Series Spotlight - Bad Billionaires Series by Julie Kriss - Part II

Rich Dirty Dangerous

The hero of this book is Cavan, older brother of Devin from the first book.  You don’t have to have read the previous two books to read this one, but they are both most excellent so I’m thinking you should anyway.  Bit of a backstory.  Devin and Cavan had terrible childhoods.  Their father disappeared early in their lives and their mother went from boyfriend to boyfriend until finally she was murdered by the last one.  Eighteen year old Cavan took off leaving behind sixteen year old Devin.  Devin and Cavan inherited a huge amount of money from an unknown grandfather.  Devin got his share in the first book and has been looking for Cavan to make sure Cavan gets his.  Cavan gets a brief chapter at the end of the second book and now this one is his story.

Cavan is associated but not part of a vicious motorcycle gang.  He’s their tattoo guy.  While he has some autonomy, when they want something, he is expected to do it.  So when the gang leader expects Cavan to do a tattoo on his old lady, Cavan really has no choice but to comply.  He really figures he’s screwed and the president is a violently jealous guy and one finger in the wrong place could lead to serious trouble for Cavan.  He’s left briefly alone with Dani and in that short amount of time she pleads with him to help her get away.  Cavan is most reluctant to help, mostly because of the danger to them both, but she brings out the big guns and tells him she knows that people are looking for him and that’s he a new billionaire.  Cavan agrees and thus begins their road trip to escape.

Before we learn the why, it’s been easy to not like Cavan.  He left his younger brother alone at a time when Devin really needed him but we learn the why when Cavan begins telling Dani his story, we get to see why he did what he did and feel for the choices he made and why he made them. 

And we learn some unexpected things about Dani’s past too while the two of them are trying to escape the gang that has a long reach.

As with the first two books, I loved this one.  Cavan is a deliciously good hero and once he commits to helping Dani, he is all in.  While he is very attracted to her, considering who she was involved with, he is patient and when the barriers do come down, very tender with her.

Dani is wickedly good as a heroine.  Though a number of years younger than Caven, about six or so, she is unusually mature for her age.  She knows how incredibly stupid she was in getting involved with this nasty gang of criminals but is determined to get free.  She feels bad for the pressure she put on Cavan but was desperate to get away before she was killed.  She really does appreciate what she has in Cavan.  I’m not a fan of millionaire/billionaire books and tend to pass on them very quickly when one comes up.  But because these guys came late into their money, it’s not like they have any sense of entitlement or are spoiled in any way.  They are rough and that’s the kind of hero I much prefer.

There is one more books left in the series, then I’m done.  I’m going to be sad then as these books are so readable and so enjoyable and I’m quite impresses with the author Julie Kriss.

Grade: A

Outline: The stripper who came to my door got the wrong apartment.
I was planning to tell her. But she kissed me first.

Max

You’d never know I’m a millionaire. I wear jeans and t-shirts. I’m a recluse. Afghanistan left me with scars inside and out. All I want is to be left alone.

I sure as hell didn’t order the stripper who showed up. All I know is that the hottest, sweetest woman I’ve ever seen is naked in my lap.

I don’t even know her name, but I want her. No good can come of this. And suddenly, I don’t care.

Gwen

I strip for money. It’s just a job. Until I meet Mr. Wrong Apartment.

He’s big and dangerous. Grumpy and damaged. Biceps that make me want to cry. One wrong house call, and suddenly I’m breaking my own rules.

Things are spinning out of control. We’re both broken. Maybe we can’t be fixed. Together we’re fire and gasoline. But I might let everything burn if he’ll just touch me one more time…

Grade: A

Back in Black

And alas, with so many good things, we come to the end with this book.  This one is Ben’s story, the lawyer who was introduced to us in the first book.  He’s a bad boy type hero who has woven in and out of all the previous books.  His father was a very distinguished lawyer and Ben feels such guilt that he never measured up.  He’s a lawyer like his father but his clientele is mostly criminals and he’s quite well acquainted with motorcycle gangs as he’s their go to lawyer when they run afoul of the law – as motorcycle gang members tend to do.  But when one of his clients inherits over $1billion, he scales back a lot of his other unsavoury clients to focus on Devon and then Max and following that Kaven.

It’s been hinted throughout that Ben was married and things blew up and the marriage and subsequent breakup turned ugly.  Thus it seems he’s not a good candidate for any kind of lasting relationship.  But since this is a romance, THIS IS WRONG.  He’s perfect.  And his match to be turns out to be Charlotte.  They meet when her younger brother gets into trouble and is in jail and insists to his big sister that Ben is the only lawyer who can help him.

