All Strings Attached

by Sara Vice

Victor Crane just ruined her life.

He said no at the altar, to her best friend in the world. Now Erin must piece together the reasons why. Working for the billionaire media mogul was always an afterthought in Erin’s head, because she’s not impressed by money. All she knows is she has to pay the bills for her brother since mom passed. But now that Victor rejected Reneya, the bridesmaids’ jobs are in danger. And he won’t speak with anyone… except her.

Erin is determined to resist him at all costs…

But a billionaire’s game is not easily won.


All Strings Attached is an enemies-to-lovers billionaire romance with steam, mind games, and a happily-ever-after.

202 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 12, 2023

Reviews

[Grisette · Rating 1 out of 5]

1.2 stars

I was attracted by the 'left at the altar' trope, but unfortunately this book was very awkwardly written. The 3rd person narrative was hard to follow, being leaden somewhat by the very weird writing style. And most of the characters were infuriatingly whiny annoying and vulgar, or gave me whiplash with their confusing personalities - another element that gives little incentive to forgive the already woozy story.

And that's a bit sad because the plot outline was quasi genius and had big potential to be awesome to the level of twisty plot authors like e.g. Natasha Knight... if only the writing had followed! Imagine this raw scenario: the mousy h is highly offended on behalf of her jilted bff and is convinced by said bff to continue to work with the H in order to understand why the brutal public humiliation happened. Along the way, the h gets confused by the H's sudden intimate interest in her, her own attraction to him, her loyalties to her bff, enmities at the workplace and feeling like a pawn in possible mind games played by either the H or her bff (or both) as so many conflicting 'truths' are thrown her way. Definitively a story with so many exciting possibilities! I do applaud the author for such imaginative scenario and all the twists she put in it (the reason for upping my rating a bit)... but the execution needed to be much, much more wholesome.

Here's to hoping that the author takes this friendly criticism constructively and someday gets to rewrite this book better - I would sure be ready to read it.

[Jess Morgan]

This book is fucking crazytown.

I can't elaborate on that any further without diving into the plot, so let's just do that. There's a billionaire named Victor Crane, and he's dumping bride Reneya at the altar. She and her BFF, Erin, whose thing is candles, both work in marketing for his company, Dolly's Media.



Don't get excited. I have no idea why he named it that. Maybe he was a partial funder of that sheep-cloning project. Erin gets Reneya back to her own place, accompanied by a third BFF/coworker, Milly. Her thing is falling down a lot. They have a fourth, Stacey Rocks, whose thing is being a complete bitch to everyone all the time for no particular reason. And a fifth, Huck Connor, whose thing is also being Victor's BFF. I need to clarify that Victor Crane, Stacey Rocks, Huck Connor, and Sara Vice (the author) are all real names and not the stars of a Pornhub video called HOT MARKETING SLUTS STACEY ROCKS AND SARA VICE TAKE BILLION-DOLLAR LOADS FROM VICTOR CRANE AND HUCK CONNOR. Which would be much less convoluted than what we're about to consume.

After a few days of comforting Reneya, Erin goes back to work, mostly to confront Victor. Of the four ladies, she's the only one with whom he cares to speak. Why?

"I've been analyzing Reneya's friends for three years now. How they react exaggeratedly to quite ordinary stories, how they swoon for every party thrown and cheer for lavishness. But not you.... you are the only one who never bowed so despicably low to the power and glam that my position provides. Not once.... You are too pure to become entangled."



Hey, dumb dumb, if you didn't want anyone to become "entangled" in your "power and glam," you could have just not let them see any of it. You know Warren Buffett? World's fifth-richest man? Who still lives in his $250k house in Omaha and drives a 2014 Cadillac? And who doesn't talk like Scar from The Lion King? Maybe try that.

Anyway, to prove her incorruptible pure pureness, Erin stands her ground and tears strip after strip off him for breaking her best friend's heart. And also for hinting that he's going to fire Reneya, which would make an instant harassment suit elsewhere. Victor won't explain why, but he does accept Erin's resignation--and offers her Reneya's higher-ranking position. She refuses, but she does wonder if this means he has "a thing" for her. But that would be impossible, she decides, because she has the least "Botox and fillers" of the four girls.

Oh, for God's sake. Golly gee, could this enormously rich and handsome man want to have sex with moi? The one with natural beauty, professional talent, integrity, and loyalty? And not some stupid, shallow, manipulative, collagen-injected trash ho who sucks at everything? I'm not like those other girls! I just don't understand this!

