2 stars. Terrible. One of the least romantic books I’ve ever read by Julie Garwood.
The extra star was for the mystery which was decent.
Let’s see… where to begin with this rant?
The heroine is a moron because she’s broke, losing her house, her company, and her whole family’s livelihood is in danger. Suddenly, she gets a large unexpected inheritance of over $80MILLION. But her dead uncle (who left her the money) insulted her mummy in his will, so she says “NO, I DON’T WANT THAT DIRTY MONEY!!” And is willing to let total jerks (her cousins) have it instead. But then the cousins also insult her mummy, so then she decides she will take the money but NO WAY WILL SHE USE IT TOWARDS ANYTHING FOR HERSELF!!! 🤡🤡🤡🤡 I have never before today wished for a book heroine to die a slow painful death...
But this girl was just the definition of TSTL.
The hero is a manwhore, and I absolutely loathe manwhores but I put up with them. In this case though, the hero and heroine have known each other for a long time, but he continues to whore it up in front of her. The ILYs at the end are full of a discussion of how she always came between him and his hookups. And how he always allowed her to because he loved her even then… he just didn’t realize it. UMMM WHAT NOW?!! 🤢🤢🤢🤢 I’m sorry, that’s not romantic and it’s literally the most awful way to tell someone you love them!
SO BASICALLY…
“It’s ok honey, all this time I’ve been fucking Tiffany, Amber, and Susie, it was you I really wanted!”
I seriously can’t with this book. I can’t believe I finished it only to get to THAT ending. Fml.
See below for quotes… bc I can’t not add this BS. The ending was the least romantic crap I’ve ever read. 💩
Unsafe bc my whole brain hurts from how terrible this book was. Hero manwhore, heroine not a virgin but may as well have been from the way she talked and acted. No others during this book but LOTS OF MENTIONS of his past. He thinks it’s HILARIOUS that he’s always been such a LLAAAAADIES MAN and the reader is never allowed to forget that fact. 🤮
———
“Every time I ran into you on Nathan’s Bay, you interfered with my love life. You were such a pain. When you weren’t screwing things up, you were acting like I wasn’t there. I was so damned mad at you all the time, but I kept coming back for more. Then it occurred to me that I always made it a point to find out when you were going to be there for the weekend, and I’d show up, too. Yes, I love you. It just took me awhile to figure it out. And when I did, I started calling you “pickle” just to make you crazy.”
“You knew I didn’t like it.”
“So? I didn’t much like being in love with you. For a long time there I thought you were ignoring me and it . . . unnerved me.”
———
“Yes.” He stepped toward her. “I love you.”
She was afraid to believe it. “Do you tell all of your girlfriends you love them before you leave them? Now that’s just mean.”
“Jill Murdock.”
She backed into the dining room. “Who?”
“Jill Murdock,” he repeated, coming toward her. “When she called the house, you told her I hadn’t made bail yet.”
“I don’t recall—”
“Heather Conroy.” He kept coming; she kept backing away. “You told her you were my wife, but you and I were keeping it quiet because we were first cousins.”
Kate smiled. She’d forgotten that one. “Actually, Jordan came up with that.”
“Stephanie Davis.”
“She bit her lower lip. “I don’t remember her.”
“I couldn’t take her out because I had bubonic plague and was quarantined,” he reminded.
“Those constant phone calls were irritating people.”
“Like who?”
“They irritated your mother.”
He looked absolutely incredulous for a couple of seconds and then burst out laughing. “My mother?”
She shrugged. “I suppose they may have irritated me, too,” she admitted.
He was looking a little too arrogantly pleased.