Author: Jessica Clare

Guest Review: Dirty Bastard by Jessica Clare

Posted May 10, 2018 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Guest Review: Dirty Bastard by Jessica ClareReviewer: Tracy
Dirty Bastard (Roughneck Billionaires #3) by Jessica Clare
Series: Roughneck Billionaires #3
Also in this series: Dirty Money, Dirty Scoundrel
Publisher: Intermix
Publication Date: May 15, 2018
Format: eARC
Point-of-View: Third Person
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Knox Price has always fallen short in comparison to his brothers. Boone is the ambitious one. Clay is the nice one. Gage is the handsome one. And Knox? Well, he's the cynical one. The odd man out in the ultra-wealthy but rather unique Price family. It's not that Knox hates people--it's that humanity always disappoints him. When you become an oil-rich, Texan billionaire overnight, people treat you a certain way. Just once he'd like to meet someone that isn't dazzled by his wallet.

Then, he meets struggling yoga teacher Lexi Brandon. She's weird. She's unpredictable and tends to say strange things. She lurks in the bushes and dresses in all black. She loves when people cross the street to get away from her. Lexi's definitely not his type, but she's also the first one to ever truly see him and not just another rich, dirty Price.

And that's...fascinating. But how do you catch the interest of a woman who goes out of her way to be odd? When an unexpected surprise throws them both for a loop, Knox decides it's time to get down and dirty, abandon the rules, and be who he truly is--a bastard.

The Price brothers are having a family barbeque when Knox first sees Lexi.  She’s a friend of his brother’s girlfriend and though she dresses in black, has a dry & snarky personality…and is pretty anti-social, Knox is immediately smitten.  He makes it a point to get to know Lexi and they end up spending a wonderful night together.  After that, Lexi ghosts him.

Knox isn’t letting Lexi get away from him now that he’s found his “one.”  When Knox finds out that his night with Lexi bears fruit, so to speak, he decides that he’s not letting her get away.  Lexi isn’t so sure she wants to be caught but when Knox goes to the limits to make her happy she can’t help but be impressed.

Another good story in the Roughneck Billionaires series.  I loved Knox and his unconventional streak.  I loved that he immediately noticed Lexi and didn’t let her so-called hard exterior put him off.  He just learned how to mesh with her and it was pretty great.

Lexi made me laugh.  She was so not your typical romance heroine but I loved her. Her sarcasm and general anti-social behavior should have seemed odd or too weird, but Clare made me enjoy it!  Knox was awesome and I loved his devotion to making Lexi happy – which in turn made him happy.

Part of the story that was intertwined with the romance was about stalking.  I felt horrible for Lexi and for the fact that no one in the stupid small town would take her seriously.  I wanted to crawl through my Kindle and punch a face or two.  I was so happy when Knox got involved and put the guy in his place.

Overall this was a good book and I can’t wait to read Gage’s book.

Rating: 4 out of 5

Roughneck Billionaires

four-stars


Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Guest Review: Dirty Scoundrel by Jessica Clare

Posted November 21, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 2 Comments

Guest Review: Dirty Scoundrel by Jessica ClareReviewer: Tracy
Dirty Scoundrel by Jessica Clare
Series: Roughneck Billionaires #2
Also in this series: Dirty Money, Dirty Bastard (Roughneck Billionaires #3)
Publisher: Intermix
Publication Date: November 21st 2017
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Clay Price has everything he’s ever wanted, except the one thing money can’t buy—Natalie Weston. Years ago, Clay and Natalie were in love…until she turned down his marriage proposal. Now Clay and his brothers are oil-rich billionaires, and they can have whatever they want. And what Clay wants is Natalie in his bed, no matter what it takes. If it means being ruthless, he’ll do it.

Natalie gave up on true love years ago when the realities of the world destroyed her fairy-tale hopes. Giving up Clay is her biggest regret in life, and she’s excited to see him return…until she finds out why. Clay’s got one hell of a proposal for her: he’ll save her father’s business and bail Natalie out of debt if she’ll agree to become his very personal assistant. It’s clear that he wants more from her than just typing.

It’s also clear that Natalie has no choice. This scoundrel’s bet could destroy any hope they had of reconciliation—or it could bring them together once and for all…

Clay Price and Natalie Weston dated in high school.  They loved each other and right after graduation Clay planned on asking Natalie to marry him.  Clay, being a good guy, wanted to talk to Natalie’s father first, however.  Natalie’s father, once a movie star – and a rich snob, was not a good guy and when he met Clay told him that Natalie was breaking up with him.  The father then told Natalie some lies about Clay and that Clay had broken up with her.  Dad’s plot to tear his daughter and her poor white trash boyfriend apart: Successful.

