Christmas Angel for the Billionaire

Lady Rose Napier needs a break. Orphaned at six when her parents, the Marquess and Marchioness of St. Ives, were tragically gunned down on a charity mission, she's lived most of her sheltered life as a media darling. When other teenage girls were dating and hanging out, she was visiting hospitals and posing for photo ops to raise money for charity. Her grandfather the duke has kept tight control over her life, reminding her of her duty whenever she chafed under his wing. Now 28, worn out by the attention and seeing her grandfather not-so-subtly engineering a marriage to a viscount she feels nothing for, she decides to make a break for it. A few arrangements with a lookalike to play stand-in and she's off to the country! George Saxon is some kind of billionaire expatriate - I don't feel we ever really find out what he does exactly - back in England to visit his father, who's in the hospital after suffering a heart attack. As he's arguing with his rebellious 15 year old daughter in the garage bay of his family's home and auto repair business, a service call comes in, which George reluctantly heeds. When George and Annie - as she prefers to be addressed - meet, the sparks fly. He thinks she's a flighty ditz, and she thinks he's an arrogant grouch. And they're both right. Fielding does a wonderful job with these characters. By the diction alone in the dialog, I could hear Annie's posh accent. She behaves believably for someone raised as she was. Her naivete and privilege shows its head when it comes to details like paying for parking, driving, dealing with a car breakdown or cooking. She's out of her element in these things and her confusion shows. However, she's not stupid, and she figures these things out. Indeed, she enjoys being treated normally and being expected to fend for herself. Watching her bluff George into fixing her car or wing it when asked to make dinner was a treat. Far from farcical, we see Annie's confidence and competence bloom through these tasks. Through his battles with his daughter and father, we see a man quite the opposite of Annie. Here's a man who has battled hard to earn everything he has. After working in the garage as a teenager, learning as much as he could until as skilled as any mechanic out there, he attended university, against his father's wishes, then forged his own path in business. In a way, his path mirrors Annie's. She's lived her life as people expected and is just now beginning to rebel where George has forged his own path but is now so worn down that he's tempted to do what everyone expects him to do. This opposition creates a rich romance between these two. As they fall for each other and George learns her true identity, you see them shoring each other up. Annie quietly encourages him to keep fighting to repair his relationship with his daughter and to not give up on the garage. George helps her make her peace with who she is and the good she can do by just being Lady Rose while staying true to hers

Lady Roseanne Napier lives her life in the public eye as the paragon of virtue. From the moment she held her grandfather's hand at her parents' funeral, Annie has lived in the shadow of her parents' fame. On the tenth anniversary of their murder, at the tender age of 16, she opened a children's hospice in honor of her mother. As Lady Rose, Annie is an icon of perfection. Each and every move is captured by the press. With such a worthy goal behind the publicity, how can she do otherwise? Yet the woman in her wants something richer and more substantial than image. When the opportunity for escape presents itself, Annie seizes the chance to break from her guarded life with an unplanned adventure. Leaving her aristocratic image behind, Annie plans to experience life on her own without plan or protection. When spontaneity leads to a disabled car, circumstances place Annie right in the presence of handsome George Saxon. Drawn together, Annie and George form a relationship. Whether they spar or share the intimacy of a home cooked recipe, Annie experiences life and love within the difficult but delightfully imperfect moments beyond public image. Can their love survive the secret of her true identity? Or his? In the opening scenes of CHRISTMAS ANGEL FOR THE BILLIONAIRE, Liz Fielding draws the reader in with short news stories of deep cultural icons that reach generations. With just enough details reminiscent of John Kennedy, Jr. or Lady Diana yet enough differences to create a unique character, Liz Fielding creates emotion and empathy for her characters by reaching into those private moments that are also part of a cultural memory. Here and in later moments of the book in something as simple as a cookbook, in precise moments well-placed, Liz Fielding has a unique ability to capture rich images that speak worlds. In these moments, Liz Fielding moves beyond image to substance, summoning a whole emotional depth that resonates within a reader. The romance between Annie and George moves from a fairy tale kind of image to one which reaches into the characters' vulnerabilities, challenging them. In some ways, George is not the ideal hero of romantic fantasy but the tension between them is just the catalyst Annie needs to discover herself and experience a love beyond image. The character growth is not one-dimensional. Annie and her love transform George as well. What a delightful perfect ending with just the perfect media twist! CHRISTMAS ANGEL FOR THE BILLIONAIRE is a wonderful Christmas romance to cheer the heart. CHRISTMAS ANGEL FOR THE BILLIONAIRE turns tragedy into a happy ending through the magic of love. Liz Fielding creates a modern romance rendition of a fairy tale, of royalty shedding the trappings to experience life in this duet later continued in HER DESERT DREAM. Liz Fielding reaches beyond image glitter to create a romance packed full of humor, dynamic emotions, and substance. Here as in other romances, Liz Fielding is an