3.5

Australian English.  He's a billionaire film director.  She's an EMT that grew up next door.  They grew up disliking one another.  Now he's her son's "Big Brother". Nice contemporary romance.

This review is based on the ARC provided by the author and/or the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for my honest opinion.

The Irredeemable Billionaire by Lexxie Couper ticks off my checklist in a book. First off, we're drawn to 'bullies'. When it comes to romance novels, we love those guys who seemed place in this world to give as a hard time most of the time, if not all the time. And yes, we love it! And hate it at the same time. Confusing right? Well, that's 'us' girls. BUT not Grace Wilder. Oh no. Grace has a backbone and she never back down to Sebastian Hart, a film-director when he's not being a narcissistic, self-centered, egotistical normal self.

"Sighing, she followed. Okay, so she needed to talk with him about sneaking up on her. In fact, she’d had that conversation with him when she was fourteen . Or was it fifteen? When he’d gone through his let’s-scare-TinselTeeth-and-make-her-scream stage. That stage had ended when she’d given him a black eye. His mother had given her parents hell about that. Had threatened to have her arrested. Her mother had told his mother to stick it in her arse."

Their story in the surface seemed a common one. A bully meeting her victim and ending up together in the end after struggling for a relationship here and there. No. Not this story. Grace was never a victim, for one. She always stood up with Sebastian, going nose to nose with him when he felt like being a jerk to her. But you know that those who usually teases us or 'pulling my pigtails" thing were the ones who was really attracted to us but don't know how to process this feelings. Secondly, we have Sebastian in his same-old-brand new attitude. She throws Grace off her game usually she didn't know how to react around him. The billionaire however, was as shocked and off-game at first but he bounces back easily. There was no other choice for Seb but to proceed since it was part of his punisment for something stupid that he did (which happened in Muse book 1-'The Stubborn Billionaire with James Dyson').



"How much longer can you cling to that? The Sebastian in front of you now is far from annoying."


Imagine a reunion with your sworn enemy? The very bane of your existense? And oh, do I have to mention that he's waaay handsomer now? What will you do? And, he's looking for your son? A ten year old son you had with your dead husband. He's now on your doorstep and memories from that sordid past you had with him came back.


“Sorry. I just wasn’t expecting a blast from my past when I rang the doorbell. Wow. You look good.”“And I didn’t before?” She shoved her hands onto her hips. “Of course I didn’t. You told me that often.”

I appreciate the development of each of the characters here as the author didn't forced the relationship between the main characters. It all went natural with the hero and heroine and the kid as well. Oh and Justin Fitzgerald or whatever is a good additional tool in the plot. And lastly, the fact that I did not had any eye-rolling moments is a sure win for me. I totally would love to recommend this book to anyone looking for a hot billionaire but jerkish boyfie who we all wants to redeem. Or not. 


*ARC generously provided by the publisher. This review was made with all honesty and sincerity for the sake of all the book lovers who trusts our views from the books that we review.*

I really enjoyed this book. Usually your billionaire books are all premised the same.  I like this as it adds the older kid, no dad alive, the old kid from next door all grown up and a lot of repressed feelings.  
I like that there weren't flashbacks but snippets of thoughts from old days.  
The added Justin factor added a stressor as well as a bit of humor.

The final chapter took an interesting turn and I thought the outcome was great. I think the judge probably fell over with the decision. 
Would like to see more of this couple as I think there could be much more for this family.

This was a great book full of humour, with a great cast. I liked how the characters could easily be real people with various issues and worries etc. It was a nice lighthearted read that wasn't un-believable or all about the sex etc. It had a great storyline that keep my interest throughout and was just a good rom-com.

If anything could be improved - i would say more could have been made of the friction between the two leading characters. I felt that that overcome their past differences and angst a little too quickly and a lot more comedy could have been extracted from their early love hate relationship.

I honestly didn't realise that this was the third book in a series when I read the blurb and you really can't tell when you are reading the book either!  

