I expected to like By The Letter by Julia Wolf, but I didn’t expect to like it this much. 

 

Of course, the book started with a slight advantage, as I’m a fan of the unexpected pregnancy trope. From that perspective, I already knew I was going to like the story, but I also started with a small—or maybe big—a priori on Roman Wells. The billionaire we met in In The Details, the first book in the Mile High Billionaires series, hadn’t made a very good impression on me, so I have to admit I was both curious and nervous to see how his relationship with the sweet Shira would turn out. 

 

Shira is a young woman who is one of a trio of friends with Clara and Bea—the heroines of the first and third books in the series—and whom we met in The Harder They Fall series as the very young and cold-looking wife of Frank Goldman. Here we find her at the head of her late husband’s faltering business. For one night only, she will indulge in one thing: an evening in a sex club with Wim, a stranger she met on a dating app. 

Roman Wells is known for getting involved in the affairs of companies in trouble. GoldMed, the company of his mentor, the late Frank Goldman, is on the brink of bankruptcy. He will have to deal with Shira Goldman, Frank’s widow, who is now in charge of the company. Roman has not heard good things about Shira. The young woman is perceived as a gold digger with a cold heart. At least that’s what her stepdaughter Francesca has told him. 

Of course, while we know Shira’s ‘secret’ identity as Goldie, we quickly learn that Wim is none other than Roman, and that their date at the Mile High Club is going to result in a positive pregnancy test and a baby on the way. 

 

At the beginning of the book, Roman Wells only confirmed the impression I had of him in In The Details, I didn’t like the way he judged Shira through Francesca’s words without even trying to understand or know her. I’ve lost count of the number of times I wanted to smack him in the back of the head, to get it through his thick skull that he needed to see further than the end of his nose. Luckily for him—and for us—Roman has one redeeming quality: he knows how to grovel! 

 

Shira is a character I wanted to get to know better from the moment she first appeared in Sincerely, Your Inconvenient Wife. I suspected there was more to her than people wanted to see. Delving into her psyche through this book really made me like the young woman even more. You realise that she’s been through a lot in her past and that underneath her cold exterior hides social anxiety—and I know all too well the misjudgments associated with social anxiety, as I suffer from it myself. 

 

The story between Roman and Shira doesn’t seem obvious from the start, but as we read on we realise that the former rugby player really is the right man for her, because yes, once you get to know Roman you change your opinion of him—he’s not the only one who bases his opinion of someone on prejudices. 

 

Seeing Kit and Elliot, as well as Clara and Bea, again is very nice, especially if you’ve followed these characters from the beginning. I also really enjoyed getting to know Nate, Ben and Adrian, Roman’s brothers—and honestly, if Julia Wolf wants to write a series about them, I’m not at all against it. 

 

Now that I have read By The Letter, all I want to do is discover the third book in the series, the one about Bea. 

 

Thanks to Julia Wolf and Valentine PR for giving me the opportunity to receive an ARC of By The Letter. This review is my own. All opinions expressed are mine.