The Irredeemable Billionaire (The Muse Series) by Lexxie Couper  
The most precious gift is the one that is hard to obtain. It's been a long, winding road, but Sebastian finally got the message.  Lexxie Couper continues to surprise me by expanding her range and getting in tune with the emotional side of love, not just the physical.  The Irredeemable Billionaire is not a story of loss.  It's is a message of healing. A journey of hope and a pathway to second chances.  Grace and Seb had to travel separate paths to get them to their happily ever after, but life experience and lessons learned gave them a valuable treasure. Happiness. ( )

Full review appeared on Reader's Edyn on 11/17/17

Grace Ford Wilder is a single mother, widow, and paramedic. She’s been living the glamorous life of a single mother and is exhausted trying to keep up with it all. When her best friend thinks to help her out by getting her son a big brother, she’s floored when he shows up on her door step. Anyone but Hart. He made her life miserable when they were kids. Not that she didn’t give it right back to him, but he’s a self-absorbed pig and a billionaire film director. There’s no way he could have improved. She doesn’t have time for his celebrity ways. She has a life and the hero worship her son has for him only spells disaster for her son … and her. Sebastian has similar habits of the past, but he isn’t the same person and now her heart is on the line, leaving her nowhere after he tires of her and moves on. And he will move on because he doesn’t want to settle down and Grace isn’t the red-carpet premiere, rub shoulders with celebrities type of person. She doesn’t belong in that world; his world.

Sebastian Hart can’t believe his eyes. Ford is standing in front of him and she’s not that dorky young teen anymore. He used to tease her mercilessly and she used to retaliate with a kick to the shins after delivering a scathing retort. He’s missed the saucy little brat more than he realized, but she isn’t the same. She looks exhausted, haunted, almost beaten … and it’s tearing him up. Suddenly his court order to be a big brother becomes something altogether different. But Ford won’t be easy to bring around. She knows the old him and proving to her that he’s changed is going to be the hardest thing he’s ever done. And maybe, just maybe, all that teasing and ill-treatment in the past was him trying to hide from something he should have known all along; someone who was in front of him the whole time. He’s just got to keep from screwing things up. Easy, right?

I really enjoyed this book. This story takes place in Australia and so there is a lot of Australian swang used. I laughed at a lot of it because it reminded me of my friends in Roxburgh Park. It was a nice touch for me. I also liked that Sebastian wasn’t the typical billionaire movie star. He is a director and so he is in the spotlight, but not quite as much. He has a bit more wiggle room from the paparazzi, but not much. Sebastian is interesting to follow because he believes he is a different person, but eventually sees that he hasn’t changed all that much. His epiphany is a catalyst in which he has to decide whether to give it his all, or throw the towel in and return to his selfish lifestyle. Grace is completely torn because she sees the person Hart was and the person he can be, but she struggles with what is best for her son, and her own personal desires she wants to succumb to. Ultimately, Sebastian missed Grace’s brutal honesty – something he doesn’t get with people always rushing to do his bidding. The question ends up being whether Sebastian wants to change, or if he just wants her to challenge him while he continues with his egotistical behaviors. He’s somewhat of a conundrum because he’s definitely a self-centered person, but he also behaves completely opposite when doing the nicest things for both Grace and Cody.

The character list within this book was short. Grace’s best friend, co-worker, Sebastian’s brother, and the jerk-face paparazzo was pretty much it for supporting characters with a purpose. I appreciated that both Shelly and Harrison knew the end game all along despite both Grace and Sebastian fully denying things for a long time. There were other characters involved, but they didn’t live up to their possible full potential. I was a little irritated with the introduction of Grace’s mother-in-law because she really didn’t serve much of a purpose at all. Ultimately nothing was ever resolved with her, so I question her appearance other than to add a little drama and Grace making a decision for her life, which could have been handled any number of other way. Also, we got a small glimpse into Cody’s school project, but never much else. I had been hoping we’d see more of that – or Cody and Sebastian presenting it with Grace unsuspecting – something like that. Oh! I almost forgot about plain-faced Justin! Haha! I had a bit of an issue with his character as well because again, no resolve. I kept getting the feeling there was more to him, like he was going to end up being evil and Seb would have to swoop in and save the day or something, but he just sort of dropped out. So I guess, in reflection, this book did have a few technicalities that could have been better addressed. Besides those, it is still a pretty good read with well-developed main characters. I read it quickly and was satisfied with the story from the romance aspect. And despite the deficiencies with a couple of the secondary characters, I still very much liked Hart and Ford and was pleased to spend time with them. I plan to visit Ms. Couper’s books again in the future.

Kindle version provided by Entangled/Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. ( )