Billionaire Bosshole by Laura Lee

Contemporary Romance 
Publication date: ​01/09/2020
Kindle Unlimited: Yes
Cliffhanger: I dunno

I made a bad call with this one, y'all. I never should've picked it up. But...yeah...here we are...

Plot overview: Ronan Maxwell is a turd of a human being. He's a lousy boss, a jerk to everyone around him, and his only redeeming quality seems to be that he's pretty and great in the sack. Quinn, his assistant, hates him with a fiery passion but continues to have sex with him because he's so, so pretty. Lots of hate f#cking ensues. (There's probably more to the plot than that, but that's all I got to, because I DNF'd. I'm kind of sorry about that, but kind of not...)

So, I'm not a fan of billionaire romances in general (they've been done to death), and I hate alphaholes. At this point, I'm sure all you super smart readers in the audience are saying, but Jennifer, why did you buy a book called "Billionaire Bosshole" if you hate those things? I was weak, OK? Weak. I mean, look at that guy on the cover! And the blurb is really good. I made a stupid, shallow call and I paid the price. 

In my defense, there have been plenty of exceptions to my "I hate billionaires and alphaholes" rule. I mean, Lucy Score's By a Thread is BRILLIANT. It features a grumpy jerk with a heart of gold who falls for a sunshine-y heroine. He does LOTS early on in the book to prove that he's a great guy at heart. And Two Weeks Notice by Whitney G features pretty much the same thing, and I ADORED it. So, why didn't this one work for me? 

Well...here it goes...

I made it to 44% of the book and I was STILL waiting for some sign, some teeny tiny little sign, that Ronan was actually a decent guy hiding behind a shitty personality. I waited for some indication that he was the way he was because of some horrible past trauma. And I got...crickets. Zip. Nada. Zilch. There was no indication that Ronan even had a heart, let alone a hidden heart of gold. He's a guy who beds women who look the heroine to "get her out of his system." He says HORRIBLE things to Quinn for no good reason, and treats his employees like crap. And at 44%, I still don't know why. It's entirely possible that he's just a horrible jackass and Quinn is going to be saddled with him for all eternity because this is a romance and happily ever after endings are law. I saw no evidence that he was going to turn everything around and somehow become likable, so I quit reading. Life's short, you know? I was in no way invested in Ronan getting a happily ever after, so I gave up on him. Now, if a kick in the balls was in store for him in later chapters, well, then I truly regret my decision to quit reading at 44%. I would've loved to see that. But otherwise... #SorryNotSorry. 

And, this is a minor thing, but even at 44% after lots of sex, Ronan still refers to Quinn, even in his inner monologues, as "Miss Montgomery." It creeped me out, frankly. 

So, there you have it. A review for a book I never should've read in the first place. This one's on me, not the author, though. I should have know better. Her marketing efforts were clear. I just wasn't paying attention. And for those of you who can tolerate billionaire jerkoffs, this one is at least well-written with hot sex scenes. It just wasn't my cuppa. 

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It's not stigma-y. I just hated the "hero" with the heat of a nova.