Manga Maniac Cafe

3.75 stars

The Billionaire’s Forever Family features one of my favorite romance tropes – care-giver of an orphaned relative struggles to raise the child, and then has to fend off a custody battle. Cassie Frost has been raising her niece Emily since she was born. Her sister, a free-spirit, and that’s being kind, because deep down she was selfish and cared more for herself than for her own daughter, thought Cassidy would bail her out of every stupid decision she made, has recently passed away from a sudden illness. Thinking that Emily needs a male role-model in her life, Cassie reaches out to Will Connelly, suspecting that he might be Emily’s father. What she doesn’t expect is a threat to her guardianship and having her whole life thrown in an uproar.

Cassidy is struggling to provide a quality life for her 13 year old niece Emily, but with overwhelming medical bills from her sister’s illness, house repairs, and keeping her diner running, she’s on her last legs. When Will strides into her life, angry at being locked out of Emily’s life, she’s fearful of attorney bills she can’t ever afford to pay. Will turns out to be not so unreasonable, however, and he promises to let Emily live where she wants, and to do what’s best for his daughter. He even pays off the medical bills without Cassidy’s knowledge, which infuriates her. She doesn’t want to be seen as the poor relation, and the wealth inequity between her and Will terrifies her. When Will convinces Emily to go to a private school in New York City, she is fearful of losing her niece forever.

While I enjoyed this very much, I quickly became irritated with Cassidy. She wants to keep her growing attraction with Will a secret, and she refuses to even consider that they might have a HEA waiting for them. She constantly blames him for his wealth, thinking that he will become embarrassed by her hick ways. She’s afraid of being rejected by his sophisticated friends. I just wanted to shake her and tell her to get over herself. She finally finds a decent guy, who cares for both her and her niece, and she just keeps finding ways to sabotage their relationship. It was like, come on, girl, have a little bit of faith in yourself and stop putting up barriers when they don’t need to be.

The ending was satisfying and resolved all of Cassidy’s fears and doubts in a believable way. I hope Will’s friend, Trevor, gets his own story, because I would love to learn more about him.

Grade: 3.75 stars