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A review by lkmreads
The Billionaire's Secret by Ravina Hilliard
4.0
I got a copy of the book in exchange for an honest review.
The Billionaire’s Secret is a romance novel by Ravina Hilliard. I’d already read one of her books before and was pleasantly surprised by it - I am a bit picky with my MF romances, after all - and I expected no different from this one.
I’m happy to say, it didn’t disappoint!
This time around we follow Serena Aisling. She has a bit of an odd relationship with her billionaire father, Byron, who left her and her mother at birth. Although he is attempting to make amends, she keeps refusing most of his approaches, and thus, when he requests she helps him find an industrial spy who is threatening to steal some new product designs from their new partner company in Helsinki, she refuses also.
But later on her own company is hired to take care of the product design process for the same Finnish company his father wanted her to check out, and she is sent to deal with things in Helsinki, where she meets handsome CEO Matias Mäkelä, and ends up trying to find the corporate spy while juggling her feelings for Matias.
I really enjoyed the entirety of the book, it felt like a breath of fresh air compared to the usual romances I’ve read so far.
Serena is a complex character- not quite strong but not the typical entire bumbling mess either most heroines in romances are. She does make some questionable choices on her own weird assumptions on whether Matias will believe her or not, but they are all things that can be forgiven easily as part of her personality. I also really liked the fact that she could defend herself, and that this played a part in the story.
Matias is an amazing love interest. He can get a bit annoying with the way he likes to toss around implications about Serena, but the rest of the time I found him very pleasant to read, and whenever he jumped to his POV I really enjoyed his internal monologues.
The chemistry between the two characters was believable and very pleasing all throughout and I really enjoyed the interactions between them, which had me rooting for them to get together until the end.
Storywise, it was good.
When her father first asks her to look into the industrial spy, she already knows she won’t accept regardless, but she still asks him for information, which seems a bit of a pointless lead on, particularly since her father says he will send her the information anyway.
Anyway, it’s all rendered moot since she ends up in Helsinki through her own company afterwards.Her first meeting with Matias is a bit weird n him flinging baseless accusations, but I really liked that she put him in his place for them quickly enough.
There is, of course, insta-attraction between the two characters, but it didn’t feel off like in other books, perhaps because their chemistry was really good from the start. Although at first Matias does seem to deal with it the way men in all romance books do: by being a rude jerk.
I also really like that, although they are both attracted to one another throughout, the one who seems to pin the most is him - and that for once, to have more control during the “almost but not quite” intimate scenes this time was the female protagonist. It was a nice change of pace.
I felt like the first kiss came in a bit quick, but it was kind of a cute scene and I liked both their reactions in it.
Their flirting through some scenes also felt very realistic and nice and I really enjoyed those little moments. I also enjoyed that Matias seemed fairly open about his attraction for her, and that he was the first to realize his feelings.
When Serena gets wind of who might be the spy, she calls her current boss for advice because she refuses to tell Matias, and his advice is a bit weird (basically suggesting she finds out more information, which is sound advice, but also that she looks for the physical key where the design is hidden herself, which is a bit… eh, questionable advice at best.)
Although I admit I was rather apprehensive of them moving away from the main company setting, I really enjoyed most the interactions they had through their time at his weekend house.
Some things didn’t quite add up…
At one point Reeta, Matias’ secretary, warns Serena off trying an office affair because Matias’ isn’t into that, and yet in the next paragraph she seems to be encouraging her to seek it out.
Also, at one point they have this misunderstanding in which Matias seems to perceive them to be somehow feuding each other and punishing each other through their attraction/behavior, and one of the ‘punishments’ he comes up with is saying she needs to come to his weekend house to act as maid, and he ‘blackmails’ her into it which I felt was unnecessary for it really played with bringing down Matias in the reader’s eyes. The chapter after is from his POV and though he mentions this as a mistake I don’t feel it’s addressed enough for me to really ‘forgive’ the idea of the blackmail. I still ended up liking him after, but it was a moment I wasn’t overly fond of and I felt like it came a bit out of nowhere.
There’s a moment later in the book when a police officer (of all people! And we’re never really told his relationship with Matias, so it seems even weirder that he would say this) feels necessary to remark that in Finland people aren’t invited to meet the family unless they’re good friends or already in a relationship. Like… I think that’s anywhere, not just Finland. But okay…
It really felt a little like the little parts Reeta and that cop played was just like a stand in for the author/reader going *hint hint, nudge nudge* to the main character.
Despite those little points, it was a delightful read.
The book still suffers a bit from people constantly telling other people how someone is (handsome, smart, intelligent, etc) instead of outright showing it, but otherwise, I as usual loved the writing style and the pacing was perfect.
Really recommend it for a sweet romance.
The Billionaire’s Secret is a romance novel by Ravina Hilliard. I’d already read one of her books before and was pleasantly surprised by it - I am a bit picky with my MF romances, after all - and I expected no different from this one.
I’m happy to say, it didn’t disappoint!
