EARLY REVIEW: Dirty Money (Roughneck Billionaires #1)

Dirty Money (Roughneck Billionaires #1), by Jessica Clare
Publish Date: January 17, 2017
Publisher: Intermix
Format: e-ARC, provided by the publisher
Genre: adult contemporary romance
To Buy: Amazon | Barnes & Noble

Rating: 4 STARS

(Synopsis) Boone Price and his brothers know oil; at least, the dirty, backbreaking side of working an oil rig. But when their scrubby, worthless hunting land turns out to be sitting on top of one of the biggest oil wells in North America, they go from the rig to the boardroom and end up billionaires practically overnight.

Now with enough money to do whatever he wants, Boone is developing a taste for fine things. And the finest thing he's ever seen is Ivy Smithfield, local realtor. Boone's determined to buy her affection and show the world that he's more than just a dirty fool with a bit of money. Ivy's classy and beautiful - she'll make the perfect trophy wife. The fact that she's sexy and funny is just a bonus.

There's one tiny problem - Ivy's as dirt poor as Boone is. Her carefully crafted veneer of luxury? All an act to promote her business. What's Boone going to do when he finds out the woman he's falling for is, well, in his league?

You know all those billionaire romance stories out there where the schmaltzy rich dude falls for the plain Jane and woos her with fancy dinners, expensive gifts, sweet words, and prowess in the bedroom?

Well... one of those definitely applies to Dirty Money. Otherwise, all bets are off. 

Boone Price is a Texas oil rig redneck through and through. An oil strike on his private land that made him a billionaire almost overnight hasn't changed him one bit. I think that's one of the reasons why I loved Dirty Billionaire so much. Boone is who he is. He certainly doesn't apologize for that, and he's not looking to change anything. However, he does realize that he might need to refine himself just a wee bit in order to gain respect from others - and that respect is something he wants very badly. 

In Boone's mind, the best way to convince the "suits" that he's legit is to move out of his trailer and into a big house. He also wants a classy woman by his side. If he can kill two birds with one stone - even better. So, he enlists the help of hapless realtor Ivy Smithfield to find him a house and be his woman. Convincing her to sell him a house - easy. She needs to money badly. The other part - notsomuch. 

Dirty Money is all about the instalove. But, whereas in most books it's super annoying, in Dirty Money it works. Because it's BOONE. This guy is balls-to-the-wall, take no prisoners, takes what he wants alpha male. He saw a picture of Ivy, and just knew that she was who he needed. And, after spending some time with her, he was absolutely convinced. She never treated him differently because of how he talked or what he wore or where he lived. She didn't even treat him differently when she knew he was worth billions. And that made her the perfect woman for him. 

Except, Ivy is just as much a redneck as Boone is, but she has about fifty bucks to her name and a younger sister to put through college. She is not the classy, sophisticated lady that Boone thinks she is, and by the time she realizes that his bull-in-a-china-shop way of pushing into her life has worked, she's afraid that if he knows the truth, he won't want her anymore. 

This book is told in dual POV, and the push and pull between Boone and Ivy is only interrupted by some seriously sexy scenes. Boone might be seriously rough around the edges, but when it comes to taking care of his woman, both in and out of the bedroom, he more than excels. 

Dirty Money is a great start to this new series about a group of brothers who struck it rich, but didn't let the money change who they are. Boone is the oldest, but we get to meet his younger brothers, and I can only hope that future books will feature them. There's so much personality in this family - I'm sure their books will be just as entertaining.