TEST
Closed-off businesswoman Carrie Morgan’s sister, Emmie, requires a favor of her. Emmie has decided to jazz up the exterior of her nightclub with a mural – in this case, with her gorgeous sister as the subject. Carrie agrees and is stunned to learn the muralist is Edwin Prince, the handsome artist whose gleaming red hair she has admired (and whose body she’s lusted after) from afar whenever he’s popped up at Emmie’s club. Perhaps posing for Edwin will stop her hungry staring, her outrageous fantasies?
College student Edwin hopes not. He has long been enchanted by the woman who’s been watching him. Aware of Carrie’s staring, Edwin has become fixated upon painting her – and hopefully doing more. Now that the opportunity has presented itself, he’s happy to go all in to get the painting (and the woman) he wants.
But Carrie and Edwin have plenty of baggage. Carrie, having been through one partner death, the death of her father and the near-death of Emmie has become scared to risk her heart, strongly insulating her world from outside hurts, and Edwin has been rejected by his family for his bisexuality and by his last serious boyfriend, who walked out of their relationship. Can he and Carrie – in spite of their experience and (slight) economic gap, and in spite of their broken hearts – find a way to be together, even if it seems all they really want out of a relationship together is no strings sex?
His Billionaire Bride packs more angst into its slim reading space than most other novels do with twice the page count. It’s a perfectly decent romance with some good, solid chemistry between its leads. It doesn’t have an extra spark to lift it above B territory, but it’s a fine story.
Carrie is an extremely tightly wound and ordered person but she’s that way for a reason, and watching her decompress on-page is an interesting experience. It’s natural that Edwin’s presence is what makes her more social and less business orientated. But the book rarely shows her at the office, instead telling us vaguely that she’s very rich and very important – something that’s hard to tell unless we see her actually DOING these important and businessy things.
Edwin is more intense, more passionate, filled with all of this thwarted love but refusing to be used as a doormat when Carrie won’t commit to him. And I love the inclusion of a bisexual hero.
Lots of angsty desires and lust make up this stormy pairing. There’s a lot of flirting and banter and strong chemistry between them, which makes the novel an intense experience. The reader is almost guaranteed to cry or swoon with these two. Also, I like an age gap romance with a younger (but adult) man, which this book offers.
There are some flaws in His Billionaire Bride’s makeup. While the book is set in the US and features American characters, some of the author’s Australian idioms have leaked into the prose (at one point Edwin tells a male friend to “piss off”, for instance). And sometimes the intensity of Carrie and Edwin’s mutual attraction feels more like obsession than romance.
But sometimes you want to enjoy something dark and thorny, something that kerns a little toward melodrama. His Billionaire Bride will have you covered – it’s hot, dark and moody as the wolf Edwin compares Carrie to, but has the courage to give its characters the happily ever after they deserve.
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Grade: B
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 19/09/19
Publication Date: 09/2019
Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.