🎧 Reviewed by LD | Rating: 4.2/5 | Steam: 🔥🔥🔥🔥

⚠️ This is a full spoiler review. If you haven’t read Dirty Billionaire yet — go read it first. We’ll be here when you’re done.

The Opening

Holly Wicks won a make-me-a-star TV competition and got a record deal. What she also got was a fake relationship with JC, a bisexual man who does not keep his flings quiet, which means she spends most of her time looking like the perpetually cheated-on girlfriend in every gossip rag. It is Christmas Eve, she has just had enough, and she is going out to find herself a man.

The Full Story — Spoilers Included

Before Any of This

Standing in a checkout line staring at yet another tabloid story about JC, Holly has a mini meltdown. The woman behind her recognizes her. Turns out it’s Tana Vines, female country artist of the year about a decade ago. They get drunk together, form a friendship, and Tana gives Holly exactly the push she needs to start standing up for herself.

Holly goes to the record label and tells them she’s done with the JC arrangement. Their response is to announce an engagement instead. By the time she finishes practice that day there are already photos online of JC buying a ring.

Christmas Eve

Holly sits down at a bar and gets immediately harassed by a man who won’t leave her alone. Creighton Karas steps in, tells the man to get his hands off his wife, and that is how they meet. Creighton is a crass billionaire who, by his own assessment, can get all the company he wants. They end up sleeping together. When he wakes up in the morning she is gone.

He publishes a missed connection. Says he will be waiting for her on New Year’s Eve with a ring and a prenup.

New Year’s Eve

At the last second Holly gets the nerve and shows up. When he tells him her name he realizes she’s the woman JC was planning to propose to that same night. He doesn’t do relationships with women who are already spoken for and pretty much tries to kick her out. Hesitantly and feeling like she has no other choice, she explains the whole situation. And in true Creighton fashion, he gets his lawyers on it immediately. They go to Vegas and get married. Ironically, by the next morning the press is asking how long they’d been sneaking around behind JC’s back.

Poor JC.

New York

Creighton’s default setting is domineering. He had an entire wardrobe ordered for her before he even knew she was coming. He tells her not to leave without letting him know where she’s going. When she goes out to find a guitar to write with and forgets her phone, he’s sitting in the dark waiting for her when she gets back. He offers to buy her a guitar. She says she has two perfectly good guitars in Nashville. He says he’s buying her one anyway and possibly two, oh and also her credit cards will arrive tomorrow. Holly is fiercely independent — she didn’t marry him for his money and she tells him she doesn’t need it. They argue, both give a little, they make up.

He is not wrong in that his impulse to take care of her comes from a real place. He and his sister Greer were raised by an uncle who never treated them like his own children. There was never much parental warmth. The protectiveness makes sense when you understand that.

Holly’s Background

She grew up in Kentucky, never knowing her dad, raised by a mother who eventually handed her off to her grandmother at fifteen when a new boyfriend came along who didn’t want a kid around. Her gran raised her from there. When Holly made it to the finals of the TV show, her mother reappeared, promised to look after Gran if Holly would just go compete. So Holly went. Her mother left Gran alone to get her two seconds of reflected fame. While she was gone, Gran fell, hit her head, and never woke up. Holly has carried the guilt of that ever since, knowing that if she’d been there she would have protected her and her gran would probably still be here.

The vulnerability between Creighton and Holly is one of the more interesting things about this book. He sees a softer side of her than she shows the world. She sees a softer side of him than anyone else gets. It builds fast and it’s unexpected.

The Break

The schedule conflict is where things fall apart. Holly needs to be in Nashville. Creighton wants her in New York. He doesn’t say it gently. His career is the priority and her schedule is expected to accommodate his. She is willing to compromise but he is not. Eventually he comes around and promises to get her where she needs to be, arranges everything, and so she agrees to come back with him. But the seed has been planted.

When the time comes for her to leave for Nashville, she tries to reach him. He doesn’t answer. She waits as long as she can. She calls and texts but he doesn’t respond. This leaves her feeling like she is not a priority, that his career will always come first, that she is an afterthought. So she leaves without a goodbye, walking away from everything he bought her — and that’s where book one ends.

The Steam Rating Breakdown

🔥🔥🔥🔥 — Very spicy, very consistent. The chemistry between Holly and Creighton is off the wall and the book leans into that fully. This is not a slow burn.

The Ending — Satisfied or Disappointed?

Deliberately unresolved. This is book one of three and it ends exactly where it’s supposed to — with Holly walking out and everything still completely unfinished. You will need book two immediately, so plan accordingly.

Would I Reread It?

No.

Where to Get

Dirty Billionaire by Meghan March — Dirty Billionaire Trilogy Book 1. Reviewed by LD

📖 Physical Book
Amazon | Bookshop.org

🎧 Audiobook
Audible | Libro.fm

📱 Ebook
Amazon

🎁 New to Audible? Get 3 months free (US)
🎁 New to Libro.fm? Get 2 free audiobooks

Dirty Billionaire — Meghan March | Full Spoiler