Title: Billionaire on the Loose
Author: Jessica Clare
Publisher/Year:  Penguin Publishing 9/20/16
Length:   245 Pages
Series:  Billionaires and Bridesmaids #5

Overview

Taylor is a genius when it comes to computers, but understanding the opposite sex is beyond her. Because she always fumbles her flirtations, she needs help in finding her Prince Charming. So when her friend, Gretchen, sets her up as a tour guide for a new guy in town, she says yes despite her misgivings.

She just doesn’t expect Mr. Charming to actually be royalty…

A faction in his country wants him to be king, but Loch has no intention of taking the crown. To keep from being named as the next successor, he hatches a scheme to marry a totally unacceptable American woman. Quirky Taylor seems like the perfect person for the job, until Loch realizes he likes more about her than her ability to keep him off the throne.

When Loch’s secret schemes come out, his chance of happiness with Taylor are blown—unless he can find a way to get the nerdy object of his affection to believe she’s truly the queen of his heart…

My Thoughts

I love this series and i love that there are SO many characters that are intertwined here and to be introduced still that we get such a long standing series that’s so dynamic. In this fifth book, we get to revisit a bit of Alex and Luke, as well as Griffin and Maylee since they are pivotal reasons for why Loch has to go to the US and be in Gretchen’s wedding.  That is a mouthful right?

So of course we’re still deep in the throes of planning the wedding and there are so many bridesmaids and billionaires so to speak that we get a lot of out of these guys.  So we met Loch while he was home in Bellisime – he’s Griffin’s cousin, as well as Alex’s and he’s 5th in line for the thrown.  Because both have married Amreicans, they have fallen out of favor with the population and there’s a desire for Loch to be next in the succession order – a role that he doesn’t want.  So he’s sent to America, to be in the wedding, and to get woo’d by Taylor.

Taylor is one of Gretchen’s friends, and we know that she’s a bit bookish – she loves all things computers and she’s definitely more of an independent girl given all that she has to deal with in life.  She’s so involved in her computer for work and play that she doesn’t often get out, and we see that there are issues with online relationships that come up throughout this story.  That’s an interesting twist that we get in this installment actually.

So Gretchen has Loch and Taylor matched up so that Taylor can play tour guide and what comes of that is something that’s kind of unexpected.  They are so completely opposite that i had to laugh throughout their first day together.  Loch is positioned as a guy who’s completely useless at just about everything since he’s had servants to do it all for him his entire life, and well, that’s not how Taylor rolls.

While l really enjoyed where this story took us, bringing opposites together because of amazing sex and great banter, there was something that threw me off at the first third of the book.  Taylor speaks all in phrases from movies and games, and that even came through big time when they were being ‘passionate’.  I feel like in that situation, it was a bit much, but once the story progressed, it smoothed out as their relationship became something more – even if it was with no real direction, so i got over it.

While it would be enough to know that they were so different that our guess is that it would keep them apart, thankfully there was even more there.  Loch comes up with a really stupid idea of how to ensure that he’s not the next in line for the throne, and of course that’s a big issue for Taylor as she was ‘played’.  Then there’s the crimp in the story with Sigmund, a player in one of the games that Taylor plays online who not only is intensely clingy, but also threatens to hurt himself every time it seems like Taylor isn’t paying 100% attention to him.  So, all that together means that we’ll get a really good final bit of the arc – and that’s exactly what we got.

All in all, great continuation of the series and i can’t wait to see what’s next.  I don’t even remember who’s still left for us to read about but i’m sure there are others since there’s a HUGE bridal party for Gretchen’s wedding.  Have a great day all!