The Doctor's Fake Fiancee by Victoria James

To the son, Evan is a superhero and to the mother, Evan is a guardian angel.  Evan Manning just knows that he wants to reclaim his career. All that's standing in his way is a lack of a fiancée or wife. No worries, though, because as luck would have it, the mother-son duo who he had rescued from a burning vehicle the year before--which cost him his career as a surgeon--have sought him out to offer their gratitude. What better way than for the mother to pose as Evan's fake fiancée to make him more appealing for a job that will again establish his stature in his profession? In return, the mother (Grace Matheson) gets a Cinderella-like life makeover in picturesque and communal Red River--which Evan desperately wants to escape!

Third in the Red River series, The Doctor's Fake Fiancée (2014) is quite charming, particularly because of Grace's four-year-old son, Christopher. Evan, however, is the star of the show (to me). His thoughts and comments regarding his quirky town folks and current patients had me literally laughing out loud. A well-meaning good guy, Evan is simply misguided about what it will take to make him happy. Lucky for him, Grace and Christopher are there to save him from himself.

While a delightful read, The Doctor's Fake Fiancée has some flaws, the "fake fiancée" aspect of the title being one because it had nothing to do with actual plot development of the story. As such, I thought it was gimmicky and one of many tropes James relied on for this story. The biggest trope is Grace, herself. A single mom, she was abandoned by her baby daddy two months before Christopher was born, just a month after her mom had died. The woe piles on: She, too, was abandoned by her father, grew up poor with her single mother, and herself became a young mother at 20/21. As such, she had to drop out of college and was living paycheck to paycheck to provide for her son. When Evan proposed that she act as his "fake fiancée," he actually automatically upgraded her life.

Other aspects of this story could be seen as questionable. Despite them, though, I thoroughly enjoyed it, so much so that I consumed it in one sitting. Finishing the story of Evan and Grace, Victoria James achieved something that other authors of small town serial romances have struggled to do: make me want to read the previous books in the series AND future ones. For that alone, I recommend The Doctor's Fake Fiancée.