Hello everyone!
I'm BACK from vacation, and man oh man do I have a bunch of good blog posts coming your way.
I had a lovely time just relaxing and spending as much time doing absolutely nothing so that I could recharge for the next stage, as it were.
And among those relaxing things was the fact that I read a heap of books.
Yep, there are lots and lots of books to be had when you're determined! Haha.
I've always been a bookworm though so this is no surprise, and tonight's blog post will happily wrap up a series that's been ongoing for a bit.
Remember when I mentioned at one point Serenity Woods is my favourite contemporary romance author?
Well, it's back to the drawing board and her last book in The Billionaire Princes, The Secret Billionaire, so come along for the ride!
The Secret Billionaire tells the story of Jacob Prince, the youngest of the Prince children whom all his oldest siblings kind of treat like a baby even though he's hit thirty at this point in time, so he isn't REALLY.
And he's got an issue.
Aka, he hooked up with an ex (who cheated on him which was why they broke up in the first place) and now she's pregnant, and vacillating between what she wants to do; options include abortion, marrying Jacob, or at least getting back together with Jacob, or getting back together with her beau (whom she cheated on Jacob with) and trying to make it seem like it was his.
Now, Jacob is traditionalist enough that he wants a role in his child's life, but equally he realizes he can't ACTUALLY tell her what to do, and this is an ongoing issue throughout the book while he's also doing other things.
Like hunting down a new location for his company's toy store expansion, which is how we get to Imogen.
Imogen owns a Spanish-inspired bar that hasn't been doing well. She initially opened it as a sort of tribute to her deceased father, who had divorced her mother and moved back to Andalusia, and her mother and sister both invested in it, but both are a far cry from Imogen's free, artistic spirit, and only deal in cold, hard facts.
Not only that, but Imogen's realtor happens to be her ex, who will raise prices considerably so she HAS to move ... and he also cheated on her which prompted the breakup.
Jacob and Imogen end up seated together at a table in an overcrowded place, have dinner and drinks, and head on to his hotel to have a one night stand ... which turns into more, as you'll soon see.
Jacob realizes that one of the properties the realtor - Imogen's ex, OBVIOUSLY - is showing him is actually her bar/restaurant, which puts a spanner in the works for a bit though the couple (we can call them that) do figure things out easily enough once they sit down to talk. And oh Jacob is totally snowed in with Imogen and his flights back home are cancelled, so they HAVE to spend more time together ;)
You know how it goes haha.
Through the course of this, however, both of them slowly open up to each other, find both inspiration and joy, not to mention comfort, and start thinking how things MIGHT look like if this wasn't just a one-off thing.
Finally, however, Jacob has to return home, which is when things begin to unravel. See, Imogen has thought for a bit now that her BFF was the one who slept with her ex, and accuses her of such (this is actually one of her character flaws, she jumps into situations without thinking them through, and she doesn't change overly much by the end of the book, sadly), which fractures the friendship as meanwhile, Jacob has discovered that it was HER OWN SISTER WHO DID IT.
Naturally, this completely breaks the remaining family apart, especially as the mom reveals she knew about it - um, what now - and Imogen decides to walk away for her own mental health.
Jacob, on the other side of the coin, is worried about her, and has had news of his own in that his ex says she lost the baby, but it turns out she went ahead with the abortion, unwilling to lose the other guy who wasn't prepared to take on a child that wasn't his. So, needing both a break AND to find Imogen who isn't answering her phone, Jacob flies back down and suggests she returns with him.
She has to sell, anyway, and why don't they open a restaurant together instead?
Because Jacob also happens to be a VERY well known food critic, but only known through his screen name, Secret Gourmet, so he knows what he's talking about.
Deciding a fresh start might be good for them both, Imogen does in fact move, and it quickly becomes obvious that the pair are inseparable, ending with a quick, lowkey marriage which they announce to the family at the restaurant opening, and we get a little update on all the Princes and their significant others - also a promised wedding for the patriarch on Valentine's! - before neatly wrapping everything up with a bow.
The end!
I very graciously received an ARC in return for an honest review.
I'm so happy to have been part of the Billionaire Princes journey! Jacob's book didn't disappoint either.
I felt his frustration at the initial treatment we see from his siblings, but also the deep love and bond he shares with them. I was thoroughly impressed by his dedication AND his sneaky little side-job!
Imogen was a tougher nut for me because I'm so unlike her - I'm more a Patsy and would have legitimately said all the same things to Immy as are said in this book! However, I could never, in a billion years or more, treat my sister the way Imogen is treated. So while I may not mesh with her as a character - and often wanted to shake her because while she was naming her mistakes she kept on making the same ones! - I feel for her and her circumstances.
I'm happy with how she and Jacob find each other and the story is well written and entertaining, it also pulls on your heart strings and hopefully makes you think.
The fusion of cultures was well done, I think, and I enjoyed the nice wrap-up at the end.
All in all, this was a lovely book to read, and I definitely recommend you pick it up to finish the series!
I'm so happy to have been part of the Billionaire Princes journey! Jacob's book didn't disappoint either.
I felt his frustration at the initial treatment we see from his siblings, but also the deep love and bond he shares with them. I was thoroughly impressed by his dedication AND his sneaky little side-job!
Imogen was a tougher nut for me because I'm so unlike her - I'm more a Patsy and would have legitimately said all the same things to Immy as are said in this book! However, I could never, in a billion years or more, treat my sister the way Imogen is treated. So while I may not mesh with her as a character - and often wanted to shake her because while she was naming her mistakes she kept on making the same ones! - I feel for her and her circumstances.
I'm happy with how she and Jacob find each other and the story is well written and entertaining, it also pulls on your heart strings and hopefully makes you think.
The fusion of cultures was well done, I think, and I enjoyed the nice wrap-up at the end.
All in all, this was a lovely book to read, and I definitely recommend you pick it up to finish the series!
xx
*image not mine
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