Rating: 4.5 stars
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Length: Novel


Cameron Ansley had a difficult childhood. His mother and brother both died when he was young and when his father didn’t want anything to do with him, Cameron was sent to live with his uncle. That turned out to be great for Cameron, as he never knew his uncle and never knew his uncle was married to a man. Cameron grew to love the log home in the woods of Tennessee and the adventure resort that his uncles owned.

Cameron is now in college and returns home to help his uncles tour a prospective buyer of the resort. The potential buyer is billionaire Rein Davenport, the best friend of Cameron’s deceased brother, although Rein doesn’t recognize Cameron at all. Cameron, however, recognizes Rein, and he also recognizes how gorgeous the man is now and that Rein is straight.

Rein needs a permanent date for business and even though he has never dated a man before, he hires Rein to be his fake boyfriend. The men both have their own agendas and they are both wrapped up in themselves and now Cam can’t tell his close circle that he is fake dating a billionaire. But maybe the men don’t want it to be fake after all.

Resisting Rein is the third book in the Gilcrest University Guys universe. Cameron was seen in the earlier books and the second epilogue in Catching Chance gave us a preview of his story. That epilogue is repeated in the beginning of this book as well, and if you wanted to start here you could, although my preference is always to be familiar with the characters and their world.

The fake boyfriend trope is so popular right now and even if that trope is not my favorite, I find myself reading some of them to keep up with current series. This is one of my favorite books with that trope, perhaps because the fake part is not the focus of every scene.

Cameron is such a fun character. We see how he came to live with his uncles and the events that shaped his life. He knows he’s a lot to handle and doesn’t think anyone would want to put up with him for any length of time and he tells himself he doesn’t want a relationship. He wants to come off as selfish at first glance and, while he does like to make sure that he gets taken care of, he’s a good friend and is devoted to his close circle. Cameron is annoyed that Rein doesn’t recognize him right away, but the last time Rein saw Cameron, Cameron was 12 and it was a difficult day. That still doesn’t stop Cameron from wanting to mess with Rein as much as he can when they are negotiating their contractual relationship.

Rein is in his early 30s, he owns several upscale hotels, and he’s a billionaire. He works a lot and every moment of his time is scheduled. He’s well known enough that the paparazzi follow him and due to some misleading photos that were taken of him, he has a reputation that he’s trying to change. He thinks having a steady relationship will change that and although he’s never dated a man before, he thinks Cameron is the one to help him. Cameron pushes and pushes Rein, but when it comes down to it, he’s there for Rein and it was entertaining watching them fall for each other despite themselves. Rein does have his hesitations on his feelings for Cameron for several reasons and Cameron is simply interested in hooking up, but the more time the men spend together, the more time they want together.

A few things would have even further pulled this story together for me and several had to do with timeline issues. Rein entered the military when he was in college and he’s currently in his early 30s and is wildly successful and has amassed billons of dollars and I would have liked more insight into the path for that. Also, except for Rein’s assistant, we don’t see anyone working directly with Rein and the full effect of his office life wasn’t there. And then, once Rein and Cameron start dating, the paparazzi seemed to leave them alone a lot and one of the main reasons for the fake relationship seemed to drop off some.

The writing here was engaging and I really just enjoyed this book. Cam and Rein’s story isn’t finished here and there will be one more book to complete their journey. They do end on a happy note and after reading this book, I did as well.