On why I’ve been enjoying reading this series:
When I first started seeking out authors via the imprints of Harlequin, one of the authors who stood out to me initially from the Harlequin Romance line (as at the time, I was sampling stories from Romance, Super Romance & Heartwarming – sorting out which of the three imprints suited me best as a reader; as I had already realised how much the LI: Suspense line fit me!) was Jennifer Faye.
In a large part due to her consistency, her continuity when she wrote duologies, specialised focused serials and the ways in which she drew you into her Contemporary Romance worlds within this curious imprint which features pink covers in handle portable sized paperback editions! I liked the convenience of the size, the realistic characters she pulled into her world(s) and the ways in which our contemporary modern lives were explored elsewhere from where we generally live our own lives. It gave a sense of place but also, of how uniquely you can find a Contemporary placed in a setting you are itching to visit such as her Greek Isles Brides series which took me back to Greece.
I’ve enjoyed re-visiting Greece through Faye’s eyes due to how many fond memories I have of corresponding with a friend who lived on the Isles themselves. She truly captured a bit of that kind of lifestyle I had remembered reading through letters & correspondences but also, she brought a convicting narrative together which interlocked three different women in their pursuit at their own ‘happily ever after’.
As you make your way through the stories, you want to cheer on the girls’ – hoping that their true love’s match is worthy of their love and that the partnership they are building with their husband’s to be will not just be a lasting romantic connection but a truly well-rounded union for everyone involved. Faye brings realism to these Contemporary Romances by inserting dramatic adversities and different key issues each of the couples must face, overcome and sort out how to transition through before they can resolve if their romantic connection is one that will surely last. In a way, you get caught up in the hopefulness of the series long before you realise how and why each of their dreams is being fulfilled.
I am truly looking forward to concluding my readings of this series with “Wearing the Greek Millionaire’s Ring” – a novel I was eager to begin reading and if life hadn’t sidetracked me this Labour Day weekend with a bit of unexpected strife, high anxiety and a potential life shift – I would have happily settled my mind into focusing on Stasia’s story! My weekend conclude with needing to battle through a migraine this week and therefore, my reading focus was truly postponed.
Wearing the Greek Millionaire's Ring (Spotlight)
Subtitle: Greek Island Brides
by Jennifer Faye
Source: Author via Prism Book Tours
A convenient engagement…
An inconvenient attraction!In this Greek Island Brides story, widow Stasia Marinakos is learning to enjoy life again aboard a Mediterranean cruise. Her chemistry with gorgeous Greek tycoon Roberto Carrass is a pleasant surprise—until she’s mistaken for his fiancée! Nevertheless, the guarded bachelor asks Stasia to continue the charade to stop his family from matchmaking. As their attraction grows, their fake romance feels ever more real…but what will happen when the vacation ends?
Places to find the book:
ISBN: 9780263272598
Also by this author: Beauty and Her Boss, Miss White and the Seventh Heir, Heiress's Royal Baby Bombshell, Carrying the Greek Tycoon's Baby, Claiming the Drakos Heir, Wearing the Greek Millionaire's Ring , Her Christmas Pregnancy Surprise, The Prince and the Wedding Planner, Christmas in Bayberry, Love Blooms
Also in this series: Carrying the Greek Tycoon's Baby, Claiming the Drakos Heir, Wearing the Greek Millionaire's Ring
Published by Harlequin Books
on 3rd September, 2019
Format: Large Print Edition
Published by: Harlequin Books (@HarlequinBooks)
Formats Available: Ebook and Paperback
Greek Island Brides series:
Greek Island Brides | Finding love that lasts to infinity!
All marriages that take place on renowned wedding destination Infinity Island are guaranteed to last forever!
And the picturesque Greek island is about to weave its magic for friends Lea, Popi and Stasia. They dream of finding their own happy-ever-afters… And they’re about to meet three billionaires who will sweep them off their feet—and down the aisle!
Carrying the Greek Tycoon’s Baby (book one) – (see also review)
Claiming the Drakos Heir (book two) – (see also review)
Wearing the Greek Millionaire’s Ring (book three) – (review forthcoming!)
Converse via: #Contemporary #Romance & #Harlequin
About Jennifer Faye
Award-winning author, Jennifer Faye pens fun, heartwarming contemporary romances with rugged cowboys, sexy billionaires and enchanting royalty. Internationally published with books translated into nine languages. She is a two-time winner of the RT Book Reviews Reviewers' Choice Award, the CataRomance Reviewers' Choice Award, named a TOP PICK author, and been nominated for numerous other awards.
What I loved most about how Ms Faye writes her stories is that she gives her characters obstacles they must learn to face together and to find solutions too which allows both parties to find equal ground. Her romances are built out of trust and of gaining the trust from the person who has the hardest time trusting others. I love reading her romances because her style of telling them is uplifting and full of second chances – where new beginnings can thrive and where people can re-write their own future by the willingness to accept that sometimes life likes to bring in a bit of randomness into our lives in order to give us the best of lessons.
Quite early-on what I enjoyed about how Faye was setting up this series is how we became introduced to Popi and Stasia – Popi is Lea’s best friend whereas Stasia is Xander’s sister! This is keenly intriguing as I was trying to sort out the relationship and connections between the three women when I first saw their names next to their stories on the lovely bookmark I received with my copy of Carrying the Greek Tycoon’s Baby. Faye gives you back-story on her characters whilst your reading her stories in such a way as to entice your curiosity but not in such a way as to uproot where you are in the moment of her lead character’s lives.
