Review: "The Merry Billionaire" by Tru Taylor

The Merry Billionaire: A Billionaire Bachelor House Story by Tru Taylor
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

"The Merry Billionaire" by Tru Taylor works as a standalone novella, but readers familiar with the ongoing Eastport Bay Billionaires series may recall protagonists Hap Bailey and Rachel Hamelin from earlier stories. Rachel is Bonnie's sister (from book #1) and Hap is Jessica's brother (from book #5). He's also one of the inhabitants of the so-called Billionaire Bachelor House (along with Hunter from book #2).

Personal chef Rachel Hamelin has been working at the Billionaire Bachelor House for almost a year, ever since moving to Rhode Island following a messy breakup with her cheating ex/former boss. She's been saving up to return to Colorado and open her own restaurant, hoping to prove to her ex that she doesn't need him to be a success. Secretly, Rachel has another reason for wanting to leave Eastport Bay; she has feelings for one of her bosses, former child star turned TV producer/director Hap Bailey. However, after everything that happened with her ex, there's no way she'd ever date someone she works with again. Unbeknownst to Rachel, Hap has feelings for her too, but he hasn't quite figured out how to tell her. When they're unexpectedly snowed in together at Christmas, will they finally admit their true feelings for one another?

Rachel and Hap had a ton of chemistry and made a really cute couple. Rachel was a bit stubborn about giving up the idea of returning to Colorado and showing up her ex, but fortunately she decided to abandon those plans pretty quickly after she and Hap admitted their true feelings for each other. I admired the fact that Rachel was so determined to succeed on her own when she probably could have gotten the money she needed for the restaurant from her sister and brother-in-law, or taken Hap's offer to invest so that she could stay in Rhode Island with him. As for Hap, I loved how sweet, caring, and protective he was of Rachel even when they were supposedly just friends. He actually walked five miles through a blizzard so that she wouldn't have to be alone in case the power went out! (The fact that he didn't end up dead in a ditch somewhere, or at least with a nasty case of frostbite, is something of a miracle, but that's not really the point.)

I recommend "The Merry Billionaire" for all fans of contemporary romance and romantic comedy and look forward to whatever Tru Taylor writes next. (Hopefully one of those future stories will be Hap's friend Reid's story. His history with high school sweetheart Mara came up briefly in another book, but I was reminded of it again when they were playing Cards Against Humanity in this story and now I really want to know more!)

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