Overall Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
To Mr. Caplin Hawkins, Esquire:
Well, you did it. You did the thing that I didn’t want. I fell in love with you. Darn those authors Max Monroe. See, I thought I saw you in Turner and Milo’s books. You know, the cock-sure, jacka$$, overworked playboy. I wanted to read The Billionaire Book Club and continue to dislike you (well, not really dislike, maybe it’s “be reticent about you”) as a hero in a book. But those genius authors Max Monroe did it. They did the one thing I told myself not to do: do NOT fall in love with Caplin Hawkins. It will only lead to undying devotion. But you did it…and here’s why:
- You are too smart for your own good. Like really, really smart. I think you surpass Kline Brooks’s- level of intelligence at times. And that’s sexy. For a reader especially. We love a hero who has a brain that rivals his big….hot dog. You illustrate this in your ability to juggle that crazy life of yours.
- Your work ethic. Dang, a trust fund baby? And you wanted to earn your own way in life. Respect, man. Respect. Oh, and it’s a turn on for a man to forgo his family’s money to work hard for his own wealth. An incredible turn-on.
- You are unapologetically you. It doesn’t matter if you’re receiving phone calls about women’s va-jay-jays or faxes of women’s perky mounds, you take it in stride and own that “stuff.” It’s charming too. I want to hate you for that, but you make no apologies for it, and it makes your book (I questioned why they gave you a book initially…I get it now) a hilarious ride of epic inappropriate gestures. These moments you created with your “man-whorish” ways brought the funny to this book; the “bent-over-grabbing-your-gut-laughing-aloud” kinda funny. Max Monroe wasn’t lying; if you don’t want people to look at you funny in public, don’t read this book there. It’s not NSFPC (not safe for public consumption).
- And let’s talk about your choice of friends. It is those mother-fluffers who gave your book its color. I think anyone who reads your book, Cap, will want to join the book club. Unfortunately, since most of us aren’t billionaires, we recognize our entry into it…is problematic. However, if we all had the opportunity to talk about women (men) and romance and romancing women (men), then I think our lives would be better for it, as was so quickly apparent about you. Thank goodness for their wisdom and patience to wait you out for your time of realization. Even more, how amazing that they rescued you from yourself when you needed it. You can’t help but start to like a guy who has friends like yours. And you should really hold on to Thatch, even though he’s a bit of a PITA at times. That man’s tears were “life” in your book.
- I didn’t think you could be reformed. At. all. After the first part of your book where you were nonplussed to poor Liz’s superhuman skills as your assistant, and Vin’s willingness to accept your ability to ignore him. I believed you to be immutable. Until you weren’t. That first kiss with Ruby, the care put into that simple action, was heart-poundingly profound. I felt it from the top of my head to my toes, and I think you did too. Even more, it’s that moment in the book when I think you finally began to realize that you needed her beyond the workplace, that she relieved an ache in your soul. On that dance floor is the first time, I saw some real Cap. From there, your moments of tenderness began to draw me in. The way you looked at her; the care you took in using those books to “woo” her showed me that you might be redeemed. Then, you messed up, and I questioned my sanity in liking you. But there was something different about you after that moment, something I liked. Even though I wanted to throw my phone and its Kindle app across the room against the wall, your brokenness engaged me and kept me in your story. And you didn’t disappoint. In the least. The resolution of this story is the moment when I finally dropped my walls and allowed myself to love you deeply, even more than your friends, Milo and Trent, which comes as a surprise because I loved their stories a whole lot. But your change, your tears, your heart on full display for everyone to see made me change my mind about you. There is only one other thing about your story, however, that makes it perfect.
- Her name is Ruby. Why I went from begrudgingly reading your story to embracing you is your woman. You are one smart man to figure out that she is much better than the “average bear,” woman. Well, she’s amazing. I love that she keeps you on your toes, that she challenges you because you need a woman who loves you but isn’t always “in like” with you. She brings normality to your life in her ability to push back against your narcissism and crazy. I think my favorite moment in her portion of the story (I actually cried a little at this moment) occurs when her mother finally recognizes the strength of her daughter (and can we talk about her parents? Funny. Mark Rockford needs his own Netflix comedy show). Ruby is the type of woman we all want to be, and your recognition of it made me love you more.
So, Caplin Hawkins, kudos to you for winning me over. I know Max Monroe should be given the credit for making me fall in love with a playboy, but then again, I think they write to the cadence of my brain. It’s so eerie to read their books like they’re psychic. Now don’t get a big head when I tell you that I picked up your book the minute it hit my Kindle (forgoing several other books which will remain nameless), and I didn’t put it down until I finished it. There was just something about your story that fed my soul. I don’t know. Maybe it’s ultimately because this book is so inception in that it has books in a book or maybe it’s that I loved your growth into a more decent human being (you still have some growth to do) or maybe it’s that you loving Ruby was the best part of my day or maybe I love that you call her “doll” and I don’t find it sexist. But I think the real reason I broke down my walls to fall in love with you and your story, The Billionaire Book Club, revolves around one simple reason: you are quite simply “the good kind of crazy.”
In love and romance,
Professor A
Professor Romance 