Reviews

How to Belong with a Billionaire by Alexis Hall

robazizo's review against another edition

4.0

A fascinating trilogy. I absolutely adored Arden and felt for Caspian, who really grew on me throughout the story. The ending was a bit abrupt and I think they have a long way to go, but everything is in the open now and the potential is definitely there.

The secondary characters were also very interesting (spinoff material?) and really enjoyed Hall's writing style and his use of cultural references. I'm a sucker for parallels to and discussion about my favourite book of all time. I'll be sure to pick up more of Mr. Hall's books in the future.

auntstacey's review against another edition

dark emotional funny hopeful sad medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

cocoabearcupcake's review against another edition

dark emotional reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

thegreatmanda's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful reflective sad medium-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? Yes

4.75

This had somewhat less sex and a lot more exploration of grief, friendship, self-worth, learning to live with chronic illness and/or disability, becoming an adult and figuring out what that means for your dreams, making your own choices, and a variety of other emotion-provoking content than I had expected.

New year’s was awful and frustrating.

Obviously Arden should never have kissed Ellery without her consent and when he knew she would have said fuck off if he’d asked for it. I was also really icked out when he’d declined to do cocaine with her several times and she wouldn’t let it go, which is its own different kind of threatening, boundary-crossing behavior. So just, violations and bad decisions all around, really.

Lancaster Steyne continued to be the worst and bask in his own awfulness, and frankly, Nathaniel continued to be blithely controlling and abusive

, more through ignorance than malice, but he doesn't figure any of that out until he's left several train wrecks' worth of damage in his wake. Idiot

.

I still spent a lot of time frustrated with Caspian and wanting to shake some sense into him, but I ended up caring about him a lot more than I expected, seeing him through Arden's eyes.

I wish we could have gotten a bit more of their beginning together because it felt like a bit of an abrupt ending.

Favorite Quotes:

Thankfully, I'd emerged from the womb serving manic pixie dream queer.

"It will never be anything like you thought it would. But that's okay. And it's also okay if you decide it's not what you want."

And wasn't that a whiskey sour of an emotional cocktail? Being smug and hopeful and bitter and sad all at the same time. Which so wasn't me. I was a strawberry daiquiri boy, through and through.

"Don't worry about it. I thought it might be funny, but it just turned out stupid. Story of my life, really."

"But sometimes I get so fucking claustrophobic, like I'm in prison, except what I'm stuck inside is me."

"And," I went on, "I will always love you—"
Nik, in the fashion of most tragically heterosexual men, wasn't very good at emotions. Even when he needed them. He blushed. "So gay."
"So gay," I agreed, laughing. "Although I heard there's been some new legislation, so now the straights are allowed to have feelings too."

"And I know you say you've changed, and probably you have, but when it comes down to the colours of your dreams, and whatever makes your heart fly, and the things that really matter, you always get to choose."
"Choose what?"
"What you take with you and what you leave behind." I let out a shaky breath. "Because that's all change is."

His teeth scraped my earlobe. "I don't need to spank you to own you, Arden."

"Love isn't earned, Caspian. It's given."

shmommysreading's review against another edition

challenging dark emotional hopeful reflective sad tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

chirson's review against another edition

2.0

I wish the conclusion lived up to the story that came before it, but for me, too much of this book is spent on characters being utterly selfish and mean to each other. I get that mistakes are part of the point, but I found most of the characters became actively annoying, to the point where I'd stop reading to vent at how much I couldn't understand their actions. (Like Arden bringing Ilya to his place, where there were drugs lying around, for example.) In addition, most of Caspian's journey happens off page, and so that lacks closure. Arden admitting he'd been wrong about pushing Caspian constantly: well, a little too late. But mostly, I just stopped liking Arden - I enjoy most of Hall's flaily manic pixie protagonists, but Arden's series of horrible decisions hit the wrong buttons for me. I found Caspian more sympathetic, and that's saying something.

There were some amusing moments, I was fine with the ending, but this is definitely my least favourite Hall so far.

daffodill37's review against another edition

3.0

(Audio)
I hate to do this but I'm going to give this 2.5 stars.
I'm was slightly scared to start book 3 based off the reviews. I think it ended ok but there was a lot in the middle that was not great.
For starters, as much as I appreciated George, and certainly no disrespect to the nature of their relationship. However, the way she came on to Arden def gave me the ick. It was sort of like 'Oh wow you're really sad and pathetic. Wanna have sex?'
Also, Ardy/Caspian/Nathanial all really irritated me. They were all mean and ugly and Ardy was whiney and annoying. At one point I decided that I didn't really want precious Ardy with Caspian anymore. I got really sick of Ardy trying to convince Caspian he's good when Caspian was being really fucking terrible. He was terrible to Ardy, Ellery and Nathanial.
Have I mentioned I love Ellery?
While I actually really enjoyed the side-quests with Bellerose, Feinsilver and Jonas, I couldn't really understand why they were there. I can't really say they did much to add to the plot. It was sort of just a distraction. I would have actually liked to get more of this in the form of a novella or bonus content. Bellerose sounds very interesting. I would also love more Ellery content.
In the end, this was my least favorite book of the series.

cc24680's review against another edition

reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.0

mobooks's review against another edition

emotional hopeful reflective fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

anmerians's review against another edition

dark emotional hopeful reflective medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0