The previous books have an interesting blend of light and dark, serious and amusing and this is the cutest of them.  Both Ben and Charlotte are such a hoot.  Charlotte is one of those “managing” kind of people.  In order to help pay the lawyer bill, she agrees to be his office manager and boy does his office need managing.  In some ways he’s very precise, but in others completely disorganized.  One of the funniest, cutest scenes is when Ben is in court, Charlotte doesn’t like the location of his office.  It’s in a run down, sleazy strip mall area. It was ok when his clients were mostly criminals, but now that he’s coming up in the world and working with billionaires, she decides and Devin, his main client agrees, that location, location, location is what it’s all about and WHILE HE IS IN COURT she moves his office to a better part of the city.  That just really tickled my funny bone big time.  There were so many scenes in this book that may have passed over my head the moment I was reading them, but then came back only moments later and cracked me up.  There was a scene where Ben’s sister is telling Charlotte how into her Ben was because he told his sister “I have an assistant”.  That amused me to no end.  While not necessarily laugh out loud funny, this book had so many charming scenes.

It wasn’t all light and fun.  There were certainly serious moments.  It does deal with motorcycle gangs after all.  But I know for absolute sure I’m going to be reading at least this book, if not all the rest again.

So, in finishing, I’m sad the series is done.  I loved all the books in this Bad Billionaire series and the best I can say is – Buy Them.  They Are Good.

Grade: A+

Outline: I've never been a hero. I'm the lawyer every third-rate criminal calls when he's been arrested - again. Or I was, until one of my clients became one of the richest men in the country. Now I'm supposed to clean up my act.

It isn't so easy. I dress more like a biker than a lawyer, and I have friends in low places. As for women, ten years ago the divorce from hell left me scarred - I live alone, I sleep alone. Trust me, it's for the good of womankind.

Then Charlotte showed up on my doorstep. Willing to work as my assistant to pay off her brother's legal bill. Beautiful and determined, even against the men trying to hurt her. She tells me I drive her crazy. She drives me crazy right back.

I hired her.
I watched her turn my life upside down.
I saved her.
I knocked her up.
And then I fell for her.

They say a bad boy can't be a good man. But they've never met me. And they don't know how determined I can be.

Final Thoughts:

 This has been a wonderful series.  As I read it over time, not back to back.  I’ve gone on to read other books by this author and I know I’ll be doing this for other series.  She’s in the middle of writing another one and if the third and fourth books are as good as the first two, well it will just solidify even stronger what a great author I find Ms. Kriss to be.

This has been a wonderful series.  As I read it over time, not back to back.  I’ve gone on to read other books by this author and I know I’ll be doing this for other series.  She’s in the middle of writing another one and if the third and fourth books are as good as the first two, well it will just solidify even stronger what a great author I find Ms. Kriss to be.

This has been a wonderful series.  As I read it over time, not back to back.  I’ve gone on to read other books by this author and I know I’ll be doing this for other series.  She’s in the middle of writing another one and if the third and fourth books are as good as the first two, well it will just solidify even stronger what a great author I find Ms. Kriss to be.

Series Spotlight - Bad Billionaires Series by Julie Kriss - Part I

 

In continuing with this series highlight theme, this is another series I have to share.  I’ve been almost obsessed by this author recently.  I’ve been reading all her backlist and rereading many I’ve already read.  I discovered her with this series a while ago and after somehow losing track, I rediscovered her.  But this is where the love started.

Bad Billionaire - Book 1

I tend to avoid any millionaire/billionaire/CEO type book as I'm much fonder of a blue collar hero. Added to that, there’s nothing like a bad boy eh? So at first glance when I read the title, considering how many books I have yet to read, it was a pass. But when I noticed the hero was a car mechanic who had spent time in "the joint", I thought ‘hhhmmm’ and decided to have a go. Good thing. I liked this one. A lot. Devon, a loner with a sad past met and connected with his neighbor Olivia. But Devon is involved in criminal activities. It's not that he wants too, but he's kind of being forced into it to protect a friend. He's caught before he can really establish anything with Olivia and spends the next couple of years in jail.

Just before he's released he finds out from his lawyer that he’s inherited a fortune from a grandfather he'd never met. Once he's out, he wants to really get a relationship going with Olivia but his newly discovered wealth changes the dynamics of things.  She hasn’t forgotten him over the years after his mysterious disappearance.  So once he explained where he’d been and that he hadn’t forgotten about her either, after some hesitation on her part, she’s ready to reestablish their relationship.

