Sunday, September 20, 2015

Stranded with the Boss - Elizabeth Lane (HD #2402 - Oct 2015)

Series: Billionaires and Babies (Book 62)

A single mom -- and her twin babies! -- are snowbound with the boss. Can they melt his frozen heart?

When Tessa Randall sues CEO Dragan Markovic's company for unfair termination, he insists on hearing her side of the story. But the billionaire known as The Dragon gets more than he bargained for when he's stranded at his snowy Alaskan lodge with Tessa and her twin toddlers. Now the flame-haired beauty wants to uncover his story. How can he tell her that her children remind him of his harrowing past and all that he lost? Or that the sweet family of three is slowly melting The Dragon's frozen heart…

Good book. When Tessa's pregnancy resulted in the loss of her job, she was left with no income and no insurance. With a mountain of bills resulting from her high risk pregnancy and the certainty that her firing had been unfair at the least, Tessa felt she had no option but to sue the company. Her lawyer wants more than just a quiet settlement, she thinks the company should be made an example of, so the case will be going to trial.

Dragan has worked hard to build the company and prides himself on running a good business. He wants to know if this is a case of someone out for all she can get, or if she really was wronged. Since their lawyers won't let him talk to her directly he comes up with a plan to get her to himself for a few hours so that he can get her side of the story. He doesn't expect her to have her twin girls with her, or that a malfunction with his plane will strand them for several days at his remote Alaskan lodge. 

Overall, I liked Dragan. He really just wants a chance to get at the truth without a bunch of legal wrangling. He's a little cynical about peoples' motives, but that's not too surprising considering the world the way that it is. He does have a reputation of being cold and emotionless, and that's easy to see in his first reactions to the twins, though he certainly isn't cold when it comes to Tessa. He's attracted to her from the moment he sees her, even though he knows it would be a bad idea to act on it.

I liked Tessa also. She hasn't had an easy time of it, and all she really wants is justice. When she's offered a lift in the good looking stranger's plane, she's cautious but she needs to make it to her destination in time for the trial. She's attracted to him, but his less than pleasant attitude about her children puts her off. It isn't until partway through the flight that she recognizes her "savior" and then she's furious. She believes that he's kidnapped her to keep her away from the trial.

When the plane trouble happens, they call a truce. Tessa knows that their lives depend on his skills. Once they are safely down, they have to find a way to coexist until they are rescued. I really liked seeing the way that their close proximity slowly brought down their barriers. The attraction and passion between them was great, but even more I liked the way that they were able to share their pasts. My favorite thing was seeing Dragan become more comfortable around the children. He had been a teen growing up in Sarajevo during the war, and the things that he experienced had caused him to avoid getting close to anyone ever since. It was fun to see the way that the little girls started to melt the ice around his heart. I also liked seeing how Tessa's attitude toward him softened the more she learned about him. She still had a few instances of questioning his motives, but for the most part she really came to trust him. When one of the girls gets sick, Dragan's fear of history repeating itself is hard to see, but he handles it all well. It isn't until rescue comes and they have to part that he realizes just how big a change they have brought to his life. The question becomes if there is anything he can do to make that change permanent.

I loved the conclusion and how Dragan took what he knew about Tessa and looked into what really happened. I was not surprised by what he found out. I had my doubts about Tessa's lawyer until the very end, but what she did really redeemed her in my eyes. I loved his big moment at the end and how he convinced Tessa of his feelings. The epilogue was fantastic.

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