The Billionaire’s Embrace (The Silver Cross Club Book 2) – [kindle edition] $3.99
When Regan and Carter met, she was a cocktail waitress at the exclusive Silver Cross Club, and he was a wealthy client.Now that they’re officially dating, Regan is having difficulty adjusting to their new roles. Carter is perfect in every way — maybe too perfect. Regan fears that he’ll never be able to understand her humble background.
When a family tragedy calls Regan home to California, her burgeoning relationship with Carter is thrown into crisis.
Confronted with the past she worked so hard to leave behind, Regan must decide between succumbing to her fears and moving forward into an unknown future…
Please note that this work is an erotic romance with explicit content and is intended for an adult audience.
**Spoilerish review**
I’m writing this particular note while half way through this story which so far has just pissed me the fuck off. First of all, as half pinoy, I am insulted. My mother is a Filipino and while I was raised in a mixed house hold, I know enough about the culture and its people to know that the bullshit mother, cousin and leading lady in this story really put a negative spin on a nation of some of the most amazing people in the entire world.
I was going to start off by editing out the top comment, but decided that I didn’t want to do that because it embraces completely how I was feeling about the book when I thought that I wouldn’t be able to finish it. But, I was able to finish it and I’m ready to give you my thoughts.
First thought, I stored 40 quotes half of which I left notes on. This is based on me going back and looking at my stored quotes on the Kindle Amazon site. Wonderful feature by the way. Quotes are usually handy when I’m trying to remember what I think are relevant and important aspects to a story that I want to share. With this book though, I was just getting so annoyed and frustrated with Reagan Cabatu that I just wanted to vent about her. So here goes.
Let’s back up just a little bit here first, book one Serving the Billionaire had the makings of being a sweet romantic story of two people finding each other, albeit in a fairly unique manner and developing and nurturing that love. Book 2 was, I thought, going to expand upon that. It didn’t. I give you no illusions, this book is down-right depressing roughly 65% of the time. That seems high right? I’m basing that % on where I was located in the book. What bothered me most that this girl, was her overwhelming negative outlook on everything.
I knew the job wouldn’t last—I would mess up eventually, and get fired, or they would go out of business, or the building would burn down in a fire…
And this continues throughout most of the first half of the book.
Dreams were dangerous. They gave you big ideas; they made you think that your life could be bigger, more meaningful, than was actually possible. I had spent my entire life deliberately tamping down my dreams, like useless soil underfoot.
I didn’t know how much I could take of her. She was so fucking depressing. She had not one ray of sunshine in her life. The man that she clearly cared about a great deal wasn’t enough to bring her out of her funk. I didn’t even know why I was bothering or why she was. It seem like she could ever come out of it.
I was completely put off by some of the sequence of events. She has a trip back home at one point and while it’s supposed to be significant, it further proved that she had no idea of who she was. She even has this weird encounter with an ex and it just left me feeling awkward and annoyed.
We were fooling ourselves, of course. Too much time had passed. We had lost our old intimacy, and would never get it back. But it was nice to pretend for a while
By this point, I was ready to leave Reagan in the dust. Fuck it. But then we get to hear from Carter.
Initially Carter’s story doesn’t start out any better, but with an encounter with Sadie, Reagan’s best friend, the tide finally turns and the story shifts from bleak sadness to, a more uplifting love story. Like I thought we were initially going to be reading.
One of my favorite things about Carter is the pet names he has for Reagan. He would be what I imagine a Daddy dom to be like. He calls Reagan his Little Girl and for the first time it didn’t feel creepy or weird. His endearment towards her was heartfelt and genuine. This whole book should have been his story. I rooted for him so much. I just wanted him to be so happy and it felt like the author wanted it for him too
I wanted to go outside and call her, listen to her voice on the other end of the line, and tell her that I loved her and never wanted to be apart.
He was also charming and funny, which just endears you to him more.
“Nice place,” she said, looking around as I led her into the living room. “Not as over-the-top as I expected.” “What did you have in mind?” I asked. “Oil paintings of myself all over the wall? Gold-plated marble statues of nude women?”
“You just don’t understand the struggle of the white man,” I told her
I would love to hear more about Carter (and Reagan). I wish the story had been told differently. I had never anticipated such negativity from Reagan so it was disarming and disappointing. This could have been a 4.5 story. Instead it gets an iffy 3.5. If you can get past a severely depressed woman, then you’re golden. Read it and relish in its simplicity. If you can’t, well, then pass on this. Or skip to Carters story, though for $1.99, well that I’ll leave you to ponder.
Raunchy Reads 