I certainly liked this one more than the Marriage Bargain. 
 The Marriage Trap revolves around Maggie, Nick's sister and Alexa's best friend, who is fiercely loyal and ambitious. Jaded from a rough past, she's cold as ice when it comes to romance. While sex isn't an issue, she keeps her heart closely guarded. She knows Michael Conte through her brother and sister-in-law. Michael is suave, sexy, and Italian, a stereotype of tall, dark, and handsome. After a failed date, she wants nothing to do with him and she desperately wants him away from her sister-in-law, whom she believes he has feelings for. 
 Michael is in a bind and needs a fake wife in order to make his family happy. Unable to wed before he does, his sister called him in a panic, begging him to fix the issue that would allow her to marry her fiance. A family man and the only male in his immediate family, he wants to make his sister's wishes come true. Maggie is the perfect solution - she's unattached, educated, and the complete opposite of needy. 
 Having a fake marriage won't be a problem, right? 
 These books are so cliche I don't see how anyone finds them surprising. At one point, Maggie even says she's trapped in a romance novel. I rolled my eyes. 
 However, despite the cheesiness, I happened to enjoy the story. I was amused at the growing bond between Maggie and the various other characters. The way his mother taught her to cook when she all but said eff this or how the meanest cat ever adored her when she hissed her distaste for him. With Michael, they found a friendship that eventually turned into love. 
 I am not sure if this sequel was planned as I didn't find these traits in Maggie when I read the Marriage Bargain. While I recognize she wasn't featured too much in that book, it seems weird how she hates so much on love, literally runs from it, yet was the voice of reason in the first book. Hmm. They seem a little disjointed together - same style, sure, but the relationships between the characters of the first book and the second appear to me to be an afterthought. 
 All in all, I liked this book and I look forward to the last one.