Seven years later Natalie, whose father planned on her going to Stanford, is barely scraping by while running a museum of her father’s memorabilia.  She never went to college and now tries to run the museum out of their house while taking care of her father and his increasing dementia.

Clay is now a billionaire and still in love with Natalie – only he thinks of it as just lust.  They had never slept together in high school and Clay is still a virgin.  He puts together a plan to pay Natalie to be his “assistant” and be at his beck and call 24/7.  Natalie is drowning in bills and is lonely and tired.  She still loves Clay but doesn’t like the fact that she’s basically prostituting herself out to him.  She has no choice but to agree.

Dirty Scoundrel was a cute book and I liked a lot of things about it.  I loved the Price brothers and their camaraderie and obvious love for each other.  I liked the flashes into Boone and Ivy’s life (from book 1, Dirty Money) that we got.  I liked that the book had some highly emotional moments in it that were written very well. Unfortunately I’m not sure I loved Clay and Natalie.  They weren’t bad people, but Clay acted like an asshole so many times that I wanted to hit him and I wanted Natalie to stand up for herself and have a bit more backbone! I realize that Clay was trying to act hard and play the scoundrel (hence the name of the book) so that he could “get back” at Natalie for dumping him, but there were times he shouldn’t have been an asshole and he was anyway.

Clay wasn’t an asshole the whole time and there were times when I really liked the couple together but that wasn’t a constant.  I know that Clay just didn’t know what to say to Natalie at times but he wasn’t an unintelligent at all and I think some of the things that the author had him saying were a bit much.  IMHO he just wouldn’t have said half of it.

I was happy in the end that Clay and Natalie got their HEA and their life worked out together.  I’m looking forward to reading more about the Price brothers and seeing what happens next.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

three-half-stars


Tagged: , , , , , , ,

Guest Review: Dirty Money by Jessica Clare

Posted January 9, 2017 by Tracy in Reviews | 3 Comments

Guest Review: Dirty Money by Jessica ClareReviewer: Tracy
Dirty Money by Jessica Clare
Series: Roughneck Billionaires #1
Also in this series: Dirty Scoundrel, Dirty Bastard (Roughneck Billionaires #3)
Publisher: Intermix
Publication Date: January 17th 2017
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
four-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

Southern Texas heats up when four roughneck billionaires set their sights on love in the new series from New York Times bestselling author Jessica Clare.

Boone Price and his brothers know oil; at least, the dirty, backbreaking side of working an oil rig. But when their scrubby, worthless hunting land turns out to be sitting on top of one of the biggest oil wells in North America, they go from the rig to the boardroom and end up billionaires practically overnight.

Now with enough money to do whatever he wants, Boone is developing a taste for fine things. And the finest thing he's ever seen is Ivy Smithfield, local realtor. Boone's determined to buy her affection and show the world that he's more than just a dirty fool with a bit of money. Ivy's classy and beautiful - she'll make the perfect trophy wife. The fact that she's sexy and funny is just a bonus.

There's one tiny problem - Ivy's as dirt poor as Boone is. Her carefully crafted veneer of luxury? All an act to promote her business. What's Boone going to do when he finds out the woman he's falling for is, well, in his league?

Boone Price is a Texas cowboy.  He’s not classy nor does he dress nice despite the fact that he is a multi-billionaire.  He likes working with the guys who work the rigs and likes finding new places to drill for oil.  He gets utterly pissed off when a “friend” that Boone is trying to help out sends his employee with contracts and the guy mistakes Boone for a hand. Boone gets pissed.  He hates the fact that people treat him like dirt just because he’s not dressed in a suit.  He wants respect because he’s worked hard to get where’s he’s at now.  He doesn’t want to be looked at like a roughneck.  His brothers tell him he needs to look the part – starting with a big house.  He’s given a pamphlet for Three Jacks Realty and he loves the look of the classy woman on the front.  He decides he wants her and only her to make him look classy.

Boone heads to the real estate office and starts his assault on/courting of Ivy Smithfield.  He tells her he wants a house but he also wants to have dinner with her.  Ivy has been at Three Jacks for just a year – given a job by one of the Jacks when she first got her real estate license.  She had previously worked at a burger place and an ice cream shop trying to make ends meet for her and her sister.  The problem is that every time Ivy gets a lead on a big sale one of the Jacks comes and takes it from her – as they do with all the employees.  When Ivy realizes that Boone is looking for a big house that would sell for millions she decides to keep the info to herself.  No one else will give him the time of day because he’s covered in dirt from the oil field so it works out well. She just isn’t prepared to fend off his amorous advances.

