To me The Arrangement by Robyn Harding starts slow and sometimes drags. The plot was interesting, although sometimes not too believable. The last quarter of the book makes up for some of the previous pages. I was given an early copy to review.

Boasting a unique and compelling premise, author Robyn Harding’s, “The Arrangement,” is a suspenseful, psychological drama that delves into the salacious world of sugar daddy/sugar baby relationships.

For the struggling young art student, Natalie, this arrangement was simply a means to an end. It was about financial survival and nothing more. But when Natalie unexpectedly falls for her much older sugar daddy, Gabe, she becomes convinced that what she shares with Gabe is different—special, even. But truth be told, Gabe is nothing more than a lying, cheating, narcissist, who will do just about ANYTHING to protect his marriage, his family, and his good name. So, when his “relationship” with Natalie threatens all three, Gabe plans to rid himself of the obsessed Natalie by any means possible.

While I found this story enjoyable, overall, it wasn’t quite as dark and twisted as the premise had led me to believe. Hence, it fell just a bit short of my expectations. Still, “The Arrangement” is a very good read from start to finish and one I would highly recommend.

What a page turner. Read in two sittings. I liked the gentle build up of romance...seemed believable to me. Without giving any spoilers I like that Celeste was smart enough to have all the pieces come together.

Will leave 5 star review on Amazon under name of Connie.

Thanks for granting me access to this book.

THE ARRANGEMENT is a fast read that had me turning the pages from the very beginning. Nat is a struggling art student who can't pay her rent. Not to mention her roommates don't care for her and are just waiting for the chance to kick her out. After a fellow student tells Nat about a site she can use to get herself a sugar daddy, she considers it. These are older, wealthy men who may or may not be married, may or not have twisted fetishes, may or may not be who they say they are.

Nat lucks out with Gabe, a rich man in his 50s who is entranced with her. She's able to pay her rent, and realizes she likes spending time with him...and then she falls in love with him. Gabe reaches the point where he wants to break their arrangement. Nat is heartbroken, and starts stalking him and his family. Will she really do anything to get him back?

As stated above, I was hooked from the beginning. There are some nice and unexpected twists towards the end, and Harding does a great job fleshing out all of the characters (even minor ones) and their motives. I reccomend.

Thank you to Netgalley, the publisher, and author for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Thank you, Gallery, Pocket Books for providing me with an eARC via Netgalley in exchange for my honest review.
Let's dive right into this review, shall we? The term "prostitute" has such a negative connotation amongst the sugar baby industry. The term "escort" sounds a little too mature to the younger ladies. So we are presented with a new term. Sugar. It sounds innocent enough. A young lady is taken on a date with an older, richer man who presents her with cash at the end of the night for whatever they provide whether it be a conversation or sexual favors. It is presented to the outside world as a business arrangement unless one of them falls head over heels for the other. Then things take a turn for the worse.
THE ARRANGEMENT is a story that will keep you glued to the pages. (It did for me). The reader meets Natalie, a young, art student who is struggling to pay her bills while keeping her day to day life in order. With no help from her parents, she is introduced to the New York sugar lifestyle by one of her classmates. Her first date is a disaster with her feeling skeptical and a little disturbed by this profession. She then comes across a handsome older man named Gabe. Not only is he successful, but he agrees to a monthly salary, a new apartment, and exciting vacations throughout their entire arrangement. Natalie finds herself falling for this older man, but doesn't realize how dangerous this situation really is.
I found it interesting once Natalie was completely submerged in this lifestyle and facing an uncertain future that her parents (particularly her father) came back into her life to help her get through the mess she made. While she was broke and struggling he was not around. This may have been a fictional story, but the tale is as old as time. Parents should remain involved in their children's lives on a consistent basis and not just when they are in trouble or facing dire circumstances. If Natalie had the help and support all along then this lifestyle wouldn't have been so glamorous to her.
I enjoyed this book. It kept me hooked and allowed me to get through a couple of long work commutes. THE ARRANGEMENT will be for sale on July 30, 2019! Add it to your TBR today!

Robyn Harding has done it again with another smash hit.

