Sunday, 26 January 2025

Book ~ "The Arrangement" (2019) Robyn Harding

From Goodreads ~ Natalie, a young art student in New York City, is struggling to pay her bills when a friend makes a suggestion: Why not go online and find a sugar daddy - a wealthy older man who will pay her for dates and even give her a monthly allowance? Lots of girls do it, Nat learns. All that’s required is to look pretty and hang on his every word. Sexual favours are optional.

Though more than thirty years her senior, Gabe, a handsome corporate finance attorney, seems like the perfect candidate, and within a month, they are madly in love. At least, Nat is ... Gabe already has a family, whom he has no intention of leaving.

So when he abruptly ends things, Nat can’t let go. She begins drinking heavily and stalking him: watching him at work, spying on his wife, even befriending his daughter, who is not much younger than she is. But Gabe’s not about to let his sugar baby destroy his perfect life. What was supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement devolves into a nightmare of deception, obsession, and, when a body is found near Gabe’s posh Upper East Side apartment, murder.

Nat is an arts university student in NYC barely making it financially. She was recently fired from her part-time job and her roommates keep threatening to kick her out because she can't pay her share of the bills. When a fellow student tells her about a website where she can look for a sugar daddy, in desperation Nat signs up. Right away she connects with Gabe, a 55-year-old divorced attorney and he sets up her up financially and they fall in love. Though Gabe does care for her, what she doesn't know is that is Gabe actually has a wife and daughter and plans on keeping his secret life secret. Then the time comes for Gabe to make a choice ... Nat or his family. He chooses his family and Nat doesn't take it well at all.

I liked this story (such an intriguing premise) and the writing style. I kind of knew things weren't going to end happily ever after for Nat so it was interesting to see what happened. The ending had a bit of a surprising twist and I was buying it. This story is written in third person perspective. As a head's up, there is swearing, adult activity and violence.

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