Kara Lockley, $3.99, ISBN 978-1005227500
Contemporary Romance, 2022
Kara Lockley’s Shelter was previously published as The Billionaire & the Artist under the name Elena Maclay. I have never read that one, so I’m not sure whether this version is merely a reissue or a revised one.
This story believes that I am a lonely, loveless fatty looking for a vicarious escape by imagining myself to be the fatty heroine swept off her feet by a chubby but healthy man… oh, don’t run away screaming, people, I’m just joking.
We all know fat men deserve to go to the grave unloved by anyone and anything aside from type 2 diabetes. Fat women, though, are entitled to the love of any fit, hot, rich man they want, and if you disagree, well you are a bigot and you deserve to be scolded by a hundred fatty women from their Tiktok safe space.
While at the bar one day, Claire, curvy but healthy, meets Julian, who isn’t allowed to be anything but a hot billionaire, and she insists that while their genitalia make contact, they should keep their last names to themselves. After all, this is going to be a fling and nothing more.
Now, I know I haven’t been the most polite when it comes to this thing so far, but you know what? I’m in love with the story right at the moment these two decide to go to bed. No, the sex scene isn’t hot; it’s actually a fade to black scene. It’s because of everything else.
If I didn’t know that Julian is a billionaire because the author revealed the old title of this thing by then, I would still think the man is worth a billion dollars. Boy, the things he does with Claire, the places they go, the quiet times they have together… these are what romantic vicarious escapism is made of. I’ve had a busy week running all over the place due to real life obligations, and I’m exhausted and stressed quite a bit when I first sit down to read this thing, and those moments are what I need to feel a hundred pounds lighter to the point of walking on air.
Note that I said I’m in love with the story, not the characters. Sure, they are likable, but they are sort of… there, personality-wise. However, their interactions are adorable, and I would go back to believing that this kind of love exists all over again, if I weren’t also aware at the same time that all these magical moments are possible only because the dude is drowning in wealth.
I’ve seen those pics of Elon Musk with his shirt off. Now, I certainly am pragmatic enough to say yes if he would like me to marry his money him, but still, I suppose that’s why I read this thing. The heroine can be the love child of Tammy Slatton and Jabba the Hutt, but one can always be assured that the billionaire hero would always have flat stomach and fat wallet, not the other way around, and bless the genre for that.
I have to deduct one oogie off the final score because I feel that the story gets derailed completely the moment the author introduces the subplot someone trying to harm Claire in order to get these two closer together in order to say the L word.
Here, it gets tad depressing because the take-home message—only a billionaire can truly protect you from harm—is not exactly reassuring in any way. Does anyone want to be reminded that their lives are lacking a billionaire, and the only options to pick from, if one could even land one, ranged from wizened geriatric prune to pasty dad bod to bloated beached whale?
Also, using an external conflict to force the two together feels like a cop-out, when the author has taken time to flesh out the romanticism in the parts leading up to this. Unfairly or not, I get this feeling that the author either gave up or ran out of ideas by that point.
It won’t be wrong to say that Shelter is a tale that panders hard to readers with a certain fantasy that they enjoy, but for the most part, it panders very well as it knows how to push the right buttons in the right order.
