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Capped: Making a Billion Was Your First Mistake
Making A Billion Was Your First Mistake
What if earning a billion dollars didn’t make you all-powerful?
It made you prey.
When Congress passes the Capped Earnings Act, every successful entrepreneur suddenly faces a terrifying new the moment your net worth hits one billion dollars, you are forbidden—by law—to earn another dime. No loopholes. No hidden accounts. No second chances.
For rising tech genius and inventor Kyrel Kade, the law should have been a theoretical problem.
Until the morning he unexpectedly reaches a billion— long before he had planned
Within hours of becoming the youngest billionaire ever, Kyrel’s world is stolen from him. Now Kyrel is trapped and the government wants to make an example of him. His only allies? A cynical investigative journalist who sees patterns everyone else misses and Kyrel’s wife D’Andra who makes sense of the patterns.
As his world dissolves around him, Kade discovers a truth more dangerous than the law Someone is manipulating the entire system—and that someone wants him silenced.
To survive, Kade must outmaneuver an unseen enemy that rewrites the rules of power in real time; while living under a legal regime designed to ensure he has nothing left to fight with.
Because in the new economy, hitting a billion isn’t the end of the game.
It’s the beginning of the hunt.
Perfect for fans of Mark Greaney, Daniel Suarez, Blake Crouch, and political thrillers with teeth, CAPPED is a razor-sharp, high-tension novel about money, morality, and what goes wrong when society finally says “enough.”
What if earning a billion dollars didn’t make you all-powerful?
It made you prey.
When Congress passes the Capped Earnings Act, every successful entrepreneur suddenly faces a terrifying new the moment your net worth hits one billion dollars, you are forbidden—by law—to earn another dime. No loopholes. No hidden accounts. No second chances.
For rising tech genius and inventor Kyrel Kade, the law should have been a theoretical problem.
Until the morning he unexpectedly reaches a billion— long before he had planned
Within hours of becoming the youngest billionaire ever, Kyrel’s world is stolen from him. Now Kyrel is trapped and the government wants to make an example of him. His only allies? A cynical investigative journalist who sees patterns everyone else misses and Kyrel’s wife D’Andra who makes sense of the patterns.
As his world dissolves around him, Kade discovers a truth more dangerous than the law Someone is manipulating the entire system—and that someone wants him silenced.
To survive, Kade must outmaneuver an unseen enemy that rewrites the rules of power in real time; while living under a legal regime designed to ensure he has nothing left to fight with.
Because in the new economy, hitting a billion isn’t the end of the game.
It’s the beginning of the hunt.
Perfect for fans of Mark Greaney, Daniel Suarez, Blake Crouch, and political thrillers with teeth, CAPPED is a razor-sharp, high-tension novel about money, morality, and what goes wrong when society finally says “enough.”
482 pages, Hardcover
Published December 8, 2025
About the author
Susan Trott
17 books2 followersSusan Trott is a Canadian author whose work spans visionary eco-fiction, science fiction, cozy romance, memoir, and myth-infused nature writing. Through her independent imprint Tagger Press, she creates stories that explore the quiet magic of the natural world, the resilience of ordinary people, and the threads of meaning that connect past and future.
She is the author of The Oak Witness, King of Dams, CAPPED, Escape, The Cedar Hollow Series: Snowfall in Cedar Hollow, The Undelivered Roses, and Noínín's Wish.
Her writing blends emotional depth with imaginative world-building — from near-future thrillers to ancient alien civilizations to gentle, heartwarming tales of small-town life.
A lifelong animal guardian and dedicated “cat lady,” she lives with her husband Jim and a multigenerational feline family in Ottawa, where fresh snow, koi ponds, and the quiet presence of trees often find their way into her stories.
She is the author of The Oak Witness, King of Dams, CAPPED, Escape, The Cedar Hollow Series: Snowfall in Cedar Hollow, The Undelivered Roses, and Noínín's Wish.
Her writing blends emotional depth with imaginative world-building — from near-future thrillers to ancient alien civilizations to gentle, heartwarming tales of small-town life.
A lifelong animal guardian and dedicated “cat lady,” she lives with her husband Jim and a multigenerational feline family in Ottawa, where fresh snow, koi ponds, and the quiet presence of trees often find their way into her stories.
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
February 28, 2026
This storyline intrigued me and scared me. Yes, it made me think. I had only read her romantic fiction and now I know she writes political thrillers well too. Her cadence and character development is good. I enjoyed the book and she's becoming one of my favorite authors.
I received an advanced copy of this book for free. This is my honest review.
I received an advanced copy of this book for free. This is my honest review.
May 23, 2026
I received an ARC through "Booksirens" and I am voluntarily leaving an honest review.
This is a story of two college students who met and went on after graduation to form a tech company called LinkLife when Kyrel, became CEO and developed the product, while Rhett was the financial expert and became the CFO. Go forward a few years and Kyrel gets a notification that he has hit the Cap Act limitation of $1 billion and can no longer earn any more money nor can his wife, D'Andra, a doctor, earn any more. Kyrel was surprised since he believed he was under $200 million and soon looked into how this happened. Kyrel also received a visit from DEI a govt. agency who oversaw the Cap Act.
As the story progressed, Kyrel learned that Rhett had authorized a transaction without consent that brought Kyrel above the limit. Kyrel along with D'Andra in addition to Tara, a journalist, began an investigation which led to Vale doing bidding of another entity. D'Andra discovered that DEI was behind a plan that involved Kyrel's LinkLife implant. Now the trio began in earnest trying to bring to light the machinations of DEI and those above them.
Discover what information Tara discovered in addition to what she received from Kyrel and D'Andra, what dangers the group had to overcome and how it finished out in the end. Learn the group behind the Cap Act ( no one could collect more than $1 billion and once they reached that plateau they could earn another cent or they would be charged for violating the law. Individuals that were at or above that threshold prior to the Act going in place were exempt.)
This is a great story and worth the read, don't miss out!
This is a story of two college students who met and went on after graduation to form a tech company called LinkLife when Kyrel, became CEO and developed the product, while Rhett was the financial expert and became the CFO. Go forward a few years and Kyrel gets a notification that he has hit the Cap Act limitation of $1 billion and can no longer earn any more money nor can his wife, D'Andra, a doctor, earn any more. Kyrel was surprised since he believed he was under $200 million and soon looked into how this happened. Kyrel also received a visit from DEI a govt. agency who oversaw the Cap Act.
As the story progressed, Kyrel learned that Rhett had authorized a transaction without consent that brought Kyrel above the limit. Kyrel along with D'Andra in addition to Tara, a journalist, began an investigation which led to Vale doing bidding of another entity. D'Andra discovered that DEI was behind a plan that involved Kyrel's LinkLife implant. Now the trio began in earnest trying to bring to light the machinations of DEI and those above them.
Discover what information Tara discovered in addition to what she received from Kyrel and D'Andra, what dangers the group had to overcome and how it finished out in the end. Learn the group behind the Cap Act ( no one could collect more than $1 billion and once they reached that plateau they could earn another cent or they would be charged for violating the law. Individuals that were at or above that threshold prior to the Act going in place were exempt.)
This is a great story and worth the read, don't miss out!
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews