Susan Mallery's Million Dollar Catch Series

Series Overview: Julie, Willow, and Marina Nelson are recently reunited with their grandmother who, by marriage, is aunt to Todd Aston the Third and Ryan Bennett. Their grandmother offers the sisters $1 million if one of them were to marry Todd. They do rock-paper-scissors and Julie loses.

The Substitute Millionaire:
Blurb:
Successful businessman Ryan Bennett had agreed to masquerade as his wealthy cousin for a blind date.

But from the moment Ryan saw Julie Nelson to the moment he should have said good-night, he was captivated and couldn't resist an invitation to share her bed. In the hazy afterglow of their heated lovemaking, Ryan confessed his true identity, claiming the passion between them was real despite his deception, but Julie wasn't buying it. Obviously she considered him the enemy.

Except now she was having the enemy's baby...

I had serious issues with how this book started… not with the deceit because it wasn't that huge of a deal, not with the fact that Julie and Ryan sleep together on the first date after mere hours of knowing one another. What my major problem was that virtual strangers sleep together and don't use protection/condoms. A MAJOR TSTL MOMENT. I realize that Ms. Mallery wanted a pregnancy, but a better way to go about that would be to have the condom break or fail plain and simple because the effectiveness of condoms is about 85% when used as a sole method of contraception. Those two instances to me would have been more believable than just sleeping with a stranger without using a condom. Do people really still do that? Even with AIDS and HIV and everything else that is going around out there? Eeek. Thank God I'm married if that's the case.

Anyway… the story itself was just good. Not great like I'd normally expect from a Mallery book and I was left satisfied, just not overly excited like I normally am which was slightly disappointing.

Overall Grade: B.

The Unexpected Millionaire
Blurb

Millionaire Kane Dennison's first mistake had been carrying an injured Willow Nelson inside his home, which, as a rule, was off-limits. Of course, she'd needed his help, but his one kind gesture had her believing he was a nice man. He wasn't.

His second mistake had been surrendering to passion after warning Willow to run away. Because a woman like her deserved better than a one-night stand. She believed in soul mates. He trusted no one—needed no one. And not even Willow was going to change him!

Kane is Todd and Ryan's head of security and he meets Willow when she shows up at Todd's house to give him a piece of her mind.

This book was awesome! Willow was sassy, a whirlwind of energy, and I loved how she just plowed into Kane's life and made a place for herself. And in spite of Kane's belief that he liked being a loner, he didn't protest too loudly when Willow became a permanent presence in his life. They were opposites yet perfect for one another. This book left me smiling and feeling happy just as a Susan Mallery book usually does.

Overall Grade: A.

The Ultimate Millionaire
Blurb:

Todd Aston III's reputation as a playboy preceded him; he wore power as seamlessly as he wore his custom-cut suits. But Marina Nelson had promised her sister—who was marrying Todd's cousin—that she'd help him plan the perfect wedding. And somehow, between tasting cakes and modeling wedding dresses, Marina discovered that she wanted Todd—and that Todd wanted her.

Which made her grandmother's offer of a million dollars to whichever Nelson sister married him a big problem…

She was powerless to prevent the inevitable. Yet the harder she fell for Todd, the more she realized that he didn't trust marriage-minded women.

Todd has issues trusting others because he thinks all women see when they look at him is the fact that he's got a lot of money. Marina had trouble trusting herself, fearing that she will give herself to the wrong man and fall in love with him when he is unable to love her back. Being throw together to plan Julie(Marina's sister) and Ryan's(Todd's cousin) wedding is where they become great friends, and eventually they are unable to deny their attraction and become lovers. Then, of course, the trust issues come into play when Marina is two days late getting her period and Todd thinks she's like all the other gold-digging women he's known in the past. Then, he realizes he was wrong, apologizes, and they get engaged.

This book was bland. It left me just feeling "eh"… nothing special. Typical clichéd story of a rich man afraid of only being liked for his money. It was another disappointing read for me as I expect much more from Susan Mallery.

My overall grade: C.

While this series wasn't Ms. Mallery's best, it's a whole lot better than some of the other books I've seen out there lately... and I'll be one of the first in line for her next release. : ) And hopefully they will have better line edits/editing because the typos and major errors(wrong name) were annoying.