Ren says Erin must take her job. Erin wonders why. Out of the goodness of her heart, perhaps, knowing Erin has a sick brother to provide for and candles to buy? Or because Ren wants to maintain a connection to that power/glam crowd that Erin never really liked anyway but still got to enjoy because



Except she's not, because she jills off to Victor that very night. But ultimately she does take the job, because Ren needs her to spy on Victor and find out the real reason he dumped her. Maybe it's because she's the sort of person who would actually ask their BFF to do such a thing, and for all Victor's praise of Erin's "character," she's easily cowed into whatever everyone else in her life demands of her. But it's cool. She yelled at a rich dude that one time. She's real.

Upon arriving, Erin is shown to her new office and told that Stacey is now under her direct supervision. This is what Stacey has to say moments before:

"...I can't remember the last time I saw you on a date. There must be cobwebs growing down there... (referring to Erin's white outfit) White for virgin. Celebrating the regrowth of your hymen?"



But she isn't. She's still Erin's coworker and (in theory) friend.

...WHY.

Erin is driven to lunch with Victor, who lauds her for doing her own job very competently, as well as everyone else's job. She won't accept any of his compliments. She just wants answers about Ren. All he tells her is that Ren knows perfectly well why he jilted her and sent Erin in to do her dirty work anyway, even though Erin hates Victor and everything he can buy. Erin scores one point off him by secretly arranging to pay for her half of the meal. See? She's not a patsy! She recognizes that she's being manipulated by everyone, possibly her own BFF, but she paid for lunch!



That night it takes both Ren and Huck to talk Erin into going along with the plan and, when the time is right, sabotaging Victor's company from the inside. She would rather just leave this bonkers situation behind entirely. And she should. She works for a man she doesn't respect, alongside women she can't stand, at the behest of friends she doesn't trust, for reasons she can't figure out. If she's that good at her job, she can get another one.

Erin is horny for Victor, by the way. She's already guilt-masturbated to him. She's determined to keep her physical attraction at bay, but as we all know, romance-novel characters are basically dogs in heat. At least after enough stalling. As for him...

"You intrigue me. I don't think of time in your presence. I think of petals of a flower plucked before bloom. I think of what lay at the center."



NOW Erin gets that he wants her. I guess Victor has never before met a woman who wanted to pay her share of lunch. So while women are reducing him to his wealth, he's reducing women to their attitudes toward his wealth. What well-developed characters we're dealing with.

I'm not being fair. Erin likes scented candles and has a dead mother. Those are... qualities.

Erin emerges from this conversation looking disheveled. Stacey and even Milly accuse her of what this looks like, but Erin doesn't defend herself. It gets back to Ren, but she doesn't believe Erin would do such a thing, and she even apologizes for badgering her into this mess. So she's out of this mess, right? Nope! Huck has thought of that and arranged for paparazzi to mob her with questions about how she talked a client into rebranding.

Yes, there is media that covers marketing. No, they don't cover it like this.

Also, Huck is taking Erin from the surprise presser to the private airfield so they can fly to the client's estate for a rebranding party.



Victor talks her into staying on the flight so he can tell the truth about him and Ren. One of his goons has obtained photos of Ren kissing some other guy and then accepting an engagement ring from him. Erin knows these have to be recent:

Ren looked the same as she did now, so it couldn't have been long ago; Erin could tell by the number of fillers and Botox that transformed her face.

The lobbyists for Allergan really need to talk to someone about all this defamation.

The story is that Ren is a professional gold digger, real name Clarissa, and she's the one who's been breaking engagements left and right in search of a bigger lode. It broke Victor's heart to learn this, but he doesn't feel so bad about it now, because he knows Erin is the loyal and honorable woman he needs. Out of Victor's earshot, Huck tries to convince her that the photos were faked and Victor is still the real liar. Erin doesn't know who to trust, and at this point it shouldn't matter. Except for her destitute brother, none of the people in her life are worth keeping. She really needs to move away.

If Victor's not trying to manipulate her, as Huck claims he is, he's doing a good job anyway. He brings Erin a gift of her late mother's favorite scented candle.



So they kiss. But she runs away. But he changes into non-billionaire clothing, tracks her down, and takes her candle supply shopping. Didn't we just basically see this scene?

Erin returns home to Stacey and Milly continuing to bitch her out for the betrayal that didn't happen. She still keeps them in her org chart, even though they're neither use nor ornament. I suppose fucking with them would be fun for a while, but eventually you want competent people you don't hate on your team, right? Maybe I wouldn't know because my team is composed entirely of competent people I don't hate.

