Reviewed by Carissa

TITLE:  Billionaire with Benefits

SERIES:  Romancelandia #2

AUTHOR:  Anne Tenino

PUBLISHER:  Riptide Publishing

LENGTH:  415 pages

BLURB:  

It’s just a friend thing.

Before confessing his gayness to his best friend, Tierney Terrebonne’s sex life is -strictly restroom. After confessing his gayness to his best friend . . . it doesn’t improve much. Why bother trying when the man he’s loved for fourteen years (see: “best friend”) is totally unattainable? Good thing Tierney is an old hand at accepting defeat; all it takes is a bottle of bourbon. Or fifty. Repeat as needed.

Dalton Lehnart has a history of dating wealthy, damaged, closeted, lying, cheating, no-good, cowardly men, so of course he’s immediately attracted to Tierney Terrebonne. Fortunately, Tierney is so dissolute that even Dalton’s feelings for the man would be better described as pity. Which becomes sympathy as they get to know each other. Followed by compassion, concern, caring, and hopefulness as Tierney struggles to change his life. When the man comes out very publicly and enters rehab, Dalton finds himself downright attached to Tierney. And as everyone knows, after attachment comes . . .

Uh oh.

But post-rehab Tierney can’t handle more than friendship, so Dalton should be safe from repeating his own past mistakes, right? Right? 

REVIEW:  

Tierney is a lot of things, but mostly Tierney is just miserable. His family keeps him in the closet, his best friend–who he has been in love with for 14 years–is happily dating another guy, and he can’t stop himself from spiralling out of control in one liquored-up ball of flames. And then he meets Dalton. And is a complete and total ass to him, like normal. But for some strange reason Dalton is nice to him. Tries to help him. And Tierney wants him to. Which is odd.

But Dalton has a history of falling for broken (and loaded) men, and every time he gets closer to Tierney he can’t help but fight the feeling that he should be running as fast as he can in the other direction. And it would be so easy if Tierney would just stop being so…broken. And in need of a friend. Which Dalton can be. Even if he wants to never stop kissing Tierney. Even if he has the recurring urge to throw things at Tierney’s head. Even if he has walked this path several times before and it has always ended in heartbreak. Dalton will do it because, honestly?, there really is going to be no one else offering for the job. And that is just depressing.

Too Stupid to Live was not my favorite book by Anne Tenino, so I am not entirely sure what compelled me to pick up this one. I mean, the first one in this series was ok, I just never really clicked with Sam the way I have with some of her other MCs. But there was some small part of me that wanted to see what she did with Tierney. Granted, going in, a large part was hoping Ian would just repeatedly kick Tierney in the balls for 400 odd pages, but it didn’t take long for me to fall in love with the douche. Much to my bemusement.

Just…Tenino does a great job of explaining why Tierney is the way he is. His past certainly doesn’t excuse his actions, but you finally get it, in this book. You get him. And you can’t help but like him. Tierney is all kinds of broken, and the dude really needs to work on his filter, but he is also in desperate need of life changes. And I like that the changes are instigated by himself. I really like that though he has friends willing to help him, he changes because he wants to change himself, for himself not some other guy. Granted, having Dalton there is certainly a bonus–and sometimes a detriment–but Tierney starts to pull himself together because he sees what he has become, what he could become, and can’t stand it anymore. That is something I have great admiration for.

And while the subplot surrounding Dalton’s attack was not really all that compelling, I did really like Dalton himself. He is willing to stand up to Tierney when his is being an ass, but he is also willing to stand with Tierney when the dude needs support. And while the whole ‘are we/are we not dating’ thing ran the risk of becoming a bit annoying, it never really tipped over the limit for me. I think Tenino did a good job of setting up both characters so that you understand why they are acting like they are. And because there seems to be logical reasons for it, you begin to get why these two are great for each other, but can also, if they’re not careful, be each other’s downfall.

There were a few moments at the end that felt a bit iffy–the climax was a bit soft for my tastes–and I never really felt any tension/danger from the whole ‘stalker’ subplot with Dalton, but overall this was a really good book. And one that I really enjoyed and recommend. Especially if you love reformed assholes. Which I normally don’t, but it really works here. Tierney and Dalton, for all their various faults, are great characters and they made these 400 pages just fly by.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

Riptide

Amazon

Amazon.UK

ARe