Thursday, December 27, 2012

ARC Review: TEMPTING THE BILLIONAIRE

The Book: TEMPTING THE BILLIONAIRE
The Author: Jessica Lemmon
The Publisher: Hatchette Book Group (a division of Little, Brown)
Anticipated Release Date: January 8, 2013

Summary (as jacked from Amazon):



BUSINESS OR PLEASURE?

Crickitt Day needs a job . . . any job. After her husband walks out on her, she's determined to re-build her life and establish a new career. When swoon-worthy billionaire Shane August hires her as his assistant, she jumps at the chance to prove herself. Despite her growing attraction to her boss, she vows to keep things strictly professional. No flirting. No kissing. Definitely no falling in love...

Shane August is all business, all the time. He's a self-made man who's poured his heart and soul into his company, and he'd never allow himself to get involved with an employee. Then he hires sweet, sexy Crickitt-and he can't keep his mind or his hands off her. But no matter how much he wants Crickitt, Shane fears that painful secrets from his past will always come between them. With fate working against them, can these two lonely hearts learn that sometimes mixing business with pleasure is the perfect merger?


My Thoughts (as scooped out of my own brains...by zombies):

Romances, by nature, are formulaic.  Boy meets Girl in a meet-cute that either sets up the novel to be gang-busters or ho-hum.  It can either get better or worse from there.  One or both of them is damaged, almost beyond repair.  In my opinion, it's always better if BOTH are broken toys, so to speak.  They both feel an inexplicable pull, but for whatever reason, do not come together.  There is conflict, emotional, physical, you name it, but something to propel the story and the romance forward.  And in the end, Boy and Girl finally find love together and ride off into the sunset to enjoy their own Happily Ever After.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not an HEA kind of girl, but still, I enjoy a good romance from time to time.

This was an okay read for me.  Not great, but not stellar either.  I'd like to say this is mostly because contemporary romance is not really my first choice for reading material.  As I like to say, "If someone's not dead or dying within the first three chapters, I'm just not interested."

That said, I can see where this story has potential.  Each character has a backstory (most notably, Shane) that sounds intriguing.  That if delved into further could have added a lot of layers in.  I liked the idea behind Shane's drive to make something of himself, to become something when as an adolescent his father made him believe he was less than nothing.  And the hold his father continued to exert of Shane, his moods, his actions, every thought, even after the old man had kicked it, really resonated.  I loved how he gave of himself but wanted no credit for his actions.  His version of 'Dine and Dash' made me fall head over feet for him.  

I could have read an entire book just about Shane's life, his trials and tribulations, and how he ultimately found love later on, which admittedly would have changed this book entirely, removing it completely from romance to a more literary novel.  But, hey.  I'd be okay with that.


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