So Seb and Grace used to be next door neighbours... Seb was not the nicest to Grace (extreme case of pulling pigtails of the girl he likes) and at first she thinks that not much has changed since then!  But Seb proves her wrong (of course) as he spends time as Big Brother to her son and he (<I>finally</I>) sees what even his brother knew all along - he's crazy about Grace!

You do get your traditional misunderstanding, I don't love you anymore, but after a quick stint in prison everything turns out hunky-dory

I enjoyed this book, so much so I am tempted to get the others in the series to find out more about Seb's friends!

Grace is working hard to keep her head above water, caring for her son, after her husband has died. Running late one morning, she opens the door to find Sebastian on the other side. When she finds out he is her son's Big Brother, Grace isn't so sure she wants the man who used to tease her relentlessly hang out with her son. But her son, a horror movie fan, is excited to have a famous horror movie director as his Big Brother. Such a great read, watching these two come together. Love Lexxie's story telling!

My honest review is for a special copy I voluntarily read.

Fantabulous Book!!!! I really loved this book. It's another don't be deceived by the cover or the blurb.
Far more than that. 

Set in Australia we meet Grace, single mom to son Cody and a hard working EMT, at times pulling doubles to keep them afloat. Grace is a widow, her husband was a firefighter killed in the line of duty.
Cody is a great kid, I loved him. Grace's best friend Shelli runs the Big Brother/ Big Sister program and puts Cody in for a Big brother without Grace's knowledge or approval and she doesn't find out until her past comes knocking on her door one day in the form of Cody's big brother. Sebastian and Grace grew up together, to say he made her life hell is probably an understatement, but Grace now rips them back right at him. He's a world famous movie producer and the bad boy got drunk and was remanded to community service and Shelli talked the judge into the Big Brother situation. Shelli and Grace grew up together, she knew what he was like and they'd had a few schoolyard scraps as well because of his mouth. 
So after a good dose of shock and a boatload of lip service, Grace reluctantly agrees (sort of) to allow Seb to give it a go. Cody is a movie geek and Seb really gets on with her son well. Grace also has a neighbor who brings her coffee in the morning and is trying to insert himself into her life, doesn't like Seb now coming around, yet has no claim over Grace either. They two men seem to have a pissing contest going on. Cody and Seb grown closer and he really does help out when Grace has to work doubles and get Cody to school and such. Plus there's a chemistry there that's been long ignored since they were kids. Now that they're adults, well at least Grace is; Seb does seem to fall back on some of his bad tease Grace until he peeves her off behavior, but he's trying. Meanwhile, Shelli is also interfering and Grace can't seem to catch a break. 
When it becomes obvious to Seb that his feelings for Grace are much more than he realized and she also, the flames spark the fire that gets hosed quickly after Seb does exactly what Grace asked him not to do, "try not the screw it up" within hours he's run over her like a mack truck and Grace is done.
Seb is down for the count and Grace has had it. She feels bad for Cody but figures out how she can tell him. 
Now there are no spoilers there because I'm only skimming the highlights. You have to read the story to fill in the blanks and get the impact of the dialogue between these two and what a buttbrain Seb can really be. I loved the plot, the characters and the whole story. The judge made my day. You might think this trope has been done before but not until you read the story by Lexxie. It's a great book! I actually had fun reading this one. Seemingly a rarity these days.
Great story Lex! I loved it!


**arc from NetGalley and Entangled in exchange for a fair review**

Four and a half stars.

This was just a charming romance that ticked all the boxes for me.

Grace Wilder is the widow of a firefighter, she is a paramedic and has a ten year old son. Perpetually stressed, perpetually overworked, perpetually late for work, taking her son to school etc etc.

Imagine her horror when, while running late taking her son to school, she opens the front door to see her arch-nemesis from when she was a child, Sebastian Hart, standing on her doorstep. To add insult to injury, instead of dying a slow, painful death alone and unloved the ghastly boy next door has morphed into a world-famous film director and a hunk to boot.

