The Secret Fiancée

Lexington and Raya's Story (The Windsors)

De: Catharina Maura

Narrado por: Troy Duran, Yami Habibi

Duet narration by

From the author of The Wrong Bride and The Temporary Wife comes another steamy and angsty billionaire arranged marriage romance.

When the woman he'd desperately been looking for crashes into him and spills her drink all over his shirt, Lexington seizes the unexpected opportunity — demanding six rounds of Truth or Dare as compensation.

An evening filled with laughter and a connection he never wanted to feel ends in her walking away — without even leaving him her phone number.

Raya thinks she'll never see him again, until he shows up as her professor, offering her class the opportunity of a lifetime: an internship at Windsor Motors.

What Raya doesn't realize is that none of their meetings were coincidental — and she's the sole reason he took up a teaching position at all.

After all, Lex knows something she doesn't: the two of them are arranged to be married.

©2024 Catharina Maura (P)2024 Catharina Maura

Technically speaking…

this is the best written book of the series. We’ve come a long way from the purely emotional maelstrom that was book 1. This book was well plotted and researched. The details of the MCs careers were believable: auto manufacturing with heavy emphasis on robotics/environmental sustainability. The cultural stuff (the heroine’s South Asian heritage) was seamless and not overdone. It was more engaging than Valentina’s Latino heritage in book 2. Also Lex (H) and Raya (h) had more natural chemistry right from the start than any of the previous couples in this series.

That said, this wasn’t a perfect book. The pacing felt a little fast, I liked the immediate attraction but thought the h made risky choices for a first meeting. Second, I’m a ho for jealousy/OW drama because… well… cat fights, hysterics, and vicious honesty (like book 1). There was only the barest hint of OM drama in this book (the h has a male BFF). Third beef, the secret thing. We can’t say we weren’t warned, secret is in the title of the book, but these two don’t tell anyone outside the family about their marriage for at least 75% of the book. So we lose out on the unfolding dramatic goodness that the reveal causes. Fourth, I missed some of the Windsor glamour in this book. The wealth was there ofc, but no galas, or ball gowns, or interior redecoration. tbh it felt like Lex was a weird shut-in (a doomsday prepper type) who had a basic house, tech instead of friends, and no staff. Where was the opulence?

As for the final conflict so many people were pressed by the way Lex’s trauma explodes to the surface. Sure, we find out his surveillance systems and paranoia are lunatic level. But relax everyone 😂, his aggression wasn’t out of the blue, or ott, or unforgivable.

I almost gave up on this series after the shitshow that was Zane and Celeste. So glad I didn’t.

Amazing!

Totally got this book because it was listed under the Multicultural romance section. Although I haven’t read the other books in this series, I can honestly say I’m a new fan. This love story was everything I and I’m sure many others look for in a romance novel. The insta-love was done so well and there was plenty of steamy scenes to heat up the imagination, with a nice heaping of angst!! Honestly when I see “standalone” in a series, I know that it’s not always true. However, this book definitely didn’t require reading all the others, but of course, now I want to!! Well done! 👍🏽

I love this series!❤🥰😍

I absolutely am in love with this series! I love that Grandma Anne is the matriarch of the family. Although, Lexington's story is a little sad, but Raya heals him. I can't wait for the next book, Sierra's story❣❣❣

Such a fun listen!

I had so much fun listening to this book! I loved Lex and Raya’s interactions from the very beginning. I will never look at truth or dare the same way and it’s forever ruined for me unless it’s played in this way.

When Lex makes a huge mistake I was gutted. Rayas heartbreak came through as so real. C.M. Is so gifted at writing the angst and emotion in her characters. That you can’t help but feel right along side them.

Their HEA was perfection. His proposal -swoon.

Another Windsor book down and I can’t get enough of them. Now onto Sierra’s book and the anticipation has been building throughout the series. I can’t wait and at the same time I’m sad this series is coming to an end. I can’t wait and go back and read all of C.M’s other books.

Lex and Raya

This series has been so great so far you just love the couple and Lex and Raya are no different this is such a great book. I do feel this book is a little different from all the others. Lex struggle with his trauma and dealing with it the best he know how to feel safe is no different from Dion learning to fly for his wife. He is over protective but after what he went through i don't blame. Raya is a light of sunshine she loves her family and what is she doing. After reading what happened to her mother i don't blame them to feel what they are feeling. But lex won them over with his down to earth personality and actually spending time with both of them. I am so happy that all the girls took Raya in like nothing she is Thr missing piece in their group. And their second wedding sounds just amazing.

⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️

This is better than the previous book. The female narrator is not my favorite but definitely better than previous book as well. As always, troy duran is amazing.

Spoiler alert for those people who didn't get it. Annie is the car.

An addicting story with a PHENOMENAL narration!!!!

I could not hit pause on this book and ended up listening to it from start to finish last tonight! Catharina always captures me in every single time with the arranged marriages in The Windsor Series and this one was no different!

💵Billionaire Romance
💍Arranged Marriage
🏫Professor/Student
💁‍♀️Women In STEM
🤫Secret Relationship
👰‍♀️”My Wife”
🗓️Age Gap

This is book 5 in the Windsor Series and in each book, the siblings are set up in an arranged marriage by their grandmother to grow the family businesses. However, Lex doesn’t want to be surprised, so being the tech genius he is, he finds out himself who he will be set up with. He ends up meeting his match himself one night but she just thinks it’s a chance encounter and that is just the beginning!

Lex & Raya were SO incredibly cute from the start with their instant chemistry, shared love of tech and playful game of truth or dare!! Their journey to an HEA had twists, all the swoony moments, hot spice, “my wife” moments and also some bumps as Lex has past trauma that caused trust issues that he needs to work on. I was captured into their story from start to finish!

🎧AUDIO REVIEW:
This audiobook is a duet narration by Troy Duran & Yami Habibi and I absolutely loved every minute of it! They gave an outstanding performance while giving both of these characters so much life with the emotion and feeling in their voices. Troy Duran has the perfect deep tone for Lex that captured all of his swooniness in this story. Then there is Yami who was a new to me narrator who was not only an amazing performer but I completely adored the tone to her voice. She also had so many different voices for each of the females in this book from her mother to her OUTSTANDING robot voice for Lex’s AI robot assistant! It was so fun hearing her use that voice during the whole story! Overall, this is a book I highly recommend on audio as Troy and Yami’s narration is not only enjoyable but also makes you feel this whole entire story!

Full circle of emotions

You could feel the love and the anguish and the full circle to total happiness.

Troy Duran and Yami Habibi brought Lexington,Raya

I fell just as hard for the physical book but once the audio-book was confirmed and released I knew that the narrators would crush this book out the waters Truth or Dare, Nicknames, The warehouse scene all moments in my mind but the true moment that always brings a smile to my face was rayas wedding being a true Indian wedding the way Lexington and the windsor family combined rayas culture was so sweet and I loved it truly

Do I love the book? Yes. Did it destroy me? Also YES!

I enjoy Catharina’s books wholeheartedly and this wasn’t exception. However there was a moment in the story when I really hated the MMC and thus I couldn’t give it a 5⭐️ review as I wanted. At the end I still can’t say I love Lex as other MMC I’ve read about, but I don’t hate him anymore. If I could I’d give them 3,75⭐️ but even if the math ain’t mathing I couldn’t give it 4⭐️. I just hope that in the next book Catharina won’t do this to me again. I cried, I shouted and most of all I didn’t want to forgive. I would love to make Lex grovel more in the moment of 3rd act break-up. Raya is the most forgiving and kind person I’ve read about and I wish I could be like her, maybe I need to grow up more, but that was just fucked-up.