Reviewed by Kimberley

TITLE: The Millionaire Upstairs

SERIES: Dreamspun Desires

AUTHOR: M.J. O’Shea

PUBLISHER: Dreamspinner Press

LENGTH: 198 pages

BLURB:

He might be hard to work for, but he’s impossible to resist.

Sasha Sobieski has the perfect job working at legendary American fashion house Harrison Kingsley—or at least he used to. He just never thought he’d have to work for Harrison Kingsley himself. Harrison is exacting, difficult, cold, and hands-down the sexiest man Sasha has ever seen.

After years at the top, Harrison Kingsley knows what he wants, when he wants it, and exactly how he’d like it to be delivered to him. What he wants most right now? His new assistant. Sasha is mouthy, opinionated, and he drives Harrison mad. Problem is, Harrison can never tell if it’s with anger… or desire.

REVIEW:

If there was ever a book where the blurb caught your attention but the book was somewhat of a disappointment, this one would be it. It wasn’t the writing that was bad, it was just that the characters were so unlikable.

Let me break them down by character:

Sasha: His character wasn’t as self assured or as strong as the blurb lead on. Sasha had absolutely no backbone to speak of. He not only allowed himself to be manipulated by his friend and boss, but he was way too accepting of Harrison’s abusive behavior towards him. From their initial meeting and on every contact Sasha had with Harrison resulted in Harrison belittling him. Even with this unacceptable behavior towards him, Sasha was wildly attracted to him.

Harrison continues to belittle him even when they finally entered into a relationship together. And it wasn’t only when Harrison lost his temper, either. It was sometimes random. Everything will be going fine and then, wham! Harrison would belittle or yell at him. And later it was always “I’m sorry, it won’t happen again” and Sasha would forgive him. Then something else would happen and of course Harrison would do it again.

It was an abusive relationship where the abuser would abuse their mate, apologize, only to turn around and do it again, again, again. And again. He also allowed his boss, who claimed to be his friend and Harrison’s sister, manipulate him. Which brings me to…

Joanne Kingsley: A manipulative woman who does not understand the concept of professional conduct. She knew that her brother had a habit of belittling her assistant. So instead of talking to her brother about it, she puts her assistant directly in his reach and then manipulates him in the hopes of honey trapping her brother to sign off on a business deal. What kind of friend, boss, business woman does that?

I could not wrap my brain around a business woman who would put her assistant—her assistant— in the very difficult and awkward position of talking her brother, who is her partner/co-owner in a multimillion dollar corporation, into signing off on a business deal that he’s already—on numerous occasions— refused to enter into. So instead of doing what a real business woman would do and defending her position and convincing her brother as to why the business venture would be successful, she decides to get her way by manipulation. Not only that, she does it in the guise of playing matchmaker. That made it worse because she does this in the hopes of Sasha possibly honey trapping her brother into this business venture. Unbelievable.

Then last AND least: Harrison Kingsley: He was moody, verbally abusive, and emotionally stunted. There weren’t any redeeming qualities about him. Absolutely none.

The story didn’t flow as smoothly as it could have. There was too much emphasis on the trivial aspects of story: the development of the fashion lines, the photo shoots, advertising. The constant behind the scenes of the fashion industry written in bogged the story down; it was superfluous. It was that combined with the constant name-dropping of fashion designers came off as pretentious.

I wanted to like this story and I tried very hard to like this story, but I just couldn’t. Between Harrison’s douche-y, verbally abusive behavior, Joanne’s manipulation and Sasha’s willingness to accept it all didn’t make this story an enjoyable to read for me.

RATING:  

BUY LINKS:

Dreamspinner Press

Amazon