The Marriage Merger (Marriage to a Billionaire #4) by Jennifer Probst

Romance

What Goodreads says:

"Her sisters have found wedded bliss with their wealthy,

wonderful dream men, but not Julietta Conte. She’s stayed

on terra firma as top executive of the family’s corporation,

La Dolce Famiglia bakery. Work is her passion, and her

trendy Milan apartment her sanctuary . . . until Sawyer

Wells, a masculine masterpiece in a suit, lures her out of

hiding with an irresistible offer: an exclusive partnership

with his international chain of boutique hotels.

Julietta’s been burned before—and trusting her brother-in-

law’s friend, whose powerful gaze alone has her

rethinking the best use of a conference room, is the

riskiest proposition. But with a once-in-a-career chance

to take the bakery global, will she mix stone-cold business

with red-hot seduction?"

Trope:  Each book in the Marriage to a Billionaire series shares one trope.  Mama Conte is determined to see all of her daughters married and will do what ever is necessary to make it happen.  She uses trickery, sickness, the modern version of a shotgun wedding, and in this book she uses a promise given years ago as a hammer.  In this book it leads to another trope:  a marriage of convenience.

Plot:  Both Julietta and Sawyer are buttoned up personalities who put work first.  Neither is into emotions.  Both think that they can have an affair and walk away with no trouble.  There is a nice addition to this book.  Sawyer has a young protégé who plays an important part in the story.

Characters:  Both Julietta and Sawyer are great characters with interesting flaws.  All of the characters from the previous book appear and play a part in The Marriage Merger.  Sawyer’s protégé is an interesting new character who added depth to the story and could have his own book sometime in the future.

Tension:  There is a business deal and the protégé that provided the external tension.  The fact that neither Sawyer nor Julietta want to deal with emotion provides the internal tension.  There is plenty of both.

Writing:  The writing in The Marriage Merger is brisk.  The tension continues to build throughout the story.  There is never a break in the action making it hard to put the book down.

Galley Books published The Marriage Merger by Jennifer Probst  in 2013.

I received an eARC of The Marriage Merger from Netgalley.