Is there anything you would change about this book?
The book is intended to be a gay version of Fifty Shades–in the same way that Fifty Shades was intended to be a BDSM version of Twilight–only it hugs even more closely to Fifty than Fifty did to Twilight. This isn’t my problem with it. I’d read the reviews and was expecting that–in fact, since I found the ways Fifty Shades paralleled Twilight to be entertaining, I was expecting to be entertained again. However, Bang a Billionaire is told at an excruciatingly slow pace. This needed to be boiled down. Also, given that the story does parallel Fifty Shades, it didn’t work to dumb down the character (obviously, he’d been bright enough to get into the University, but the author made a point (three times!) of emphasizing just how little he’d learned there). In Fifty, part of what made the chemistry between Christian and Anastasia work was that in the areas of intellect and will, they were evenly matched–and that was unusual for them both. (It’s why Ana and her roommate work in spite of having nothing else in common, too.) At the 50% mark, it wasn’t clear (beyond looks) what the two saw in each other. Honestly, a one-and-done seemed much more plausible.
Has How to Bang a Billionaire turned you off from other books in this genre?
It hasn’t, but I only made it to the 49% mark with this book before quitting out of sheer boredom, and I’ll be returning the sequel.
Any additional comments?
Joel Leslie has a very definite style that might not appeal to all listeners, but I’ve enjoyed him as a vocal artist for other books, and I liked him just fine for this one. The narration was not the problem.