Review: The Billionaire's Bargain
Rating: 1 out of 5
Date: 02 11, 2013
PLOT: As a condition of his father's will, Duncan must be married and have a child. Tess meets with him to plead with him not to have her father arrested. He decides to use this as leverage to force Tess to marry him.PROS: None. After thinking really hard, I couldn't come up with a single one. The blackmailed into marriage plot is one that I find interesting but it's not original and I'm sure that it's been better executed elsewhere.CONS: My main issue with this story is that it turned what could have been an interesting plot into a boring slog that I had to work to get through. There's awkward phrasing, such as, "He smiled at her in the reflection of the mirror." When "He smiled at her reflection in the mirror," would have been far less awkward.I got the feeling while reading this that the author was trying to plump up her word count by any means necessary. So much of the story is repetitive as to be annoying. We're given the same information over and over and sometimes in the same paragraph.The story simply is not believable. Tess doesn't know who her mother is. At one point, she doesn't even know a name. That's just stupid. She has a passport. So she had to have seen her birth certificate. Then later, the author contradicts herself and says that she does know a name. This unnecessary storyline resolves itself in the most insipid way ever. She has a conversation with the same father who has been giving her no details for her entire life and suddenly, he tells her everything.Another point that I found unbelievable is how everyone in Duncan's life instantly takes to Tess upon sight. Why? In 23 years of life, she's never made a single friend despite her magical "different" nature. Now everyone just loves her.Okay, so Duncan marries Tess so that he can give his mother the Italian villa his father owned. But then his mother is angry because Tess is poor and won't speak to Duncan until he divorces her. What?! At this point I wondered, wasn't she at the wedding? (The description of which was another rambling confusing mess.) Of course right after telling this to Tess, he tells her that he's going to drop her off at home while he goes to see the mother he just said will have no conversation with him until the marriage is over.The author combines all the faults of this book repetitive, boring, unnecessary details and then contradicts herself. It's enough to have a reader pulling their hair out. INSTANCE # 1: On the way home from Duncan's office Tess purchases groceries. Later that day, Duncan drops by because she forgot her purse at his office. The author makes a point of saying how her passport and money were in the purse. What did Tess purchase groceries with? Her magical personality? INSTANCE # 2: Tess trips on her sofa in an attempt to get the phone. When Duncan is in her apartment, she's embarrassed that she only has two chairs and no sofa. She's too poor to afford a sofa. And then he sits on the sofa!1 STAR: This is the second book that I've purchased from this author and the first wasn't much better than this one. I rarely say this about an author, but this is going to be my last Sam Crescent. I will have to hold strong to keep myself from falling for her plot promises because they are not fulfilled.