REVIEW: Just a Little Jilted & Their Temporary Arrangement by Joss Wood

Just a Little Jilted & Their Temporary Arrangement by Joss Wood are two stories in one book.

In Just a Little Jilted, model Eliot Gamble is about to get married to a man who doesn’t appreciate her. She runs out right before the wedding and ends up running into the love of her life, Olympic swimmer Soren Grantham. He helps her get out of the hotel, which his family owns, and takes her to his grandmother’s estate to hide out. Both Eliot and Soren have decisions to make about their careers, and as they struggle with those choices, they discover that their feelings for one another have never gone away.

In Their Temporary Arrangement, CEO Fox Grantham needs a personal assistant, after his previous one retired, and he scared all his replacements away. Ru Osman needs a job, and is determined to prove to Fox that he can do the job. Fox takes her to his grandmother’s estate, as his brothers decided it was his turn to keep an eye on their grandmother. When Ru needs a fake date to a wedding, Fox agrees to take her, but it turns out to be more than he bargained for.

Both stories in the book are tied together. Soren and Fox, along with Fox’s brothers, Jack and Malcolm, all grew up together, raised by their grandmother after a plane crash took the lives of their parents. They all consider each other to be brothers, along with the housekeeper’s son, who grew up with them. Malcolm had died years earlier, and both stories feature Aly, a houseguest of their grandmother, who was the recipient of one of Malcolm’s organs when he died. The brothers are suspicious of her, but she does things and says things that only Malcolm would have known about. She also seems to know something about the plane crash, and I’m interested in seeing what she eventually reveals about it, since Fox was insistent that the crash was suspicious because his father was a great pilot.

Also going on in both stories is their grandmother sending and receiving cryptic postcards to a secret love, along with someone who is blackmailing her, and a developing love story between the housekeeper, Jacinta, with an artist that is also staying at the Grantham estate. None of these are settled in these two stories; I hope they’re wrapped up in future books. I found the mystery involving the elder Grantham to be interesting and would like to see how it plays out. It’ll also be interesting to see how Jacinta’s son reacts to her having a relationship with someone who is not much older than himself.

Just a Little Jilted is the first story, and Their Temporary Arrangement is the second. The author does a good job of building the second story off of the first one. The on-going aspects of the story flow together nicely. I’ve read books with on-going storylines before that have inconsistencies in those storylines, but that is not the case here.

These were well-written stories that will draw readers in from the first page and keep their attention until the last. Readers who enjoy the second chance and boss/employee romances thrown in with some mystery will enjoy these.

Book Info:

Publication: April 25, 2023 | Harlequin Desire | Dynasties: Calcott Manor #1 & #2

Just a Little Jilted

She ran from her wedding—and fell into her ex’s arms!

Supermodel Eliot Gamble is jilted minutes before her wedding and just as her career in fashion is ending. For a lifelong people pleaser, it’s the ultimate nightmare. In steps champion swimmer and former lover Soren Grantham, who sweeps Eliot away to his family’s estate. As Eliot explores what she really wants, her old flame may become a wildfire…

Their Temporary Arrangement

She’s ready to call the shots…if only her boss wasn’t so seductive!

Personal assistant Ru Osman is tired of people controlling her—from her parents to her notoriously difficult alpha boss. All she needs is enough money to leave New York. Sexy CEO Fox Grantham knows the determined beauty is the answer to his professional headaches, but their desire leads to all-new problems. Will Fox drop his guard long enough to let new love in?