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The Accidental Heirs #4
A Beauty for the Billionaire
Upstairs-downstairs fun is on the menu, only from
New York Times
bestselling author Elizabeth Bevarly!
When blue-collar garage owner Hogan Dempsey discovers he's the long-lost heir to a fortune, it's his chance to woo the Park Avenue princess who was out of his league growing up. To get her attention, he's hired society chef Chloe Merlin, hoping she'll tempt the socialite with her favorite treats. But Hogan's the one who's tempted--and not by the food. His craving for Chloe puts his plans for the princess on the back burner. Too bad Chloe's sworn off men for good. Or will Hogan's rough-and-tumble charm stir her appetite?
A Beauty for the Billionaire is part of the Accidental Heirs series.
When blue-collar garage owner Hogan Dempsey discovers he's the long-lost heir to a fortune, it's his chance to woo the Park Avenue princess who was out of his league growing up. To get her attention, he's hired society chef Chloe Merlin, hoping she'll tempt the socialite with her favorite treats. But Hogan's the one who's tempted--and not by the food. His craving for Chloe puts his plans for the princess on the back burner. Too bad Chloe's sworn off men for good. Or will Hogan's rough-and-tumble charm stir her appetite?
A Beauty for the Billionaire is part of the Accidental Heirs series.
176 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 20, 2017
19 people are currently reading
42 people want to read
About the author
Elizabeth Bevarly
384 books156 followersElizabeth Bevarly was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky and earned her BA with honors in English from the University of Louisville in 1983. Although she can’t recall ever wanting to be anything but a novelist-oh, all right, she toyed briefly with becoming an archaeologist, until she realized how awful she looked in khaki and flannel, and there was a brief fling with the interior decorator thing, until she realized she had trouble distinguishing chintz from moiré, and… (Where was I? Oh, yeah. My brilliant career.) Anyway, her career side trips before making the leap to writing included stints working as a bartender, a waitress, a movie theater cashier, a soap-hawker for Crabtree & Evelyn, an apparel-hawker for The Limited, and a bridal registry consultant for a major department store. She also did time as an editorial assistant for a medical journal, where she learned the correct spellings and meanings of a variety of words (like microscopy and histological) which, with any luck at all, she will never use again in this life.
She wrote her first novel when she was twelve years old. It was 32 pages long-and that was with college rule notebook paper-and featured three girls named Liz, Marianne and Cheryl, who explored the mysteries of a haunted house. Her friends Marianne and Cheryl proclaimed it “Brilliant! Spellbinding! Kept me up past dinnertime reading!” Those rave reviews only kindled the fire inside her to write more.
Since sixth grade, Elizabeth has gone on to complete more than 60 works of contemporary romance. Her novels regularly appear on the USA Today and Waldenbooks bestseller lists, and The Thing About Men was a New York Times Extended List bestseller. She’s been nominated for the prestigious RITA Award, has won the coveted National Readers’ Choice Award, and Romantic Times magazine has seen fit to honor her with two-count ‘em TWO-Career Achievement Awards. Her books have been translated into two dozen languages and published in three dozen countries, and there are more than ten million copies in print worldwide. She has claimed as residences Washington, DC, northern Virginia, southern New Jersey and Puerto Rico, but she now resides back in her native Kentucky with her husband and son and two very troubled cats where she fully intends to remain.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
June 7, 2017
I was really excited about this book, but it turned into a DNF for me (got to page 87). The prologue drew me in and it was wonderfully snappy. I was giddy at the mention of a Trans Am. Hogan was intriguing and funny. Unfortunately, by the time the plot really kicked it into high gear in chapter 1, I got bored.
(Side note--can we kill the trend of heroes thinking heroines are "adorable"? They're not kittens, and it's condescending.)
Despite each thinking the other person was attractive, there wasn't much chemistry between Hogan and Chloe. I also got really frustrated that I still had no idea why the heroine was so edgy around the hero--except for some vague need to be professional and something *happened* to her 6 years, 3 months, 4 weeks etc. ago. The book is only 215 pages long. We need to know at least some of her motivations fairly early on so that the reader can be on her side.
Additionally, all of the scenes where I saw them interact are a bit...bland. The author chose strange places to show a full-blown scene instead of telling/skimming over an event. I pretty much only saw scenes where the hero and heroine ran into each other in hallways or spoke to each other in the nondescript rooms of his generic rich-person house.
Hogan talks to Chloe in the house about how he was working in the garage, but they don't have a conversation there while he works on cars; the author missed a potentially amazing location for sexual tension. Chloe talks about food in the hallway and how she *needs* to focus on cooking, but we don't see her cook--again, another missed opportunity for sexual tension. We're told that she goes on daily shopping trips and goes to exclusive tastings, but we don't see them happen. Even when Chloe and Hogan finally go on their first pseudo-date at a wine tasting, we don't see it happen! We only see the aftermath and post-date feelings running through the heroine's head.
