Johari Clayborn has given everything she has to building her own cosmetics company, Sparkling Gem. But it isn’t enough. The company’s going under, and Johari sees no way out of her current predicament than to sell the company to Schöne Haut, the beauty juggernaut owned by the Vollmer family.
Rald Vollmer wants nothing more than to be rid of his wife, Helga. On paper, she looks like the perfect foil for his up-and-coming business persona, but in reality she’s nothing short of psychotic. Sparkling Gem, and the woman who created it, presents him with the perfect chance to break free of his family’s influence.
It’s just a business arrangement, he tells himself, carefully calculated to give him what he wants. But the better he gets to know Johari, the less he’s able to stay emotionally aloof, and what began as a calculated plan rapidly turns into something much, much more personal. Beautiful Skin
Shara Azod ↠ 1 FREE DOWNLOAD
I must admit it, I got so excited when I discovered that fairly recent Shara Azod book. I was so elated in fact that I did not fully read the synopsis and that was my downfall lol
I do not and cannot tolerate adultery in any way shape or form in my romance books. That itself marred the story from the beginning and left a very bitter taste in my mouth as I was reading.
Johari the self made owner of a natural cosmetic brand. Unfortunately, being hard on her luck she has to resort to selling her company in order to resolve her financial woes. Enters Rald Volmer of Schöne Haut who is willing to save her business and allows her have full control of Sparkling Gem. But is he as altruistic as he seems? Behind the affable surface lies a calculating man whose only intent is to seduce Johari in order to force his equally cold an calculating but also racist wife to file for a divorce.
Herein lies the problem for me. How can such as cold, calculating and strong character resort to such petty measure. For all his alpha-maleness, and take charge attitude, he is unable to confront a woman and ask for a divorce. Money was obviously not an issue for him so...really why be such a coward? Secondly, no matter how Rald's marriage is described as cold and loveless, it is nonetheless a marriage. Therefore, his attempts at seducing Johari and of course the subsequent illicit relationship had me raising an eyebrow. Not to mention that the wife was made to be a complete psychopath, I feel to justify the affair. pfft!!
Yes, both characters had explosive chemistry, yes the drama was at an all time high...but I could never forget the fact that Rald was married. I guess that makes for flawed characters, but it's just a flaw that I could not tolerate.
I kept reading still, because I had brought the book and I kinda like Johari. Rald, for all his alphaness seem a bit cold unless he was with Johari and I was more or less with him until he From the on, it was wrap for me and I didn't finish it.
Shara Azod, you almost had it but I have to give this a 2.5 stars. English I have read many books by this author which I have enjoyed. I have had this one on my kindle for a while and I have only just now got around to reading it.
This is Johari and Rald's story. Rald is married in name only and he wants to be free of his loveless marriage. He sees an opportunity involving Johari in his personal life but does not realises the consequences that this action will have on everyone's lives. I enjoyed the story, it had a few twists and turns and kept me fully engaged.
A good read! English I downloaded a sample of this before deciding to purchase, believing the writing was solid. The writing for the most part was good. There was some copy editing issues, but besides that there weren't too many grammatical mistakes.
I guess for 300 odd pages I expected more. There was way too much telling and not enough showing. There wasn't enough dialogue between Rald and Johari to make me believe they were madly in love with one another. Madly in lust? Yes. Love? No. Their scenes just really boiled down to adulterous sex. Can't you tell I'm swooning?
Things kicked off with their initial meeting where Rald had plans to buy Johari's cosmetics company as a way to diversify his family's business. Johari saw the buy out for what it was: taking something that was created for women of color, watering down the formula so that it becomes useless before re-branding it for white consumers. So that part really drew my interest, however, Rald's plan wasn't just to dismantle what Johari had built, but to also seduce her in order to drive his sociopathic wife out of his life without having to cough up half of his fortune to do so. Rald, of course, upon meeting Johari and being taken with her beauty didn't exactly nix his initial plan to use her, but he surprisingly fell for her in the process.
I can't really say I ever came to like Johari. As her best friend Gemma said, she's the kind of person who would cut off their nose to spite their face. She didn't want to accept help from A-N-Y-B-O-D-Y. It was infuriating. Not wanting her ex-husband to bail her out considering he remarried, I could understand that, but she didn't even want to accept alimony upon their divorce. Who doesn't accept spousal support when there's been no pre-nup? It also might have helped her keep her head above water financially until things turned around. Anyways, Johari made a lot of choices that did not sway me to like her.
