Book Description:
A desperate jilted man. His summer rent-a-girlfriend. Their own beach town.
Single thirty-something Sebastian Langston hires his sister’s best friend to be his fake girlfriend for the summer in order to win back his ex-fiancée whom he lost to a billionaire.
Publisher’s Note: His Wake-Up Call is the updated and expanded second edition of Step with Me, previously published on April 5, 2017.
The desperate jilted man…
Restaurateur Sebastian Langston cannot believe that his ex-fiancée, Talia, would leave him again. They’ve broken up so many times that he is sure she’ll return to him…until he sees her with a billionaire. Now he has to fight to get her back. Sebastian cooks up an idea in which he hires a beautiful girl who can make Talia jealous. Poor starving harpist Emmeline O’Hanlon needs money and seems willing to help him reach his objectives.
The dreamy rent-a-girlfriend…
When her best friend’s older brother offers her an unusual proposition, Emmeline has no idea what she is getting into. However, her van is dead, her rent is due, and she is forced to take the job. The short-term business agreement would only last one summer, or so Emmeline thinks. More than money for graduate school, she needs Sebastian’s funding to resume the search for her long-lost brother. Sebastian promises to enlist one of the top private investigators in the region to find Claude. In return, all she has to do is smile and make Talia jealous. How hard can it be?
The duet that can’t go wrong…
So begins this ill-advised scheme to drive Sebastian’s ex-fiancée back to him. He thinks his plan-on-a-whim will succeed because it has to. He will turn thirty-four next September, and he wants to be a father by the following summer, preferably to the first of a passel of Talia’s future children. As they keep up the ruse, Emmeline’s ethereal harp starts to sound like a siren song that distracts Sebastian from his goals. Soon, he rows away from his lane and begins to forget his original purpose for hiring her…
Narelle’s Thoughts:
I enjoyed reading His Wake-Up Call, the second book in Jan Thompson’s Seaside Chapel series. Emmaline’s passion is playing her harp, and she wants to follow in her professional musician father’s footsteps. She’s working multiple jobs over the summer at St. Simons Island, Georgia, before moving inland to start graduate school. Her brother disappeared in Atlanta years ago, and Emmaline would do almost anything to find her brother and bring him home to her distraught parents.
Sebastian is a wealthy and successful restaurant owner who hasn’t gotten over his ex-girlfriend, Talia. Talia is dating a billionaire, and Sebastian wants her back. He hatches a scheme to make Talia jealous by talking Emmaline into having a fake relationship with him. In return, Sebastian would hire a private investigator to find Emmaline’s brother.
Emmaline is desperate and agrees to Sebastian’s crazy plan. A fun romance develops between Emmaline and Sebastian as real feelings arise and cause complications with big consequences. Sebastian starts questioning whether or not he wants to reconcile with Talia. Sebastian and Emmaline are challenged to live their faith and seek His will. I recommend His Wake-Up Call to contemporary romance readers who like the fake relationship romance trope underpinned by a strong faith element in the story.
