“Wow. He looks . . . not like a billionaire.” She tilts her head. “More like a lumberjack that hasn’t had a bath in about ten years.”

Dirty Money is the first book in a new series by Jessica Clare.  I had to read it because the series is called Roughneck Billionaires.  Clare writes seriously sexy book and a book with a roughneck hero sounds like something fun to read.  Fun and Dirty.  Well, I was right about the dirty part.

The book opens up with Boone Price being disrespected by “suits”.  He and his brothers discovered a super producing oil well and their bank accounts skyrocketed.  We even get numbers on how much money they make per hour.  For all the money they make, they are still regarded as dirty, oil men.  That could have something to do with how they dress and act but don’t tell them that.  They are happy exactly how they are but not happy with how everyone treats them.

Boone decides to make himself more respectable and the first step in that process is to buy a house.  At lunch one day the brothers find a real estate brochure with Ivy Smithfield’s picture on it and Boone immediately wants her.  She looks classy and put together and he thinks she will be the perfect person to give him that respectability he wants.

Ivy isn’t the classy person she appears.  She is hanging on by the skin of her teeth, fighting to make ends meet.  She does desperate things to keep her sister in school and food on the table.  Her realtor job doesn’t make much money because her horrible bosses are always taking the big sales.  When she meets Boone she believes this is the big sale she needs in order to get out of the rut she is stuck in.

This is where the book went a little nuts, for me.  Boone meets Ivy and decides she is the one he will marry.  That instant.  He even proposes what seems like 10 minutes after they meet.  Then there is the house they are looking for.

“You snare the classy blonde?”

“Not quite yet, but I’m going to.  I glanced over at him.  “Meeting her tomorrow to look at a starter house.”

“Starter house?”

“Yeah, small-time shit.  Three million dollars or something.  Only eight bedrooms.”

He grunts.  “Doesn’t sound that impressive.  I thought you wanted forty rooms.”

“I know.  she wants us to start small so we can see ‘what we like.'”

Clay looks amused at the thought.  “She doesn’t know you all that well, does she.

She doesn’t.  But she will.

Boone is always described as looking dirty, unkempt and slovenly.  When Ivy volunteers to clean up his beard for him , he goes off the rails  How can she not love him how he is?  The description of Boone isn’t always appealing.  There are times he is covered in dirt and has snarls in his beard.  I think it fairly reasonable she gets to clean him up before they jump into bed together.

Boone is a little nuts but he wasn’t what I disliked about the book.  I disliked how Ivy lied to Boone the whole book.  Like over and over Boone asked her what was wrong.  She would never tell him about her upbringing.  She lied about the car she drove.  She lied about her family and background.  There wasn’t much truth in anything she told him.  It came to a point where her sister needed help and Ivy wouldn’t say a word to Boone why.  She just sat there and thought how she couldn’t say anything.  I was so frustrated with the book at that point  I almost wanted to quit.

Overall, I could overlook how ridiculous and far-fetched the money thing is (Boone gets made at a golf resort for disrespecting him so he buys it and then burns the whole thing down.  Okay.), how dirty and grimy Boone is and never wants to clean up, but I couldn’t get past Ivy lying the whole time.  There was nothing truthful about their relationship on Ivy’s side.  Why would he still love her when the truth comes out and he learns she is nothing like she has been saying.  Does he just love her looks?  The sex?  Whatever, I just know it failed to make me believe in either of them.  Final grade- C-

Favorite Quote:

“Boone, I don’t know that I’m the right realtor for you. It’s just…complicated.”

“Well, I think you’re the right one for me. I don’t want anyone else. I told you that.”

Rating: C-
Dirty Money by Jessica Clare
January 17th 2017 by InterMix
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Review: Dirty Money by Jessica Clare was first published on Fiction Vixen