Minnie moves to Kansas in the hope of finding some peace and running a bookstore. She soon meets Bryant Wilder, the boyfriend of celebrity Van Birch. He is definitely not what she has in mind for her peaceful fresh start.

Minnie was an incredible character. Strong and brave despite everything she had been through. She did however make mistakes herself that I didn’t necessarily agree with.

Bryant was certainly an interesting hero. Bisexual male protagonists are so rare in romance so that representation was good to see. His ADHD could have been dealt with a little better in my opinion.

Overall, a touching read.

This is actually the second in a series ("The Incident Series). The first book discusses Van Birch and her taboo romance with her stepbrother. Enter The Deception Incident, the second book in the series, about Bryant Wilder, the fake boyfriend of Van Birch who is in love with Minnie, the owner of a bookstore. You can read it as a standalone because it goes back to the beginning, which is good because I hadn't read the first one. The sex scenes were good, the dialogue wasn't too cheesy, and overall, it was really cute!

After meeting Bryant and Minnie in the first book and getting to know them, I was thrilled to learn more about them in their own book. It turns out that being a fake boyfriend makes having a real relationship hard. Once Van and Bryant "break up," he has to figure out how to get Minnie back in his life, for good this time. Such great characters. Could be read as a standalone, but I really liked knowing the backstory from book one to understand what was happening. Would definitely recommend.

It doesnt support or open after I download the pdf version of it. It's also not showing in my shelf in netgalley and I cant open it to read

Please look into the issue and if you can send me the pdf in my mail ID- taniagungunsarkar@gmail.com

I cant read the book from here. Please look into the issue

Thank you NetGalley and Marla Holt for gifting me an advance copy of this book in exchange for my honest review!
The steamy romance and sizzling chemistry between Minnie and Bryant was instant and slowly burned throughout the book. But let’s not forget about the chemistry between Bryant and Clay! This was my first bisexual male lead in a book and it was a fresh take!
The Deception Incident is book number two in Marla Holt’s Incident Series, but my first book by this author. While I didn’t have any problem reading this as a standalone, I think there are certain relationships and backstory that would have been helpful to know about before starting this book!
This book started with a trigger warning at the beginning and as someone with PTSD who has been triggered by a book before, this was something I really appreciated! I never have a problem reading books about sexual assault or anything of that nature, but without a warning those topics get heavy fast. Marlot Holt didn’t shy away from hard themes like addiction and sexual assault. I also loved the representation in this one!
Could you predict the ending? Probably. Can you predict the rest of the book? No way! I was pleasantly surprised by this one!

The Deception Incident is the second book in the Incident Series, and I do recommend that you read the first book, The Van Birch Incident, prior to reading this one. The entire series deals with some very heavy themes, so if you are triggered by the following, you may want to skip this series: cheating, rape, alcoholism, kidnapping

Minnie and Bryant are well-developed, multi-faceted characters. Bryant is bisexual, and this is not something that you often see in romance novels. It adds a layer to the story with the triangle with Van, Bryant's fake fiance. The overlap with the Van Birch Incident in terms of timing gives the reader a chance to see other aspects of the relationships as well.

I don't want to give away any details or plot points, but the drama is what you expect of a rockstar romance with a love triangle, and it is well written and not overly done or drama just for drama's sake.

A small-town surprise baby romance.

There is a previous book to this one that must be read to have a better context, but in any case the events of said books are also here. For a moment I liked that the events of both books overlapped, because they allowed us to understand everything better, but I feel that the author took it a bit too far which made it feel VERY repetitive, and consequently, it delayed the plot of this book. I feel like we couldn't see enough of them in the present, nor see Bryant working for the relationship with Minnie and his son, that would have been a plus for this story.

Her life is stabilizing while his is spiraling while they both keep secrets.

A small-town secret baby romance with a bisexual hero and a heroine who's trying to start over.
The deception incident it's a complicated story that deals with cheating, addiction, rape, the loss of a loved one, kidnapping, ADHD, and finding love.
It's a slow buildup set in an insta-love story that somehow felt drag on and repetitive, it rehashes too much of the past on not much of the present.

I voluntarily read and reviewed an advanced copy of this book received from the publisher via NetGalley. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

Where to start, this book was way more than I expected, in an incredibly good way. My first by this author, but not the last. The characters of Minnie and Bryant are complicated souls. They deal with many everyday issues from insecurity to trauma, and then the extra of celebrity. A lot of emotion from chemistry that is off the charts and instant plus the romance creates a story you just cannot put down. This book is the second in the series but stands alone and I never felt I needed to read book one.

Thank you to NetGalley and the author for the advanced copy in exchange for my honest review.

I had a hard time accepting Minnie not telling Bryant about his son, regardless of the reasons. I also felt after reading the first book that I knew the basic set-up of how this one would play out, and rehashing some of things I'd already read was a bit boring. Probably more like 2.5 stars, rounded up.

Kindly received an ARC from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.