3.5 Smooches
Synopsis
From a USA TODAY Bestselling Author.
A Greek Billionaire and his student intern.
Tess Richardson is from a family that’s all about the law. She follows the rules, and works hard for everything she has. When she gets accepted to junior year abroad and an internship at an International shipping company, she knows that doing things the right way has paid off. Then she meets Nico Stephanos and all the rules fly out the window.
Nico has always been the golden boy. Handsome, smart, and the son of a Greek billionaire, he gets what he wants, when he wants it. With a father as rich and powerful as his, he’s got the world by the balls—until the day the woman he’s falling for becomes his family’s greatest enemy. Now Nico is faced with a choice—the life he knows, or the girl he thinks he loves.
Review
“Words seem to be escaping me. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more perfect looking guy. Ever.”
Tess Richardson, a college student pursuing her degree in forensic accounting, is heading to Greece to study for a year there at the American university while working an internship in the finance department of Stephanos Shipping. The daughter of a cop and a district attorney and the sister of an FBI agent, Tess has a finely honed sense of right and wrong and a very healthy respect for rules. But even her rules won’t protect her heart when she slams into Niko Stephanos.
“My entire life has been mapped out for me since the day I was born, but I’m not sure it’s the life I actually want.”
Niko Stephanos is the heir to the Stephanos Shipping fortune. Not only will he head up the company that is his family’s legacy, he will eventually head up the family, and with these roles, come responsibilities and obligations that he’s not so sure he wants. Something is missing from his life, and he had no idea what it was until a tiny, mouthy American girl slams into him one day, lecturing him on the importance of following the rules.
“As much as I want Tess Richardson, I need her more. I need her to teach me how to be a better man. I need her to be my friend.”
Niko is completely taken by Tess, he’s never met anyone like her. Firstly, she doesn’t cow to him or his whims, and she’s so confident in her convictions, so sure of their importance. Add that to the fact that’s she wrapped up in a tiny, but beautiful package, and she’s the prize he can’t help but want. He begins to pursue her aggressively, but while Tess is undoubtedly attracted to the gorgeous billionaire, she can’t help but see the warning signs going up – he’s her boss, and a relationship between them would be breaking the rules. Cornering her on a night when they’d both been drinking, Niko pushes Tess hard for more, and her reaction surprises him. It’s then that he takes a good, long look at himself, and he doesn’t like what he sees. He calls her into his office at work, and he proposes a special project to Tess: she’ll be his friend, and she’ll teach him what it means to be a regular, normal guy.
“She might be the only real and true thing in my world right now.”
As they spend more and more time together, they can’t help but fall hard for each other, and they inevitably give in to their attraction. This is no fling, though, these two are falling in love. Meanwhile, Niko’s relationship with his cousin, Christos, his deftheri, or right-hand man, is becoming more and more strained and Niko doesn’t understand why.
“I would do anything for you, break any rule. Please don’t lead me into something that ruins me.”
He starts noticing some things at work that aren’t quite right, though, and as he begins to look into them, his suspicions grow. Then Christos is attacked, and Niko overhears a conversation that changes everything. At the same time, Tess, who has been pulled off of some projects by Christos, stumbles across her own inconsistencies. It all explodes when Christos is attacked again. As the Stephanos empire crumbles, will Niko ever learn the truth? Will he lose Tess because of all of this? Will Tess turn on Niko and his family or could she be his savior?
“I’ll always want you… No matter what. You’re my one…”
This was the first book I’ve read from Selena Laurence. It was a cute, sweet, light story. The romance was a bit lacking, though. There were some sexy moments, but I never really felt the burning, all encompassing attraction between Tess and Niko that was portrayed. There weren’t any epic, heart-racing, swoon-worthy moments where I could feel what the author was telling me was there. The romance between Niko and Tess played a secondary role to the suspense portion of the story, and that was what kept me turning the pages.
I do wish that both the romance and the suspense plots were better developed. There were a lot of places where this story just dragged on with scenes that were unnecessary and did nothing to further either plots, and I fought not to skim in those parts. I think had there been more scenes showing us Tess and Niko falling in love, along with more scenes that delved deeper into the unfolding of the suspense plot, I’d have felt differently about this book. There was no real lead up to the big reveal of the criminal portion of the story, it just kind of exploded out of the blue with little more than a cursory explanation of what happened. There was also a six-month lapse in time between them seeing each other again; a few scenes there showing them pining for each other or working towards one another would have made their undying love declarations more believable for me. 3.5 smooches from me.
~ Danielle Palumbo