Erin visits Ren at the fancy new apartment she claims to have bought by pawning her engagement ring. Ren admits to the whole Clarissa act, but insists her love for Victor and affection for Erin is genuine. I have to give credit to Sara for not adding some kind of "Not even your face is real!" joke here. She goes on to describe her impoverished childhood and how it led her into a life of con artistry. Not that it's paying off right now:

"It's so ironic."

"What is?"

"That you'll be the one to inherit all the riches I was chasing, without even trying."

"I--I don't want any of that."

"I know that better than anyone, which is why you'll probably get it."



Erin impressed me by finding a way around accepting Victor's money at lunch. If she doesn't hock every gift he gives her after this and donate the proceeds to the nearest soup kitchen, I'll be gravely disappointed in her.

The conversation ends poorly after Erin confesses to the kiss. "Coming to Ren with her darkest secret in tow paled to Ren's nonchalance about her fraudulent identity." As it should. Your darkest secret is a single kiss in a moment of madness. Hers is a lifetime of premeditated grift. Whatever happens between you and Victor should be completely immaterial.

Later, after Erin conducts one of her weird candle rituals, she gets a middle-of-the-night text from Victor, who claims to be watching the light in her window from outside the building. "His actions were terribly invasive. Disgusting. And hot." I'd pop off about the "hot" part if they really were all that invasive or disgusting. But we've all read Twilight; this is child's play. She lets him up for a kiss, then sends him away. And he actually leaves. See? Child's play. An invasive guy would have pulled her hand into his pants.

The next week at work is Stacey-free and Milly-free, much to Erin's relief, but also Victor-free, much to her disappointment. Sadly it's not Huck-free. He's watching the IT guy "upgrade the clearance" on her laptop. Bullshit. It's one of those keystroke monitors and no mistake. Erin logs on to her bank account at his suggestion to see how much more she's earning now.



Victor shows up out of nowhere and takes Erin to an interactive burlesque show, in which she's brought up on stage and spanked with a plastic scythe.

............................Okay.

Stacey and Milly do turn up at work again, but they do their jobs competently enough without hurling entries from their Burn Books at Erin, so there's that. And she's killing it at her actual work. And she's getting to spend her own earnings on herself for once. And she's able to buy some presents for her brother. And Victor is coming with her on present-buying excursions without complaint. So maybe this Candyland board of a plot was worth it?

Of course it wasn't. She's accused of hacking into company systems, fired, roughly escorted from the premises, and left to assume that Victor is testing her for some reason.

THAT'S where her mind goes? After she saw Huck monkeying around with her computer? This shit again?



I've told you a thousand times if I've told you once, Erin: MOVE. AWAY.

Believe it or not, it's Stacey who stops Erin from jumping out her window. They team up to go to Ren's penthouse, where they find her cackling about all the paid actors. The ones she and Huck hired. That's right, the true villains this whole time have been the two characters who telegraphed "villainy" most blatantly. And somehow Victor shows up to hear them monologuing their evil at Erin and getting into a physical brawl with her. Unfortunately this doesn't end with Huck and Ren tied up with rope so Erin can pull some rubber masks off their faces. That would simply be TOO wacky.

Dolly's Media crashes in the aftermath of the made-up hacking. Good. Too many crazies working there. Victor loses everything, but he doesn't care because he has Erin now. So she gets the billionaire without his billions, which means she doesn't have to worry about losing her morals at all! Yay!

So... um... how are you going to care for your brother now, Erin? And what kind of careers can the two of you build now that your names are forever associated with a Gawker-level collapse?



Yeah, I guess you could do that.

[CassInTheStacks · Rating 2 out of 5]

Constructive criticism

At least I hope that's how the author takes it if they read this.

The premise behind the plot is great. The execution not so much FOR ME. The relationship of the MC's was surface level and didn't develop well for me.

I'm a firm believer that books are like all other art forms and not for everyone. Others might love this book, but it just wasn't for me.

[Pamela wells · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not good

Hard to follow and weird plot line.It was hard to follow the main characters wording. I would not recommend this book.

[Kiela Joseph · Rating 4 out of 5]

I have always thought that dating or having sex with a best friend ex was taboo but in this instance, the exception was understood. The right people found each other.

[Kim · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Development

The story line was uniquely original. I read at least two books a week and this is the first time I've read a story of this nature.