THE BILLIONAIRE BEAST (Billionaire Fairy Tales #2) by Jackie Ashenden-a review

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ABOUT THE BOOK: Release Date March 7, 2017

Dark, tortured, and intimidating, these dominant billionaires will steal their innocent heroines’ breath away. Overwhelmed by their desire to control their world, they push their heroines to explore their deepest desires. But even the most unworldly of heroines can unlock these billionaires’ secrets.

Nero de Santis: Damaged. Bastard. Beast.

Nero hasn’t left his house in ten years—he demands the world come to him, and the world is only too happy to bend to the strong-willed billionaire. Ruthless, cold, and selfish, Nero wants for nothing and takes care of no one but himself. His last handful of assistants have left his house in tears, but the prim redhead applying for the job looks up to the task. Nero has spent his life shut within the walls he built, with no care to have more than a window to the outside world. But the fiery passion he senses beneath his reserved assistant’s exterior makes him want to break down the barriers he lives behind, and unleash the beast within.
Phoebe Taylor: Uptight. Misunderstood. Engaged.
Phoebe needs the obscene amount of money that comes with being Nero’s personal assistant for one thing, and one thing only—to pay for the mounting hospital costs that her fiancee’s two-year coma continues to incur. She’s heard rumors that the de Santis beast is a force that cannot be tamed—but even she isn’t prepared to handle the smoldering intensity simmering beneath his hard shell of feral dominance. Nero is hiding something, something he is fighting with every step he takes. Yet he can’t help but stake his claim on this woman who has shaken up his life, and Phoebe can’t believe this animal of a man is the one person to ever look into her eyes and see her soul. Nero wants to keep her. He wants to devour her. And Phoebe just might let him.

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REVIEW: THE BILLIONAIRE BEAST is the second installment in Jackie Ashenden’s contemporary, adult BILLIONAIRE FAIRY TALES erotic, romance series focusing on the de Santis brothers-Xavier, Nero, Raphael and Lorenzo. This is billionaire IT specialist Nero de Santis, and personal assistant Phoebe Taylor’s story line. THE BILLIONAIRE BEAST can be read as a stand alone without any difficulty. Any important information from the previous story line is revealed where necessary.

Told from dual third person perspectives (Nero and Phoebe) THE BILLIONAIRE BEAST follows the building relationship between reclusive billionaire Nero de Santis, and his new PA Phoebe Taylor. For close to ten years Nero de Santis has kept himself hidden behind closed doors; locked in a sprawling mansion that potentially covers several city blocks with only his butler for social interaction. Ten personal assistances in 30 days precedes Nero’s introduction to his latest ‘temporary’ employee. Enter Phoebe Taylor, a young British woman struggling to survive the mean streets of New York, as well as the medical bills for her comatose fiancé. What ensues is the contemptuous relationship between Phoebe and Nero, and Phoebe’s struggle to remain distant from the mysterious man with a dark and lonely past.

Nero de Santis is a broken man whose ability to interact with people is questionable; his actions and emotional behavior are dangerous; his demands beyond the requirements for a normal personal assistant aggressive and improper. Throughout the story line small snippets from memories of the past begin to outline a heartbreaking history for our story line hero. Phoebe Taylor followed her fiancé of three years to New York only to find herself alone, paying the ever increasing medical bills for a man who remains comatose closing in on two years. In desperate need of money, our heroine accepts the position of Nero’s personal assistant suspecting that she is expected to perform outside the range of her normal duties. The $ex scenes are seductive, intimate and intense.

THE BILLIONAIRE BEAST is a dark romance about two people whose lives are pulled together by loneliness and need. Nero de Santis’s actions and demands are difficult to accept; his initial treatment of Phoebe Taylor borders on abusive and controlling. Some readers make take exception to Nero’s behavior; the reasons why will be all too clear at the end. The premise is dramatic; the characters are controversial and tenacious-our hero is tormented and lost; the romance is provocative yet heartbreaking.

Click HERE for Sandy’s review of book 1-THE BILLIONAIRE’S VIRGIN

Copy supplied by Netgalley

Reviewed by Sandy