Title: Once Upon a Billionaire
Author:  Jessica Clare
Publisher/Year:  Penguin Group USA  4/15/14
Length:  224 Pages
Series: Billionaire Boys Club #4

Overview

The Billionaire Boys Club is a secret society of six men who have vowed success—at any cost. Not all of them are old money, but all of them are incredibly wealthy. They’re just not always as successful when it comes to love…

As a member of the royal family in a small European country, Griffin Verdi’s presence is requested at the wedding of the century. The scholarly billionaire feels out of his depth in social situations, so a good assistant is required—especially when dealing with royal etiquette.

Unfortunately for Griffin, he’s stuck with Maylee Meriweather, a pretty, charming, and thoroughly unsuitable woman who doesn’t know a thing about high society—but she sure can kiss. Her lack of polish may sink Griffin, because after all, even his money can’t buy class. But through Maylee’s eyes, he’s starting to appreciate the simple things in life—if simple means the most complicated woman he’s ever met.

Maylee is everything Griffin isn’t—and everything he wants—if he can let down his guard and step outside his sheltered world…

My Thoughts

I’m a fan of this series – just because i really enjoy the dynamic of the men in the club and i really want to get down to why they are the way that they are.  I think that in the 3 installments that we’ve gotten so far, there’s been a level of quality and depth that we’ve come  to expect, that starts off here, but i wonder if it falls a little short.

This 4th book in the series takes us on the journey of Griffin, a guy that we have come to know as the one that most of the girlfriends really don’t like.  Griff (as his friends call him) is a bit nerdy, and rough around the edges in the sense that he’s quite pompous and snobbish – a result of his royal upbringing.  In this story though for him, he’s put in a position where he has to go back home for a royal wedding – something that he dreads since his family frowns upon the fact that he moves to the US and has given up his claims to the throne and all that.

Maylee comes into the fold only when Griffin’s assistant comes down with Chicken Pox and cannot travel.  As a way of ‘punking’ him, Gretchen, Hunters girlfriend offers up Maylees services – and that’s going to flip Griffin’s world upside down in so many ways.  Maylee is the polar opposite of Griffin in manners and appearance, yet she brings him exactly what he needs.  someone who’s heart is bigger than anything else.

This story takes us on a journey of patience – Griffin trying to tamp down what he has always been because he’s starting to feel emotions that he never expected – guilt and empathy – and his body responds to Maylee in ways that weren’t expected either

As we’ve also come to expect from these stories – it’s often the last third that takes us from the happy point to the one where the girl runs away and this follows suit perfectly.  We see that Gretchen who has claimed to never run, chooses to run because of a series of events, and the question is what Griffin will have to give up in order to get her back.  I think that’s really the interesting piece here – to see if he’s grown and how much through the course of the story.

The other nice thing that Ms. Clare does for us in this series is that she gives us a great peek into what’s going to come next.  We haven’t had an installment on Jonathan yet, however we know quite a bit about him from the club.  In this book, we see his involvement with Griffin in archaeological adventures, and that’s the lead in for the next book.  It’s a teaser that we need – knowing that there’s clearly something going on since Griff’s picked up on it within this own story – so we’ll have to see where things go.

Jessica Clare gives us a fair share of heat and passion for a few chapters – but i think that here it’s more about the story of the character relationships than the sex.  While i usually come to expect more heat in this genre – i think that it’s really key to have the depth of who these folks are in their relationship and we definitely made strides.  Enjoy it!

*note – clicking on the cover will now take you to BN.com to buy!