Oct 16 2009
REVIEW: Billionaire’s Bride of Innocence by Miranda Lee
Dear Ms. Lee:
The previous two books in the series have told us some awful things about James, the hero in Billionaire’s Bride of Innocence. James was desperate to have a family and when his super model girlfriend could not deliver the goods, so to speak, he divorced her, impregnated a nice young woman, and married the nice young pregnant woman. Yes, James is a classy guy. But he’s a billionaire who wants children. Doesn’t that really absolve him of all sins?
Megan, James’ docile sweet, innocent wife, loses the baby. In the hospital, she overhears James’ two friends, Hugh and Russell, speculating as to whether the marriage will stay together now that James has lost the one thing that he wanted. Hugh is incensed that James impregnated and then married Megan in the first place, knowing that James did not love her. Megan is distraught over this news and basically moves into the pool house, refusing to allow James touch her.
James is upset because, well, he wants to be a dad and how can he get her with child again unless they have sex?
Becoming a dad was what James wanted most in the world these days, but it was almost impossible if your wife never let you make love to her.
James sympathised with Megan. He really did. But running away from life was no answer. You had to face up to things, then move on.
Of course, Megan was an extremely soft, shy, vulnerable girl. That was why he’d chosen her.
Megan is torn, though, because she loves James and even the revelation that he is just using her as a baby making machine doesn’t quite kill off that love. Further, Megan is helplessly attracted to James so that when he suggests a second honeymoon for the two of them, she readily agrees. Not only does she readily agree to go and have island sex with him, she seeks out the help of her friend, Nicole, to get a full makeover. She is to become the sexier, more outgoing Megan in order to better appeal to James.
Yes, Megan has no pride. Or backbone. Or sense of self worth. Her entire life is wrapped up in James and even though there is a tiny period at the end where Megan decides that maybe she is better off without James it doesn’t last long enough to convince me that Megan will be anything but an appendage to James.
James is both appalled and titallated by the new Megan. He was a bit bored with their pre miscarriage sex. Megan was usch an innocent and James felt constrained in trying out his dirty ways with her. What are James’ deep secrets? Well, he apparently likes to do it in other positions than the missionary and he ties her wrists to the headboard at one time. Oh, James, your kink is so intimidating! Thank goodness James is a billionaire because how else would a woman ever want to stay with him? Actually, Megan was frustrated with the loving that James was doling out. It was a bit too tame for her as well, but she didn’t say anything to James and she lacked the confidence to initiate anything.
Very little emotional energy is spent contemplating the miscarriage. James just wants to start boning Megan again so he can make more little babies. Megan can’t stop thinking about how much she longs for James’ body even though he has no love for her. It’s probably fair to say that he little affection for her either, other than she was a suitable baby making vessel.
I’m not certain what disgusted me more. Megan’s inability to value herself and her persistence in continuing to abase herself to try to gain James’ love or James for being a grade A bastard. I loved it when he accuses Megan of being deceitful when he finds her birth control pills because for a man whose baby making is at the forefront, birth control pills are akin to the devil’s drug. I vacillated between wanting to punch James in the face or shake Megan till her teeth fell out. It’s not a failure of a book, the writing is too competent. I can give it a D because I am sorry I read it.
Best regards,
Jane
This book can be purchased at eHarlequin.com or in eHarlequin.com
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Oct 16, 2009 @ 15:52:34
I absolutely cannot stand a heroine who lets a hero walk all over her! If the “make over” was supposed to be an attempt to show that Megan was becoming assertive, I have to blow a raspberry at this book. Thanks for the review, Jane. This is one story I will avoid to keep from putting another dent in my wall.
Oct 16, 2009 @ 16:20:59
Good Lord. Where do they get these bloody titles? I wouldn’t read this book based on that alone.
Awful. Embarrassing.
Oct 16, 2009 @ 17:06:40
Sounds like a Harlequin from the 1980s where you just want the heroine to get some gumption and kick the hero in his baby-maker. Arrg!
Oct 16, 2009 @ 18:21:33
The title’s not just awful, it’s clunky too. Doesn’t “The Billionaire’s Innocent Bride” trip off the tongue better than “The Billionaire’s Bride of Innocence.” I mean, jeez guys, let’s just have epic fail on literally every level, yeah?
Oct 16, 2009 @ 20:33:44
Just remember the authors have nothing to do with the titles!! Really.
Oct 16, 2009 @ 21:12:12
@Moth Even more hilarious is that this is the Rich Husband’s Trilogy. I mean, every book had the word Billionaire in it. I figured out it was about rich guys right off the bat. That said, I did really enjoy Billionaire’s Bride of Convenience, which was book 2, in the Obvious Husband Title Trilogy
Oct 17, 2009 @ 08:41:31
Wow, this hero makes King Henry the 8th sound like a considerate, understanding beta male. I’ll be avoiding this one at all costs.
Oct 17, 2009 @ 10:53:00
Wow. The whole idea of this book is making my migraine worse.
Oct 18, 2009 @ 12:51:43
man this story is nuts! I wonder if Megan will be condemned to having 15 kids since James is like some sort of anti-birth-control Nazi.
Oct 18, 2009 @ 22:50:02
How can a novel where the hero and heroine don’t actually love each other even be called a ‘Romance’?!
Oct 19, 2009 @ 06:45:54
I’ve read this one and struggled to finish it. As Jane notes, there’s nothing wrong with the writing – the characters are consistent, the technical bits are fine – but despite that it came close to being a wallbanger for me. I just couldn’t like or respect the characters, and I didn’t believe in their HEA.
A disappointment, because I quite enjoyed Bride of Convenience.
Oct 20, 2009 @ 00:42:48
um. Wow. I have to go with @Pai here. How can a plot like this be classified as Romance? The hero completely debasing the heroine and objectifying her, using her as a means to an end?
I just can’t believe that’s what most of us are thinking us when defining this genre. What kind of HEA could there be for the heroine in a marriage like that?!
Especially since he ended his last marriage for such a reason. That’s like thinking the guy who cheated on his wife with you won’t cheat on you with the next woman…
Oct 20, 2009 @ 07:40:03
To be fair, as far as I recall, the first marriage actually ended because there had been an agreement between them to have children and they were ostensibly trying, but he discovered that she was actually still on birth control and had no intention of ever having kids. That was also the ‘justification’ for his ridiculous overreaction upon discovering Megan’s bc pills. Doesn’t make him any better as regards to his actions towards Megan, but does slightly change the whole emotional dynamic.
Nov 01, 2009 @ 01:56:51
Being an unfair person, actually, James’ first wife, Jackie, had been sterile. They were trying to have a baby but she’d known all along that she couldn’t, nor did she want one. He also came to realize that she didn’t love him either, she’d just been using him because he was rich therefore when her modeling career went dead, she’d still be set.
Realistically James and Jackie were just alike. Jackie married James to use him and pretended to give him something he wanted but she really wasn’t giving it to him. James married Megan because he was using her to have his children, he pretended that he was a loving husband but he really wasn’t. Of course, he never had the great, hey I’m just as horrible as my ex-wife, epiphany but instead held up that everything he did was right and good and justified and Megan just didn’t know how good she had everything. Megan believing him was the definitive killer for me. Never mind the fact that James had thought to himself many times that sex with Jackie was way way better than sex with Megan. That just really instills sympathy for his character right there.
It should have instilled sympathy for Megan but she was too inactive in the outcome of her own life for me to waste my time feeling sorry for the bad hand she was dealt.