[ARC Review] Mr. Wicked by Marni Mann

PUBLISHER'S SYNOPSIS: Grayson Tanner has had better days. Coming off the successful international launch of Hooked, the hook-up app he cofounded with his two best friends, and a night with one of the sexiest women he’s ever met, he’s now in a PR nightmare. A video of him has gone viral—a toast to the indulgence of bachelorhood. It’s a bad look for the creator of the app’s marriage arm. As memberships plummet amid a media firestorm, his PR firm has a new narrative to quell the flames: Grayson has to get married. Fast.

Hello, Jovana Winters—social media influencer and Grayson’s former one-night stand. The one-night stand he has yet to move on from mentally. Their immediate connection is undeniable. In front of the camera, they’re charismatic and passionate, and social media is calling them the It couple. But off camera, Grayson doesn’t trust women or believe in commitment.

Jovana is the opposite, a believer in love who knows what she wants. Now she’s on a mission to turn this fake marriage into the real deal, even though she’s hiding the biggest secret of them all.

But with a man like Mr. Wicked, it won’t come easy.  

MY THOUGHTS: I hate when I run across stories that are technically fine: the plot keeps things moving, there's a good balance of action and spice, and the characters are developed well and grow throughout the book - however, there's just one little thing that keeps me from fully enjoying the story. For me, this was Mr. Wicked and the fact that Grayson, our leading man, "roared" no less than eighteen times in this book. That, honestly, ended up being the thing that stuck out the most to me throughout the entire story. Grayson roared all. the. time. It felt like he had no other discernable actions. Happy? He roared. Upset? He roared. Excited? You guessed it: he roared. I know this seems trivial, but it wholly took me out of the story, which, in turn, affected my whole reading experience.  

I liked Jovana. I thought her chemistry with Grayson was evident right from the first chapter, and I was excited to see where their journey took them beyond such an explosive introduction. I loved her personality and tenacity, especially when it came to Grayson. She was a strong woman who knew exactly what she wanted. I totally did not see her big secret coming, and once all was revealed, I actually ended up liking Jovana even more. 

Grayson, besides the roaring, sort of fell flat for me. I liked him in the spicy scenes, but outside of those, he was just another confirmed bachelor who swore he would never fall in love, only to be happily paired up a hundred pages later. He just ended up not being very memorable to me, and I found him to be fairly two dimensional and generic. 

Overall, Jovana saved this story for me and kept me reading until the end. I loved her character and her story arc; I just wished I liked Grayson more. 

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Release date: 4/23/24

Format: eARC

eARC provided via: NetGalley