Lily and Nik are total opposites. She wants a permanent love that endures. He wants a temporary fling with no strings.. The relationship is even more complicated because Nik is Lily's Boss. I was given this book for an honest review. Sarah Morgan always brings an emotional read. Playing by the Greek's Rules was no exception. ( )

THIS WAS SO GOOD! This year I have read a Harlequin Blaze, a Harlequin Desire, and now a Harlequin Presents and I have to say that this one was my favorite by far. Forget what you have heard about Presents and pick this one up!!

Niklaus Zervakis is a stone cold business man. He doesn't deal with emotion in his professional life or his personal life. If he enjoys the company of a woman it is physical and nothing more.

Lily is an hopeless romantic waiting for her fairy tale to come true, all she needs is the right guy to come along and check all the boxes off on her List. That is until she has had her heart broken for the last time. She decides that she needs to do is take a page from Nik's book by having meaningless rebound sex and steeling her heart to anyone who might try to hurt her.

Only, Lily can't steel her heart against Nik. Not once she gets to know the side of him that no one sees. The side that stopped believing in love long before he was old enough to even give it a chance. What she doesn't know is that Nik can't seem to steel his heart against her either...
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I had forgotten how much sheer fun Morgan's HPs are. This one features one of her patented Ordinary Heroine characters, and I mean that in the best possible way. Lily Rose is an orphan, but she's got a post-graduate degree, pursues her art interest in her spare time, and makes ends meet by assisting on an archaeological dig (she has an MA in archaeology) and moonlighting as a cleaner to pay off her college loans. Oh, and she's an intern on top of that.

She meets our hero, Nik Zervakis, when she's cleaning his palatial beach pad while working on a dig on Crete. Of course sparks fly, of course he's intrigued by her refreshing and cheerful personality. Nik has sworn off romantic love and Lily is trying to after her latest Mr. Oh-So-Wrong.

It sounds textbook, doesn't it? But Morgan plays around with the formula in such enjoyable ways. Lily really *is* a very good ceramicist and knows a lot about Minoan pottery. Her best friend, Brittany (who we will see in Morgan's upcoming Puffin Island single-title series), has her own secrets but is a competent archaeologist, and they have a third friend (also upcoming Puffin Island?) who is a talented jewelry designer. No one here needs to be rescued.

And while Nik is a billionaire whose childhood trauma has made him swear off romantic love forever (of course it has, this is an HP, people), he's not broken or horribly embittered, just kind of cynical. The rich people have giant houses and helicopters and own islands, but we aren't hit over the head with it, and that's just the backdrop to their everyday issues, which are the kind we all have. Nik's father turns out to be more than the one-dimensional person Nik presents him as at the beginning, and the way his story unfolds takes a couple of surprising turns. Except for one villainous ex-wife/stepmother (who remains mercifully off-page), everyone is nuanced and interesting.

A terrific read that can serve as a great introduction to Presents for people who don't generally like the OTT, angsty nature of Presents. And it should work for the usual Presents readers too. ( )

Lily Rose is an archaeologist working in Greece. She has a master's in archaeology but she's temporarily working for a cleaning company to pay off some debts. The owner of the cleaning company she works for calls her and she's assigned to clean wealthy Nik Zervakis's home. Unfortunately, the other members of the cleaning team were in an accident so that just leaves Lily to do the job alone. While cleaning his home she goes in the large shower, is confused over the buttons, hits a wrong one, and ends up drenched--right when Nik arrives home with his date. Needless to say, his date leaves in a fury, thinking Lily is his girlfriend. Nik is expected to open a new wing at a museum that night, so he asks Lily to be his replacement date. Feeling guilty, Lily accepts. Lily was just in a bad relationship--she seems to always fall for the wrong guy. Her friend, Brittany, suggested that Lily have an emotionless fling--rebound sex she calls it. Lily realizes Nik is the perfect candidate. She could never possibly fall for him--he's the total opposite of what she wants in a man. She suggests it, Nik agrees, and what follows is a very enjoyable story!

This book was really good and sometimes quite funny! Lily was a cute and warm heroine. She was always trying to look on the bright side of things. She grew up in foster homes and really just wants to belong. I liked how she tried to bring Nik closer to his father. Nik doesn't believe in love or marriage--his parents' marriage broke up many years ago when he was a kid and Nik's father is now on his fourth marriage.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It was a lovely, upbeat romance, with a beautiful Greek setting, and it's connected to Sarah Morgan's "Puffin Island" series. ( )