I understand that the book is short and therefore the author needs to do some telling, but she seemed to pick all the wrong spots for it.
(Side note--can we kill the trend of heroes thinking heroines are "adorable"? They're not kittens, and it's condescending.)
Despite each thinking the other person was attractive, there wasn't much chemistry between Hogan and Chloe. I also got really frustrated that I still had no idea why the heroine was so edgy around the hero--except for some vague need to be professional and something *happened* to her 6 years, 3 months, 4 weeks etc. ago. The book is only 215 pages long. We need to know at least some of her motivations fairly early on so that the reader can be on her side.
Additionally, all of the scenes where I saw them interact are a bit...bland. The author chose strange places to show a full-blown scene instead of telling/skimming over an event. I pretty much only saw scenes where the hero and heroine ran into each other in hallways or spoke to each other in the nondescript rooms of his generic rich-person house.
Hogan talks to Chloe in the house about how he was working in the garage, but they don't have a conversation there while he works on cars; the author missed a potentially amazing location for sexual tension. Chloe talks about food in the hallway and how she *needs* to focus on cooking, but we don't see her cook--again, another missed opportunity for sexual tension. We're told that she goes on daily shopping trips and goes to exclusive tastings, but we don't see them happen. Even when Chloe and Hogan finally go on their first pseudo-date at a wine tasting, we don't see it happen! We only see the aftermath and post-date feelings running through the heroine's head.
I understand that the book is short and therefore the author needs to do some telling, but she seemed to pick all the wrong spots for it.
June 19, 2017
Unlike many romance novels that merely tell us how competent the heroine is, this one shows us a chef who’s at the top of her game. So competent is Chloe Merlin in the kitchen that potential employers are constantly trying to outbid each other to get her services. The scenes in which Chloe demonstrates her culinary prowess are very pleasing, especially to someone like me who cares for her gustatory pleasures as much as she does her bibliophilic enjoyment.
The idea that both she and the hero are walking wounded people who bond over shared stories is a tad banal. Time was when employers and employees didn’t burden each other with their private problems. However, the scenes in which they open up to each other display their insecurities under their more confident or closed attitudes. Humanity consists of more than adeptness in the garage or the kitchen, after all.
Hogan and Chloe are people from disparate backgrounds who aren’t necessarily at ease in the paths their lives have taken when the story begins. They learn to accept that love, too, can take some strange twists and turns. The love story is filled with shy, awkward and adorable moments. While the epilogue was a little too neatly wrapped up and rather quick in its ending (it definitely has a “where are they now?” attitude), the happy ending felt proper.
Yes, I found myself liking this novel (although, once again, I’m not happy with the idea of employers who sleep with their employees). Trite or not, this is a tasty little romance. Bon appétit!
The idea that both she and the hero are walking wounded people who bond over shared stories is a tad banal. Time was when employers and employees didn’t burden each other with their private problems. However, the scenes in which they open up to each other display their insecurities under their more confident or closed attitudes. Humanity consists of more than adeptness in the garage or the kitchen, after all.
Hogan and Chloe are people from disparate backgrounds who aren’t necessarily at ease in the paths their lives have taken when the story begins. They learn to accept that love, too, can take some strange twists and turns. The love story is filled with shy, awkward and adorable moments. While the epilogue was a little too neatly wrapped up and rather quick in its ending (it definitely has a “where are they now?” attitude), the happy ending felt proper.
Yes, I found myself liking this novel (although, once again, I’m not happy with the idea of employers who sleep with their employees). Trite or not, this is a tasty little romance. Bon appétit!
June 20, 2017
Hogan owns his own garage...one day while working on a car a lawyer comes looking for him...He has inherited lots of money and other things from a grandfather he knew nothing about..he moves into one of the houses but feels so out of place...He hires a chef that worked for what used to be the love he had when they were younger...Chloe, the chef comes in and he has to drag things out of her to get her talking but once he does they start getting closer..little does he know the reason she is the way she is...She has lost alot and is afraid to go for what she wants now...This was such a good book..Learning that you are rich when you grew up not that way...Learning to love when you didn't want to ever again..A must read
May 5, 2017
The book progressed pretty slow but the plot was good .
October 21, 2018
A really sweet romance. It really felt as if the author spent a great deal of time and attention with the heroines love of being a chef.
June 30, 2022
Witty writing and great characters
December 16, 2022
nikdy jsem si nemyslela ze svuj dream job naleznu v cervene knihovne, ale here we go! (ja chci bejt neci osobni kuchar!!!!!!!)
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April 2, 2017Miniseries: Accidental Heirs
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews