GRR Reviews The Billionaires of Belmont Boxed Set by Shadonna Richards

Billionaires of Belmont series feels a bit lacking in the ending and polish departments. I will review the two books separately as they are separate books.

The setup was as follows: Jonah E. Belmont III had been given 6 months to live. Intending to see his children settled, he gave all his children one year to marry or settle into a long-term relationship... Or get written out of the will. And that would include all his bastard children too.

Book 1: Billionaire's Bride for a Day

Dane Romano-Belmont is one of the bastards of Belmont that was accepted and even took the surname. A love affair left him broken. A woman used him as rebound but went back to her ex, only to come back when she found he's a Belmont. He refused her (of course). Now he worked as the GM of the flagship hotel, content with work until he saw Olivia McAlister. Olivia was supposed to be wed on Christmas day... but on the night before the wedding, her groom did a runaway groom. She had practically put him through law school and his new salary was supposed to cover them both. Now she's groom-less, homeless (she already canceled her own lease, anticipating honeymoon and move-in), and about to be humiliated in front of her entire family and friends. And Dane, the kind GM... was the hottest man she'd ever seen. And he's willing to be her groom for a day. Then her ex died in a car crash, and angry loan-sharks demanding her to cough up the money, forcing Dane into alpha protector mode... But even as he kept telling himself "she's just in shock and needs a rebound", and she's telling herself "he just wants me as a friend", they are falling for each other... hard.

Frankly, the threat really made no sense. Loan sharks should know better than to go after a woman with no means to repay the loans her boyfriend took out. And what did Dane do? Not that much. The ending was almost all tell, no show. All in all it's barely 3/5.  It's more 2.5/5.

Book 2: Billionaire's Promise

Baby Brandon Knight was left on steps of a church by his mother and eventually adopted by a childless couple and given his current name. He grew up into a private investigator and developed security-related tech, and was working for the Belmonts when he suddenly found he was also a Belmont Bastard... and the offer to settle down was for him too. Brandon cared not for the Belmont fortune, but a professional organizer Faith Johnson here to help the Belmont Patriarch Jonah organize the family letters made him reconsider. Faith Johnson may be uncluttering other people's lives, but her own is a mess. An ex-fiancee drained her bank account AND maxed out the joint credit card, leaving her scrambling for $$$ to care for grandma in a nursing home. This professional organization service will pull her out of debt, and the Belmont account and the Ellimore account would give her some breathing room. Brandon Knight made her heart go flutter, but the Ellimore account... made her skin tingle, and not in a good way. Something is not right in that house... But was it the house, or was it her?

Without spoiling the story, let's just say Faith will be the really surprised one. But the suspense was not revealed properly, IMHO, or integrated into the plot that well. The solution, where Brandon gets to do his white knight thing felt really "tacked on". The reason made sense, but it didn't integrate into the plot that well. Again, the ending is all tell, no show. This one may have been rated 2/5.

Both together averaged out to be still 3/5, but it's really really close to slipping back to 2/5. Compared to other masterpieces, these are mediocre at best.

Category: Contemporary / Collection

Primary Plot: Two novel combo featured an interesting setup, but the individual plots feel un-integrated into the romances overall

Tropes: billionaire, different worlds, collection, weird will

Overall Rating:  3/5