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Inspiring the Greek Billionaire #2
Stirring Up Trouble
To meet the conditions of a will, Braden Angelopoulos has thirty days to teach musician Viola Dubrovsky how to run his restaurant and help her write three songs. Worried that she’ll sell the property to his competition, Braden uses everything in his arsenal to seduce her into falling in love with him, never intending to fall for his own charade. While the pink-haired, tattooed, Viola doesn’t care about money, she postpones her plan to move to California, determined to save Braden’s restaurant while keeping her hands to herself and her heart protected.
As Viola comes into her powers as a Muse, she transfers her emotions to the food she cooks and inspires Braden to write lyrics rivaling his favorite Shakespearean Sonnets. But when the conditions of the will are met, will she leave for her California dream or stay to make beautiful music and a new dream?
As Viola comes into her powers as a Muse, she transfers her emotions to the food she cooks and inspires Braden to write lyrics rivaling his favorite Shakespearean Sonnets. But when the conditions of the will are met, will she leave for her California dream or stay to make beautiful music and a new dream?
168 pages, ebook
First published April 21, 2014
4 people are currently reading
50 people want to read
About the author
Shelly Bell
29 books644 followersShelly Bell is the author of the popular Shelly Bell is the author of more than a dozen romances. Her novels have collected numerous awards and have received starred reviews from both Publisher’s Weekly and Library Journal. An attorney for more than twenty-five years, Shelly lives with her family in southwest Florida. When she's not working, she enjoys teaching romance writing to aspiring authors, volunteering in her local community, and reading by the pool. To learn more about her books, visit www.ShellyBellBooks.com.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
March 24, 2015
::4-1/2 Stars - and the Best Shelly Bell book I've read so far::
The second of Shelly Bell's Magical Realist novels about the Dubrovsky Sisters, Portia (the Female MC of
Sway With Me) and Viola, the Female MC here. Both young women were raised by their flakey "free spirit" of a Mother Reina, who believed they were all three Muses meant to inspire the men they loved - which was why Mother flitted from man to man, seeking The One she was to inspire! This meant Reina's daughters had a
highly
unstable upbringing, which both grew up to deal with in different ways - while Portia desperately sought stability (a thematic element which drove her conflict with Male MC Ryan in Sway...), Lola (as Viola prefers to be called) became more like her mother, moving from place to place and man to man, determined never to settle down at all.
By coincidence,
Or WAS It...?!?!?
both Lola and Portia end up in Detroit at the same time, followed shortly afterwards by Reina, who sees no reason she can't flop with either of them. Lola is singing at a Greek Restaurant owned by Braden Angelopoulos (Ryan's best friend), and the two seem to specialize in getting on each other's nerves.
So Of COURSE They'll Fall Head-Over-Heels For Each Other!
As it just so happens, Braden is also related to Alexander Stavros, the crazy Greek millionaire/possible Deity whose Last Will&Testament put Portia and Ryan together in the same crumbling mansion - and eventually, got them to fall in love, and Ryan to seriously pursue his lifelong love of wood carving as a career. Stavros's Will also gave Lola the Deed to the restaurant Braden owns - with the condition he teach her how to run the restaurant, and write her three songs...in a month.
Even Zeus, the Seemingly-Immortal Cat of Stavros's That Portia&Ryan Inherited in SWAY..., Is Shocked By That!
It quickly emerges that, conveniently, Lola has a photographic memory and savant-level number skills - and Braden majored in both English and Music in college, so the seemingly-impossible task is less daunting than it originally appeared. It also happens that Lola's way around the English language is - idiosyncratic, as is her way around a song (one time when she sang The National Anthem, she did it as a rap number), and because of that she has difficulty connecting with audiences in the way she intended to. It also also happens that Lola has been sort-of dating a rival Greek restauranteur, Jon, who she considers "safe" (i.e., she not attracted to him, and believes he's harmless), largely to get Braden's goat - because, yes, She's Terrified of Her Love For Him....
Just Like Scully and Frohike!
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out both Braden's and Lola's constant sniping is covering a powerful mutual attraction - and that, once Lola buckles down a bit to meet the conditions of the Will, and Braden eases up on her to get her to learn, it won't be long before they end up in bed together.
At LEAST It Didn't Take Them As Long As It Took Castle & Beckett!
But first - The Conflict! Both Braden and Lola start having dreams about each other, same as Portia and Ryan did when they were first getting together - but their dreams are a lot darker, involving Lola as a Siren and Braden as a drowning sailor...or so it seems at first. As the two get closer, Lola gets better at Restaurant Management, and Braden writes her songs based on Greek Mythology that of course tie into what's going on between the two of them, she insists on still seeing rival restauranteur Jon, who....
