GRR Reviews Accidentally Flirting with the CEO 1 by Shadonna Richards

Accidentally Flirting with the CEO is trope as heck, and is only 1/3rd of a novel that ends on a cliffhanger.

Jess is a handsome and rich and drool-worthy boss, even the play-it-safe PA Alexa admits that. But Alexa is on a man-fast after a heartbreak. She was taking a writing class and wrote a fictional story featuring her and boss Jess. But when she sent it to her friend for critique... she accidentally sent it to Jess. And Jess is now intrigued and wanted to find out more... even as Alexa is mortified...

Cliffhanger as this is the free 1/3rd preview of the whole thing. Just didn't feel much more than the standard "hot for boss" and "oops boss saw my secret". It's also a cliffhanger. Meh.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman on a man-fast accidentally send her fiction (featuring her boss) to her boss!

Overall Rating: 2/5

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

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

GRR Reviews The Billionaire's Promise (Billionaires of B by Shadonna Richards

The Billionaire's Promise showed some promise matching a private investigator and a professional organizer. But the threat was not integrated into the plot and there wasn't much for the investigator to do. It's almost as if the two plots were arrived at separately and forced together.

Brandon Knight was left on steps of a church by his mother, and eventually adopted by a childless couple. 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 (one of the various kids fathered by the patriarch Jonah Belmont)... and the offer to marry and be written into the Belmont patriarch's will applied to him too. Brandon cared not for the Belmont fortune, but meeting Faith Johnson made him reconsider. Faith is a professional organizer who was there to help the family patriarch Jonah to organize the family letters. 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, and this professional organization service was her ticket to get out of debt, and the Belmont account and the Ellimore account would give her some breathing room. Brandon Knight at the Belmont house made her heart go flutter, but the Ellimore house made her skin tingle, and not in a good way. Something is not right in that house. Why do the people there look at her funny?

The suspense did not feel properly integrated into the plot. Without spoiling the story, let's just say there will be a threat to Faith's well-being, and Brandon will be there just in time for a rescue. Frankly, what reason did he have to get in there is suspect. I find the threat to be half-non-sense, and the ending was a all tell, no show, and a flame-out.

Category: Romantic Suspense / Contemporary

Primary Plot: Private investigator meets professional organizer, then the organizer stumbled into a conspiracy...

Tropes: law enforcement, different worlds, family secrets

Overall Rating:  2/5

GRR Reviews The Billionaire's Bride for a Day (Billionair by Shadonna Richards

Billionaire's Bride for a Day featured a sweet romance between two wounded people, but the threat to FMC was really lame, and the twists don't seem properly escalated.

Dane Romano-Belmont is one of those bastard children taken into the Belmont empire. His father threatened to write him out of the will if he doesn't marry within the year, but a love affair left him broken before. The woman, who had just broken up with her ex, had his heart, then went back to her ex, then tried to get back to him when she found he's a Belmont. He wasn't stupid. Now he worked as the GM of the Belmont 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 broke up with her and 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 hotel GM... was the hottest man she'd ever seen. And he's willing to be her groom for a day, to help her get through it. Then her ex suddenly showed up, ran off, and died in a car crash, then angry loan-sharks demanding her to cough up huge amounts of money her now dead BF supposedly took, forcing Dane to jump into the alpha protective mode... calling in favors from his family PI and the police. 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.

The chemistry between the two was just... weird. Dane falling for Olivia, I have no problem with, maybe he's ready to try again. But Olivia, having been jilted one night, ready to be humiliated in front of everybody the next day, then watched her BF of many years DEAD, THEN get threatened by loansharks... Dane's a great shoulder to cry on, but fall for him like that? In just a couple days? Also, what sort of stupid loansharks go after a social worker with no money, because her BF had a gambling problem? What a bunch of idiots. The threat doesn't make sense, and the romance feels really weird. The ending just feels... rushed and it's almost all tell, no show. Overall, you could find better romances to read.

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Jilted bride's groom suddenly showed up at the hotel, ran off, and got killed. Now loansharks are after her, and the hotel GM has to call in favors to protect her and make her happy...

Tropes: resort, jilted, protector, woman in peril,

Overall Rating:  3/5 (rounded up)

GRR Reviews The Matchmaker Bride (The Bride Series) by Shadonna Richards

The Matchmaker Bride featured an almost perfect woman (people pleaser, volunteer at autism center, sweet and pretty) and an almost perfect guy (rich, handsome, loving) but they are not quite right for each other due to circumstances. The twists are nice, but somehow the chemistry between the two was somewhat lacking.

Sophie is the newest matchmaker for Stone's Elite Matchmakers, an agency that specializes in elite and discreet matchmaking for the rich and famous. Her first assignment was to interview Carlos Bradley III, who needed a marriage of convenience ASAP, no reason given. In reality, Carlos needed a bride so he can fight for custody of an autistic child, whose mother had expressed no interest in the child until it was learned that the child is worth a fortune in inheritance. Carlos found himself attracted instead to Sophie, rather than any candidates she proposed. When Carlos also found that Sophie's volunteering at a school with autistic kids, she's perfect for him. But Sophie's job prevents her from dealing with clients... even though she enjoyed Carlos' attention...

The main problem here is Sophie acts like a hormonal teenager around Carlos, and he noticed. But why is there chemistry? It sounds like a girl crush on a rich guy (who's used to the sort of attention, and he flirts back, making her blush some more. But that's not chemistry. Once they got to the push-pull phase, and the additional autism angle converged with the main plot, the story turns interesting, but by then we're almost to the end of the book where Carlos just needed to "seal the deal", so to speak. The main obstacle between the two is Sophie's reluctance, being 1) "he's my client, I can't date clients" and 2) "He's rich, I'm not worthy". ARGH!!!!!

Category: Contemporary

Primary Plot: Man fell for his matchmaker, even as he needs a bride ASAP to win custody of an autistic child whose mother is only going to use him as a moneybag;

Tropes: matchmaker, marriage of convenience, single parent

Overall Rating:  3/5