REVIEW: The Billionaire Who Bought Christmas by Barbara Dunlop

The Bil­lion­aire Who Bought Christ­mas (Sil. Desire) by Bar­bara Dun­lop is a Novem­ber 2007 release that has been released early in ebook for­mat at ehar​laquin​.com. Here is the book’s description(really nice cover!):

Wife to the High­est Bidder

To save the fam­ily for­tune, bil­lion­aire Jack Osland had to marry a woman he barely knew. Get­ting strug­gling cloth­ing designer Kristy Mahoney to a Las Vegas chapel a minute after meet­ing her was no prob­lem. Even though she sup­pos­edly loved some­one else.

Prenup in hand, Jack planned to enjoy his wedding-night priv­i­leges, then walk away with the untouch­able Osland bil­lions. He’d teach his gor­geous tem­po­rary bride a lit­tle les­son and have a very merry Christ­mas. But he had mar­ried the wrong woman…

I was some­what wor­ried when I first read the plot descrip­tion for The Bil­lion­aire Who Bought Christ­mas. You have a bil­lionare hero matched with yet another strug­gling career woman. I bought this ebook based on my love of Ms. Dunlop’s pre­vi­ous book, The Billionaire’s Bid­ding that I reviewed on my site that you can read here. I so enjoyed that novel that I didn’t even think twice about buy­ing her next ebook.

Jack Osland, CEO of a fam­ily con­glom­er­ate, decides to set off a pre­emp­tive strike against his grand­fa­ther, Clev­land Osland and his upcom­ing nup­tials. It seems that the 80 year-old bil­lion­aire still has a rov­ing eye for the ladies and bad judge­ment in women. Mar­ried twice before to noth­ing but bim­bos who put a dent in the fam­ily for­tune, Jack is deter­mined that Clevland’s future wife #3 will have no chance at the fam­ily coffers.  It’s Jack’s respon­si­bil­ity to pro­tect the fam­ily fortune.

Kristy Mahoney is a strug­gling fash­ion designer who has been try­ing to break into the New York fash­ion estab­lish­ment for years. She has man­aged to set up a meet with cloth­ing store mogul, Clev­land Osland and the head buyer of the Sierra Sanchez fash­ion chain. Kristy learns that she is to hitch a ride with Jack and his cousin, Hunter on the fam­ily jet for the meet­ing in LA. Along the way, the jet runs into some engine trou­ble and is forced to land in Las Vegas tem­porar­ily. You see, Jack mis­takes Kristy for his grandfather’s fiancée and con­spires with the pilot to delay their trip. The tem­po­rary stop-over in Vegas gives Jack ample oppor­tu­nity to seduce Kristy and marry her in order to pre­vent her from mar­ry­ing into the fam­ily fortune.

The prob­lem with the book was the plot. I thought Ms. Dun­lop could have pulled it off for me but she didn’t. More than any­thing, I was bored. The char­ac­ters were bor­ing and not very lik­able either. There were 12 chap­ters and I read/skimmed Chap­ters 5,6,7,8, 9 and 10. I read the con­clu­sion and was happy for clo­sure. I was dis­ap­pointed. Very dis­ap­pointed. Where was the romance?  Where was the witty dia­logue? The chem­istry? More importantly, where was logic behind any of this? Jack was a manip­u­la­tive char­ac­ter who cared for noth­ing but money. He doesn’t even own up to his respon­si­bil­i­ties. When Kristy con­fronts him about his decep­tion he doesn’t even apol­o­gize.  Espe­cially after he finds out that he made the mis­take by mar­ry­ing the wrong woman.

Kristy on the other hand was silly and gullible. Falling in love after meet­ing Jack for a cou­ple of days. It was just hard to sus­pend dis­be­lief for. She went along with every­thing he said and didn’t seem wor­ried that she was being late for a meet­ing that meant a lot for her career.  She didn’t ques­tion any­thing. Not really. She fell for Jack’s charms, his looks and his bed very easily.  What made me skim the rest of the book was when Kristy and Jack con­front and come clean with each other that they decide to make a deal. She agrees to act like they are hap­pily mar­ried in order to keep his fam­ily off his back and in return she gets his full sup­port finan­cially to help her career in fash­ion design. So she spends the hol­i­days at the Osland man­sion and they pre­tend to be in love while they fall in love.

The Bil­lion­aire Who Bought Christ­mas is not Ms. Dunlop’s best effort. The plot was just absurd. There were some humor espe­cially with the descrip­tion of the grandfather’s pre­vi­ous wives and how they wasted the Osland for­tune. Oth­er­wise, this book was a strug­gle to read. I know authors can’t always pen an excel­lent book each and every time but—- this was not even mediocre. I wish I could say that this book was aver­age.  But no. This book was pretty bad. Why? Pacing was absent, cheesy dialogue, characters lacked warmth (and com­mon sense) for starters. My grade, D. In lieu of read­ing this book, I rec­om­mend you give The Billionaire’s Bid­ding a try. 

For Fur­ther Reading

• Office Romance: His Girl Fri­day by Diana Palmer
• Ain’t Mis­be­hav­ing, Jeanne Grant
• The Wrong Man For Her, Kathryn Shay [Guest Review]
• Ōoku: The Inner Cham­bers, Fumi Yoshinaga
• Vam­pire Knight Story & Art by Mat­suri Hino
• REVIEW: Rain­wa­ter by San­dra Brown
• “When Love Isn’t Enough” by Kath­leen Gilles Seidel
• REVIEW: Ten Ways To Win Her Man by Bev­erly Bird
• REVIEW: Trust Me On This by Jen­nifer Crusie
• REVIEW: Make Me Yours by Betina Krahn

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