some paintings back that he believes Jack stole from him. So Adelaide meets Jack and starts dating him but the plan starts to go awry when she finds herself falling for the art dealer and putting her future in jeapordy.

What I liked - there seemed to be some depth to each character, a backstory and motivations behind their actions. The way the plot unfolds and the characters reveal more of themselves throughout the story is well done.

What I didn't like - even those motivations and reasons didn't help the apparent misogyny of both Declan and Jack throughout, nor help me to sympathise with Adelaide's plight. I found her actions incredibly stupid for someone that was supposed to be so smart.

There are some serious issues tackled here - death, suicide and there's some questionable moments around domination and control that made me uncomfortable.

Overall, while I found the concept interesting and the writing good, I couldn't quite invest in it. 3 stars from me.