Review: “Taming Hollywood’s Baddest Boy” by Max Monroe

Book Title: Taming Hollywood’s Baddest Boy

Author: Max Monroe

Rating: 5⭐️

Release Date: March 10th, 2020

Goodreads | Amazon (Available in KU)

Blurb: Do people say they hate someone’s guts so that they can still fall stupidly, head-over-heels in love with the other parts?
Asking for a friend.

Okay, fine. I’m not asking for a friend.

I’m asking for me—and I’m begging you to tell me that the practice of falling in love with your should-be-enemy is common.

Please tell me that I’m not the only person to track down a guy—who used to be Hollywood’s baddest bad boy before he left LA for good—at his off-the-grid cabin in Alaska, show up unannounced, and find him gloriously naked.

This probably happens all the time…right?

Tell me I’m not alone in my stupidity—that I’m not the only woman who would fall for gorgeous blue eyes and a sexy devilish smirk, even if they belong to a broody, mysterious jerk.

Please. Please. Please. Tell me I’m not alone in this.

For the love of everything, I need all the supportive girl power I can get if I’m going to convince Luca Weaver to come back to Hollywood—otherwise known as the place he hates so much that he ghosted Oscar-level success and escaped to no-man’s-land for the last eight years just to avoid it.

Yeah, don’t worry—that smoke you’re smelling isn’t your house catching fire as you read this…it’s just my career and what was previously known as my heart going up in flames.

Gah. Is it just me, or am I totally, completely, and utterly screwed?

Review: Like every other Max Monroe book, this one totally blew me away. One of my favourite things about their books is that they create such incredible characters. And not just the leads, but even the supporting cast is so beautifully created that you get invested in pretty much everybody in the book. And this one had such a great group of supporting characters. But, Luca and Billie won me over almost instantly.

I thought I knew what I was getting when I went into this book, but the adventure part of it was a nice surprise. The blurb did not prepare you for the wild ride that this book would be either.

Luca left Hollywood 8 years ago, after the industry and the tabloids and the fans found a way to really ruin the appeal of making movies. He escaped to Alaska, where he wants nothing to do with anybody from his old life. He’s got his trust sidekick, Bailey, and a secluded cabin that is everything he ever wanted and he’s happy. Billie is constantly fighting for her position at her job and in an attempt to get herself the promotion she wants and to make a name for herself, and really just not be second best, she promises the most impossible thing – get Luca Weaver to make a movie after 8 years.

The book is Billie’s journey to convincing Luca to take on the movie and Luca’s journey to getting rid of this frustrating and stubborn woman who won’t leave him alone.

Their relationship is a combination of some of my favourite tropes – enemies to lovers, slow burn and the ‘sharing a tent to stay warm’ plot. Watching Luca warm up to Billie was one of my favourite things, because he went from just ignoring her to suddenly paying attention. It’s lust at first sight and how can you blame Billie when she first sees him completely naked after 8 years?

So often the confrontation and the thing that breaks a relationship feels forced and it feels like it happened just because that’s the format that the books follow. But here, it was almost like you could feel Luca lose his shit as he remembers why Billie showed up there in the first place. And how he fights to win her back and how she doesn’t care what he wants, because she’s putting herself first.

Both these characters are relatable, powerful and magnificent in their own ways. I like it when I can fall in love with both leads and want them both to find their own kinds of happiness as opposed to working only when they’re together.

And Max Monroe knocked this one out of the park! Get yourself this book today and I promise you’ll love everything about it.

Thanks to Max Monroe and Social Butterfly PR for providing me with an ARC of this glorious book.