Have Me: A Sexy Billionaire Romance

This delicious romance was so much more than I expected! I love accidentally-married stories, but this book is so much more than that. As tropes go, it's also a billionaire tale and a best-friend's-little-sister story, and both premises complicate the marriage well beyond what I expected. Liam and Hana have known each other since childhood, with Hana's crush a well-known but respectfully unacknowledged fact. Liam's turbulent childhood has closed him off emotionally while he uses his talents for both science and finance to build an insulating kingdom of his own. After getting way too drunk one night and marrying party-crasher Hana at one of his infamous parties, Liam finds that it's in his best PR interests to continue the marriage. He and Hana have such different approaches to problem-solving, however, so the path forward is fraught with landmines and pitfalls that neither can see coming. The glue that keeps them in each other's orbits long enough to try to work the rest out is, of course, their incendiary chemistry and inability to keep their hands off each other. The author doesn't dwell on these scenes; rather they're written as if the reader is supposed to remain as emotionally detached as the characters are. This makes the book more emotionally powerful, but not as one-handed a read as some of the author's other works. The absolute brilliance of this book shines through the first-person POV technique. This author does an amazing job of writing the two different voices. The hypnotic rendering of Liam's state of mind while he was drunk was fascinating and insightful, and the later inner turmoil he experiences is written in such a way as to perfectly mimic his personality. Hana is about as opposite as can be, and her voice demonstrates her unwavering faith in herself and her devotion to Liam despite her better judgment. Her relationship with Jax, her brother, was refreshingly normal and mature, and I appreciated the measured approach that Jax took to protect his sister's interests without turning into a caveman himself. In the end, Liam's personal journey is the story, and it has a dynamic and heartwarming HEA. This is a "small-screen" story in that it focuses almost entirely on Liam and Hana, including other characters only when necessary. This limited scope gives the whole story a deep intimacy that made it impossible to put down. If you're looking for a deeply emotional romance between two strong characters rather than light and steamy read, this is the book for you. Just make sure you allow yourself enough time to read it because you won't be able to stop once you start. I voluntarily reviewed an ARC of this book.