Title: Most Eligible Bachelor
Author: Annika Martin
Publisher/Year: Cinnamon Crane 9/16/21
Length: 300 pages
Series: Billionaires of Manhattan #1
Overview
OMG – the cute little dog I adopted turns out to be a billionaire Maltese! That’s right, my tiny dog just inherited giant corporation! …and the jerky CEO? Not amused.
I’m Vicky, the dog whisperer. (Not really, but that’s what my elderly neighbor says whenever I walk her dog, Smuckers.)When she dies, she surprises everybody by leaving a corporation worth billions to Smuckers…and she leaves Smuckers to me.
Suddenly I go from running my Etsy store to sitting in an elegant Wall Street boardroom with Smuckers in my lap. And my neighbor’s son, Henry Locke, aka New York’s most eligible bachelor, glaring across the table at me.
Rumor has it Henry’s a business genius who’s as talented in the bedroom as he is in the boardroom.
Sure, he’s gorgeous. Sex-in-a-seven-thousand dollar suit. But…He’s arrogant and infuriating.
He refuses to listen to me when I insist I didn’t con his mother.
He thinks he can bully me, buy me off, control me, even seduce me.
Henry may have the women of Manhattan eating out of the palm of his hand, but I’m so over entitled rich guys who think they own the world.
No way will his wicked smile be charming ME out of my panties.
His wicked…devastating…impossible-to-resist smile.
Oh well, who needs panties anyway?
My Thoughts
I have to say that it’s probably a good thing this was one of the stories that’s in ‘Deep Pockets’ the boxed set because i’m not sure that I would have crossed paths with this book on my own. It’s a sweet story – has all the trappings to be something great, but perhaps not for me. I don’t know. At some point I’m sure i’ll get into the second book in the series to see what’s what with Henry’s friend.
Anyway – in this story, we meet our leading lady Vicky (Vonda, Veronica….any V name will do) and she’s in an interesting position. We learn early on that she’s somewhat on the run from something that was so bad that she’s had to change her identity, protect her sister and become something that’s entirely new. We get hints throughout the story of what it was, but don’t get the full story until we’re about 75% done.
Vicky finds herself in an interesting position just as the summary says – she’s become the guardian of a rich woman’s dog after the woman passes and of course everyone is down to believe that she’s a scammer, that she knew the woman was wealthy and wanted to steal her money. Surprisingly that’s not the case even though all the money would do her good.
That’s where Henry comes into the mix. The son that stopped talking to his mother for many reasons, few that he believes are his own fault. His mother was eccentric and that means that there’s really no reasoning with her about anything. They didn’t talk for years leading up to her death and that adds to why things are so interesting when he learns that it’s the dog that inherits everything, and Vicky is the one to ‘interpret’ the dogs wishes.
The story we go through here is one of dishonesty and lies across the board. Henry doesn’t trust Vicky and Vicky is hiding everything from Henry. They form this Hate Hate/Love relationship between them, he hates her, she hates him, and then they have this weird dynamic that shifts things entirely.
Of course, just when things seem like they could be going well. the other shoe drops. Henry’s cousin Brett decides that he’s on this quest to dig up all the dirt and brings back the one person from Vicky’s past that could do real harm to them and that’s exactly what happens. Vicky loses trust in Henry, Henry doesn’t know how to properly fight for anything and they split.
Vicky and her sister are on the run again, new identities, new life and no one knows how their story will end. There’s no trail to follow and Henry’s charmed life seems bleak without her. So…..we have to see where their fairytale goes – what that means for their future and what it means for Locke Worldwide and the livelihood of Vicky and her sister.
I’m sure there are a lot of readers who love this book, and some that would truly enjoy it. It’s not my speed necessarily so while a sweet story, one that I likely would not have picked up on it’s own. But…i’d love to hear what you guys think. So read, and report back. Enjoy!