Sebastian Hart has been given community service instead of a prison sentence for an act of gross stupidity and self-indulgence. He has agreed to act as a Big Brother for his community service and Grace's best friend Shelli suggests that Cody Wilder would be an ideal candidate as he has an interest in film. She just fails to mention that Cody's mother used to be the girl next door that he teased mercilessly, Grace Ford. Sebastian has grown into a man used to doing whatever he wants and being allowed to do it, ever since he was a child when his mother indulged his every whim. The only person who ever called him on his behaviour was the chubby, brace-wearing short-sighted girl next door. Sebastian had every intention of paying lip service to his community service sentence, maybe making one star appearance and then delegating the tedium to a minion, but he is shocked that the girl who gave him hell and regularly kicked him in the shins for his bad behaviour has become this tired, defeated woman. Add in Grace's (male) next door neighbour who likes to drop round with a cup of coffee un-announced and Sebastian is suddenly determined to be Cody's BIg Brother for real.

This is part Cinderella, part Pretty Woman (which of course it is, since Pretty Woman is a retelling of Cinderella) but also just fun and delicious - I really think the Australian setting, with the accompanying fruity language, elevates this story above the standard billionaire romances. Add in cute-as-a-button Cody and I don't think even the grinchiest-Grinch would dislike this.

I don't recall reading any other books by Lexxie Couper but I will definitely look out for me if this is a sample.

Sometimes a character can be really hard to like and Lexxie Couper did a great job of writing an anti-hero in The Irredeemable Billionaire, but she also tempered him with a struggling, smart, proud heroine and a quirky, intelligent young boy who stole my heart from the moment he walked on the page.  I actually loved so much about this book, mostly that sometimes it takes one person who will call you on your sh*t and make you realize that in real life the world does not revolve around you.  The Irredeemable Billionaire was smart, funny, crazy, but written with so much emotion that it was impossible to put down.

For the past two years since her husband was killed in a fire he was fighting, Grace Wilder has been trying to hold her life together and make the best of it for her and her son, Cody.  Working as a paramedic, Grace lives to help her patients and works long hours to keep a roof over their head and food in their bellies.  The last thing she expects is for award winning film director and the bane of her childhood and adolescence, Sebastian Hart to turn up on her doorstep looking for her son.

All his life Sebastian Hart has been given the best of everything, from his over indulgent mother to the accolades he’s received for the films he’s directed, Sebastian has always managed to come out on top including the years he spent tormenting his childhood next door neighbor, Grace.  Finding out he’s been assigned her son as his “Little Brother” for the community service he is required to do following a drunken stunt he pulled throws him for a loop especially his reaction to the very much grown up Grace.

First off I’ll just say that the chemistry between these two was off the charts, there’s a fine line between love and hate and these two prove that over and over again.  What I loved was seeing a very different side of Sebastian in his interactions with Grace’s son, Cody.  Instead of being a cocky, over blown narcissist, we see a caring, responsible man who wants to foster the creativity he sees in Cody.  It was entertaining to watch both Sebastian and Grace begin to see each other in a new light, to leave the hurt from the past in the past, and to begin to appreciate the adults they’ve become.  That’s not to say they didn’t have some issues because they did, big time, but it is always a good thing when characters grow and they both did by leaps and bounds in this book. I will say that Cody was quite the scene stealer and the wisdom that came from his observations was spot on.

Sweet but with a definite sexy side, I loved The Irredeemable Billionaire.

This is an enjoyable novel that gives Grace a chance to face the man who was the boy that made her childhood hell. Sebastian is all grown up and stunned when Grace answers the door when he shows up for his court ordered community service as a Big Brother. He'd always liked Grace, but dealt with it by name calling and other nasty behaviors. Grace still has some animosity towards him and doesn't know how to make this work.

We've all dreamed about facing the bully that made school difficult, but how many of us get a chance to actually do it? In Grace's case, the bully has become a talented and wealthy film producer, while Grace has become an overworked widow struggling to make ends meet and to care for her son.

The combination of the above made for a fun premise and very entertaining reading. Fans of the genre will enjoy this book and want to put it at the top of their TBR list.

The Irredeemable Billionaire, is a book that is worth a second read. It is a book that I couldn't put down.