Dirty Money - Book Review

By Jessica Clare

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 win 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 was. 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?

Review

DIRTY MONEY is the beginning of a new series and is the first book I’ve read from Jessica Clare.

Boone was an interesting character and I wasn’t sure what to make of him for most of this book. He’s obscenely wealthy, but because of how he looks, talks and behaves, people treat him like trash when he believes they should be treating him like royalty. His ideas on how to force people to respect him were over-the-top and did nothing good for his reputation. He wants a classy woman at his side but then says he’s willing to pay money if it’ll get said classy woman to sleep with him. He’s very easily offended, sulks like a child and will hold a grudge until the end of time. BUT…he loves his brothers and set them up for life, any piece of property he buys for revenge gets donated, and I can understand him being insulted by those who look down at him while at the same time want things from him. But just when I was starting to like him, he let his stupid pride get in the way and ruined it. In the end he put aside his pride and fixed things, but overall he didn’t win me over.

Ivy is a nice and very hard working woman. Thanks to her bosses⎯who screw her over at every opportunity⎯she’s struggling to make ends meet while keeping her little sister in college. She’s the classy woman Boone set his sights on and she’s so desperate for a decent paycheck she refuses to tell him about her real life out of fear she’ll lose him and his business if she does. What both Boone and Ivy fail to realise is that money can’t buy class, and that even without money, Ivy had class in spades. She had the opportunity to marry Boone for his money and she didn’t take it. I respect her for that.

DIRTY MONEY is told in dual POVs, is the first book in the Roughneck Billionaires series, and is a quick and easy read that comes with a nice HEA. Boone has four younger brothers⎯Clay, Knox, Seth and Gage⎯who I’m sure will get their own books. The texts between Boone and Ivy were flirtatious and funny and were my favourite part of this story. The conflict towards the end wasn’t original, and you could see it coming a mile away. Overall, I liked the story, but I didn’t love it. That being said, I would give the second book a try before deciding whether or not to continue with the series.