I don’t really relate with super hot, billionaires, especially not in romance. I bought and read this novel on a friend’s recommendation, and found it mostly sticking to the script I had in my mind. Until around sixty percent into the book, when the twist came, leaving me glad I didn’t abandon the book.
A Divided Heart is a Steamy Romance novel by Alessandra Torre. Told mostly from the first-person perspective of Layana Fairmont (yes, she is as classy, super rich debutante as that name suggests). The rebellious hottie falls head over heels for the reclusive, handsome, tech-genius, six-pack billionaire Brant Sharp, right on their first meeting.
What follows is a rich display of a courtship period that is only possible with billionaires. And that would have bored me to hell except for the tease of a deep dark secret.
The secret was not hard to guess, but thankfully the actual twist of the story was not this secret, although the secret could have benefitted if the tease for that wasn’t so long drawn.
I haven’t read the 2014 novel, Black Lies, which is basically the precursor to this novel, or, rather, A Divided Heart is the Director’s Cut of Black Lies.
When the character of Lee appears, you will find yourself judging Layana harshly for her depravity and wonder whether this forced romance was shoehorned in to fit the story in ‘a woman can love two men’ trope. But once the reality of Lee is revealed, it all makes sense.
So overall I liked the book.
But there’s more, unfortunately. The ending, in my opinion, was too neat. It might be rooted in my bias against fictional billionaires, but the truth is, a challenge which would have felt insurmountable for a regular Joe is really not that much trouble when you have millions to throw at it. So, when the issue is resolved and the hero and heroine are united, it feels a bit too convenient an ending for an otherwise great story. Even the antagonist, who had every right and all the motivation to come back and try to ruin the HEA one last time, just shrunk back into the shadows of the epilogue.
I also noted something which, although super minor, is a shortcoming in the topography formatting. At some places, the quotation marks are straight while at others, they are curly. Sometimes a sentence starts with a straight quote and ends with a curly quote. This is one of those things you don’t notice. But once you do, you can’t unsee it.
Anyway, a review of the book will not be complete without mentioning the steamy bits. There are many. And mostly well written. Right from the first meeting of the characters to the very last chapter, they have great sex. Not good sex, GREAT sex. And all the instances of sex are depicted to be so damn good, that after a while it felt repetitive to me. I mean, maybe it is every woman’s dream to have orgasm after orgasm after orgasm after orgasm, but there’s only so many ways you can make extremely good sex seem equally gratifying to read.
All in all, this story can make for a great Hollywood movie, with some tweaks to make for a dramatic climax.
Get your copy here: https://amzn.to/44T7lFY