Review: A sweet fun read…
Rating: 4 out of 5
Date: 02 7, 2014
This is the second Barefoot Bay Billionaires novella but it can be read as a stand-alone.Elliott Becker comes to Barefoot Bay to locate the man who owns some property that he needs to buy to build a part of a baseball stadium. What he finds is that the man, Frankie Cardinale, is really Francesca, a gorgeous intriguing woman who has no desire to sell to him or to anybody. Her saying no just makes him more determined so the man who adapts to changing situations is not thwarted for he is lucky and will get his way. What Elliot doesn’t count on is the woman Frankie is and what she does to him. How she makes him regret manipulating her; how she makes him feel the lack of a home. It’s his regrets and his persistence to prove to Frankie that he is “real” and the lengths he would go to make amends when the truth of his subterfuge is revealed that endear him to the reader.Frankie Cardinale took over the running of her grandfather’s goat farm upon his death. The times she spent with her grandfather as a child after the loss of her parents were special and the land has sentimental value. She has dreams for it, for La Dolce Vita (the sweet life), dreams her grandfather would approve of and she made a promise to him as he was dying to keep it in the family. Frankie also has problems with money; she has learned the hard way that it does not buy happiness. No amount of money anyone offers her will tempt her to sell not even the sexiest handsomest sweet talking Texan imitation that she finds so darn attractive and much as she tries not to likes. Frankie is a great down to earth character, strong and very perceptive. She calls Becker out on his tactics, telling him he’s not “real” even as he does his best to charm her.This was a sweet fun read with two enjoyable characters, both stubborn, and both in need of each other. They are a good complement. It was quite amusing seeing the billionaire working on the goat farm, getting down and dirty with the animals yet showing tenderness to them. He has more depth than he shows to people but that Frankie saw. I love how Frankie got out of her predicament and also qualifies to play in the Niners exhibition game. That was a very nice plot twist.