Is the Bad Guy Trying To Shut Braden Down!
Turns out Lola, thinking it's all a joke, has been texting Jon all the stuff that happens in the restaurant that she considers "silly shit" - which Jon's using to get the Health Department, power company and so on to harass Braden's restaurant out of existence. When Braden finds out - after they've been sleeping together for a couple weeks, and shortly before they're supposed to prove to a health inspector, the IRS, a restaurant critic and a music producer that they can work together?
It Doesn't Go Well
Since this is a romance, they pull it together anyway, Lola redeems herself by exposing Jon (literally and figuratively!), and she tells Braden she loves him and is ready to settle down with him in Detroit. The suddenness of this revelation (it literally happens two pages from the end!) is one of the reasons I can't quite give this book five stars - it's a part of a bunch of little niggling things that add up to The Plot Driving The Characters, rather than the other way around. None of them are bad enough that I didn't enjoy this book, but all are enough that I sat there afterwards going, "Now, Wait a Minute...."
The biggest one, for me, is Why Does Braden Go Along in the First Place? Unlike Ryan in Sway..., Braden's not been disinherited, and the terms of the Will make it clear that Lola has only been given the physical property of the restaurant, and everything else is Braden's. Braden keeps saying "The Restaurant" means everything to him - but "The Restaurant" isn't the building, it's his recipes and staff and himself, and the effort they've all put into it. Since he's wealthy enough to lease or purchase a different building, why didn't he tell George the Attorney and Lola to go fuck themselves, and find a new location to open his restaurant in? (I know the reason why, and so do you - because if he does , then it's a short book!)
This is a recurring issue with
author Shelly Bell's stories - insufficiently developed story elements, so we have to take what happens on faith rather than because that's where these characters would go at this point in the story. (It happens a lot in the
White Collared series, as my reviews of those books went on about at some length.) This is also an issue that could be easily fixed, if the author recognized it - a lot of these problems could be covered by brief mentions early on of the difficulties the characters would face if they took another, more logical course of action other than the ones the story needs them to take so it can move forward (i.e., if Braden had brought up the high overhead of running a restaurant, so the "family price" Stavros gave him on the lease was what made running it cooking with the ingredients and care he does possible).
Chef-Turned-Travel Show Host Anthony Bourdain Discusses the Economics of Running a Restaurant, and What Ingredient and Preparation Choices Mean to its Bottom Line, a Great Deal in His Books
That aside, though, I liked this book - and if you're less picky about these things than I am, you'll probably love it.
The second of Shelly Bell's Magical Realist novels about the Dubrovsky Sisters, Portia (the Female MC of
Sway With Me) and Viola, the Female MC here. Both young women were raised by their flakey "free spirit" of a Mother Reina, who believed they were all three Muses meant to inspire the men they loved - which was why Mother flitted from man to man, seeking The One she was to inspire! This meant Reina's daughters had a
highly
unstable upbringing, which both grew up to deal with in different ways - while Portia desperately sought stability (a thematic element which drove her conflict with Male MC Ryan in Sway...), Lola (as Viola prefers to be called) became more like her mother, moving from place to place and man to man, determined never to settle down at all. By coincidence,
Or WAS It...?!?!?
both Lola and Portia end up in Detroit at the same time, followed shortly afterwards by Reina, who sees no reason she can't flop with either of them. Lola is singing at a Greek Restaurant owned by Braden Angelopoulos (Ryan's best friend), and the two seem to specialize in getting on each other's nerves.
So Of COURSE They'll Fall Head-Over-Heels For Each Other!
As it just so happens, Braden is also related to Alexander Stavros, the crazy Greek millionaire/possible Deity whose Last Will&Testament put Portia and Ryan together in the same crumbling mansion - and eventually, got them to fall in love, and Ryan to seriously pursue his lifelong love of wood carving as a career. Stavros's Will also gave Lola the Deed to the restaurant Braden owns - with the condition he teach her how to run the restaurant, and write her three songs...in a month.
Even Zeus, the Seemingly-Immortal Cat of Stavros's That Portia&Ryan Inherited in SWAY..., Is Shocked By That!
