Book Review: Hostile Takeover By Christina C Jones

Media: KindleUnlimited, Audiobook, Physical Book

I'm back with another book review!! Like I said in my last book review post, there was no way I was giving reviews on Quasim and Blair, Menace and Stevie, Don and Navy, and Goon and Zoya. You need to start from the beginning.

The fuq?

So now that I am caught in the Delgato/Inferno/Caselli world, I can read something else.

I needed a break from series reading, so I chose Hostile Takeover. From the looks of it, it has the potential to become a series, but until it does...it's a standalone.

Ri and Nala. Orion and Nalani.

This book has a few tropes. Arranged marriage. False Paternity. Secret Lovers. Shitty Parents. (Is that a trope? If not, it should be, cause geez...)

Anyway, we open with Nalani Stark coming into the office of Nectar, a local food market that has been in her mother's family for generations. She's called to the CEO's office, her dad, to find out that the company can't pay the rent. As expected, she's less than calm. Especially when the new building owner is sitting right there looking smug...and fine.

Enter Orion Sterling.

I love when my MMC are irrationally fine. Add in confidence and big oohh!

You know you sung it! 😜

He has it all, and then some. But at the moment, he has Nalani's birthright, and that's a problem. In an effort to make things better, he offers a marriage proposal to ensure that she doesn't lose it completely.

None of this makes sense, but after talking to her lawyer and besties (who actually have ties to the family unbeknownst to Nala), she sends over her terms and conditions. As expected, Ri doesn't agree to them, but they fine tune it and let the games begin.

They get married in like 2 weeks. The man has money and connections, and he is bossy. You'll find out why later of course, but let's just say Orion's motives aren't sinister. It's actually...sweet. His delivery needs work.

While Ri and Nala are navigating this less-than-ideal new reality, in addition to the fact that they aren't just playing house much to Nala's display, they are faced with various pains in the ass, including finding out that Nala's pappy ain't shit. (Her mama was no saint either, but I can understand why.)

The parentals are all dead with the exception of William Stark. Evil never dies until you kill it apparently. Orion has his brothers Ares and Titan, and his grandma Callie. There's also his stepmom Breanna but she's the same age as the boys and extremely inappropriate because

Ok, I am.

Ri puts that wood to her regularly, and Nala is so into it, that she has to remind herself that she is in fact disgusted with herself. I was tickled but girl...I get it!

The couples theme song could have been "She's Playing Hard to Get" by Hi-Five when in fact...she wasn't. All that man had to do was breathe and she was doing yoga poses on the D.

One of my favorite things about this book is that Ri didn't try to change Nala. He loved her duality. She was a shrewd businesswoman but could turn that off and submit to him in the bedroom. He allowed her to continue to live her life the way that she chose for the most part. Shit got hot for a sec, but trust...Daddy handled that!

Favorite Quote: "The way he looked at me made me blush, the way he protected me made me feel invincible, and the words he sometimes spoke over me seemed deeply rooted in a level of respect I appreciated more than I could articulate." - Nala

I've read Christina C Jones before and, once again, we have a hit. Honestly, I'm hoping for a series to see what Nala's friends or Ri's brothers get into.