Rald, I couldn't like him. He was too manipulative and also naive to believe that he had everything under control, was several steps ahead of his conniving wife. Sorry for the spoiler, but the fact he also deliberately got Johari pregnant without her consent, again just hammered in the nails to his coffin for me.
Rald and Johari together, I wasn't rooting for them to get the HEA. He used her, plain and simple and put her life in real danger knowing how murderous his wife was. I can't overlook that, clasp my hands together and sigh wistfully that those two robots managed to tap into real human feelings when around each other. At one point I started rooting for Johari and her ex-Eli who really had her back during the negotiations of the merger, to reconcile, but nah. She was stuck on Rald, and honestly Eli deserved better.
The only characters I walked away enjoying where Gemma, Eli, and Aine (Rald's mother though I did give her the stink eye until she checked her attitude about race.) Overall this book was okay. If it had given me character development I could have enjoyed it much more. English OMG THIS BOOK WAS SOOO GOOOD. I LOVED IT. I found the book on her website cheaper than on amazon. If you want a good book pick this book up and read it. This is the first book by this author that I have read, but I will read some more by hers in the future. English Lovely story
Who would kill a defenseless dog? A crazy psychotic wife by the name of Helga. I hope Rald learned his lesson when it comes to using people. If I was Johari I don't think I would have forgiven him. English
The premise of this story was a difficult buy-in for me. A CEO (Rald) marries without a pre-nup and in order to get rid of his current wife, he has an orchestrated affair. Johari is purported to be a woman of strong morals but she quickly falls into bed with Rald again and again. Don't forget to throw in the cliche interfering, but well-meaning best friend. I just gotta ask: How was it okay for Rald's mother to use her husband as a pawn in a very dangerous game? That plan was crazy!!! English Good quick read
I like this book,it was a nice way to spend a Sunday evening. Johari & Rald where to different people from different worlds who ended up finding love with one another. It was a very unique story indeed. Rald needed an out to get away from his sociopathic wife w/o having to give her half of his family company,he put a plan in place to buy a struggling company owned by Johari and seduce her. His plan to use her to get away from his crazy wife goes up in smoke when he falls in love with her. Add in his racist father,his very smart protective mother,her best friend & her ex husband to the mix and you have a recipe for disaster for these two.
Not bad,it had all the elements,hot alpha male,strong female presence,super hot sex,and plenty of drama. I liked how the story flowed and I love a little drama in my books but I have say the one thing that bothered me was how it was repeated that Johari had mortals & would never have sex with her ex b/c he was married however,she had sex with Rald pretty fast and continue to do so unprotected knowing he was married. That to me did not seem like something she would do. That aside the book was pretty good,few typos but still I liked it. English Don't mess with a momma bear's cub!
Aine Vollmer, Rald's mother was not to be triffled with. Even Barrett Vollmer, her husband, knew when to keep his mouth closed. Even Rald's crazy soulless psychopathic beotch of a wife found out she bit off more than she could handle.
The plan to use Johari Clayborn was selfish on Rald Vollmer's part. He did not consider her feelings in the matter and he definitely did not consider that he would fall head over heels in love with her and she with him. He also did not figure that his mother would have his back and solve his problem better than he ever could.
I just loved this well plotted out tale by Shara Azod. It was full of drama, suspense and mystery that kept me turning page after page. I could not put my Kindle down until I finished this book. This intriguing story was about a young man married to a heartless harpy in a loveless marriage and his determination to end that marriage with his life and family company intact. It also showed a mother's strength and wisdom to do what was necessary to do right by her child even if it meant changing long held beliefs. All she wanted was for her only child to be happy and loved by the perfect woman by his side. The chemistry between Johari and Rald was just electric. I loved them as a couple and was glad to read that they got their HEA. I can also see a future book being written about Jo's best friend Gemma and Karl Rahn, Aine's young attorney. I definitely felt some spark with them. English LOVED IT
In one glance, this book was like another cliche interracial romance book. But when you dived deep, you'll know that this deserved 5 stars, at least from me.
Loved how it engaged me from the very first page. English A few missing and incorrect words, but overall not a bad read. English
