I love a good rom com and a book with such a nice looking cover! I could not get enough of this book or this author! I can't wait for the next one!

Thank you so much One more chapter, HarperCollins UK, and Netgalley for sending me this ARC! Love under contract is a super fun, spicy, Christmas rom-com! I love that the reader is able to read about the Christmas and Thanksgiving time from completely different aspects! I really enjoyed getting to read Rebecca come out of her shell and get ‘unbuttoned’. I do wish that in some scenarios she treated Hudson better than she had and I always noticed some parts of this book were very repetitive. Overall that’s my only complaint for this book and It was definitely a fantastic read!

All opinions are my own.

I got to about 60%, hadn't picked it back up for a week and then found I couldn't get back into it. The start was good but I found things began to drag a bit.

thank you for the ARC!

this one's hard for me. on one hand, i really enjoyed the story and thought it was the perfect mix of humor and heart. on the other hand, the 80% mark really ruined it for me.

*minor spoiler*
the way that the hero randomly kissed another woman and then it was never addressed or acknowledged again...why???? it makes me unable to give this whole book more than 3 stars. if that one part was changed this would be a solid 4.5.

Such a great fake dating romance! Rebecca hires Hudson to be her date for her family’s Thanksgiving. Then he asks her to be his fate to his family’s Christmas. They are perfect for each other. But this was meant to be fake! Very cute book!

Rebecca Madison needs a date. Her sister is getting married to none other than her own ex fiancé. Completely focused on her law career, Rebecca has no time for relationships. She meets and hits it off with Hudson Strong. He’s a charming ladie’s man surely to be perfect to impress her family. They agree to a fake relationship with an iron clad contract, drawn up by Rebecca.

Oh, I love love loved this one. Of course, y’all know fake dating is my absolute fave. I love how Rebecca could truly be herself around Hudson and was able to let loose instead of being so focused on her career. Her character did annoy me at times because I wanted her to just accept how great Hudson was and stop questioning if things could work. Hudson was just the best, and his family (especially his sisters) put him over the top amazing. I loved their family dynamic and how invested his sisters were in the relationship. This one was so cute, fun, swoony, and steamy 🔥.

Thank you so much to Netgalley and Harper Collins for an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

There were some points that this book was really captivating. I think this author has the capacity to be so good and I can't wait to try out some of their future books. The characters had the bones of something that could be really good and the chemistry started off really well. Hudson was quite likable for what you got to see of him. I really liked seeing a powerful, lawyer badass FMC trying to allow herself the vulnerability of falling in love.

Unfortunately everything was underdeveloped and underwhelming. Becca could not have been more unlikable. She's super sad due to choices only she makes and yet she takes the sympathy of people who don't have the full story. It felt super deceptive to me and was honestly my last straw with her. Hudson was magically in love with her even though we saw exactly zero scenes where she was likable. Making a grump lovable is tricky because you have to show them actually lowering their guard and being good people. By the end of the book Becca could not even commit to her own sister's wedding. I hate to be the one to break it to the author (who tried to make the little sister the bad guy) but Becca was the bad guy. Hudson was ok but honestly with no POV from he wasn't really on page enough for you to get enough of a read on him to see him as anything other than Becca's whipping boy.

I saw some reviews complaining 'it's just porn' absolutely not the case. The low ratings are warranted but I'm baffled by this take because while there were plenty of spice scenes I felt bad for both characters because they were written so badly. Poor Hudson finished rather quickly so though there was a lot of spice the spice was basically closed door as it didn't last long. I'd rate 1-2 chili peppers if I were being generous.

Rebecca is an extremely successful lawyer whose career defines her. She's in London, far enough away from her family in New York to maintain some sort of relationship with them. Then her younger (prettier) sister announces her engagement - to Rebecca's ex, who left her because he was threatened by her success. Rebecca couldn't care less about Andrew and Laura's engagement, but she knows that attending the celebratory party will only lead to many intrusive questions about the state of her own love life. So she persuades a one-night stand, Hudson, to go with her. And naturally she draws up a contract.

