Harlequin romances are very soul stirring yet to the point.

That’s what the Billionaire’s New Year’s Bride was for me. It had soul, it was emotional but very much to the point making me want more Phoebe and Matteo Bianchi’s story. In the story, Phoebe Gates is contacted one morning by a man with a smooth, Italian accent, asking if she wants to make a quarter of a million dollars to redesign his home. With her mother’s cancer treatment bills being very expensive, she agrees to the job.

When they meet each other, Matteo is surprised by Phoebe’s friendly and wholesome aura. She is a breath of life to him and he finds himself drawn to her even though he deep down wishes he wasn’t because of his own dark past. In fact, this is what makes him somewhat of a douche bag to me. Sorry for the bluntness here. He was so very wrong towards Phoebe that I hoped she would not even give him a second chance.

The story, the emotion, just the overall “Harlequin” feel of the story earns it 4.5 stars anyhow.

Phoebe and Matteo are a mix of sweet, salty and sexy. Ms. Wilson has a talent for exposing the best of a character at the worst of times and still allowing readers to fall in love with them. The Italian Billionaire's New Year Bride is a modern nod to the legend of fairy tale angst with a bouquet of heart and a bundle of fantasy. Cheers to new beginnings and happy endings.

The story seems like it was okay, but there were too many things pulling me out of the story for me to continue. The AMERICAN character was using METRIC measurements, we were already seeing the heroine seeing hints good in the hero in the first chapter, the story started much too abruptly, the heroine was annoyingly unprofessional and juvenile. I just could not get through it.

Kind of struggling with this one, honestly.

The whole plot didn't make a lot of sense to me. Matteo is paying Phoebe a quarter of a million to stage 2 of his homes for sale---but it's more like she's redecorating? Buying mattresses and making beds and it just honestly was so weird that I kept being distracted by her actual job. I mean, sure you have to spend some money to stage a place when it's your house in the burbs or whatever, but a gazillion dollar property in the Hamptons that is going to be COMPLETELY revamped anyways? Whatever. Rich people do weird stuff, I guess.

It was sort of hot mess. I don't want to spoil the ending, but Matteo really acts pretty terribly, and I just wanted more of a resolution.

I'm sure people who like sweet, close-door romances may find this charming.

FINALLY, and this might not be relevant to some readers at all, but it is to me. I requested this because I was excited to see an interracial couple on the cover. But I have some questions about how the author handled it. I was uncomfortable with the numerous times the heroine's skin was described as "coffee-colored" (light or pale coffee-colored, even)....but then again, the hero was described as being sallow 4x, which made me wonder if he was battling some kind of illness. And then, there were several times where it would have seemed natural for them to discuss the interesting differences in their ethnicities and races, and they didn't. For example, in the scene at the Coliseum, they talk a lot about how there were different groups of people and where they sat. I just had a hard time believing that they never once discussed, even in a comparing notes way, what it means that she's American and he's Italian, or that he's white and she's black.

I think this book has a cute story but was just skimming along the surface of what could have been interesting differences between them.