Author: Zoe Danielle

Book: Business (Phoenix #1)

tl;dr recommendation: a steamy read full of instalove, drama & exclamation points.

Book Summary:

Friday 14th Jan 2011

I remember that day like it was only yesterday – it was the worst day of my life and hours later turned into the best day of my life.

Winning the lottery turned Casey Phoenix into one of the highest ranking women on The Sunday Times Rich List in the UK. Filling her days with her businesses, properties and charities, she has no time for anything or anybody. She thought she had it all figured out until she met 31 year old American, Matthew Jackson.

Matthew Jackson is handsome and rich. He’s been set for life since the age of 21 when he and his brother set up their business enterprise, Jackson Industries. Living his millionaire lifestyle with fast cars and fast women. But when he meets Casey he wonders if it’s time for him to settle down.

However, Casey isn’t willing to be his next conquest and they quickly learn that life isn’t as perfect after all.

Longer Review:

2.75 Stars (rounding to 3 since GR doesn’t let me do partial stars). There are some things I really liked about this book and some things I didn’t like so much….shall we begin?

It took me a little while to get into this one because I really didn’t like the writing style. It’s very exclamation pointy and that kind of writing really turns me off. It seems like it’s trying to make up for substance in the story and instead it just lacks of form…but if you can go over that and get into the story line, there is a fun and suspenseful plot.

Casey has some issues with men due to the fact that her ex cheated on her with her best friend. Frankly, I think that she should be jumping with joy because due to his assholery, she wins the lottery. While Casey does a lot with her winnings in the way of charitable work, she also manages to build an incredibly successful business. It’s when she’s looking to merge this business with the one owned by Matthew Jackson that the storyline starts to take a slippery and steamy road.

I don’t mind instalove, and this book is full of it. However, I didn’t feel the deep connection that the characters apparently did. Casey and Matt are practically all over each other almost from their first meeting and the pages heated up. There are some bumps in the road as they begin to get to know each other, but overall I liked their hot relationship.

There’s a lot of frequent POV switching in this book and it took me a little while to get used to that – thankfully the author tells you whose head you’re in, but at times it felt a little clumsy. Also, I need to talk about the blatant and ridiculous overuse of all things “rich” and “wealthy”. I get that Casey won the lottery. I get that Matt’s rich. Yet, it felt like every five seconds I was reminded of those facts. I.e. so-and-so is Casey’s “rich friend” or Casey’s going to a “rich list party” or that he or she is “wealthy.” I GET IT. THEY ALL HAVE MONEY. That really annoyed me throughout the book. It felt really materialistic and forced the issue. This is another one of those situations where the author could have showed us they had money instead of telling me over and over that they did. Besides, Casey should be more than a shell of a woman with money. Ok?

What didn’t annoy me was the suspense and drama – I actually really enjoyed the lead up to the cliffhanger and where Matt and Casey are at that point in the book. So, overall I’m not in love – but if you happen to enjoy the author’s writing style, then you’ll easily get sucked into this world.

[I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review]