Billionaire Secrets, Book 1

I Picked Up This Book Because: Random pick from my ever growing TBR list

The Characters:

Jana Pritchard:
Jake Aston:


The Story:

Jana and Jake meet as Jake is participating in an undercover boss situation with his new company SwiftEx. Believing Jake is a delivery driver Jana makes the move for a hot affair with the encouragement of her friends. After their first encounter is interrupted by scandal at SwiftEx Jana finds out that Jake is actually not a delivery driver but a billionaire mogul. Jake not one to be deterred from something he wants quickly puts Jana at ease but realizes he wants more than just a tryst.

This book was interesting and sexy and Jana and Jake’s chemistry shot sparks off the page.

The Random Thoughts:



The Score Card:



4 Stars

‘Personal Secrets’ is book #3 in K. C. Wells series ‘Personal’ and while we get to see Blake and Will become parents to an adorable baby girl and Rick and Angelo are around and doing well. This is Ed’s story. Ed works at Trinity Publishing for Blake and we met him back in book #1 Making It Personal.

Ed’s a down to earth guy who speaks his mind, he enjoys his job and playing rugby. He likes spending time with his teammate Colin…as a matter of fact he likes spending time with Colin so much that he wants them to be friends with benefits…or at least that’s what he starts out wanting but as Ed and Colin spend time together Ed begins to realize that what he feels and wants from Colin goes beyond friends with benefits, but the question is ‘what does Colin want?’

Colin’s wanted Ed for a long time. He just never thought his straight friend would ever want something more from him but when opportunity knocks…Colin’s not only willing to open the door he’ll happily prop it open if it means having a chance at the man who monopolizes his dreams.

In spite of office & family drama and unexpected ex’s and thankfully with the help of some good friends, Colin and Ed manage to work through Ed’s coming to terms with his sexuality and a bit of insecurity on the part of both men.

I loved the honesty between these to men, not that they didn’t have their misunderstandings, but they both worked hard to try and be honest with each other. Colin was sweet, patient and supportive of Ed. While Ed may have hesitated at times, ultimately, he always faced up to how he felt about things and at times he may have even a little help from his friends but in the end Ed knew what he wanted and was willing to persist in his efforts to be the kind of man Colin wanted and would be proud of.

Cornell Collins is once again the narrator for this book and I’ve enjoyed having the continuity of the same voices for these characters from story to story. The voice that was Ed in the first book was the same one that I heard in this book and I enjoyed this a lot. After listening to all 3 of these audio books back to back by the time I got to the final one it felt like listening to friends sharing their stories with me.

I’ve developed a sincere appreciation for listening to audio books like this that are from a series and have the same MCs or as was the case with this series the same core set of characters.

With the first book, Making It Personal, we had Blake and Will as the MCs but Ed, Rick, Karen and few other secondary characters were in this book and carried through to the second book, Personal Changes, where Rick became one of the MCs as we watched his story with Angelo unfold and in book 3 again we are given the same cast of characters, with the addition of Angelo, as Ed and Colin’s story unfolds and I’ve really enjoyed having the same person narrate each book giving me the continuity of having the characters voices remain the same from story to story.

I’ve enjoyed hearing these stories on audio and with my fingers crossed that Cornell Collins will continue as the narrator I look forward to hearing more and spending a few more hours with the familiar voices of this group of co-workers and friends.

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A audio book copy of ‘Personal Secrets’ was graciously provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

Personal Delivery is my first book by Ainsley Booth, and a great surprise.  Ms Booth has delivered a story that is well-written and will hold your attention.  Her characters were perfect for this story and totally lovable.  Jana and Jake's story is loaded with drama, sizzle and humor.  I'm not a fan of first person or alternating point of view books, but Ms Booth made it work well in Personal Delivery.  This book captured me in the first chapter and held me hostage till the end.  I enjoyed Personal Delivery and would happily read more from Ainsley Booth in the future.  Personal Delivery is book 1 of the Billionaire Secrets Series but can be read as a standalone.   This is a complete book, not a cliff-hanger.

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This one is super unfortunate, because Booth has a strong, fun voice and can write a hot scene...but a strong voice couldn't overcome the absolute lack of tension and conflict, so it ended up feeling about 100 pages too long.

So here's the setup: Billionaire hero goes Undercover Boss as a delivery driver. That's a concept that promises all kinds of awesome conflict. There are secrets! What happens when she discovers the truth? Will she feel betrayed, hurt? What obstacles will lie in the path of their happy ending?

The answer is ... nothing happens.

Remember those plot charts from literature class that show the rising tension created by internal and external conflict? The key, of course, is RISING -- and the chart for this book is flat.

He's a billionaire undercover. She finds out before he tells her and is perfectly fine with it. Accepts it easily.

And that's all that happens. But the story goes on for another one hundred pages as the heroine and hero continue to have sex and move in together and go to a gala and have hot sex...

Never once dealing with any tension at all. Never arguing. Never having any significant conflict come up between them or in their outside lives (except some easily solved work conflicts.) Nothing to keep them apart. I kept waiting for something to happen. I kept waiting for the book to end because I wasn't sure why it continued. She'd found out about his real identity, and he was great, and she was a little uncertain but overall fine with everything, a real trooper. 

So there was no character arc. They never had to overcome anything so they never had to grow emotionally. They just easily fell in love and had hot sex and there was absolutely no reason to make him a secret billionaire because that conflict never mattered. They didn't have to fight for anything. There were no stakes, no threat of losing anything.

Which all adds up to no conflict, no tension ... no plot.

A pity. The actual prose is good enough that this story could have been great. Instead it's a lot of nothing. 

Aaaand the final one in my Personal bundle.

I'm glad to say: This one was a lot better than the other two. I actually really enjoyed this. Huge part of it, was of course, Ed. I adore this guy! He made me laugh, he broke my heart and he made it all better.

Because, I have to be honest, KC Wells' writing just doesn't do it for me. Even though I did feel better about this one, in the grand scheme of things, her style doesn't really speak to me. It's more the little things now, instead of basically everything in the books prior, but there is still a lot of telling going on. A lot of conversations and thoughts that felt artificial and forced to me. But I really liked the characters here. Ed was my favorite guy so far, with Colin coming in a close second. But Ed was the star. I liked how he had to work hard to open himself up for Colin and the possiblity of being with a man. The little misunderstandings weren't terribly original, but at least these guys were able to open their mouths and TALK.

So, yeah. Writing still not my cup of tea. But the rest of it was pretty good.

3 happy-and-farewell stars from me.