The Billionaire Next Door Jessica Bird

Bloody Hell. The things I learn after.

This book was the first in a series about three brothers. Guess what? No plans on the horizon to come back to it. I really wanted to read Mac's story. Ah well. I have a few more from Bird's back list yet.

Onwards!

The Billionaire Next Door is awesome.

It was just what I needed, a story with two people falling in love. Sure there were the misunderstandings waiting in the wings but I knew they were going to show up because He-llo, Silhouette Special Edition.

Cindy Blurb: Sean O'Banyon is rich, like the title says and has made his way up from nothing. He's used to the world he lives in and sees every one around him for what they are, sharks in suits.

What the world doesn't know about O'Banyon is that his father was an alcoholic and abused him and his brothers, Mac and Billy during most of their childhood. The brothers left that life behind and never spoke of it again.

Lizzie Bond is the downstairs neighbour of an old gruff man who has been her friend for a few years. It is a sad time for her when he dies of a heart attack and she is finally allowed to call a number for a son, Sean O'Banyon.

There are lots of hurdles here.

Lizzie is a nurse working two jobs to make ends meet and lives a fairly simple life helping out her upstairs neighbour. She is a great heroine who is able to see pain in people and recognize when to push and went to let go. To say Lizzie is living pay check to pay check is generous but she is not a person looking for handouts. I really enjoyed her mother in the story as well.

Sean, meanwhile, meets Lizzie and feels refreshed. She doesn't recognize him or want anything from him. She's just attracted to the man and Sean avoids telling her who he is or what his father did to him and his brothers.

Thinking on it, Sean got lucky cause not many people could forgive as much a Lizzie did.

Halfway through the story Sean finally tells her who he is and she is shocked and upset. Why did a rich man let his father languish all alone. Sensing more to it Lizzie lets her anger go and once again they start down the path of falling in love.

The revelations are left until almost the very end which did give the reader more time to see Lizzie and Sean fall in love instead of having to deal with things extremely heavy at the beginning of a relationship. In the end, I enjoyed the romance and the sexiness and I, of course, wanted to know more about the other two brothers. Okay, I want to know more about Mac.

B+

Books read for 2009 - Eight!!

A Man In A Milliong by Jessica Bird

I know!

I'm completely floored.

I have just finished my second book of the year. I don't think this happened last year until June!

Take that Slumpville (once again, I'm trying to ignore it's existence, hence, it doesn't exist. Mind over matter and all that noise.)

Cindy Blurb: Spike (OMG, she just can't help herself, can she - by she I'm talking Ward) the hero of this cute little book is one bad ass mofo with the downy soft innards of a Boston Creme pie.

Mmmm, pie.

Ooops. I'm hungry.

Onwards.

Basically Mad is crushing on this Spike guy killer huge but she's not exactly a femme fatale and figures he's into the finer women in life. Not sure why exactly as he's huge and tattooed and not exactly the kind of guy I would find fascinating but a female hard core athlete would totally fall for this guy. And since Mad is exactly that - well, she has some issues.

And he does too.

Keep in mind this *is* a Silhouette there are things that have to happen. I found all of Spike's reasons for worrying about falling for the hot babe completely feasible. Mad's crap was more soap opera plotting but hey, certain things have to happen in a category.

Mad thinks Spike is perfection and Spike thinks Mad is perfection but we can't have the story over in a couple pages. So we have misunderstandings right off the bat which were annoying and almost had me putting the book down. I kept going which proved an excellent choice.

The middle of the story was the best part and sure the ending wasn't bad but the drama at the end was a bit much. The middle of the story was more about the sexual heat these two people feel for each other and it felt more honest and very adult. It was later that the childish tendencies of Mad came to the fore and wrecked havoc.

Probably need more on the plot:

Basically Mad comes from an extremely rich family and has to finally face her half brother with some demands over the family business. Since this brother put her down all her life she has reservations about being alone.

Spike (a friend of a friend) comes to back her up. There's a half-sister in the story who reminded me so much of Bella from The Brothers series and of course, she needs to play a role in the devastation.

I liked this story for all the reasons I used to love the Brother books. This is a romance and there is no suspense or anything too corny besides the evil half brother (who is probably the original Rhev).

When Mad and Spike could be honest they hit it off great. They knew that they were in love but had too many reasons not to say it. The sexual tension and sex scenes themselves were great and there was even a scene that made my eyes burn like I was going to cry.

Maybe that's PMS but still, not many authors can make my eyes burn with unshed tears. (I did not cry!)

What you will find in A Man In A Million are the trademark Bird/Ward male characters with 'street' language and man on man support of friendship. Not to mention the hero is just blown away by the heroine and has a lot of 'OMG, she wants me!' kind of reactions.

But I loved it.

B-

Get this I went onto the Jessica Bird website and discovered at least two books that I bought long before I ever knew who she was. I hope I still have them!

I've also decided to continue on in my quest to read more books by picking up the categories I have in my TBR pile. I can't remember who mentioned it but you can definitely spike up your reading numbers and I need to keep on this new roll!

I should note that at no time while reading this book was I thinking about how many books I have read or that I need to blog about this immediately. I was sucked right in and thought of nobody but me and the characters in the book.

Which explains why I'm hungry cause I didn't stop to eat!