Boone falls in love with Ivy at first sight.  The more he’s with her the more he wants to be around her.  He loves that she’s with him but she seems to hold back on a regular basis and is constantly ignoring his calls and texts.  Ivy falls in love with Boone as well but she knows that once he finds out that she’s not the classy lady he thinks she is the romance will be over so she tries to stay away from him.

Dirty Money is a really good book to what I hope will be another great series by Jessica Clare.  I loved Boone and his down home attitude as well as the attitudes of his brothers.  I had a bit of a hard time reconciling Boone’s don’t-give-a shit-what-I wear-or-live-in attitude with the fact that he wanted to be respected.  It was a bit of a paradox that I didn’t quite get.  I know that’s what took him to Ivy’s side in the first place so I had to go with it but it just seemed…off. Now when Boone finds out that Ivy isn’t the “classy” woman he thought she was he was pissed at her and that pissed me off. He thought she’d lied but really Boone was more at fault than anything.  He was the one that assumed she was classy just by the way she was dressed and nothing else.  He was in love (at first) with the idea of Ivy – not actually Ivy herself.  He did fall in love with the real her but after the big reveal he had to get past his preconceived notions.  That was hard for him but I thought he handled it well and I was quite happy with the end of the story.

Ivy was a good person and one I admired for all that she was trying to do with her life and for her sister’s life.  She wanted to keep the stress off of her sister so that she could have a normal childhood and young adulthood.  Ivy bore the brunt of the stress of overdue bills, not enough food, not enough money for college tuition, etc.  She wanted so badly to make something of herself as a real estate agent but the three Jacks just treated her like shit.  I wanted to smack those men so hard!  Ugh!  Bastards.  Despite all she’d been through she was a strong woman and I thought she was perfect for Boone and his over-the-top personality.

All I have to say is that if the rest of the Roughneck Billionaires books are like Dirty Money then I know I’m going to love the whole series.  If you haven’t picked this one – and don’t mind your heroes a little dirty – you’ll love this one.

Rating: 4 out of 5

four-stars


Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Guest Review: Beauty and the Billionaire: The Wedding by Jessica Clare

Posted December 2, 2016 by Tracy in Reviews | 0 Comments

Guest Review: Beauty and the Billionaire: The Wedding by Jessica ClareReviewer: Tracy
Beauty and the Billionaire: The Wedding by Jessica Clare
Series: Billionaire Boys Club #6.5
Also in this series: Beauty and the Billionaire, Once Upon a Billionaire, The Wrong Billionaire's Bed, Romancing the Billionaire, One Night With A Billionaire, His Royal Princess
Publisher: Intermix
Publication Date: November 15th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

In this all-new novella in the New York Times bestselling series, Hunter and Gretchen are finally tying the knot—but their wedding may not be the easy fairy tale they’ve dreamed of...

Someone's out to ruin Gretchen's happy-ever-after on the eve before the big day. Can she trust Hunter, the man she's given her heart to? And can she rely on her sister Daphne (the least reliable person of all!) to help her salvage things? Or is this marriage going to go down in flames before Gretchen and Hunter ever get to the altar?

Gretchen is getting married soon – on Christmas Eve no less – and she’s stressed!  She’s fired umpteen caterers for one reason or another, she keeps gaining weight instead of losing it because she keeps sampling her own baked goods and then when she visits her fiancé at his office she starts to think he’s being blackmailed!  Could nothing go right in her life?

Daphne is Gretchen’s famous singer sister and is six months out of rehab.  She’s doing really well with her life coach, Wesley.  He’s incredible and she’s madly in love with him but he keeps her at arms length and keeps telling her she’s just a job to him.  She’s upset and really missing her sisters as it’s the holidays.  She knows she screwed up royally and they deserted her but she’s willing to give it another try and hopes they’re willing as well.  She heads to Gretchen’s house and is surprisingly welcomed with open arms.  Her twin, Audrey, isn’t so welcoming but she’s been hurt so much by Daphne it’s understandable.

Both Gretchen and Daphne are looking for support in their time of need and that might come from each other but it may also come from the men they love.

This was a cute story.  We’ve been hearing about Gretchen and Hunter’s wedding for so long in so many books that we just knew that it was going to be the event of the century.  Opening this book and realizing that she’s a mess and so is the wedding was kind of a breath of fresh air.  Even fiancé’s of billionaires can fall apart and have things go wrong.  In this case it made Gretchen and Hunter that much more “normal” to me.