It quickly emerges that, conveniently, Lola has a photographic memory and savant-level number skills - and Braden majored in both English and Music in college, so the seemingly-impossible task is less daunting than it originally appeared. It also happens that Lola's way around the English language is - idiosyncratic, as is her way around a song (one time when she sang The National Anthem, she did it as a rap number), and because of that she has difficulty connecting with audiences in the way she intended to. It also also happens that Lola has been sort-of dating a rival Greek restauranteur, Jon, who she considers "safe" (i.e., she not attracted to him, and believes he's harmless), largely to get Braden's goat - because, yes, She's Terrified of Her Love For Him....
Just Like Scully and Frohike!
It doesn't take a rocket scientist to figure out both Braden's and Lola's constant sniping is covering a powerful mutual attraction - and that, once Lola buckles down a bit to meet the conditions of the Will, and Braden eases up on her to get her to learn, it won't be long before they end up in bed together.
At LEAST It Didn't Take Them As Long As It Took Castle & Beckett!
But first - The Conflict! Both Braden and Lola start having dreams about each other, same as Portia and Ryan did when they were first getting together - but their dreams are a lot darker, involving Lola as a Siren and Braden as a drowning sailor...or so it seems at first. As the two get closer, Lola gets better at Restaurant Management, and Braden writes her songs based on Greek Mythology that of course tie into what's going on between the two of them, she insists on still seeing rival restauranteur Jon, who....
Is the Bad Guy Trying To Shut Braden Down!
Turns out Lola, thinking it's all a joke, has been texting Jon all the stuff that happens in the restaurant that she considers "silly shit" - which Jon's using to get the Health Department, power company and so on to harass Braden's restaurant out of existence. When Braden finds out - after they've been sleeping together for a couple weeks, and shortly before they're supposed to prove to a health inspector, the IRS, a restaurant critic and a music producer that they can work together?
It Doesn't Go Well
Since this is a romance, they pull it together anyway, Lola redeems herself by exposing Jon (literally and figuratively!), and she tells Braden she loves him and is ready to settle down with him in Detroit. The suddenness of this revelation (it literally happens two pages from the end!) is one of the reasons I can't quite give this book five stars - it's a part of a bunch of little niggling things that add up to The Plot Driving The Characters, rather than the other way around. None of them are bad enough that I didn't enjoy this book, but all are enough that I sat there afterwards going, "Now, Wait a Minute...."
The biggest one, for me, is Why Does Braden Go Along in the First Place? Unlike Ryan in Sway..., Braden's not been disinherited, and the terms of the Will make it clear that Lola has only been given the physical property of the restaurant, and everything else is Braden's. Braden keeps saying "The Restaurant" means everything to him - but "The Restaurant" isn't the building, it's his recipes and staff and himself, and the effort they've all put into it. Since he's wealthy enough to lease or purchase a different building, why didn't he tell George the Attorney and Lola to go fuck themselves, and find a new location to open his restaurant in? (I know the reason why, and so do you - because if he does , then it's a short book!)
This is a recurring issue with
author Shelly Bell's stories - insufficiently developed story elements, so we have to take what happens on faith rather than because that's where these characters would go at this point in the story. (It happens a lot in the
White Collared series, as my reviews of those books went on about at some length.) This is also an issue that could be easily fixed, if the author recognized it - a lot of these problems could be covered by brief mentions early on of the difficulties the characters would face if they took another, more logical course of action other than the ones the story needs them to take so it can move forward (i.e., if Braden had brought up the high overhead of running a restaurant, so the "family price" Stavros gave him on the lease was what made running it cooking with the ingredients and care he does possible).
Chef-Turned-Travel Show Host Anthony Bourdain Discusses the Economics of Running a Restaurant, and What Ingredient and Preparation Choices Mean to its Bottom Line, a Great Deal in His Books
That aside, though, I liked this book - and if you're less picky about these things than I am, you'll probably love it.
July 17, 2014
I just loved Braden and Lola. From the moment they met they have butted heads. Throw in a 3 month attachment from a will and the sparks are flying. Lola has lived her whole life hearing from her .I'm that she was a muse. Not knowing whether to believe it or not, she lives her life as a gypsy. Leaving whenever she gets the itch to go. Braden has worked to build his restaurant into something he can be proud of. He's not going to let Lola ruin it for him. When the will states he reach her everything about the running of the restaurant and help her write 3 songs to get signed by a label, he is not going to let her fail. But their attraction makes things complicated. When his biggest competitor has a mole planted to bring him down, Will he trust Lola or will he jump to conclusions. And will Lola leave with a recording contract or can Braden make her want to stay forever?
February 29, 2016
A sexy novel about the power of muses on the people around them. Cute story, I enjoyed it.
I received this book free from the author.
I received this book free from the author.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews