GRR Reviews Buyer Beware by Colleen Charles

Marcella is dirt-poor and too proud to beg. She's got a brilliant mind and got scholarships... Except her brother kept stealing her money and spent it all on the casino tables, despite multiple interventions, visits to Gambler's Anonymous, and so on. So she's stuck doing housekeeping in a sucky hotel owned by an Elvis Impersonator. Then one day she met Nixon, hotel mogul... // Nixon knew he should not fall for Marcella, who's innocence incarnate, but he had never felt that way toward any woman before... He was too busy taking care of his family and keeping the family hotel thriving... and fend off a demonic rival hotelier who destroyed his father. Nixon knew Marcella is his... and he has a plan... But what will Marcella do when she realized she had been manipulated, even with the best of intentions?

While sweet, there really wasn't that special about it. The characters aren't especially deep, plot wasn't especially great, and for all the "demon" the bad guy turned out to be, the final solution was a total letdown.

Category: Contemporary

Overall Rating: 3/5

NOTE: Tropes are now in the "Labels" below. 

GRR Review: Bait by Colleen Charles

Bait by Colleen Charles is a contemporary "billionaire" romance that pivoted into a "fake love to real romance" story.

Charlene "Charlie" de Monaco, a new hire corporate lawyer, joined the firm to do real estate projects that will benefit the poor in the city, but her first job was to clean up Nolan Bank's reputation, such as claims of paternity and such. Then Nolan tried to bluff a rival group and got in something so big not even Charlie can get him out of it... Except for one last gambit...  Nolan announced Charlie as his fiancee in order to salvage the big real estate deal he's managed to blow up. But Charlie cannot deny that Nolan was nothing like the guy described in the tabloids, and she was falling for him...

By cutting the book into 3 portions, the author managed to put in a conclusion for all three parts, and cliffhanger in two, which is sort of annoying but nothing major because there are all three parts in this collection (unlike if I had to buy them separately).

There is one major problem, in that the evil folks in this book seem to be just... evil for no reason other than they can. It's just a "flat" evil. It was just... pathetic evil. And it's almost as if Charlie enjoy like being a doormat... and occasionally just flee. That's why I can only rate this series average. Nolan, at least, came across as both calculating and kind.

Category: Contemporary / Bad Boy

Primary Plot:  Lawyer with job of cleaning up billionaire bad boy's mess found he's not that bad after all, was forced into fake engagement to save his deal, falls for him for real

Tropes: protector, hot for boss, commitment-phobe, fake engagement

Overall Rating:  3/5