Where the story goes is scarcely a surprise given the genre but it's one of the better fake boy/girlfriend books I've read. Hudson and Rebecca are both mature adults, with faults certainly, but they see themselves clearly. They know what they're doing and what's happening in their relationship even if Rebecca is particularly loathe to admit it to anyone, including herself. This a funny, sexy Christmas novel.

Rebecca Madison has always been dedicated to her work but when she finds out that her sister is engaged to her ex-boyfriend and she has to go visit her family at home for thanksgiving, she wishes she had someone special to take home with her. After a one night stand with Hudson, she propositions him with a contract for a fake relationship. Hudson and Becca or Becs as he likes to call her have agreed upon no kissing, no sex, and no emotions what-so-ever. Once Becs spends more time with Hudson, she thinks that she may have gotten herself into trouble.

I loved the playful relationship that they created over time and how they learned to trust each other. Hudson's character helped Becs open up and not be so uptight. I thought the story was super cute and I loved how his family loved Becca so much that they took her side during the "breakup."

I really enjoyed this - Rebecca and Hudson were great main characters and I felt there was particularly great character insight with Rebecca.

The chemistry and romance scenes were really well done and well written.

Overall a great read I would recommend!

This book exceeded all my expectations and was such a fun, cute RomCom! It’s reverse grumpy sunshine with the fake dating plot of The Proposal — dare I say, done better!

Bec’s is an ‘ice queen’ lawyer who meets Hudson for a one night fling before deciding to form a mutual agreement — courtesy of the queen of contracts — to convince her family she’s happily in love after her sister get’s engaged to her ex.

This book was genuinely laugh out loud funny in moments which I find really rare. The romance is super sweet and their relationship feels so real. There are so many sweet moments between these two I wanted to burst! There is also sneaky Colleen Hoover reference that made my bookish self giggle.

Overall, this is the perfect cosy, true romcom for this time of year! I am so glad I picked it up and would absolutely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun fake dating RomCom that delivers on both the romance and comedy. Can’t wait to read more of Cassie’s books in the future!

I just could not put this book down! It was filled great chemistry- humor -romance and so much more that just poured off the pages.
Rebecca was dreading going home for Thanksgiving after meeting a one-night stand, she decided to ask him to go with her as her boyfriend. Fake dating in this book was exactly perfect.
This is a perfect book to spend the day with cuddled under a soft blanket.
Thank you NetGalley, Cassie Connor and HarperCollins UK for the copy of Love Under Contract. This is my personal review.

Fake dating is one of my favourite tropes! I had high hopes of this book going in, and it lived up to all of my expectations and more! I loved the girl power of Rebecca, her determined attitude to work hard. But in comes Hudson, relaxed and caring Hudson, we can all swoon!

I'll also be posting a review of this on my Instagram account at @blondesbooknook

Many thanks to NetGalley for sharing this amazing digital reviewer copy with me in exchange for my opinion.

This was such a fun holiday romance. I really enjoyed the banter between Becca and Hudson. There was an instant pull between the two characters and it just kept getting better. I enjoyed that the sunshine/grumpy trope was opposite where the woman is grumpy and the man is the sunshine. I like that I felt an instant spark between the characters and that they were respectful and supportive of each other. I loved seeing the two together, even if they were together under contract. There were a few things about the story that I didn’t care for. As much as I loved Becca and Hudson together, I thought the way they acted about her family at first was a little too much. I didn’t like how he blackmailed her into Christmas at his family’s house and lied to his sick mother. And I thought that last contract she made was overplayed. A little more character development and honesty would have worked wonders. I also wish the tension would have been prolonged so that it was even more intense when they finally did get together. Regardless, Hudson is a masterpiece and Becca’s deserves so much more than she allowed herself to have. I was rooting for them all throughout the story and I enjoyed learning about their families, careers, and what motivates them. I think it was a great spicy holiday romance!

