Her Pretend Billionaire Boyfriend - Bree Livingston

Title: Her Pretend Billionaire Boyfriend
Author: Bree Livingston
Genre: Chick-lit
Rating: 4.5/5
# pages: 169
Date read: May, 2019

Belle Evans just won a cruise and it couldn’t come at better time. Between her wrecked marketing career and finding out her fiancé was cheating on her, all she wants is an escape from life. The last thing she wants is a relationship—until she meets Tristan.

Billionaire Tristan Stone is sick of being used. When he inherits his grandmother’s cruise line, it seems like the perfect opportunity to take a vacation and be a regular guy for a while. Then he meets Belle. She’s cute and funny with a heart of gold.

When Belle’s ex-fiancé and his new girlfriend show up on the same cruise, she’ll do anything to keep from looking pathetic, including pretending to date Tristan. It doesn’t take long before the lines blur between pretending and reality.


This came up as a free-for-Kindle book last week. I almost didn't pick it up because the cover looks so trashy (I actually half-way considered not adding it to this post), but I read the blurb, discovered it featured a cruise (I'm a sucker for any book taking place on a cruise!!) and figured I'd give it a chance. I am SO glad I did. It turned out to be an absolutely adorable book with characters I actually really came to love. Sure, it's unrealistic as anything, but I don't always need realism in my books, as long as it stays true to its own universe.

The cruise aspect wasn't used as much as I'd hoped, but it did serve as a nice backdrop. Mostly, what made this book (other than the interactions between Tristan and Belle - so cute!) was the fact that there was actual growth of character involved. I'd feared a "doormat saved by love" story, but it turned into more of a "doormat discovers she's worth loving and acts accordingly" story - which just hits all the rights buttons for me!

I also appreciated the fact that it was a clean romance (even labeled as such by the series name - "Clean Billionaire Romance"!). Not that I mind a bit of erotica, but it was refreshing to have a couple who didn't just jump into bed at the first available chance.

I don't always read romance novels, but when I do, I like them to be this adorable :-D