Review: Billionaire Boxed set
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 12 18, 2013
Here we have a set of 7 stories, steamy... yes, romantic... not so much due to the overwhelming lacking in substance.  All 7 of these books focused so much of their entirety on sexual gratification that I felt there was just too much lacking in story and character development.  Lesson of the day:  Sex does NOT equal love.  The men are dominant and into BDSM, so if that's your thing, you'll like this set.  The idea of some of the more "extreme" BDSM doesn't go over well with me, and although I can maybe understand that there are truly women out there who can get off on the severity and cruelty of it, no matter how I think about it, I just simply can't reconcile it with a healthy state of mind.  That's just me stating my opinion on the subject.  Anyhoo....  Spelling and grammar errors run rampant, but some of the books are admittedly better in that department than others, so I can't say that all seven are horribly in need of an editor... but most are.  Here's a summary of my take on the 7 books in the set:The Sandstone Affair by Priscilla West - Julia is a bitch, plain and simple.  Other than the fact that the author occasionally throws in a touch of humanity to her personality by telling us that she cares about her ailing father, she really doesn't show evidence of caring about anyone but herself.  She admits in her own mind that she's a bitch, but that's as far as her remorse goes.  She's a selfish snarky bitch.  Mark deserves better.  He's cared about her for some time, although I'm clueless as to why.  He does seem to enjoy "punishing" her, but let's face it, who wouldn't get tired of her attitude and decide that she deserved a bit of discipline after being her punching bag for so long?  The sex scenes are erotic.  There are minor editing errors in this book, not as noticeable as some of the other books in the set.Bonds of Attraction by Alana Davis - I can't really say I liked this book at all.  I wanted to be able to like Julie but she's cold and impersonal, avoiding all manner of relationships, even simple friendship.  She's a total loner and she likes it that way.  She occasionally goes out and picks up a one night stand, uses them and tosses them aside.  She's not bitchy, but she's not particularly likable to me, either, and I think that some story and character development would've gone a long way in helping that.  There just wasn't enough substance to help make a better connection with Julie's character.  ...And then there's Leon.  What an ass.  The author tries to throw a small dash of humble pie on him and make us like him due to a tragic event that happened in his past, but it just wasn't believable to me.  I didn't feel it.  The sex scenes were erotic, ...but most of them were playing out fantasies in Julie's mind, rather than actually taking place between the H/h in the story and building any type of development to a relationship.  Therefore, the fact that they were able to end up caring deeply about each other was totally unbelievable because there was nothing to base it on.  They had one tender moment, but otherwise they were angry at each other more than anything else.  There were some annoying holes in the story, and things just didn't always jive with me, but at least there weren't a ton of spelling errors.Winner Takes All by Sherilyn Gray - Sasha and Damien's story is one of the better ones in this set.  They're both likable characters, their passion seems believable, and you want them to have their HEA.  My main issue is that there isn't enough story and character development to really feel like you're in the story with them.  There are too many gaps in the story and some of it just simply isn't very believable.  For example, the scenario with her extortionist brother is just so wrong and unbelievable; there was another odd sideline story that just didn't fit and wasn't believable, mainly due to rushing through to find the ending rather than actually developing the story.  An editor would've been helpful, as there were some errors.Bound by Fate by Sherilyn Gray - Dove was living on the streets for 2 years, and has no memory of anything prior to that.... with the exception of an obviously advanced knowledge of art and art history.  I do take issue with this part of the story, due to the fact that she still has an extensive and educated vocabulary, ...and yet she no longer knows how to read.  Hmmm, c'mon now, is this supposed to be believable?  She's taken in and given a job working for Victor as a maid, receiving free room and board, but she also must sign a contract to be his sex slave.  Victor gives her the name "Dove", since she doesn't remember her own.  As the story moves along, she's not really so much a maid as Victor's companion/submissive.  They start to care for each other, and it seems somewhat believable, although I never really got into it.  There were definite errors in the book, things that just didn't jive.  An editor could've/would've/should've caught these things.  It was an okay story, but not great by any means.One Last Chance by Angela Stephens - Ah, yes, Sophie and Henry's story.  Of the seven books in this set, this was my favorite.  There were some romantic qualities to this one that were lacking in the others.  Like the others, it is a short story, so there is some story and character development lacking, but the author did as well as could be done in that number of pages.  Henry and Sophie share a passion that is hot and believable.  Henry.... yummy hotness.His Every Touch by Harriet Lovelace - This one wasn't at the top of my list, either.  Not all of it is bad.  Courtney is likable.  She seemed like a nice and sensible enough person, but she immediately and willingly handed over her backbone and became Vance's submissive puppet in order to save her job; speaking of which, as the story progresses, she really never seems to "work".  If they're not actually having sex, they're fantasizing about sex.  Vance had a freaky obsession that was totally misplaced and he went WAY over the top in "seeking his revenge".  That aspect of the story just didn't work well for me.  If he had simply been in love with her for so many years, that would've been one thing, but the freaky revenge twist was just weird and degrading.  Vance is into some of the more extreme BDSM, and as I stated earlier, that doesn't sit well with me.  Anyways, all of a sudden, they both realize that they love each other, they have sex, and they live happily ever after.  Hmm.His Secret Desire by Alana Davis - The premise of this story is not bad.  In fact, if done right, I would've really liked it.  Samantha and Alexander's story is simply too short, though, in order to do it justice.  The plot, the storyline.... the glimmer of it is there, but just too underdeveloped.  As is, there are too many gaps and everything happens WAY too fast to make it believable.  It needed to be developed over time in order to make Samantha's rise to the corporate top believable.  I liked Alexander's character and liked what he was trying to do.  I honestly didn't really like Samantha, though.  Although Alex made claims as to how much she earned each and every promotion.... um, no she didn't.  She was more concerned and obsessed with jumping his bones at any and all given moments, especially at the most inappropriate and unbelievable moments.  For example, she's at her very first "event" with her new promotion as his assistant, and she's standing in front of dozens of news reporters, and she can't even focus on anything besides fantasizing about having sex with him right there on stage in front of the news staff.  Then their lives are in danger, and at the same time he's fighting against the clock to figure out how to get his company back, but she's mad because he doesn't have time to have sex with her.  At her next opportunity, though, she doesn't take no for an answer.... mind you, their lives are still in grave danger, and his company and thousands of jobs are on the line, but we all know what's really important, right?  That Samantha gets her fix.  C'mon.