❄️Holiday romance
❄️Fake Dating
❄️One bed
❄️Sunshine x grumpy

How do I explain what this book has been for me? I'd say I liked it, but it's not a romantic comedy. For me, a romantic comedy has to have tension, it has to have a comic point, it has to have a development where the last thing is that the protagonists end up together. That is what characterizes the romantic comedy for me, and here the truth is that it was quite the opposite. The romance materializes super soon and basically ends up feeling more like an erotic romance book than anything else.
That brings me to the issue that causes me the most conflict and that is the smut scenes. It doesn't bother me that there are these types of scenes, but here I feel that there are too many. It is not a very long book, and if there are many smut scenes at the end, there is a little feeling that the only thing in the book is that (and that is the feeling that it has left me) .
I think that in the end, the worst thing for me has been finding that sort of story when I was expecting a romantic Christmas story, I was expecting a more fluffy romance and not so much a smut romance. Perhaps it is the feeling that it has left me, or that due to my expectations it has affected me more than what it can affect other readers, but it is so.
Even so, it has been quite an entertaining story to read and that I generally highly recommend. But I have to point out that this book, perhaps it is not going to be the most romantic novel in the world or the one that most corresponds to the romantic Christmas movies (which is what I really expected to find).

Cassie Connor’s Love Under Contract plays with several romance tropes—fake dating, love (well, lust) at first sight, opposites attract—and it does so in an engaging way. When Rebecca Madison learns that her sister is going to marry Rebecca’s own ex, she’s miserable. The best way she can come up with to save face is inspired by The Wedding Date: she can pay her recent one-night-stand partner to be her date for the engagement party. And, since Rebecca is an attorney, she’ll draw up an unbreakable contract that requires no sex and no kissing and no feels with absolutely no loopholes.

Of course, that’s not quite what happens. When she and Hudson Strong, a furniture designer in need of some quick money, make their way from England to the U.S., she discovers that he’s even more appealing than she first thought. As he charms everyone in sight, including her, Rebecca realizes that the way she’s always approached her life, with a firm focus on work at the sacrifice of family, partners, and friends, may not be quite as appealing as she previously thought and that her outlook is rooted in some pretty deep places.

This was a fun, quick read, and I absolutely loved Hudson and his family. I thought that Rebecca’s revelations about why she focused on what she did were believable, and I liked the way that each new step with Hudson helped her to see herself more clearly. While I thought the writing could have been a bit stronger, Connor has a real touch with characters, and the relationship itself felt real. This steamy read is well worth picking up for fans of open-door romance!

I stopped at 10%. In that 10%, the only thing that happened was they met in the bar and we got a huge backstory dump and then they went up to her room to have sex. Really slow pacing for something that’s supposed to have so much heat.

Thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins for the ARC.

I took this book on holiday to read and it was just what I needed. Rebecca is a lawyer who needs a date for her sisters wedding. I know this plot has been done so many times but this book takes it to the next level. Clad iron contract…. (no kissing, no sex) etc what possible could go wrong. I sat on the beach laughing out loud and by the end of the book I was hopelessly romantically involved and didn’t want it to end. Well done Cassie in writing this little gem🥰

I'm happy the way this book turned out. At the beginning I thought I was not going to like it, but Rebecca and Hunter's chemistry was so strong I couldn't stop reading it. Fake dating is always a yes for me and this story was so good! Not only because of the steamy and sweet scenes between the two, but also because I liked the way Rebecca slowly discovered another side of herself and finally decided she wanted to be happy.

Thank you NetGalley and HarperCollins UK, One More Chapter for the ARC!

Rebecca Madison is a lawyer, who is too focused on her career to have a man in her life. When her younger sister announces her engagement to Rebecca’s ex and she starts dreading her visit home for a joint Thanksgiving and engagement celebration - she knows the question on everyone’s lips will be ‘why are you still single?’.
So after a one night stand with Hudson, that she can’t stop thinking about, she proposes a fake relation to avoid her family questions. Only the chemistry between them is too real to maintain the fake relationship.
This is a cute and fast paced read with some amazing hot chemistry. Rebecca and Hudson are both strong characters but complete opposites of each other and that’s what makes them perfect together. This book is totally from Rebecca POV and I would have really liked an insight into what Hudson is feeling/thinking.
Overall a delightful romcom that’s perfect for the holiday season.