Book Review: Best Friends With The Billionaire by Coleen Kwan

Cassie Cooper has never been the kind of girl noticed for her looks. But around billionaire Kirk Rochester, her best friend from college, Cassie wishes she could turn just one head—his. So when Kirk asks her to be his pretend girlfriend to thwart another woman's unwanted advances, Cassie embraces the opportunity to prove to him that she does have a feminine side.

Disillusioned by a rough marriage that had an even rougher end, Kirk values friendship more than romance. He’s always had a good thing going with Cassie. But he can’t ignore how sexy she is now playing the role of his girlfriend, and soon he’s fighting a dangerous attraction to her. Even though their time between the sheets is scorching hot, he refuses to take it beyond “friends with benefits.” He’s learned the hard way that loving someone is the first step to destroying his heart, and he won’t risk losing the best person in his life by falling in love with her.

This is my first book by Coleen Kwan. I was pretty excited to get my hands on Best Friends with the Billionaire because the whole billionaire-romance sub-genre has been growing on me. This one was okay ... it didn't knock it out of the park for me but it wasn't the worst thing I've ever read.

From the very first page, Cassie was NOT my favorite leading lady. Unfortunately, the book ended and I was left with the same feelings. This girl may have a tiny shred of tenacity but she was a damn doormat, no matter how you look at it. Her character just rubbed me the wrong way, actually. Cassie is written as this super tall woman whom no one really notices because she's a tomboy. Nothing wrong with being a tomboy! But there is something wrong with the book reading as if this character deserved to be invisible BECAUSE she's a tomboy and 6-foot tall. What? The book never said this outright but it was the feeling that I repeatedly got while reading this book. Cassie also behaved like a victim at times also. Something that seemed out of the blue but on the same note, it seemed right up her character's alley since she let people (everyone she knows) walk all over her. 

Kirk was an okay character. He was nothing to write home about. Actually, before I wrote this review, I had to thumb through the book again to get a handle on who he was. Coming from someone who reviews books a lot ... that's not a good thing. My worst nightmare when reading a book is to have characters that are not memorable. I want characters to haunt my thoughts hours and days after I read them. I want to put the book down and immediately call my best friend to tell her about this amazing book and the awesome characters. That just didn't happen this time. 

The meat of the book wasn't too bad. I enjoyed chemistry between the two characters that I didn't care for. At least there was chemistry and at least the story between Kirk and Cassie was entertaining. I was always excited to see what was going to happen next, I was just always wishing that it was happening to people that I liked, you know? 

I will probably pick up another book by Kwan in the future. The plot of the book was so good that I have hope I just read this one wrong or something and the next book I read by this author will be amazing. I just hope that next time, the characters can hold their own against the plot in order to form an even stronger story.

* I received this novel in exchange for an honest review *

Available: April 25th, 2016

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