Reid Mancini hasn't stopped thinking about his former high school sweetheart, Mara Neely, since the day she left town without explanation over a decade ago. Mara, now a TV reporter, recently moved back to Rhode Island for a job with one of the news stations in Providence. Her family is going through a tough time and she wants to be there to support her mother and younger twin brothers. Reid is now a billionaire tech mogul after creating the world's largest social media network, and when he learns that Mara's back in town, he's determined to finally get answers on why she ghosted him all those years ago. He decides to make her an offer she can't refuse; the notoriously media-shy Reid will give her station an exclusive interview, as long as Mara is the reporter assigned to the story. Forced to spend a week with her ex-boyfriend preparing for the interview, Mara quickly realizes that her old feelings are still very much alive, but she left Reid for a reason, and that hasn't changed. Can Reid break down Mara's walls and convince her to give their love a second chance?
Compared to the previous books in this series, "The Grumpy Billionaire" was rather angsty, but the level of emotion made sense to me given Mara and Reid's complicated history as well as the family issues Mara was facing in the present. The problem was that their history made them very uncomfortable around each other at first, and as a result, it seemed like it took longer than it should have for the chemistry between them to spark. I love a good slow burn, but that wasn't the vibe I got here; it was as if Reid genuinely disliked Mara, not as if he was attracted to her. When the chemistry finally did spark, things went fast (almost too fast IMO) and nearly all of the narration from that point on was from Mara's POV. It would have been helpful to get Reid's perspective on what was happening around that time, especially on why he decided that his grand gesture near the end was a good idea (when it so clearly was not).
Overall, while I liked Mara and Reid and would still recommend this story for fans of second chance and/or the enemies-to-lovers tropes, it unfortunately was not my favorite book of the series so far. I'll still be picking up the next one, however!
*Review copy provided by the author/publisher via Give Me Books Promotions. All opinions expressed are my own.
About "The Grumpy Billionaire"
When we last saw each other eleven years ago, I would have bet everything I owned, would’ve bet my mother’s life that Reid Mancini loved me. I knew that because I loved him, too. Madly, passionately, with every fiber of my seventeen-year-old being.
And that was why I made sure after our high school graduation night I would never see him again.
So much for that plan.
My new TV reporting job is both good and bad. Good because it’s a great step up career-wise. Bad because it’s a little too close to home… and to him, the only guy who’s ever tempted me to let go and love someone.
Now my first love is all grown up with a full-grown man’s size and power and an oversized cocky attitude to match. With the world’s largest social media network to his name, he’s got all the fame and fortune he ever wanted and then some.
Oh, and he hates me.
Not that I can blame him.
He has no idea why I abandoned him so suddenly… or how often I still think of him. He won’t find out either—not if I have anything to do with it.
Everything would’ve been fine if he’d just stuck to his famously aloof no-talking-to-the-media policy. But no, he’s decided to give his first ever television interview. And he says he’ll talk only to me.
If I could turn him down without losing my job, I’d do it in a heartbeat. That’s how desperately I don’t want to be in the same room with him, talking one-on-one, on camera for God’s sake. But in TV news, ratings rule—and hot, hard-to-get billionaires are ratings gold.
So I have to spend a week with him getting the story. It’s the only way to keep my job.
I just hope I can keep my secrets in the process.
It’s only a week. I can do this. Seven days. Two ex-lovers. One last chance.
Now we’ll see exactly how much of a difference a decade can make… and how impossible it may be to leave the past behind.
THE GRUMPY BILLIONAIRE is a hot small-town romance take on Sleeping Beauty. It’s a standalone enemies to lovers, second chance romance filled with heart, heat, and grumpy billionaire romcom fun!
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