Review: The Bad Boy Billionaire’s Girl Gone Wild

The Bad Boy Billionaire's Girl Gone Wild by Maya Rodale
Series: Bad Boys & Wallflowers #2.5
Published by Avon, Impulse on February 4, 2014
Genres: Contemp Romance, Erotic Romance, Romance
Pages: 144
Format: eBook
Source: Advance Reader Copy, Avon Addicts, edelweiss
Goodreads

The second installment of a sexy, whirlwind romance about a modern-day heroine writing historical novels based on her romantic misadventures with the Bad Boy Billionaire.

Being good hasn't exactly worked out well for Jane Sparks. Her ex-boyfriend dumped her for being too predictable, and her fake fiancé, Duke Austen, is counting on her good-girl image to repair his bad-boy reputation. But everything changes with the publication of the historical romance novel she wrote based on her fauxmance with the Bad Boy Billionaire. Suddenly she's notorious, scandalous, and causing lots of trouble.

Duke Austen always admired Jane's poise and perfectly demure behavior … qualities that seemed to have vanished once she helped him land a big investment deal. But now that his company is on the verge of a 20-billion-dollar IPO, the stakes have never been higher—and Jane has never been more shocking, provocative, or wickedly irresistible. She's not at all the woman he bargained for, yet she's the only one he wants.

Duke is determined to woo his girl gone wild. She's determined to keep him guessing. But Jane is discovering that there's nothing so appealing as a billionaire who's mad, bad, and dangerously seductive …

The contemporary love story connected to Wallflower Gone Wild

I have mixed feeling about this. For those who don’t know, Maya Rodale has this cool series called Bad Boys & Wallflowers. The first is a full-length historical romance called The Wicked Wallflower, which I loved (read the review here). The second book is actually a contemporary novella called The Bad Boy Billionaire’s Wicked Arrangement which mirrors the first book, and written in first person point of view, rather than third like the Historicals. It’s a pretty cool idea. Then the third is another full-length historical, and the next after a novella, and so forth.

This review is for 2.5, so the second novella. The heroine Jane is now in a real relationship with her fake fiance Duke Austen, and it’s going how they planned. Until the ex who dumped her and prompted her to move to the city is back in the picture. The actual romance is something I had hoped would be more fun, and I was expecting it to be lighter than it was.

I also hated the fiance, and hated that she even entertained the idea of getting back with him. Hated that. I liked the roommate, she was a kick! I liked Duke, but he seemed like he wasn’t really involved in the story until it came time to have the sex. I wanted more of him. Jane I have mixed feelings on. I liked her, but she’s the only character whose insight we get, so she’s the only one who really feels like a whole character.

I liked it okay, but there is something I’m not sure everybody will like, and that’s the heroine’s writing career.

I like the concept of these stories, and I’ve already started the Historical that mirrors this one, but I don’t like how Jane is Maya Rodale. I found it cute that we got to see how she picked her pen name, but I’ve never been a fan of authors inserting themselves into their own stories. Sherrilyn Kenyon does it all the time (ex. “She was reading her favorite Kinley MacGregor romance novel” well Kinley MacGregor is Sherrilyn Kenyon). Even Lori Foster did it with one of hers, one that I otherwise loved.

I’m really not sure about this. I predict people will either love this or hate this; think it clever, or breaking the fourth wall.
I preferred the historical by far.I want to finish the whole series, but the contemporaries kind of didn’t work for me, which is a huge shame since I love the idea of them.

I would be interested to hear if this bothers any of you guys as much as it bugs me. If you don’t think it’ll bother you, then I bet you’d really like this story. I did like it well enough to give it a 3 star rating, I think after that fantastic Historical, though, that this fell a bit flat for me.

***ARC courtesy of Avon Addicts