CLOSER – Aria Hawthorne
A Billionaire Romance Novel
French Kiss Press
ISBN-13:  978-0-9968364-0-1
October 2015
Erotic Romance

Chicago, Illinois – Present Day

Inez Sanchez is going for another interview from her temporary agency, and she isn't too confident. Despite supposedly this job paying maybe three or four times her normal ten dollars an hour, and having flexible hours, which is a must, it's probably too good to be true.  Especially since five other girls from the agency have interviewed and been turned down.  But Inez is going to see billionaire Sven van der Meer, builder of The Spire, Chicago's tallest, most controversial skyscraper, one Inez personally thinks is awful.  Inez has a degree in Art History, which doesn't really help her employment chances at all.  Well, she will see what kind of hoops she is expected to jump through for this gem of a job.

Sven needs a woman to pretend to be his girlfriend for a week as his company is trying to get a large commission overseas.  Sven is blind in one eye and wears an eye patch, and the sight is slowly going in his other eye.  He needs someone to be beautiful, pretend to be his girlfriend, and guide him through all the pitfalls of the week including parties, an award for being a great architect, and meetings with others involved with his new project.  Sven also wonders how he can be an architect any more when his last remaining sight goes away, something he notices every day.  Inez piques his interest with her views on everything, and intelligence of the art world.  At five thousand dollars a day, Inez would be reckless not to consider this a life changing position.

Inez has to support her grandmother, who is also elderly and going blind, and her small daughter Luna, fathered by her boyfriend Enzo before he left for Argentina.  When he returned a year later to a daughter, he freely admitted to sleeping with other women, but figured they could be a family anyway.  This week working with Sven will give Inez enough money to support her grandmother and daughter for months to come.  Inez grows to like Sven, even when learning his brother Hans took Sven's girlfriend from him while he was overseas for several months, and now threatens to cut Sven out of the new project if he doesn't go along with it.

Aria Hawthorne touches many different bases in CLOSER.  Told from Sven's and Inez's points of view, Sven is going blind and wondering what will happen to his business.  He is feuding with his brother, and yet he is enamored with Inez and her smart attitude.  Inez is mainly concerned with her family and providing for them, and trying to decide if Enzo really wants to be part of a family.  Sven is someone she admires and tries to help in whatever comes his way for the week she is with him.

Secondary characters are Enzo, Inez's ex-boyfriend, ready to bed anyone interested; and her grandmother and daughter, Luna.  Celeste is Sven's old girlfriend, and now his brother Hans is forcing him to sign the Shanghai deal or lost all the money invested in The Spire.

CLOSER is a unique billionaire novel with Sven going through his own problems, and how he and Inez forge a bond of togetherness that almost is destroyed.  Can Sven deal with his problems and all his friends whom Inez despises and come to an agreement with her?  A charming ending will be enjoyed by everyone with CLOSER.

Carolyn Crisher