Book Review: For The Love Of You By Claire Marti

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For a French soccer icon, and a gifted artist, a fake engagement is the perfect solution for their current dilemmas. But when last summer’s fling slips from lust to love, their pretend relationship becomes too hot to handle.

Gabriel DuVernay is heir to one of the oldest wineries in France, but his passion is playing soccer, not tending vines. When he signs a multi-million dollar deal with the Los Angeles Galaxy, he’s able to postpone his unwelcome family duties. Another bonus of moving to California is reuniting with the striking redhead who snuck out of his apartment after the hottest night of his life.

​Last summer, artist Dylan McNeill’s life on her family’s Southern California horse-breeding ranch was thrown into chaos and she escaped to Paris. One electrifying night with a gorgeous playboy athlete helped her forget her problems. She’s never forgotten Gabriel, but aspiring artists trying to break into the elite art world don’t have time for romance.

When Gabriel suffers a career-shattering injury, he needs to buy some time to figure out how to remain in America and choose his own future. A fictitious engagement seems like the simple answer until living at Pacific Vista Ranch and pretending to be in love starts to feel real.

Can last year’s one night stand and this year’s fake engagement turn into true love forever?

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Claire Marti started writing stories as soon as she was old enough to pick up pencil and paper. After graduating from the University of Virginia with a BA in English Literature, Claire was sidetracked by other careers, including practicing law, selling software for legal publishers, and managing a non-profit animal rescue for a Hollywood actress. 

Claire's exciting new Pacific Vista Ranch series, set on a horse breeding ranch in exclusive Rancho Santa Fe, California, launched September 2019. Book 1, Nobody Else But You, won the GOLDEN QUILL for Best Contemporary Romance 2020, is a 2020 RONE Finalist for Best Contemporary, won the LERA Contemporary Romance award, and was a Finalist in the prestigious RWA Stiletto Contest. Book 2, The Very Thought of You,  and Book 3, For The Love of You​ are available now. Look for All I Want is You,  a Christmas 2020 short story and Book 4 later in 2020.

Claire was recently interviewed by the Rancho Santa Fe review. Check it out: 
https://www.ranchosantafereview.com/lifestyle/story/2019-08-12/encinitas-woman-achieves-dream-of-writing-romance-novels 

Her award winning debut novel, Second Chance in Laguna, was a Finalist for Best Contemporary Romance in the prestigious RWA Stiletto Contest, won best unpublished contemporary romance in the Heart of the Molly and third place in the Maggie. Check out a teaser here: Second Chance in Laguna. Book two in the Finding Forever in Laguna series, At Last in Laguna,  and Book three, Sunset in Laguna, ​are available everywhere. Sunset in Laguna ​was a Golden Quill finalist.

When Claire's not writing, she's teaching yoga. You can find her teaching at studios in sunny San Diego or enjoy fifty online classes on the international website www.yogadownload.com. A breast cancer survivor, Claire is a sought-after speaker on the power of yoga and meditation. She's been published in numerous magazines with articles on wellness and is the author of a memoir, ​Come Ride with Me Along the Big C, on her experience beating breast cancer.
 
Claire is a member of the  Contemporary Romance Writers and the San Diego Romance Writers.
  

For The Love Of You 

By Claire Marti

Review by Heidi Lynn’s Book Reviews 

First, I want to thank Claire Marti for providing me with this book so I can bring you this review. 

If you are a fan of Soccer, Wineries, Art, and Romance then For The Love Of You is definitely for you! This is the third book in Claire Marti’s Pacific Ranch Series. I highly suggest if you have not read the other books in her series you do so first. This way you can get a better feel for the characters and the past storyline. 

As with each cover in this series this one was just as breathtaking. Whomever designed this is very talented and creative. It also represented the book perfectly. 

This book is dedicated to Claire’s Papa- the original French Soccer Star. 

I loved how Claire put a part of herself into this book. Seeing that she is half French and grew up in France is a big part of who she is. This is why it was so easy writing about her French hero. However, she is very grateful for her own real life hero Todd. 

Out of all three of the books in Claire’s series I think this one I enjoyed the most. It is not every day an author writes her character as a soccer player. A famous one at that. So, if you know me you know I love all things pop culture. So I loved the celebrity factor behind the sport. However, Dylan was very talented too as an artist. Another career you don't read much about. 

There was some heartache in the story that pulled on my heartstrings. Claire did an incredible job describing what was going on in detail. She also pulled out all the emotions into the characters involved.

If you read closely you could see a hidden message in this book that made you think. At least it made me think.