Mister Stand-In by C.M. Albert
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
Second Chance At Love
What you need to know about Mister Stand-In:
✔ Set in NYC and “The Grove”
✔ Second Chance Romance
✔ Complete stand-alone
✔ Brilliant Heiress Presley Kincaid
✔ Hot “stand-in” Carter Wright
✔ Bit of a mystery
✔ If you loved Mister Moneybags by Vi Keeland and Penelope Ward, you will get to see a LOT more of Dex and Bianca
What I love about the Cocky Hero Club series of books is that you get introduced to so many new-to-you authors. This is my first time reading C.M. Albert and it certainly won’t be the last. Mister Stand-In pulls you in from the start with this second chance romance which includes a compelling bit of mystery as well. This romance is scorching hot from the start with incredible chemistry from characters Presley and Carter.
My Plot Summary:
In C.M. Albert’s Mister Stand-In, Presley Kincaid and Carter Wright knew each other when they were young but she was the spoiled thirteen-year-old brat who followed him around while she was on vacation and he was the seventeen-year-old property manager’s son who dreamed of escaping The Grove. She asked him for her first kiss and he refused. He had a crush on her step-mom.
Years later he’s made his money as “Mister Stand-In”, standing in for the rich and successful and Presley’s step-mom’s new husband at her rehearsal dinner. Presley is a beautiful woman who gets under Carter’s skin quickly. She’s a writer for a financial magazine and is assigned to write a feature story about Carter. Can they keep things professional? Can Presley stop looking into the mystery surrounding The Grove?
WRITING STYLE: 5/5
PLOT: 4/5
WORLD-BUILDING: 5/5
CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: 4/5
ROMANCE: 4/5
HEAT: 5/5
CARTER WRIGHT WAS used to being anything but Mr. Right. He wouldn’t exactly call himself a street rat, but his life had somehow become a rags-to-almost-riches story—one he’d rather keep to himself. The best part about being a stand-in to some of the wealthiest a-holes in New York?
Access. To anything, and anyone, he wanted.
And that certainly wasn’t Little Miss Moneybags, Presley Kincaid. No, he had his sights set on
someone even hotter—her mother. But when Lauren asks him to stand in for her richer-than-sin fiancé at their rehearsal dinner, and then he’s later paired up with her spoiled daughter Presley at the wedding, Carter can do the only thing he’s truly good at: Shut up. Smile. Be charming.
Be the stand-in he was born to be.
But when Presley turns out to be more than she pretends—and a one-night stand gives her more
access to his past than he intended—Carter’s simple, easy-going lifestyle starts to unravel, exposing the biggest lie of all. One so big, Carter never even saw it coming.
Will Presley accidentally expose The Stand-In for who he really is? Or will her discovery free Carter from the street hustle he’s perfected and finally help him claim a life, and love, that was always meant to be?