When I first started reading the series, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I first walked into the lives of Popi, Stasia and Lea’s lives – what I found were wholly dramatic tales full of heart-wretching adversities being overcome by independently courageous women who were re-defining not just how to live their lives but how to endeavour to believe that all women can truly find the one person who understands them best in the world.
Each of the women in sequence of being represented in the series had something to overcome, to learn and to find within themselves to move forward – they each had something to gain and potentially to lose – it was this kind of drama which threads through the Greek Island Brides series which keeps you rooted to the pages. You want to see how each of these women will start to be their own champions of self-advocacy but also, to see how in turn, each of the men they are falling in love with also have something to seek within themselves in order to em-better their own lives ahead of marriage.
As per every relationship, there are two sides to the story and Faye tackles this well in how she cross-relates the journey between her heroine and her hero. Each of her characters has obstacles placed in front of them they do not wish to admit plausible but they must muddle through a way to overcome them all the same. These are life firming lessons she has interwoven into the series and I love seeing where she takes us on this continuing journey of understanding the women, the men they are falling in love with and the allure of the lifestyle they have created on their own personal Greek Isle where Romance & second chances is as commonplace as ocean breezes and the serenity of Greek island life.
I liked how Faye re-inserts us directly into the story-line we previously left – where we find Lea and Xander about reading to exchange their vows and see how their lives are continuing to knit together. Theirs was an interesting romance and I had a feeling Faye was going to continue the legacy of how this Greek island brings unsuspecting people together at a point in their lives where they aren’t entirely ready to commit to a relationship much less consider a marriage! Sometimes life is like that though – you find yourself caught up in the tides of fate and despite your best intentions, things really do work out the way they were always meant to even if the timing of it all is not your own choosing.
Although I know Faye might have intended to write a light-hearted passionate romance involving two stubbornly determined characters – what I found inside Claiming the Drakos Heir was also a critical look at the short-comings of the legal protections for surrogate mothers and how sometimes such as what was happening to Popi in this novel, there needs to be consideration and accountability for surrogate mothers as much as the blood heirs to the child they are carrying.
In this final installment of the series, what I am most keenly interested in seeing is if there is a lovely return of Lea and Popi into Stasia’s story – to see the series come full circle before and after we learn the journey Stasia takes herself. I am truly looking forward to finding out a *fake engagement!* can lead to a *happily ever after!* as the premise for me seemed like it would naturally extend itself into a budding romance – as sometimes it takes something unexpected like this kind of circumstance to pull two people together who might otherwise have overlooked each other!!
I have drawn so close to these women’s lives over the course of the series, it will be a bit of sweet sorrow to ‘let go’ of them now as the series concludes.
Hug close to my feeds in the twitterverse this weekend,and discover what I’ll be sharing about “Wearing the Greek Millionaire’s Ring” – as I re-enter this series to see how Ms Faye concludes the trilogy! I look forward to sharing my full ruminative thoughts with you as the new week begins to unfold!
This blog tour is courtesy of:
Special Announcement:
As you know, this is a giveaway-free book blog – as I do not host giveaways here on Jorie Loves A Story (per my Review Policy) however, there is one exception to the rule – I love to talk about and happily promote authors who are hosting a giveaway on *their website or blog!* whilst my review is posting via a blog tour! For this reason, it is with a joy and pleasure to bring this to your attention:
All you have to do is go to Jennifer’s Contact Page
and let her know your physical mailing address*.
NOTE: Please state the quantity you desire and which bookmarks/titles you are interested in. And remember you can order extra to share with your favorite bookstore, library and family/friends. *for readers in the continental USA
You can have your very *own!* Wearing the Greek Millionaire’s Ring bookmark if you follow the steps outlined the author provided to receive one! I realise my blog is read internationally, but this is unfortunately only for those readers and visitors of mine stateside. I truly think you will be charmed by the eloquence of her bookmarks and the way in which they are lovingly sturdy and the perfect length for keeping your spot in whichever book your #currentlyreading!
{SOURCES: Book covers for “Carrying the Greek Tycoon’s Baby”, “Claiming the Drakos Heir” & “Wearing the Greek Millonaire’s Ring”, the bookmark giveaway banner, book synopsis, author biography, author photograph of Jennifer Faye, the tour host badge and Prism Book Tours badges were all provided by Prism Book Tours and used with permission. Post dividers and My Thoughts badge by Fun Stuff for Your Blog via Pure Imagination. Tweets were embedded due to codes provided by Twitter. Blog graphics created by Jorie via Canva: Stories in the Spotlight and the Comment Box Banner.}
Copyright © Jorie Loves A Story, 2019.
I’m a social reader | I tweet my reading life
https://twitter.com/joriestory/status/1170263489765621761
Comments via Twitter:
Blog Tour Spotlight | Excited to conclude this trilogy by Harlequin Romance feat. Jennifer Faye's Greek Island Bride's https://t.co/plNBib68KI via @joriestory
— Jennifer Faye💖#BluestarIsland 🏖️#LoveBlooms🍹🚲 (@JenniferFaye34) September 8, 2019
Thanks so much for hosting my book! :-)
Hallo, Hallo Ms Faye,
You’re quite welcome! :) I’m eager to dig back into the novel, I had so much happening all at once recently, I found it was quite difficult for me to focus on my [reading] which is why I decided it would be best for me to talk about what I love most about the Greek Brides trilogy and why I am wicked excited to be reading the concluding installment. I have been enjoying my journey into your stories, through the different series you’ve written but also, seeing how you continue to tackle dramatic and realistic Contemporary Romances by how authentically real you write the lives of your characters. I am looking forward to sharing my thoughts on behalf of this novel,… lovely to be a part of this blog tour. I appreciate your visit and your kind note.