With Daphne we saw a woman who was trying to get her life back after screwing up so badly that her family gave up on her.  Daphne had had told them many times that she was going to do better but she always slid back into drugs and alcohol. I loved that she wanted to do better for her family and for Wesley, but mostly she wanted to do better for herself. She knows she can’t slide back to her old ways and Wesley was helping her.  I almost wish that Wesley hadn’t been her shadow for the last six months, however. Yes, he’d helped her so much but I also know that addicts tend to latch on to things (obviously) so it made me think that if Wesley hadn’t been the one keeping her on the straight and narrow for so long would she have fallen in love with him?  I know that’s my cynicism shining through but I admit that thought crossed my mind when she made it clear she was in love with him. I tried to push those thoughts aside and focus on the relationship.  We didn’t see any of them falling in love so it was hard for me to get into their romance but I was still happy that it all ended well for them.

While this was a pretty short novella but it was still worth reading.  Hopefully Clare’s next revisit these characters in future books.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

three-half-stars


Tagged: , , , , , , , ,

Guest Review: Billionaire on the Loose by Jessica Clare

Posted September 29, 2016 by Tracy in Reviews | 1 Comment

Guest Review: Billionaire on the Loose by Jessica ClareReviewer: Tracy
Billionaire on the Loose by Jessica Clare
Series: Billionaires and Bridesmaids #5
Also in this series: The Billionaire and the Virgin, The Taming of the Billionaire, The Billionaire Takes a Bride, The Billionaire's Favorite Mistake
Publisher: Intermix
Publication Date: September 20th 2016
Genres: Contemporary Romance
Add It: Goodreads
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | The Ripped Bodice | Google Play Books
three-half-stars
Series Rating: four-stars

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...

Taylor is a klutz.  She is a wiz kid when it comes to computers but out in real life she doesn’t do so well.  She spends most of her time playing an online game and working her tech support job from home.  When her friend Gretchen asks her to come out of her hole to show someone around she has no idea what she’s in for.

Loch is something like 5th in line to the throne of Bellissime.  Now that his cousin Alex has married an American (His Royal Princess) there are some factions in Bellissime that want to get Loch onto the throne instead of Alex.  He doesn’t want to be on the throne any more than the current queen wants him on the throne.  They decide to send Loch to America – supposedly for vacation – to get him out of the Bellissime public eye.  Once things have calmed down he can go home – but they’re thinking it will be a year or two.  Loch agrees but he’s certainly not happy about being away from his friends and homeland for that long.

Loch arrives in America and is bored silly.  He misses his drinking in the pub with his friends after a rousing polo match and he has nothing to do.  When he meets Taylor he’s surprised at how attracted to her he is as she’s not his type – and is a total klutz.  They spend the day together and have a great time – ending up in Taylor’s bed.  Loch really likes this girl but all of his attempts to get back together with her are thwarted by Taylor’s schedule.  He’s incredibly bored and just wants to go home to Bellissime.

Taylor really likes Loch as well but besides her game and work there’s another reason she’s not answering his calls.  She’s being emotionally blackmailed by a guy who plays her online game with her.  She keeps telling him she’s only his friend but he is needy and is pretty much cyber-stalking her.  He texts her constantly and threatens suicide when she doesn’t play or respond. She finally spends some time with Loch and finds herself falling in love with him. When Loch devises a plan to get back to Bellissime by marrying Taylor – a totally unsuitable American which will keep people from wanting him on the throne – he doesn’t bother telling Taylor what he’s doing.  She agrees and thinks he as in love with her as she is with him.  When she finds out the truth, however, Loch has a few lessons that he’ll learn whether he want to or not.

Billionaire on the Loose is a completely apt title for this book.  Loch is a wild card and has no idea of how real people live.  He’s wealthy and has servants to do things for him – he plays polo and drinks and generally has a good time.  There are people to do things for him so why do them himself?  When he gets to America to say he was adrift would be an understatement.  The guy wakes Taylor up after what’s supposed to be a one-night stand with her and asks her to make him breakfast.  In fact, I don’t think he actually asked – just said something to the effect of I want you to make me breakfast.  WTF?  Lol (FYI she didn’t) Luckily for Taylor (and the rest of us) he soon started doing things for himself.  I loved him most at the end of the book, however, as he finally figured his shit out and it changed his life.

Taylor was a good person.  She was just a computer nerd who had a degree that she really wasn’t using to its full advantage.  She loved playing her online game but when Sigmund started blackmailing her emotionally she felt she couldn’t quit.  Having Loch in her life really made her see a different side of herself and one she really liked.  Of course she was thoroughly hurt when she found out about Loch’s plan to marry her because she was unsuitable but in the end it worked out for her.  I loved her strength in the face of adversity.  I loved her quirkiness, her Dr. Who scarf that she wore even in warm weather, her Hello Kitty backpack that she carried instead of a purse – I just thought she was great.

Overall this was an adorable romance that made me smile – and it probably will do the same for you.

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

three-half-stars


Tagged: , , , , , , ,