Olivia B Dannon, $0.99, ISBN 978-1370989331
Contemporary Romance, 2017
Joan Taylor learns the hard way a lesson most sensible people should have taken to heart the moment they graduate into adulthood and start looking for a job: do not defecate at the same place that you eat. That’s right, our resident nurse heroine just has to shack up with a doctor, and now that the magic is gone, they break up at her sister’s wedding of all places. He decides that he’d get her transferred out of the hospital because it’d be awkward to hover around the place with an ex scowling at him all the time. Joan is determined to stop that from happening, so she’s now racing back to beat him to the punch and prevent the transfer from happening.
Well, as it happens, she bumps into our hero, Liam Wainwright, one of the Billionaire Wainwrights. That’s right, there’s more than one, and that’s a capital B because they mean serious business in both the bed and the bank account, and B also stands for Buy All Their Books, Fam, Okay.
Olivia B Dannon’s An I.O.U. from a Billionaire—he gives her an IOU for accidentally breaking her phone—is actually a zany road trip kind of romantic comedy, as our heroine is really rushing to get back and reach the hospital board of directors before the dastardly ex Earl gets to them first. Earl is determined to stymie her efforts too. Meanwhile, Joan is determined not to fall for a handsome and extremely loaded billionaire because nursing her heartbreak by using a hot sexy body as her mattress while wiping her tears with hundred-dollar bills is truly a fate worse than death.
I think maybe it’s just me, but reading this story, I find myself wondering what these characters’ deals are. Why is Earl so determined to get Joan out of the hospital? She doesn’t have anything to blackmail him with, she’s not pregnant with his kid, and it’s not like she’s going to draw a pentagram in the hospital waiting area and sacrifice a goat while chanting for his death. His behavior feels like overkill.
Likewise, Joan says she has worked hard to be where she is, but come on, she is a resident nurse. Who cares if the hospital doesn’t want her, as she can always apply for a post maybe in Dubai where she can meet a hot sheikh and star in her own Harlequin Presents. Also, I’m sure she can talk to a lawyer if they let her go just because she once shagged a doctor working there, as I’m sure there are all kinds of irregularities, possibly illegal in some ways, associated with such an act of transfer. Again, just like with Earl, I am not seeing why she is bending over and doing all kinds of mental and physical contortions just to get her job back.
Plus, she has net herself a billionaire. Who cares if that hospital didn’t want her? Liam can easily buy that place and instate her as the boss of everything, or let her set up her own hospital!
It’s hard for me to care about Joan’s concerns in this story because it’s pretty clear that there is no real dire consequence awaiting her should she lose her position at the hospital. This story is just a matter of waiting until she wises up, stops listening to Earl of all people about how Liam is supposedly bad for her (come on, she should not even be paying that arsehole any heed in the first place after what he is planning to do to her), and happily does what every sane person would have done five seconds upon realizing that Liam wants her honey. Say yes, and look forward to a happy life of unlimited shopping sprees and hot sex in expensive places that only 1% of the world population can afford.
I like reading this story, mind you. The author’s prose is on the unpolished side, but there is a noticeable buoyant cheery tone to the prose that leaves me smiling without me realizing it. Joan and Liam are pretty standard stock characters in this genre, but they are likable enough to make me want to root for them no matter how predictable their issues and actions can be. I just feel that the author could have at least given me some reason to invest my emotions into Joan’s predicament—tell me, show me that she genuinely has something valuable to lose should she fail in her mission.
As it is, this one is a pretty entertaining diversion, but I’d have loved to be given a chance to feel it a little bit more.
