He’s a burned spy with one last chance in the field to recover his life and fortune. She’s a divorced teacher on a mission to rediscover her lost self. Understated billionaire and intelligence operative, Birch Cardon is searching to know who burned him and destroyed his career at the CIA. Another agency, the shady Entity, has offered him a second chance. If he fulfills a series of missions for … fulfills a series of missions for them, they’ll not only unlock his accounts, they’ll give him his life back.
Or so they say.
Spies never know whom to trust.
With one last mission to fulfill, Birch jumps at the chance to head back to his college town of Getaway Bay to prevent the kidnapping of a diplomat’s daughter. Working undercover at a bakery, he’s going to save the girl and himself in one fell swoop.
High school English teacher and former cheerleader at Birch’s university, Arden Pike is fresh off a bad divorce after her dead marriage finally buried itself. Because her counselor friend encouraged her to head to a place where she remembers being the Real Arden, she returns to Getaway Bay.
However, her choice of old friends to reconnect with is a huge mistake. Her party-gal pal leaves Arden high and dry—with no phone, no ID, and no access to her hotel room. Arden is stranded.
Then, Arden shows up in Birch’s bake shop desperately hoping to meet her missing flaky friend. He can’t believe his eyes. Could the girl of his college-years dreams who dumped him hardcore possibly be his contact for this mission?
When he signed up for this job, what this burned billionaire didn’t know was that his second chance wouldn’t be just at salvaging his career—but at reclaiming love with the girl who got away.
Read all the books in the Clean Billionaire Beach Club Romance series by USA Today bestselling author Elana Johnson, USA Today bestselling author Bonnie R. Paulson, and award-winning author Jennifer Griffith:
1. The Brainy Billionaire
2. The Brawny Billionaire
3. The Bashful Billionaire
4. The Brazen Billionaire
5. The Billionaire’s Bodyguard
6. The Billionaire’s Boyfriend
7. The Broke Billionaire
8. The Brilliant Billionaire
9. The Bad Boy Billionaire
10. The Blue-Eyed Billionaire
11. The Brave Billionaire
12. The Belated Billionaire
13. The Billionaire’s Blue Christmas
14. The Benched Billionaire
15. The Bookish Billionaire
16. The Burned Billionaire
Other books by award-winning clean romance author Jennifer Griffith include:
The Billionaire Makeover Romance Series
1. Setting Up the Billionaire
2. Concealed from the Billionaire
3. Dodging the Billionaire
The Legally in Love Series
1. Legally Wedded
2. Illegally Wedded
3. Mergers & Acquisitions
4. Wills & Trust
5. Asked & Answered
6. Attractive Nuisance
7. Moot Court
8. First & Last Christmas Date
In the Billionaire’s Reluctant Bride Series
2. Crushing on the Billionaire
Teen Queens
1. Super Daisy
2. My 90s Boy Band Boyfriend
Standalone Novels
1. Big in Japan
2. Chocolate & Conversation
3. Assumption of the Risk
4. The Congressman & The Goddessmore
The Burned Billionaire by Jennifer Griffith (3.5 stars)
One of the things I enjoy about Jennifer Griffith’s writing is her humor. It comes through in dialogue, inner-thoughts and situations. There’s a rhythm to her books that is hard to explain; you have to experience it. It’s one of the reasons she’s a favorite author of mine.
The whole situation in the book requires some suspension of belief, but it makes for great escapism. Plus, it’s got some seriously funny moments! This book doesn’t take itself too seriously and is light and fun to read!
Her spy-isms are a cute way to start Birch’s chapters and I enjoyed the quoting of literary greats that goes on between these two. The Hardy Boys even make an appearance! (Ok, the Hardy Boys aren’t literary greats, but they are a fun shout out to our childhoods reads!)
It was romantic and tender watching the H and h learn to trust one another.
Another enjoyable book by Ms. Griffiths!
*poor, **ok, ***good, ****very good, *****something special
The Burned Billionaire can be read as a stand-alone as well as part of the Clean Billionaire Beach Club series. I love the blurb on this book and had high hopes for it but sadly was left rather disappointed. The characters were interesting and the book started ok but after the first chapter I just got bored. The ending was good and there were some good moments but overall this book was just not for me. I think Jennifer Griffith is a great author and I have loved many of her books but sadly not this one. This is only my opinion and if you like gentle suspense combined with a sweet second chance romance then I recommend you get this book and judge for yourself.