As I said, I enjoyed this book and had a hard time putting it down. Both Devon and Olivia were interesting and believable people.  Devon is very far from perfect.  He did what he went to jail for but still he’s very easy to like.  Olivia is a bit on the naive side but other than that she’s a good match for Devon.

I quite appreciated the fact that while Devon is now super rich, he doesn't have that mentality, having lived on the streets and on his own for so long.  Thus he doesn’t act like your typical billionaire, instead he’s quite rough and dirty – but definitely dirty in a good way.  This is a great introduction to a new to me author and I look forward to more books.

Just to make this even more tempting to try, it’s free on Amazon.  I originally gave this book a B but after rereading it, I uppped the grade to a well deserved

Grade: A-

OUTLINE:  I’m no one. A mechanic. A getaway driver. A thief.

I was born on the streets, and I like it rough — life, sex, everything. My job is dirty. My past is dirty. So is my future.

Until I get out of prison and discover I’ve inherited a billion dollars.

I’m not a good billionaire. I don’t care about penthouses, fancy dinners, or private jets. I don’t care about life and death. Hell, I don’t even care about money. I’m willing to spend every penny of it on one thing.

Find the woman who gave me one unforgettable night before I went down. The woman who is too good for me. The woman I can never have.

Dirty Sweet Wild - Book 2

 

I really enjoyed the first book, in fact reread it all over again, bought this one, didn’t get around to reading it and then forgot about this author and her books.  Bad me, bad, bad me.

So this one is the story of Max who is best friend of Devon from the first book.  They met as young lads and have been friends ever since.

Towards the end of Bad Billionaire, Devon who came into a pile of money, gave five million to Max and Max is not happy, not happy at all with this gift.

Max is my kind of hero.  He’s a broken down war veteran.  He was wounded pretty badly in Afghanistan, lost a leg and suffers from PTSD.  He’s a loner and grouchy as all get out. He doesn’t handle change well and being given $5 million is something he struggles with.  He can use some money sure as he doesn’t have enough to continue his therapy for either the loss of his leg or his PTSD but other than that he wants no part of the money and $5 million is overkill.  He lives in a rather dangerous section of town and is perfectly fine living there.  Other than Devin he bothers no one and no one bothers him.  So he’s a bit surprised one evening when there is a knock at his door, he doesn’t get visitors, and this gorgeous young woman comes in and starts taking her clothes off.

Turns out she does strip-o-graming and she got apartments mixed up and went to the wrong one.  Eventually Max gets around to telling her, but not before she does strip down some.

Gwen, who coincidentally is the sister of Olivia, Devon’s love interest from book #1, is rocked by her attraction to Max and though it’s very much against her style, she may strip for a living but she doesn’t ‘give it up’, she can’t resist Max.  And being the hermit that he is, it’s been a long time and Max is open to work with her.  After a blistering hot encounter, Gwen leaves. 

But I really get a kick out of her because she can’t forget and comes back several days later to tell Max she’s not a slut and she just doesn’t do that kind of thing and Max believes her.  Because the chemistry is so strong, they continue to see each other as Gwen slowly begins breaking down his walls.  She’s a catalyst for Max starting to heal.  And Max is equally good for Gwen.

This book has more humor and less angst than the first book.  I really enjoyed the first book with its intensity and I really enjoyed this book with its wounded characters, especially grouchy bear Max.  While I kind of lost track of Ms. Kriss and this series, I sure am glad I found them again.

Grade: A

OUTLINE:

The stripper who came to my door got the wrong apartment.
I was planning to tell her. But she kissed me first.

Max
You’d never know I’m a millionaire. I wear jeans and t-shirts. I’m a recluse. Afghanistan left me with scars inside and out. All I want is to be left alone.

I sure as hell didn’t order the stripper who showed up. All I know is that the hottest, sweetest woman I’ve ever seen is naked in my lap.

I don’t even know her name, but I want her. No good can come of this. And suddenly, I don’t care.

Find her. Get revenge on the man that hurt her. And make her mine.

Gwen

I strip for money. It’s just a job. Until I meet Mr. Wrong Apartment.

He’s big and dangerous. Grumpy and damaged. Biceps that make me want to cry. One wrong house call, and suddenly I’m breaking my own rules.

Things are spinning out of control. We’re both broken. Maybe we can’t be fixed. Together we’re fire and gasoline. But I might let everything burn if he’ll just touch me one more time…