TROPES: fake dating, billionaire romance, possessive MMC, obsessed MMC, grumpy x sunshine, forced proximity, only one bed, touch her and d!e, friends with benefits to lovers, he falls first
FMC: Olive - PhD student, journalist, hair dresser, determined, hates being vulnerable, s*x positive, needs the confidence to truly be her entire self, loves her brother
MMCs: Dimitri - Part of the HEAT empire, playboy who falls hard and fast, loves his family, very protective, adoring, & caring
SPICE: on page - a LOT of d!rty t@lk, semi-public, exhibitionism, at the office, bareback, FMC likes being told what to do, kind of sort of a br33ding k!nk

THOUGHTS
Wow. I can't believe the Hardy Billionaires series is officially complete. It's been a wild ride with these brothers and Shain Rose has already set up her next series with this book.

Olive is incredibly relatable. She was in a relationship with someone who didn't respect her, took advantage of her naivety, and made her feel small. As she starts healing, there's a lot of righteous anger, sadness, and a thirst for revenge. Between him and her terrible father and stepmother, it's no wonder she has self-esteem issues and doesn't want to connect permanently with others. However, she has these breakthrough moments of courage and an inner fire that will get her through to a better place.

Dimitri. Goodness. It's going to take a while for me to get over him. The way he falls so fast, so hard, and so completely was truly magnificent to watch. His entire world shifts to only caring about Olive, protecting her, and making her happy. That amount of adoration and devotion is God-tier. I enjoyed seeing a possessive MMC give in a few times to things the FMC asks for that in any other circumstance his possessiveness would have stopped him from going along with.

I found the plot very interesting and twisty. You have Olive and Dimitri going back to the community Olive grew up in but hasn't seen in years, and Dimitri is investing in land surrounding it. There's a handful of subplots about the community, the people that live in it, and Olive's connections with them all. There's also casually a sprinkle of the mob, secret rooms in libraries, and mysteriously absent residents.

Okay. This secret society. It was definitely an interesting twist and made a lot of sense with Knox, Lucille, and the general vibe of the community. However, I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact Olive finds out about all of this and then decides she's staying and planting roots???? I honestly wish she had taken Knox and Dimitri and left. The overdose was truly incomprehensible and I just think Olive would want to remove him from the situation permanently, not just temporarily while he's in rehab. Also, this entire birth control subplot really took me out of the story. I understand it's romance and not everything is what you'd actually want in real life (hello dark romance), but it just seemed super strange and antithetical to Dimitri's actions towards Olive. I know it's framed as he's protecting her health, but why couldn't he do that and also protect her right to choose? I don't know. The wives of the brother's randomly being involved in the end just didn't make sense to me. It just felt like a lot was going on and this book was more to set up the next series than to wrap up this one.

Dimitri was my favorite part of this book and the spicy scenes were immaculate. The rest of the plot, however, made me wonder if I had forgotten pertinent information from the previous books. (Which is possible). The end was a little strange and rushed in my opinion, but the dynamics between Dimitri and Olive saved the book overall for me.