The story starts off with a bang with Nat calling her estranged father stating she was arrested for murder.

The novel only gets better!

Nat, a struggling artist with horrific roommates signs up for a site "sugar daddy" she hears about from a college friend. She is suddenly living the high society life and is no longer worried about finances. What she doesn't count on is falling for the sugar daddy.......

I loved the fast paced trail this took me on.

I love Robyn Hardings last book, so I couldn't wait to read this one! Thank you for the advanced copy of this book. My reviews can be read on my GoodReads account here: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/1335387-kelly

Loved this book! 5 stars for sure. Very interesting read about a provocative subject. This book is fresh and sexy. I have enjoyed all of Hardings’ novels.

I loved this book! Harding crafted a clever little thriller. It's easy to see how one could be seduced into the "sugar bowl," despite the dangers. I will update my feedback closer to the book's release date with a full review and link to the review on my blog.

This was a provocative (or maybe trashy?) concept on the sugar daddy and sugar baby arrangement. Natalie is a young art student, on the verge of being kicked out by her roommates as she can't pay rent. Desperate for money, she finds a sugar daddy to help her financially. Enter Gabe, a lawyer in his fifties. Initially, Nat is worried about his sagging skin. I couldn't help but be amused by her thoughts on "older" men, haha! All humor aside, this was an interesting read on a lifestyle that I'm unfamiliar with. There's murder, sex (not graphic at all which was a plus in my book), and betrayal. I've never heard of Robyn Harding before but now I have to add "Her Pretty Face" to my TBR.

I expected not to like the characters as much as I did because of the moral choices they made and yet I found most of them likable and the plot was compelling. I would highly recommend this book and I think it would also make a great tv series.

This novel starts off with Nat calling her father whom she has not seen for years. He left her and her mother years ago when Nat was little but she is desperate and has no one else to turn to, Nat has been arrested for murder. Who was murdered? Is Nat truly responsible?

Jump back 4 months.....

Nat is a College student trying to survive financially and to make ends meet. She is struggling balancing everything, is stressed out, her roommates don't like her, and she fears being kicked out of her apartment as she is behind on her rent and bills.

One day one of her classmates Ava tells Nat about how she pays for her upscale apartment, which is a penthouse. Ava is a sugar baby and has a sugar daddy. Nat has never heard of this before but Ava tells her all about it and gives her the website address so Nat can check it out for herself. At first Nat wants nothing to do with it, but then desperate for money decided it couldn't hurt to meet a sugar daddy, just once or twice, for some quick and easy money.

Enter Gabe. An older, successful lawyer, who is very rich, handsome and sexy as hell. Nat figures there is no harm in meeting him just once, as there are no strings attached. Gabe has a wife and daughter, which Nat doesn't know about. What ensues is a whirlwind of emotions, lies, deception, betrayal, secrets and craziness! I loved it!!

I loved reading about Gabe. Reading things from his POV was very interesting and he had a very interesting life and personality. I literally was flipping through these pages to see what would happen next and I devoured the book and loved every addictive, thrilling second of it.

I thoroughly enjoyed how Robyn Harding referred to several places in Canada in this novel, as I am from Canada and it was nice to read about in a novel.

If you haven't had this book on your radar, you need to get it as soon as it releases on July 30th! You will not be disappointed! This book was truly amazing and I LOVED it!!

** Also, did you know I am mentioned in the acknowledgements at the end of this novel? I am @booksonthebookshelf. Thank you so much Robyn, that truly meant so much to me!

I am so happy that I was able to read this book! It was excellent.. y'all so suspenseful and kept you wanting to read the whole thing in one setting! Robyn Harding did an excellent job with this one and I hope y'all go out and read this book!

Robyn Harding has got our backs this summer, and THE ARRANGEMENT (July 30th) will successfully meet your thrill-aholic needs. Boy, was it an entertaining read. It was so much fun to learn about and be educated on sugar daddy/baby relationships - which just sound both exciting and terrifying to me.

