Hello everyone!
I might have been able to squeeze it in, but at the same time I was quite busy and also the official release of the e-book isn't until today, so I figured I'd postpone the whole thing and just publish it on the actual date to be safe.
So here we are!
And if you're wondering about the book, well wonder no longer.
It's one of Serenity Woods', once again, but what were you expecting?
I think it may be quite obvious by now that Ms Woods may be my favourite contemporary author, and that's saying something considering how much I read on a general basis.
She's releasing the next book in her Billionaire Princes series, so obviously we're jumping right back into the land of New Zealand, handsome, kind men, and the women who fall in love with them.
The English Billionaire, here we come!
Links to other works connected to this book, both the previous two from the series and some of the connected ones, can be found at the bottom of the page, as per usual.
The English Billionaire follows the story of Kora, Theo's twin sister, who we've met right at the get go when the series started as she was going through a rough break-up and living with her older brother Ben for a time to find her footing.
Well, she's definitely finding it now, since she's visiting the Old Country - aka England - to check out the toystore the family has there, the one which started it all before her ancestor relocated to New Zealand.
She expects to sight-see a little bit, hang out with her cousin who runs this store (though said cousin is revealed not to have that much interest in family down under, nor has anyone else from that branch apparently since not many of them are even mentioned), and then eventually return to New Zealand.
What she DOESN'T expect is to run into the hot guy she had a one-night stand with back when she was eighteen and randomly met at a beach New Year party.
Callum and she hit it off right off the bat at that time, but they had to go separate ways super super quickly back then and she didn't even get the time to say goodbye, plus right now she's basically sworn off men when he walks back into her life ... and divorcing her cousin of all people!
Callum, on his end, regrets that nothing more came of that one-night stand, and he's definitely worked his tail off since so that he actually did become a billionaire before he hit thirty; he has a complicated past where his father was an alcoholic who abused his mother, and both of them died in a car accident when Callum was still quite young, leaving him more or less in charge of his younger brother, who has Fetal Alcohol Syndrome and will never truly be independent, as he will always remain at the mental age of a teenage boy.
But seeing Kora again reignites something in him and he asks her out to dinner, which leads to drinks, which leads up to her room.
Because why not?
To be fair, both of them are unattached (Callum's divorce is already official by this point and he and his ex-wife had been separated for longer before that) and mature adults who know what they're doing, and wooo the chemistry!
That's another thing entirely haha.
But Kora is also here to investigate something else, which is her mother's past that no one on that side of the family wants to talk about. Her mother and her parents emigrated to New Zealand from the UK, so since she's here she's kind of curious about it all.
Callum offers to help so they embark on the journey together, and the discovery is rather staggering: Kora's mom was adopted, and she had a twin sister who died on the girls' birthday, but not only THAT, their heritage goes back to the Jewish children who were packed up on trains from Germany when things started heading south before WWII, and Kora's grandmother was one of them.
She stayed with a farming family and might have inherited the farm since the parents loved her so much and she was good at it, but the other kids low-key resented her and it's left ambivalent whether or not she was raped by the eldest son, or whether they had an affair that ended badly.
Either way, there is, as you'd say, DRAMA.
Kora is shocked and staggered about it all, especially given the fact that it seems as though the females through that line of the family often die of a brain aneurysm, and because her mother chose not to share this knowledge with her (and other things, but most especially this given she too passed from an aneurysm) Kora is understandably upset with the family members who did know about it but didn't tell her.
At least she does have Callum to cheer her up, though, because it quickly becomes obvious it isn't just going to be another one-night stand, especially not as he invites her along to the Valentine's day ball of the charity he's on the committee of, one helping with the syndrome his brother has.
He also ends up introducing her to his grandfather and brother, who both really like her, but their time is running out, and as neither one of them can just drop things at a moment's notice, it looks like it's going to be long-distance for a bit.
Though circumstances change for Callum then.
See, the reason he divorced his wife is because she cheated on him with his best friend and business partner, and he eventually realizes he doesn't find the same kind of joy in the work he's been doing as he used to; his grandfather and brother tell him they'd be willing to move to New Zealand with him if that was what he chose, and that he should chase after his happiness as long as there's a chance for it to actually happen.
Meanwhile Kora discovers she brought a present from her travels with her - she's pregnant!
And out of her mind with joy when Callum suddenly pops up in her office to explain the plan, so the two of them hunt for a house big enough for the four of them, since he isn't comfortable with having his grandfather and brother be on their own, and Kora's family helps with the whole process.
To top it off, the couple is expecting twins, but what exactly they're having is left to guesswork since we won't know until the release of the next book, Santa The Billionaire.
But all's well that ends well!
There's a cute sub-plot with the teddy bear that Kora's ancestor brought with her from Germany that ends up being given on loan to her museum down in New Zealand, and lots of bits and pieces for you to discover as you read, so I won't spoil them all.
Overall however, this is another lovely book by Serenity Woods that delves a little bit deeper into he historical aspect of things and gives us a glimpse into Kora, who's such an intriguing character from the moment we first meet her, and getting out of an abusive relationship. That she finds happiness with Callum, the one that technically got away, is proof positive that some things are just meant to be.
Callum is a very nice character too, honourable and loyal, who lives by his own code and won't budge from it, but who also just wants happiness deep down, underneath it all. I was really pleased we didn't spend too much time on the plot with the ex since that can get really old, really fast, but here there was just enough of it to make sense, and then she faded into the background as the love story started to unfold.
This is a great read for the colder days since it takes place in the UK, in the snow as opposed to sub tropical New Zealand, which is a bit of a change from the usual Serenity Woods books, but I really liked it!
I'll definitely be reading it again once it becomes even colder outside.
So if you're looking for some one-night-stand turned forever lovers and partners and history added in to boot, with gorgeous vistas of the UK and lessons about what really matters in life, look no further. Ms Woods has got you covered!
10/10 recommend.
xx
*image not mine
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