LynneC’s review of The Billionaire’s Baby Bargain by Shelli Stevens
Contemporary Romance published by Amazon 3 Jul 12
I started reading this under the impression that it was a Harlequin Modern or Presents, and it reads just like one. But it isn’t, it’s one of the new self-published books. I guess that if the author sent it to Harlequin, they rejected it because they had a lot like it, because it is so close to others I’ve read in the past. But I wasn’t looking at it as a Harlequin failure, I was looking at it as a good read (or not, as the case might be). After all, up to relatively recently there was more than one company producing category romances.
I think what made me think this is a Harlequin is that it shares a cover image with a Harlequin book I read recently. The similarities didn’t, however, stop there.
The story features a billionaire who fits the mold to a T. He owns a hotel chain, he has any woman he wants, he has the jet-setting lifestyle. There isn’t a lot to differentiate who Andres Montero is, even in Spanish.
Our heroine is Chloe, an American working at one of Andres’s resorts, who is also writing a column for a magazine.
Andres protects his privacy, even as far as making the women he sleeps with sign a contract beforehand. While I can’t really object to the idea, it sounded too cool and calculated for my liking of a romantic hero. But he sleeps with Chloe without benefit of contract, and he got her preggers. So they marry, and there is some inconsistency because he does that without making her sign a prenup.
The other disconnect is that he doesn’t even consider a DNA test. He also threatens her, tells her that if she doesn’t marry him, or agree to stay with him, he’ll take her to court and take the baby. Oh no. Not in America he won’t. He’d have to prove Chloe unfit, and sweet little Chloe is anything but. They’d be far more likely to give her custody, grant him visiting rights, and then make him pay.
That wasn’t the only time I went “huh?” at the book, but this is a fantasy story. It’s just that disconnects like this made me jump out of the story. As well, Andres gets Chloe fired by calling the magazine. Not unless he owns it, he doesn’t. Millionaires, even billionaires, aren’t that all-powerful out of their own spheres. It could happen, so I let it pass. However, that part of the scene is woefully underdeveloped. First, she’s writing a column, giving Andres a chance to get mad at her, and then, whoops, she’s not. She ends up pregnant, as a waitress.
She does everything he tells her because she loves him. Again, no. She has very little backbone, and I didn’t really believe in her. And she lets Andres trample all over her in a way that made me want to give up and DNF the book. He kidnaps her, gives her notice in at her apartment and has “his people” pack all her stuff up and forward it on to his villa. Oh yeah? I’d be tempted to have them arrested for breaking and entering because I sure as hell didn’t give anyone permission to do that.
So we have an alpha jerk and a doormat heroine with a plot that any category author could write in her sleep. Frankly, nothing stands out, from the flat characters to the tired plot. However, the author’s style is reasonable, apart from one or two oddities, as in
“The room nearly empty, wearing a peach-colored dress, with a groom who seemed to be looking straight through her.”
So the room was wearing a peach-colored dress?
But not too many of them, and I’ve read worse.
It’s an okay read. If you enjoy Presents/Modern, can tolerate an alpha-jerk hero, it will pass a couple of hours. I know I won’t remember this for very long. It’s a shame, because I really wanted to enjoy this book. It’s a C for the book, but downgraded because of the alpha jerk hero and doormat heroine.
Grade: D
Summary:
There’s nothing he won’t do…
Searching for adventure, Chloe doesn’t expect to find it in the dark, sexy man who makes his desire–and his intentions to bed her–blatantly clear. Working at one of Spain’s most exclusive resorts, she soon discovers her new lover isn’t just a guest, but the powerful and ruthless owner.
Hotel tycoon Andrés Montero’s reputation as Spain’s most elusive bachelor billionaire is slow to trust. And when Andres believes his relationship with Chloe is born from a more sinister purpose, he ends their affair with the harshness of a business deal gone sour.
But the realization that Chloe is carrying his baby brings Andrés back into her life, and there’s nothing he won’t do to protect his unborn child–and claim the woman he still secretly desires. Even if he must resort to blackmail.
Read an excerpt.
