Shopping For a Billionaire 1 by Julia Kent is part of what I see as a worrying trend in modern books today - the serialisation of one story across two, three, four or more books. While I can happily accept the idea of sequels to books, with the same characters, the books should be and need to be at least of novel length to justify this treatment. Having said that, I know Julia Kent is a very successful author and is far from being the only author to have adopted this trend. Prior to writing my review, I took the opportunity to read some of the negative reviews on the book, on Amazon. It would certainly appear that many readers share my dislike of this practice. There are a number of reviews with one star that specifically state they felt they were duped into buying this book, thinking it was a stand-alone novella. I wouldn't be harsh enough to give it only one star but from a reviewer's perspective, the length of the story and the fact it is a "serial" set of novels, puts me on the defensive from the get-go. As this particular book was free on Kindle when I downloaded, I can hardly throw my hands up and say; "what a waste of money", but it is not a trend I particularly like.
The book itself, the writing style and the characterizations lend it to a much higher rating than I will end up giving it. Julia Kent is a New York Time's best-selling author and clearly knows her target market well. I did find the writing style a little bit frothy for my personal taste and the characters a little one-dimensional; the slightly neurotic, marginally overweight Shannon and the "perfect" hunk that was Declan. I know there is a market for this type of story and well done Kent for finding it and exploiting it well. Her style is engaging and easy to read, her humor is clever at times and her references to current day celebrities and events help to bring realism to the story.
I have no doubt the complexities of the characters will be more exposed in the future "installments" but the question remains for this reviewer whether he will bother to buy those installments? The jury's still out on that, although I would like to, at least, see where the budding relationship between Shannon and Declan goes, so it's possible.
Look, if you like bubbly, frothy, fantasy style romances, ala, Bridget Jones, then you'll probably love Julia Kent's books. By all means, grab Shopping for a Billionaire 1 (After all, it is free on Kindle) just be warned, if you enjoy it and love the characters, as many readers clearly do, you will have to purchase several more short books, to get the full story.
A good, solid three stars from me, that would have been four, if it had been a full novella or novel, rather than a serial.
Check out the rest of this series and all of Julia Kent's books here: http://amzn.to/1TakXFi
The book itself, the writing style and the characterizations lend it to a much higher rating than I will end up giving it. Julia Kent is a New York Time's best-selling author and clearly knows her target market well. I did find the writing style a little bit frothy for my personal taste and the characters a little one-dimensional; the slightly neurotic, marginally overweight Shannon and the "perfect" hunk that was Declan. I know there is a market for this type of story and well done Kent for finding it and exploiting it well. Her style is engaging and easy to read, her humor is clever at times and her references to current day celebrities and events help to bring realism to the story.
I have no doubt the complexities of the characters will be more exposed in the future "installments" but the question remains for this reviewer whether he will bother to buy those installments? The jury's still out on that, although I would like to, at least, see where the budding relationship between Shannon and Declan goes, so it's possible.
Look, if you like bubbly, frothy, fantasy style romances, ala, Bridget Jones, then you'll probably love Julia Kent's books. By all means, grab Shopping for a Billionaire 1 (After all, it is free on Kindle) just be warned, if you enjoy it and love the characters, as many readers clearly do, you will have to purchase several more short books, to get the full story.
A good, solid three stars from me, that would have been four, if it had been a full novella or novel, rather than a serial.
Check out the rest of this series and all of Julia Kent's books here: http://amzn.to/1TakXFi
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