Title: Billionaire
Author: Juliette Jones
Publisher/Year: Juliette Jones 2/5/14
Length: 225

Overview

Lila Carmichael is a good girl, a high-achieving academic, punctual to a fault, unfailingly conscientious – and embarrassingly inexperienced. After graduating from Princeton, Lila moves to New York City and begins her job search. Innocent and naïve, she is swept away by an uncharacteristic bloom of total abandon as soon as she meets the tall, dark-eyed CEO of Wolfe Enterprises. Under Alexander’s potent influence, Lila undergoes a thorough transformation from demure virgin to lusty goddess in just two days. Given her upbringing, it’s only natural that Lila would be attracted to such a pinnacle of stability, but as emotion and lust entwine, she begins to question the motives behind her covetous, hedonistic desires.

Alexander Wolfe needs a new assistant to help him run his publishing empire. One résumé in particular catches his eye and he decides to interview the candidate one-on-one in his private penthouse office. When a green-eyed goddess walks in, Alexander, for the first time in his life, finds himself powerless to resist. The difficulties of his past ensure that his protective instincts are fiercely attuned, and Lila’s vulnerabilities, combined with her nubile body and voracious new appetites, only succeed in ensnaring Alexander past the point of no return.

Set in New York and Paris, Lila and Alexander’s connection is a whirlwind of lust, love, jealousy and obsession. Will they find their happily ever after?

My Thoughts

For the lack of heat and passion that i’ve been stuck reading for last few books, this one makes up for it in lengths and miles.  It’s in the first pages that i already realized that this was going to be one steamy book that was bound to be a faster read.

In this story (i was lucky to get the full story v. the 7 part series and i think that i would have been really upset if i had to wait for the next week to see what was going to happen.

As is typically the norm in stories like this, we have 2 main characters that have very dark and damaged pasts, and in this instance they were very much the same past.  both Lila and Alexander came from homes where there was abuse going on, and they had to rely only on themselves to make their future something more.  IT’s not just the shared alliance of going to Princeton but how each got themself there.

At the opening of this book, we meet Lila when she’s going in for an interview for one of Alexander’s companies, but since she’s so new to NY and so naive that she’s done no research on where’s she’s interviewing for, she’s never really owned her own sexuality and goes by what her best friend Eva tells her (i.e. a makover and no underwear) and of course we know that this is going to lead us down quite an exciting path.

It’s upon walking into her interview that turns out to be with Alexander himself v. the interview panel that things go awry.  The control that Alexander has always had and relies heavily on goes right out the window since he feels such a strong connection and pull to Lila.  It’s in this same office that he takes control over lila – (after offering her the job at least) that we find what control he needs to have and how a minor detail about Lila has completely ripped that control from him.  She is the ultimate in innocent as far as he’s concerned and well that makes for quite a bit of an education that we’l see in this story.

As the story goes on, i think that the most of the plot is to be expected – this dominant controlling billionaire takes Lila on a journey both sexually and physically (to other countries) to show her the world, and to open himself up.  I think that the question that i had throughout this book is whether Alexander actually does any work and when Lila would do some.  There was a hint of financial scandal going on that i kept wondering if it would flare up and the sense that his brother Jake would play a larger role, but for the most part, we don’t get into that.  (makes for a good sequel i guess).

Anyhow, it’s not until some of the final chapters that the fears and ghosts of the past begin to haunt our characters and that’s what causes Lila to run.  The question is what shape will Alexander find her in and with whom.  I think that we all know that Lila has no idea the affect that she has on people and well, we’re going to see that all come to a head during her flight.

Like i said earlier,  i don’t know if it was a lack of heat in previous books that i’ve been reading lately, or just a really hot style that this author has, but it’s passionate, there’s clear chemistry and it makes you want to keep reading.  I hope you enjoy it!