Book Review Born of Greed

Title: Born of Greed

Author: J.T. Baroni

Genre: Contemporary Romance

Purchase: Amazon

                Jack Trotter and Amber Fontana enjoy a platonic relationship; that is until one fateful evening when they dine at Jimmie’s Crab Shack, a tiny bistro lying in seclusion off the coastal highway outside of Santa Monica. An out of the way place, Jimmie’s legendary seafood is as notorious as the movie stars and gangsters who have wined and dined here since the Roaring Twenties. It is here, in the aura of secrecy where clandestine meetings amongst lovers; deceitful schemes; and revenge riddled plots, have abounded for decades, where Amber reveals her intimacy problem, and Trotter finds courage to reveal his own disturbing dilemma.

Together, Jack and Amber overcome their sexual inhibitions and learn how to love. Then the two lovers mastermind a plan to take what they feel is rightfully Amber’s…forty million dollars from her greedy twin sister who became a sensational singing diva due mainly to Amber’s writing her twin’s hit songs, for little pay and no recognition.

Born of Greed is a fascinating epic fictional biography where greed, love, and revenge collide with sex, drugs and rock and roll.

I was in the mood for some contemporary romance, so I agreed to review this one. Jack Trotter is a definite alpha male. He’s confident, thinks he’s extremely good-looking and can be a bit of a douchebag. At the start, I didn’t find him charming at all, but I warmed up to him as the story progressed. Amber was an immediate “like” though. She’s very different from Jack, more on the quiet side, less confident, struggling with intimacy problems. The two meet each other and start coming up with a scheme to get money from Amber’s rich twin sister, who got rich by singing songs Amber wrote without giving her a dime.

Along the way, Jack and Amber fall for each other, but they have a lot of issues to get past if they truly want to be together. I liked the revenge plot behind hte romance – shows there’s a lot more substance to this story than just a romance novel.

The writing was great. My only problem was that Jack was, initially, very unlikeable. I almost wanted to stop reading because of that. It gets significantly better after he falls for Amber, but still, to make him slightly more likeable would’ve probably been a good idea.