Review: The Taming of The Billionaire by Jessica Clare

Publisher: Intermix
Genre: Contemporary Romance, Erotic Romance
Where did you get the book: e-arc from publisher
Release date: Out now

The New York Times bestselling author of The Billionaire and the Virgin returns with a tale of Shakespearean-style seduction…

Edie’s an overbearing cat behaviorist who’s not big on people. Magnus is a newly-rich game developer who likes to be in control. When the two of them meet at Gretchen and Hunter’s masquerade engagement party, the loathing is mutual. Unfortunately for them—and everyone else—they’re in the wedding party together and must deal with each other for the next few months.

But when Magnus’s younger brother falls for Edie’s sister, he begs for his brother’s help in concocting a plan to win her over. If Magnus can keep the prickly Edie occupied, his brother will have time to woo Edie’s sister. Of course, Magnus isn’t interested in the slightest, but Edie is…intriguing. And stubborn. And smart. And sexy. And they might have more in common than they thought.

Before long, it becomes a challenge between the two of them to see who will be tamed first. But how’s Edie going to react when she finds out that Magnus is using her? And how’s Magnus going to handle the fact that he’s fallen for a cat lady?

*blurb taken from Goodreads*

This year (or maybe it was last year? my memory can’t make up its mind) I discovered Jessica Clare’s Billionaire books and found myself glomming them like no tomorrow. The millionaire/billionaire trope has been around for what seems like forever. Clare’s formula has something fresh and addictive that keeps me wanting to read more.

Edie is a professional cat behaviourist. She first meets the hero, Magnus, a game developer, when she overhears him and his other billionaire friends make dickish comments about bridesmaids and cats at Hunter and Gretchen’s (Beauty and the Billionaire – Billionaire Boys Club #2) dinner party where the bridesmaids meet the groomsmen. Edie is pretty damn fierce. Not caring one iota about Magnus and his friends, she smacks them down during the dinner party. There and then I knew I was going to really, really like this heroine. Magnus is very focused on the job, creating the next big game, but he’s having issues with his irresponsible and flighty younger brother. When his younger brother “falls in love” with Edie’s sister, who is all kinds of awful, Magnus reluctantly agrees to go along with the plan to “date” Edie.

Magnus really fell for Edie and I loved how protective he became of her. Edie did rub people up the wrong way sometimes but she didn’t apologise for who she was and I loved it. From an accident years ago, Edie’s knee was injured and she’ll always have a limp. I loved her bitchy attitude, which was a personality trait of hers before she had the accident. I loved her attitude towards Magnus from the beginning of the book because she had no qualms about calling him out and calling him a dickhead, which had me in stitches.

I loved (there’s a lot of I loved!) that Edie converted him into a cat owner (though I was a little mad at first because it’s not responsible pet-ownership and then I wondered if I was overreacting a little because FICTION) and I loved the scenes in which he basically lets his man-cave be a haven for the rescue-cat he gets to help lure Edie in with his brother’s idiotic scheme. Edie’s love and care for her animals was a big part of her life. Her cats were the ones nobody wanted–elderly cats with illnesses who needed lots of medicine and puffs of their asthma pumps. I’m a sucker for a hero or heroine who has a big place in their heart for animals. So through cats, Magnus and Edie started dating one another and the attraction between them kept ratcheting up and up. The sex in this book was amazing and that’s another element of Clare’s writing that keeps me coming back for more because the tension and sexual attraction between her heroines and heroes are always on point.

I did want to kick Magnus for not owning up to his brother’s silly scheme earlier on because he and Edie were getting so solid. But despite some of the issues I had with Edie’s sister and Magnus’ brother (their characters felt a little too cliched in the bad sister and brother department), I just adored this book because of Edie. Magnus made up for it in the end with the most sweetest and adorable act towards Edie that showed just how much he understood and loved her.

All in all, this was one of my favourite Jessica Clare reads. I give it an A.