Title:  The Taming of the Billionaire
Author: Jessica Clare
Publisher/Year: Penguin Publishing Group 7/21/15
Length: 267 pages
Series:  Billionaires and Bridesmaids #2

Overview

Edie’s an overbearing cat behaviorist who’s not big on people. Magnus is a newly-rich game developer who likes to be in control. When the two of them meet at Gretchen and Hunter’s masquerade engagement party, the loathing is mutual. Unfortunately for them—and everyone else—they’re in the wedding party together and must deal with each other for the next few months.

But when Magnus’s younger brother falls for Edie’s sister, he begs for his brother’s help in concocting a plan to win her over. If Magnus can keep the prickly Edie occupied, his brother will have time to woo Edie’s sister. Of course, Magnus isn’t interested in the slightest, but Edie is…intriguing. And stubborn. And smart. And sexy. And they might have more in common than they thought.

Before long, it becomes a challenge between the two of them to see who will be tamed first. But how’s Edie going to react when she finds out that Magnus is using her? And how’s Magnus going to handle the fact that he’s fallen for a cat lady?

My Thoughts

While i don’t know that i agree with the idea that this is a ‘Shakespeare style seduction’  – i can get the whole ‘taming of the shrew reference.  Anyhow, we continue with this spin-off series in much of the same way as the other installments of both the big show and this series.  We’re meeting up with a piece of Hunter and Gretchen’s story this time – as they are planning for their wedding a year in advance.  Gretchen being the romantic that she’s turned out to be has decided that through a series of events she will be doing her darndest to not only make sure the wedding party of very well acquainted, but she’s matchmaking all the same.  In this case, it’s a pre pre party that brings everyone together.

Here is where we meet Edie, one of Gretchen’s oldest friends.  Edie of course has had her own fair share of suffering, much like that of Hunter, but not to the same extremes.  Through the course of the story, we learn that Edie was once very active, and on the road to becoming a physical therapist.  After a horrible skiing accident, she’s left with a busted knee that gives her a pronounced limp and a lot of pain, and also completely changes her professional path – directing her into feline behaviourist – other wise known as ‘The Cat Lady’.

It’s at this first party though that Edie over hears some of the guys mocking the idea of a weird cat lady as their pair that things get interesting.  especially as one of those guys is billionaire game developer Magnus – the same guy that Gretchen is trying to set her up with.

Where this story goes is one that’s quite expected – yet there’s this underlying tone of when will the other shoe drop.  The budding relationship between the two is fully contrived as Edie’s sister Biance and Magnus’ brother Levi are trying to get together and Bianca has this air of ‘i have to be available for Edie at all times’ so they need to figure out ways to keep Edie occupied.  I don’t know about any of the other readers – but way early on in the story, it wasn’t just the sense of her being a gold digger – i knew that there had to be more to the story with Bianca, and i think that we get to see the truth of things about 2/3 of the way in.

Regardless – while the relationship between Magnus and Edie didn’t start out on honest terms, we see a really great thing start.  We see that Edie’s able to help Magnus see his full potential and realize that he’s not just the brains behind the tech of his games but that he’s able to do it all and doesn’t need to feel the stress of pushing his brother.  In return, Edie gets a relationship with a guy that seems to not want to consider her an invalid and who really wants to do these big gestures because he cares.  The question though that lies ahead is who is going to reveal the lies and what will that mean for everyone involved.

True Jessica Clare style – we get that all in the last few chapters and the resolution is semi expected but with a few interesting bits and pieces.  The other trademark that we have here in this 2nd installment to the series is that the passion and chemistry here is sweet.  Similar to what we actually saw with Gretchen and Hunter – the romance here is exactly as it should be – not PG by any means, but still really romantic, hot and necessary.  I can’t wait to see what the next installment brings us and who it’s going to focus on.  Thankfully at least in this wedding party a lot has been set up but we can’t forget that there are so many others from the original series that will have their own contributions as well.  so on that note – enjoy and Happy Monday all.