This is a spoiler-free review!
I am a sucker for interconnected standalone books, so when I saw the first two books in the Boston Billionaire series available for free on iBooks, I knew I had to download them. It has been awhile since I have dived into an interconnected standalone, but the premise of this first installment had me intrigued -- what is so mysterious about Scarlett's past? Why is Shaun so drawn to her?
Shaun and Scarlett's age gap is slightly larger than Christian and Ana's from Fifty Shades of Grey, but nonetheless is okay with me since Scarlett is twenty-three years old. Scarlett is put off by their age difference at first, but lasts about two chapters before throwing that train of thought out the window and throwing herself into his arms. Shaun is immediately infatuated with Scarlett when he notices her on a flight to Boston, and as fate has it, they continue to run into each other and Shaun becomes even more desperate to learn more about her.
The chapters move pretty quickly and with dual perspectives, the plot moves just as fast. Scarlett's chapters seems to focus mostly on her trying to overcome her traumatic past as she finds herself in a new country, and Shaun's chapters are full of him batting off women as he basically stalks Scarlett every chance that he gets.
I enjoyed the romantic thriller aspect to this book -- it reminded me a lot of the plot of Fifty Shades Darker in the sense that there was more to the story than Shaun and Scarlett's relationship and occasional spicy chapter. It definitely picks up plot-wise about two thirds of the way through the book, and I found that the story was more cohesive once the plot became more thrilling. As interesting as Scarlett and Shaun's relationship was becoming, I was starting to get a little bored after reaching the halfway mark.
The side characters made Shaun's character a touch more interesting, but after finishing the book, I still feel as though we did not get to learn about him or his past. He mentioned a few details to Scarlett here and there, but his character could have used some more development. Shaun's character felt a little one-dimensional, not to mention the fact that he basically was stalking Scarlett until he could actually have a conversation with her. I am all for a dark romance stalking plot line, but this was not the book or the genre for it.
On the other hand, Scarlett had a decent amount of character development and was more intriguing to read about compared to her leading man. However, her thought process continues to slightly irritate me as the story moved on -- she did not sound like a twenty-three year old, but rather still sounded like a high schooler at many points during the book. Shaun is no better, as a man in his mid-thirties, he still thinks like a frat boy when it comes to women, and of course the second he sees Scarlett, he matures ten years.
This book definitely had potential to be really intriguing, and if Shaun had been more mysterious, I think it could have been a very exciting read. Coming Home falls short to make me fall in love with its leading characters, which is unfortunate because the book has a lot of promise, it could just use some touching up. The spicier scenes were short and felt as though they were thrown in there to make the story more romantic, but it just felt like a more PG-13 rated Hallmark movie.
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