Hello everyone!
Here I am again with a second consecutive book review by the same author, and honestly I blame myself for loving these books so much.
Why wouldn't I want to share them with you?
Also, I saw two announcements today that both brought tears to my eyes, for different reasons, one being that Arrow will be ending with a 10-episode eighth season, which had me sniffling with sadness, and the other that Becoming the Supervet was published in paperback - a format I prefer - and I could finally grab a copy, which had me shedding some tears of joy!
I've been a fan of Professor Noel Fitzpatrick and his show The Supervet for a long time now, and being able to get just a glimpse of the back story which went on from day one up until today promises to be a magical experience.
But as of right now, I kind of need to get my billionaire shoes on again.
Remember last week, when we met Hal? Well, now it's time to meet Leon.
Ninja Turtles, move aside. My Boss, the Billionaire, is up, graciously given to me as an ARC by the author.
As per usual with books that belong to a series, you'll be able to find links to my previous reviews, if I've done them (and this time I SURE have!) at the bottom of this page, although as it's only been a week since Hal and Izzy's story, I figure you can probably just scroll through as well and find the post still on the first page.
Hal, Brock's son, has now managed to find his happily ever after with Izzy, another vet working at Noah's Ark. Now it's time to move on to the second of the male trifecta, because these billionaires always come in threes, Leon.
And before we go any further let me just say how much I fell in love with Leon.
Or maybe I didn't fall in love, exactly, but I really got into his head and understood his motivations and his character. I highly suspect the reason for this being that I'm very much like Leon, character-wise. Is there a Nix for me out there? Hopefully!
Ahem.
So we know the story will be about Leon, who works his magic with the finance side of the Ark, and Nix, his personal assistant, because that's the blurb, obviously.
But what we don't know is just how it'll come about.
See, for all intents and purposes, while everyone around them swears up and down that the two have had the hots for each other for two years, since Nix started working for Leon, the main couple is in disbelief about it. Nix, because she thinks she's all wrong for Leon anyway, and Leon because ... well, he's Leon, and also there's this company policy he wrote about dating co-workers. Not necessarily the way it sounds, since he can't actually command who dates who, but he IS against relationships at work, and if you remember he had a field day when Hal's ex Rosie went ballistic in the vet center.
Plus he's busy at the moment. The Prime Minister is visiting the Ark and they have to have everything in perfect shape and ready for when she arrives, so he's even grumpier than usual. Nix helps him lock his four dogs away in his office, but somehow or other Wishbone, one of the dogs, ends up escaping, and guns straight for Nix on the grounds.
Now, here's a quick lesson: when a dog is running at full-tilt directly at you, tongue and tail wagging and with every intention of flinging themselves at you with love and affection, you better brace yourself.
And if said dog is capable of bowling over a full grown, six foot three adult male, then a female stands no chance.
Wishbone tumbles Nix over, and unfortunately her head hits a wall behind her, sending her unconscious and Leon into a full panic, flying her to the hospital in his helicopter while I'm sitting there blinking at the information that not only is Leon a pilot, but Brock is, too.
Hold up. Brock knows how to FLY? How did I not remember this from before???
Anyway, at the hospital, tests conclude all is well, but Nix has a mild concussion so she'll have to be monitored, not to mention she's confused because Leon kisses her (effectively to shut her up, but I mean, come on) and then goes cold when he finally drops her off home. That could also have something to do with Albie, Nix's house mate and the third King cousin, sort of staking his territory around her, which neither Nix nor Leon understand, but, you know.
While alarm bells are ringing inside my head, things come to an actual head with the guys when Albie pushes Leon further about Nix and ends up with a cracked jaw and lucky that there were other guys there to drag Leon off him before something else happened. That's when Albie explains that the gang set Leon up to get him to admit his feelings for Nix, which only pisses Leon off further (and me, too, proof positive I'm the same character as Leon) and he walks away without a word. No, okay, he DOES say something really smart, actually, and THEN he walks off:
“I don’t need my feelings for Nicola pointed out—I’m perfectly aware of them.
But didn’t it enter your thick skulls that I might have my reasons for not wanting to take it further?”
S. Woods, p. 45
Nix figures out something might be up, and Izzy explains what they'd concocted behind their backs, making the woman groan. Meddlers, right??? Now there's more trouble on the horizon!