A wonderful sweet intriguing well written romance. This engaging storyline has a little suspense, misunderstandings, danger, mistaken identity, twists and turns, secrets, and mystery that kept me addicted page after page. I really enjoyed following these fun characters with amazing chemistry to see the ways the got out of their predicaments. I voluntarily reviewed this ARC to a fantastic HEA.
LOve, love this book! Great plot and characters. I volunteered to read an advance copy for an honest review.
I loved the TV series Burn Notice so couldn’t wait to read this book. Birch and Arden were friends in college and he really liked her. Fast forward several years and they meet again. He is a burned spy and she has just gone through a divorce. Great story line but way too much description for me. Loved the ending!!!
I enjoyed this book. If you liked the tv show “Burned Notice” you’ll like this book. It’s a great love story.
This was such a fun book. A burned CIA agent who spouts Shakespeare, a school teacher who unwittingly becomes embroiled in her missing friends kidnapping and an island they get stranded on. But what’s better than getting stranded with the person who loved you in college and thought they lost you. Now if they can get back to mainland without being killed by dangerous people then maybe they can have a second chance at love. I received a complimentary copy and I am voluntarily reviewing.
I would highly recommend this book and all books by Jennifer Griffith. Regardless of the topic, her wonderful sense of humor comes through. This particular story had romance, mystery, and suspense, and some surprise twists and turns. It was a very enjoyable read.
This book was a real adventure read for me. I had no idea where this story was going there were so many twists and turns. It did have an old movie vibe to me as well as reminding me of a computer game named Myst that I could never solve back in the early 1990’s. I love books that aren’t predictable.
Arden and Birch were such a cute couple, both quoting Old English poetry at the drop of a hat. I love how they first had noticed each other back in college. Birch was an easy to love kind of guy, very chivalrous, and it made for good reading. Arden had this super power from being a high school teacher that she could immediately classify what type of person someone was and how best to interact with them. It made her a super spy helper.
I love the nod to the old mystery novels with the Hardy Boys references. I love how they story wrapped itself up in a perfect ending. Actually there are just too many things about this book that I loved to be able to mention them all. I usually just read books between 100 to 170 pages long since I often get bored in longer stories. This book however just flew by and before I knew it I had finished.
Reading this story brought me back to the first book I read by this author. It was called “The Lost Art” (since then the title has been updated to “Dodging the Billionaire”) and I must have read that at least 3 times. That book was a romantic whodunit/suspense that had this total 1950’s vibe. Anyway, this book has all that same goodness and, dare I say, is even more enthralling. Hope you check out this latest book!
Rating: PG, family friendly, clean sweet romance
I really enjoyed Birch and Arden’s story! I enjoyed knowing that Birch’s character was inspired by the show Burn Notice. Spies, great literature, poetry, suspense, and a great romance. This book has it all!
LOVED the main characters. Both were intelligent, thought on their feet, and jumped in to do the what needed doing.
In spite of the danger, the anxiety level was pretty low.
The behind the scenes intrigue was really well written. I loved that story-line!
One of my favorite authors, but this book didn’t have the spark of most of her books. Characters were good and the general plot was also good. I enjoyed the location of their circumstances. But in spite of all that, the book seems like it has been overly padded to reach a desired word count. Perhaps I am just not a fan of billionaire books, but this was a book that would be easy to skip.
This Getaway Bay book was a little different from others I’ve read since it was all intrigue and danger mixed with the romance.
I liked Arden and Birch and rooted for them to get together. I couldn’t understand Arden’s parents and was annoyed by their loyalties. At least Birch’s parents came off better by the end. Both Arden and Birch are intelligent and industrious. And well matched.
While there is no sex in this book there is a good deal of sexual tension, undertones and admiration of bodies. That part got to be a bit much for me personally. I got that they were attracted to each other and I didn’t need it repeated as much.
I couldn’t predict what was going to happen in this story. There didn’t seem like an obvious way out of their predicaments and some twists along the way so it was interesting to see how it played out.
Sex: some kisses. Sexual undertones
Language: no
Violence: threatening situations and peril
Fans of the TV show Burn Notice do not want to miss this book. Ms. Griffith absolutely nailed the Michael Weston style of explaining the spy business. The Burned Billionaire is a clean second chance romance with lots of intrigue because of Birch’s life as a spy. Birch and Rowan have great chemistry. The plot is well paced. I love the ironies in the story. I could not put the book down!