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3.83 AVERAGE
3.83 AVERAGE
emotional
lighthearted
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
hopeful
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
fast-paced
dark
medium-paced
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
emotional
I'm not known for loving billionaire books. They're actually really hard to pull off. I feel the same way about BDSM books. However, somehow Heather has pulled off both tropes beautifully. I couldn't consume this book fast enough it was so good! Was it my perfect BDSM flavor? No, but it was fairly close. If you want more details about their dynamic/kinks I've got some here: Initially it involves a bargain where she signed up to have dominate him and get paid by the week. Then he realizes that he wants more and renegotiates to give her total control. She tells him to do lots of mundane things like what to wear, where to donate money (that's a reoccurring thing she tells him to do). It's not a slave dynamic though (although the word is used sometimes). It's mainly just a combination of light degradation and orgasm denial/delay along with some subtle pain like ball twisting. She did spank him with his belt while he leaned over his desk so um, that's a scene I don't know how to talk about without blushing. Definitely wish there was more though and that the scenes were a bit more extended/intense. I think that was part of the character's journey though. It was a lot of quickies, always pulling back because this is an encounter not a relationship.
Oh my gosh my favorite thing about this book are the characters. Heather balanced the characters and the sex so well. We got plenty about the relationship but fairly early on she has them play chess together without talking after having sex making it clear they are intrigued by each other mentally and want to spend more time together but they weren't all gushy. Over all this was a surprisingly sweet book. She balanced the power dynamic perfectly. She took away the reason why she needed his money so that she didn't need to take his offer but she decided to anyway.
They both have their tragic backstories and the pain that they both feel unifies them in a way so that there isn't a problem with the power dynamic (he is the CEO of the company she works at and he has billions of dollars). I loved how sweet he was. He was so determined to please her and to care for her (something she has never had). My heart was filled with fluffy feels by the end of the book. Now I kinda want to read the rest of her backlist because it seems like her sweet/sexy emotional type of books could really work for me.
I feel like the emotions could have been fleshed out a liiittle bit more - like Mikhail longing to be loved but I'm still emotional about him saying that instead of her being his kept woman she would keep him 😭
fast-paced
For a billionaire romance, you could definitely do worse. (She says, as someone who hates the billionaire trope in general.)