Especially as she and Leon are off to meet with several ministers to speak about the issues of Home Abuse, both animal and human, and as it's Nix's birthday Leon offers her the chance to stay and do whatever it is she wants, but she tags along so he goes all out and takes her to a restaurant which is part observatory where they can look at the stars, listen to some really smart science-y people talk about the galaxy above, and eventually observe the Aurora Australis (southern lights, I had to look it up, but here's yet ANOTHER reason to visit New Zealand someday!) in a cottage/pod where the walls are made of glass.
Do you know what follows next?
Of course you do, but before that, Nix probes a little bit and asks Leon about some of his past, why he's against office relationships, etc. He reveals that he dropped out of school at sixteen and was wild and rebellious, and needed some time before he sorted himself out (side note to readers, Leon is Matt King's son, and it's sort of ironic and sad at the same time that, like Matt, Leon had trouble, too). While working at Katoa, a big gaming firm, he had an affair with Angela, who turned out to be married, so everything went belly-up.
Here is where a lot of characters prove their worth, Leon for realizing what he'd done was wrong, Matt King for being awesome, and Stratton, one of the directors at Katoa, for being even MORE awesome.
Anyway, that's the reason why Leon is so against in-office relationships.
Not that it stops him from having some steamy sex with Nix while they're away from the rest of the group, right? Right!
Nix also shares her personal history, of her father, who was a strict Catholic and didn't give her or her sister a lot of money, of her job as an exotic dancer in college to make ends meet, how her sister got pregnant and then they were both thrown out of the house, and how Nix got a stalker from the club she worked at, after which she and her sister both moved, Nix trained as a secretary, and eventually came to work for the Ark.
Leon and Nix both agree that, to continue this relationship, one of them has to find a job elsewhere, and Nix firmly shuts down the idea that it would be Leon as he's such an integral part of the Ark (but I love him so much more for offering!). So even though it saddens her, she's thinking about getting a new job, especially after they get back to work and to reality.
We get a glimpse of Matt King and his successful work when Leon goes to talk about things with his parents, not that he goes away any wiser, but, you know, it's always good to get the folks' two cents, right? Plus it's so lovely to see Matt and Georgia again, too!
And then things go sideways very fast, very sharp, when Nix's stalker suddenly pops back up again in the backseat of her car when she's leaving work, and tells her to drive, threatening her with a knife.
She tries to stall him at the motel, but it would have gone SO badly if Remy, Albie and her roommate, hadn't seen her drive off with someone in the back, which prompts her to run to the others who then phone the police AND find the motel with the help of a handy iPhone app. That door stood zero chance with two King men stampeding into the room.
Side note while Leon gets his hands on Nix again and swears he's never letting her go (plus that, no one cares if they're dating so they can just date AND work together): why didn't her stalker John put up much of a fight afterwards? Well, my friends, if you had a Hal King sitting on you to make sure you can't move, you'd probably have stayed put, too.
Best. Solution. Ever.
The book draws to a close when Leon and Nix go to visit Noah, telling him about their relationship (to which Noah makes some very wise cracks and I want to hug the poor guy) and ending up with Leon proposing to Nix on the lawn beyond. It's time to start a new chapter of their lives, in a place they both love, with the people who care about them.
The end!
Again, there was no epilogue in this book as it will all be concluded in book three, My Roommate, the Billionaire, which comes out in May (my birthday month!), but there isn't much need for one here, honestly. The view unfolding before Leon and Nix as they're walking back, of everything going on at the Ark and their friends happy and content is more than enough!
I think I liked this story more than the first book, although that doesn't mean I didn't like My Best Friend, the Billionaire! Honestly, these King guys, they just suck you right in and you can't stop reading until the very last page.
The one minor gripe I'd have is that I think the argument Leon had with Hal and Albie was a little bit too glossed over - which is understandable since there were other, more important topics, I think. But even so, I'd have liked some more on that, maybe. It kind of felt briefly that Leon should be doing the apologising, which I find slightly unfair considering the others should have apologised a heck of a lot more. I'm thinking back to Brock, Matt and Charlie who always discussed things with one another via Skype, one of the best things in the original trilogy which I loved, and if these kids are as close as the parents are supposed to be, I'd have imagined something similar, maybe?
Then again, I'm still a girl at the end of the day, no matter how logical I try to be LOL. I'm probably overthinking this and it's a guy thing to just be like 'yo, sorry dude' and 's'okay, we good' haha!
Regardless though, I recommend both these two books, and the rest that came before, while we wait for the conclusion of the trilogy. As an aside, we got a name-drop of Ryan, Brock's adopted boy! He's also at the Ark, working on rehoming, and I squealed when I heard that. I just love little nuggets of this sort!
Now if only Noah can just get his HEA!
xx
*image not mine
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