This time around we follow Serena Aisling. She has a bit of an odd relationship with her billionaire father, Byron, who left her and her mother at birth. Although he is attempting to make amends, she keeps refusing most of his approaches, and thus, when he requests she helps him find an industrial spy who is threatening to steal some new product designs from their new partner company in Helsinki, she refuses also.
But later on her own company is hired to take care of the product design process for the same Finnish company his father wanted her to check out, and she is sent to deal with things in Helsinki, where she meets handsome CEO Matias Mäkelä, and ends up trying to find the corporate spy while juggling her feelings for Matias.
I really enjoyed the entirety of the book, it felt like a breath of fresh air compared to the usual romances I’ve read so far.
Serena is a complex character- not quite strong but not the typical entire bumbling mess either most heroines in romances are. She does make some questionable choices on her own weird assumptions on whether Matias will believe her or not, but they are all things that can be forgiven easily as part of her personality. I also really liked the fact that she could defend herself, and that this played a part in the story.
Matias is an amazing love interest. He can get a bit annoying with the way he likes to toss around implications about Serena, but the rest of the time I found him very pleasant to read, and whenever he jumped to his POV I really enjoyed his internal monologues.
The chemistry between the two characters was believable and very pleasing all throughout and I really enjoyed the interactions between them, which had me rooting for them to get together until the end.
Storywise, it was good.
When her father first asks her to look into the industrial spy, she already knows she won’t accept regardless, but she still asks him for information, which seems a bit of a pointless lead on, particularly since her father says he will send her the information anyway.
Anyway, it’s all rendered moot since she ends up in Helsinki through her own company afterwards.Her first meeting with Matias is a bit weird n him flinging baseless accusations, but I really liked that she put him in his place for them quickly enough.
There is, of course, insta-attraction between the two characters, but it didn’t feel off like in other books, perhaps because their chemistry was really good from the start. Although at first Matias does seem to deal with it the way men in all romance books do: by being a rude jerk.
I also really like that, although they are both attracted to one another throughout, the one who seems to pin the most is him - and that for once, to have more control during the “almost but not quite” intimate scenes this time was the female protagonist. It was a nice change of pace.
I felt like the first kiss came in a bit quick, but it was kind of a cute scene and I liked both their reactions in it.
Their flirting through some scenes also felt very realistic and nice and I really enjoyed those little moments. I also enjoyed that Matias seemed fairly open about his attraction for her, and that he was the first to realize his feelings.
When Serena gets wind of who might be the spy, she calls her current boss for advice because she refuses to tell Matias, and his advice is a bit weird (basically suggesting she finds out more information, which is sound advice, but also that she looks for the physical key where the design is hidden herself, which is a bit… eh, questionable advice at best.)
Although I admit I was rather apprehensive of them moving away from the main company setting, I really enjoyed most the interactions they had through their time at his weekend house.
Spoiler
And I found it rather funny when Matias was basically trying to get her to meet his family without her knowingSome things didn’t quite add up…
Spoiler
It’s never really explained WHY Matias’ ex wanted to steal the physical key, I mean, we can presume it was just for money, and I suppose it wasn’t overly important, but it seemed a bit weird that an ex-model would just up and want to steal technological designs without a specific reason.At one point Reeta, Matias’ secretary, warns Serena off trying an office affair because Matias’ isn’t into that, and yet in the next paragraph she seems to be encouraging her to seek it out.
Also, at one point they have this misunderstanding in which Matias seems to perceive them to be somehow feuding each other and punishing each other through their attraction/behavior, and one of the ‘punishments’ he comes up with is saying she needs to come to his weekend house to act as maid, and he ‘blackmails’ her into it which I felt was unnecessary for it really played with bringing down Matias in the reader’s eyes. The chapter after is from his POV and though he mentions this as a mistake I don’t feel it’s addressed enough for me to really ‘forgive’ the idea of the blackmail. I still ended up liking him after, but it was a moment I wasn’t overly fond of and I felt like it came a bit out of nowhere.
There’s a moment later in the book when a police officer (of all people! And we’re never really told his relationship with Matias, so it seems even weirder that he would say this) feels necessary to remark that in Finland people aren’t invited to meet the family unless they’re good friends or already in a relationship. Like… I think that’s anywhere, not just Finland. But okay…
It really felt a little like the little parts Reeta and that cop played was just like a stand in for the author/reader going *hint hint, nudge nudge* to the main character.
Despite those little points, it was a delightful read.
Spoiler
There is again a very quick marriage proposal at the end, and while time wise it would normally still be too fast for me, I actually feel in this book it flowed a lot better, and I think this had a lot to do with the character’s chemistry. He’s also pretty open to just leaving the proposal hanging for her to know he wants this and let her take her time to decide, rather than expecting an answer right away. And they do marry towards the end at a reasonably-ish amount of time later and not at the same momentThe book still suffers a bit from people constantly telling other people how someone is (handsome, smart, intelligent, etc) instead of outright showing it, but otherwise, I as usual loved the writing style and the pacing was perfect.
Really recommend it for a sweet romance.