Review: Cliched but the author shows promise
Rating: 2 out of 5
Date: 03 23, 2014
Caution! This review contains spoilers!The Billionaire's Secrets has a wonderful premise with great mood and setting. I was pleasantly surprised to see it was set in Newfoundland, a rare place to set a romantic suspense. I also felt that the writing was clean and the very few mistakes I found weren't bothersome, with the exception that I always thought that the rum, Screech, was a brand name, yet it was never capitalized. But what really bothered me was although the novel had been revised in 2012, the same issues remained in the new copy. The hero gets mad at heroine, then kisses her, then she gets mad and forgives him. Then the cycle starts again in a different scene. The hero appeared to have a bipolar disorder.The plot was cliched and unbelievable. In the opening scene, the heroine is nearly run over by the hero who then drives off after telling her that if she can walk to his home, with all her luggage, she has the job. The hero is difficult to like and the heroine, though strong, is too forgiving, mostly because the hero is handsome and the child she is to educate is too cute. I also felt that the scene in the hotel was staged as if the author was trying to install the requisite love scene. It was hard to believe that in the city there was only one hotel room available and it was the honeymoon suite, and that the hospital would not allow a parent to stay with an injured child. The characters did not endear themselves by wanting to make love and open a bottle of champagne to celebrate that the child was not injured too badly.When the lovemaking is finally consummated several scenes later, a spare bedroom magically appears beside his home office and the pair can make love there. The plot twists at the end of the book were more than predictable and the unlikeable hero switched too suddenly. The author has talent, but should employ a brutal editor to point out plot problems in her future stories. She tried too hard to recreate a Jane Eyre styled book at the expense of believability. Jane Eyre is a book that reflected the times in which it was set. It does not translate well in today's world.But there is enough quality writing in this book to warrant saying that if the author publishes another book, I might try her again.