Per her friend's suggestion, art student Natalie (Nat) agrees to find herself a sugar daddy - the only way to put an end to her financial struggles. When she meets Gabe, she knows - he's the perfect match. But things take a dark turn, when Nat realizes...she's falling in love with him, and in the following days, someone will end up DEAD.

This novel also discusses narcissism, features women coming together, parent-child relationships and what it's like to put your life at risk in order to survive. I'm usually obsessed with plots where extramarital affairs end in murder (Basic Instinct, Body Heat, Jagged Edge, etc) so The Arrangement, being as seductive and engrossing as it was, felt like an absolute necessary read for me. Just grab a snack, a cool drink and devour the heck out of this book.

Thank you to Netgalley and Gallery Books for giving me the opportunity to read this ARC.

I wanted to read this because of the description which had it between Pretty Woman and Indecent Proposal, and I feel like that is really where this book fell.

For a lot of the book I really was pulling for Natalie. She seemed to be a young girl who had lost her way trying to get by in NYC. But, probably toward the last quarter of the book, I think that changed for me. I was a little disappointed that I figured out the ending ahead of time.

Overall, I really enjoyed the book, and would definitely recommend it to friends!

Thank you to NetGalley and Gallery Books for providing me with an advanced copy in exchange for my honest review!

This book gets all the stars! It was so good! Mark my words this is going to be a major hit! Also, this is my favorite book of the year and I don’t think that’s going to change! Robyn has masterfully written another book that you just can’t put down! I literally needed to sleep, but every single time I put it down I needed to know more. I had to make myself go to bed...lol. This is a serious page turner!

Natalie has left behind the Pacific Northwest and an ex-boyfriend who won't take no for an answer, and fled for the Big Apple! She is an artist and between struggling to pay her rent, her tuition, and food, she isn't left with much.

While her roommates' plot to get her out of the apartment due to her constant lateness with the bills as well as bringing home guys. She is stretched as tight as she can be. When her bar job ends she is desperate to stay in school and stay in New York.

Her art school friends have lots of suggestions, but Nat needs money now. When she hears about Sugar Babies, she loathes having to go there, but go there she does.

All she has to do is hang out for a dinner or two and she gets paid. A part of her feels like a whore but the part that wants to have nice things and stay in New York wins over.

And that was where it went awry. The girl is 21. And not a big city girl. She talks so formally and the obsession comes so fast that it left me wondering if there was a deadline somewhere.  In the end, they were all despicable people.

NetGalley/ July 30th, 2019 by Gallery/Scout Press

Robyn Harding is a new author to me and I was drawn to this book because of the blurb.

I enjoyed this book, but it didn't really WOW me. It is labeled as a mystery, thriller and I felt it lacked the suspense or the on the edge of your seat feeling I would expect when reading a story with these labels. This is NOT a romance story, but I wasn't expecting that going into it. This book is actually what I had been looking to read, since it was outside of my normal read and not a romance.

There were aspects of this story that I really liked and I loved the twist at the end of the story. But then there were things that I felt underwhelmed by.

I thought the writing of this story was good and I will read other books by this author. The only thing was I thought the pace of the story was slow at times and the story got a little wordy at times.

I did really like this book and I would recommend this book to others, but don't expect a lot of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat.

It's rare for me to like a book filled with unlikable characters, but this one I liked. Full disclosure: I did figure out the ending before the end of the book, but that was fun, not disappointing. The characters were such a mess that I kept reading because I wanted to know what they would destroy next. My only criticism is that Nat goes from an easily-crowded, space-needing girl to a very clingy one a bit quickly, but perhaps that was due to her dire circumstances.

The Arrangement is the perfect type of book for me. A forbidden/taboo topic, a complex story line and more - these are topics/plots/tropes that I gravitate to as a reader. The concept was phenomenal but the execution fell flat to me.

There were a couple of times that the characters lied (or I think) however, the way the scene read it was as if the author got it wrong. This really took me out of the story and I found myself going back to determine whether the character did actually lie or if there was an issue with the story.

Since I got frustrated at about 50%, I skipped to the end so that I would know what happened and let's say it's not the typical ending which was great. I will try another book by this author if she has more out.