Review: Weekend Agreement – Barbara Wallace

Weekend Agreement by Barbara Wallace
Series:  
Release Date:  March 15, 2012
Publisher:  Entangled Publishing
Source:  Provided by Publisher
Buy the book at: Amazon
 

Cynical billionaire Daniel Moretti works hard, plays harder, and has one ironclad rule. Never trust a woman. Bad news for historian Charlotte Doherty who shows up at exactly the wrong time. Like every other woman in Daniel’s life, Charlotte wants something from him–the deed to her family farm. Daniel agrees, but only if he gets something in return: Charlotte’s company for the weekend!

The property is Charlotte’s only link to the mother she never knew. Desperate to keep her history alive, she’ll accept Daniel’s indecent proposal, but not without a few terms of her own. Namely, a propriety clause. No flirting. No kissing. No sex.

Daniel has no intention of honoring her conditions, but after one weekend with Charlotte leaves him hungering for more, he can’t help wondering if she could be the exception to his unbreakable rule…

Professor Charlotte Doherty returns from a book tour to find her brother has sold her mother’s childhood home to billionaire real estate investor, Daniel Moretti.  Hoping to appeal to Daniel’s sense of family, Charlotte visits his office, explains her circumstance and hopes he’ll agree to sell the property back to her. Unfortunately, Daniel doesn’t buy into the idea of history and preserving it.  But something about Charlotte intrigues Daniel, so he offers a proposition.  She spend the weekend with him at his parents 25th wedding anniversary party and he’ll sell her back the property for what he paid.  Charlotte agrees to the weekend, after adding in a propriety clause, hopefully ensuring Daniel won’t put the moves on her.  What they don’t realize is they both long for the same thing:  to belong to someone, to feel loved, to be home.

This was a fabulous story.  Daniel was a man who has been beaten down by someone always wanting something from me, but no one wanting just him.  He’s turned cynical and built a huge wall around himself to ensure that no one can get close enough to hurt him.  But when he meet Charlotte, even after their first meeting, she was able to start chipping away at him.

Charlotte was angry with Daniel for making her agree to this weekend in order to get her mother’s home back, but she immediately saw the wounded soul that he was.  She saw behind his mask to the man that was a poet and a romantic who wanted to be loved for just being Daniel.

Barbara Wallace did a wonderful job of bringing forth the emotions (or lack thereof) from each of the characters.  You craved Daniel vulnerability when he let it out and you felt Charlotte’s hurt when Daniel believed the worst in her.

A truly heartwarming story.