Mediterranean Millionaires, Book 1
From the publisher:
Interior decorator Zoe Ryan’s life resembles a bad country song. Her boyfriend dumped her, her car died, and she was recently handed a pink slip. What’s a girl to do? Leave everything behind for a bit….in Positano, Italy. And when she gets there, she finds a surprising extra—millionaire restaurateur Dante Sabbatini in the kitchen. In his underwear. Making coffee. It’s suddenly not only hot outside, but exactly what is he doing inside, in her temporary kitchen?
Dante’s plan was to escape to his family’s beach house for some quiet and privacy. What he didn’t know was that his meddling, matchmaking nonna rented the entire house to a sexy stranger at the exact same time as his stay. It took him months to clear his schedule—there’s no way he’s leaving now.
With both refusing to leave, Zoe and Dante agree to be temporary roomies, but secretly aim to try to drive the other out. He plays his music as loud as he wants and will wear as little clothing as possible, and she’ll just go ahead and adopt that pig she fell in love with in town. But suddenly their game of one-upmanship takes a very sexy detour, and they can’t believe what happens next.
Blame it on Fifty Shades of Grey, but so many romances revolve around millionaire/billionaire men. Personally, I find it a bit tiresome, but it worked okay here. Zoe and Dante had chemistry, and that chemistry makes for a very steamy read. Being forced to share living quarters happens often enough in romances, but this is set in Positano, Italy so that immediately made me want to read it. I would have liked more description of the area but this is a very short, very fast read and that would have slowed it down for sure. Just knowing they were on the beach in Italy was enough to get me involved though.
Zoe is an interior designer, and she rents this villa on the beach because she is enamored of the designer who did the home. She lost her job because her boss was basically a turd, stealing her ideas and presenting them as his own, and she decides a month in Italy is just what she needs before looking for a new job.
Dante owns a few very successful restaurants, but he had a traumatic event in his life that he is barely recovering from a year later. He clears his very busy schedule to stay at the beach house, but his nonna (grandma) doesn’t take that into account when she rents it to Zoe. I knew I was going to like this book when Zoe walks in to find a naked Dante coming out of the pool.
Neither one wants to leave, so they start playing a game of who can be a crappier roommate. But eventually they form an alliance, mostly based around a miniature pig, which added a bit of comic relief. This is an erotic romance, and there is explicit sex along with the hearts and flowers. The author is new to me, but she did a really good job with this story. Really my only complaint was the cheesy cover. I look forward to the next book in this series.
6/2021 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch
HOW NOT TO MESS WITH A MILLIONAIRE by Regina Kyle. Independently published (June 2, 2021). ISBN: 979-8513918646. 230 pages.
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