The Wild Card by Kendall Ryan
Contemporary Romance
August 20, 2026
🩷roommates-to-lovers
🩷opposites attract
🩷grumpy FBI agent
🩷a sunshine cookbook author
🩷forced proximity
🩷roommates-to-lovers
🩷fake dating that feels way too real
🐈⬛one very judgmental cat
He buried a fake-girlfriend clause in a roommate agreement.
She signed it without reading.
What could possibly go wrong?
FBI agent Crew Jensen thrives on control. His rigid routines keep his anxiety and OCD in check: no chaos, no distractions, and definitely no relationships.
Until his boss threatens to transfer him to Alaska.
Desperate to prove he has “roots,” Crew makes a wildly unhinged decision: he slips a fake-girlfriend clause into his roommate contract, hoping his next applicant won’t read it carefully.
Emmie Marshall signs on page seventeen without blinking.
Emmie is everything Crew is not—warm, messy, impossibly chatty—and currently racing a cookbook deadline that could make or break her career. She needs stability. He needs a convincing relationship. It’s a simple, mutually beneficial arrangement.
Fake dates. Public hand-holding. Mandatory cuddling sessions (her counter-demand—he’s just so touch-starved and grumpy).
The more they pretend, the harder it becomes to remember where the contract ends and real feelings begin.
Because she makes the counting in his head stop. He makes her feel like she doesn’t have to try so hard.
Suddenly, the arrangement that was supposed to be temporary feels dangerously real.
Available in KU: https://amzn.to/4xLFoP8
The Wild Card by Kendall Ryan
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I think i found my new favorite man by Kendall Ryan. I could relate to Crew on so many levels. His need for order and structure is something that makes his life easier. When Emmie enters his life as his new roommate that structure starts to crack and he finds himself wanting to be different so he could be worthy (in his eyes) of her.
Emmie is on a deadline and when she meets Crew, the chemistry is off the charts. But acting on it is silly since the man has more rules that any rule-book she knows off. And when he presents his idea for a fake relationship, little by little she starts cheeping at his armor only to discover the man behind the walls is someone she could easily love forever.
With ups and downs, their relationship is just what the doctor prescribed and if he wants to keep her forever, he’ll have to dig deep and decided that she’s worth all the risk that come with love.
These two made me frown, cry and laugh out loud. It was so hard to read when they were apart, but the ending made it that much sweeter to see them living HEA.
***Review copy requested and reviewed on behalf of OMGReads Blog***
Meet Kendall Ryan: Kendall Ryan writes contemporary romance. Her books have been featured on the New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal bestsellers lists a combined total of more than 100 times.
Connect with Kendall Ryan: https://www.kendallryanbooks.com/instagram/
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