Title:  Hidden Treasure
Series:  Billionaire Bachelors #9, Lost Andersons #2
Author:  Melody Anne
Genre:  Contemporary Romance
Published:  May 19, 2014
Publisher:
My Rating:  4 stars
Source:  Borrowed, Kindle Unlimited
Cover Description:

Brielle Storm inherits a dilapidated ranch in the wilds of Montana and she isn’t happy about her situation in the least. She may be moving to her new home, and she may be planning on doing whatever it takes to make her billionaire father happy, but she certainly won’t be doing it with a smile on her face.

No. Brielle plans on coming to Montana, hiring some ranch hand to do all the work, and then getting out of there before the first winter snow has a chance to hit.

Montana isn’t a state that offers predictable weather and Brielle is going to find out that the land isn’t the only thing she has to fear.

When her hotter than any city boy ever dreams of being, cowboy neighbor shows up on her doorstep, Brielle decides that maybe Montana isn’t so bad after-all.

That is until he laughs openly at her city girl ways. Then, she has something to prove.

Read on for my thoughts on Hidden Treasure.  No true spoilers, promise.

One year later, Brielle was still seething over her father’s ultimatum.  He had cut off the inheritance of all five of his children, closed their trust funds, checking accounts and credit card accounts… basically penniless.  For their own good, he says, he bought five failing businesses and allowed his children to pick one to make profitable again – and if he was satisfied with the results then and only then he would reinstate their inheritance and funds again.

Brielle had refused to play his game by his rules and had taken off on her own… leaving the folder containing the ranch information on the table untouched.  It hadn’t been easy, her university studies hadn’t prepared her for working in the real world but she had gotten a retail job and a tiny apartment… until the store closed and she couldn’t find another job.  Defeated but outwardly determined to not show it, Brielle had returned to her father’s offices reluctantly and agreed to take on the ranch.

Colt had been furious when the ranch had been snatched up before he could buy it… by an outsider no less.  It wasn’t that he needed the ranch, his spread was large, he was wealthy enough to not really need the additional acres… but since this rundown ranch ran along side of his own property it made sense to increase his lands.  And now some rich bitch, city girl who’s daddy had bought the ranch was standing on the creaking steps in her silly heels and silks and attitude – big attitude.  Colt wasn’t really sure what made him do it.  He had come over with the intention of waving his checkbook in the city girl’s face and offer to take this eyesore off her hands – but he didn’t.  Instead he found himself laughing at her, attracted to her and declaring that he was one of her ranch hands.  She was doomed to failure, they both knew it but having a bit of fun at the rich girl’s expense sounded like a good idea at the time.  It wasn’t until later that his on the spot decision would come back to bite him.

I have loved the Andersons since the very first novel.  This was the first time that it took a long time for me to warm up to one of them.  Brielle is a total rich, entitled, spoiled brat bitch.  There is simply no other word for her.  We get hints throughout the beginning of the story that Brielle was not always like this, something happened around the time when she was thirteen that completely changed the loving, lighthearted girl that she was into the hard, unfeeling, uncaring person with a hard shell that she became.  We will learn what that event was – I’m just not convinced that it was big enough to change a person — but, let me be clear, I’m not the author and this is not my story to tell only to read, so I go with what is put in front of me and react to that only.  She softened after that reveal.  She tried, and to some extent she succeeded… I just never fell in love with the character.  I liked her finally once she became human but even at the end I just merely liked what she had become.  It’s hard to admit that not every character in a series is going to have you rooting for them from the first word – but it happens.  It didn’t take away from enjoying the novel or from loving Colt, even if I did want to smack him upside the head for holding on to his lie for far too long.  So yes, it got 4 stars from me for Colt, for the Andersons and the engaging story, just not for Brielle.

Available in paperback and for the Kindle