Welcome to another Romance Monday, which is one of my personal favorite little segments I do on this blog. This week, we have a new release (out today!) from Entangled, and y’all, it’s somehow light and fluffy while being kind of complex and heartfelt. And I’m so happy I read it.
In Betraying the Billionaire, Lillian Abbott has been forced to agree to an arranged marriage to save her father’s fledgling company. Except… Lillian ran off, leaving her twin sister Holly behind to pick up the pieces. Four minutes younger, Holly has always been the second-best twin, the sidelined twin – the twin without the inheritance. Their father forces Holly to take Lillian’s place while his PI searches for Lillian… which is how Holly ends up meeting with her twin’s betrothed dressed as her confidant sister.
Julian Worth built his entire empire from the ground up all on his own. He grew up in the foster system without a dime to his name, so he’s already careful about who he trusts. It was his idea to marry the eldest Abbott sister and merge his company with Abbott Industries. He figures it will be a marriage in title only, without feelings to go along with it. But that’s until he meets Holly dressed as Lillian. Although he isn’t told about the little switcharoo…
As they fall for each other, Holly finds it’s going to be super difficult to give him back to Lillian when she returns, and Julian has no idea what he is tying himself to. It’s important for this merger to go through… but is it more important than Holly being the chosen twin for the first time?
*Heart eyes everywhere*
3 Things I Loved
- Holly. I don’t always love the She’s All That trope when it comes to romance – the put-contacts-in-and-you’re-suddenly-beautiful thing. But it worked in this book, at least for me. She was nervous and fidgety and I related deeply to her in those regards. She was a good person and a good character, and I truly wanted her to be happy in the end.
- Julian. His story was so sweet. I love a good underdog. I didn’t love how he reacted to being tricked by the Abbott family at first (spoilers, but you had to see that coming), but he obviously made up for it, because this book has a happily ever after.
- Charlotte. Um, is Holly’s best friend Charlotte going to get her own story? Please? She was snappy and I wanted more scenes with her!
What I’m afraid of is that Lillian is going to get the next book… and I didn’t care for her character AT ALL. Who just runs off and leaves her twin to pick up the pieces? A crap person, that’s who. Oh, did I say that out loud?
Dislikes/Problematic Content
Well, you already heard how I feel about Lillian. (Whoops?) The entire Abbott family aside from Holly is kind of trash, actually. So, didn’t like them at all, and it was a deep enough hatred that I almost skimmed scenes with Lillian in them. She’s just sort of the worst.
Then there’s the typical lack of representation that I’ve been finding in most of the romances I’ve been reading – everyone is white, everyone is straight, etc. etc. This particular book was even less accessible than some of the others I’ve reviewed because everyone is super wealthy on top of it. The billionaire trope isn’t really my jam in general, I just happened to like this one. So yeah, that’s an issue in a lot of the romance I’ve been reading… I think it’s a sign that I need to diversify my picks, but also, come on, publishing. We want more diversity. Do better.
The only other thing I have to say is some of the logic in Holly’s decision-making wasn’t entirely sound. I would be reading and be like “how in the world did you get to THAT conclusion?” But that’s sort of how romance is sometimes – you have to get to the happily ever after somehow.
Rating
A reminder of the rating scale:
- Red = DNF, I hated everything
- Orange = Ugh, no thank you
- Yellow = I mean, I’ve read worse, but there were problems
- Green = This was good!
- Blue = Oh my gosh, I loved this book!
- Purple = This is the unicorn of books and I will be rereading it until the binding falls apart and EVERYONE should be reading it!
This wasn’t the perfect book, by any means, but it was a great palette cleanser between kind of heavy YA issues books. I’m going to give Betraying the Billionaire a GREEN rating. I really enjoyed it!
Thank you to Entangled Publishing and Netgalley for the advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review!
Happy reading!
Snark & Squee 
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