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Review:

Milly isn’t having a good day.  Her refuge for the next two weeks has been yanked out from under her, and instead of working as a chalet girl for a rich couple and their kids, she’ll be heading back home to face her friends’ pitying glances.  After catching her fiancé doing the nasty with her best friend, she’s lost a lot of confidence in herself, as well as her dreams for the future.  The temporary position in France was going to get her out of London long enough for her loser ex, Robbie, and her former BFF to clear out of her place, and allow her to squeeze in a little ski time, too.   Convincing her boss to let her stay in the chalet overnight to get some sleep before heading back home, Milly meets Lucas, a guy she assumes is a ski instructor.

Lucas is really a handsome young billionaire, and he owns the chalet.  When his mother’s friends can’t keep their vacation plans due to a family illness, Lucas pulls some strings and gets them to pay for Milly’s time anyway.  He’s annoyed that they didn’t let her know about their change of plans, and he finds her amusing and refreshing.  Milly doesn’t know who he is, and she treats him like a person, not a bank account.  He thinks that he’ll decompress for a few days, go skiing with Milly, and amuse himself at the same time.  When the cat gets out of the bag, he has an irate Milly to deal with.  She’s angry that Lucas wasn’t upfront about his identity, and she feels like a fool for jumping to conclusions.  He offers to help her out financially, if she’ll go to Madrid and pretend to be his fiancée.   His mother is not well, and he wants to her to stop worrying about him finding himself a wife.

While I enjoyed the author’s writing style, as well as Milly’s down to earth personality, there was a distinct lack of chemistry between the protagonists.  This was another story featuring a hero who has convinced himself he can never fall in love, due to an unpleasant experience when he was nineteen.  He’s in his thirties now.  I would hope that he would get over the unpleasantness after more than ten years!

Even though this story didn’t work for me, I would like to read more by the author.  I liked her easy-going writing style and the heroine’s inner monologs.

Grade:  C+

Review copy borrowed from my local library

The Secret Billionaire

Billionaire Lucas Romero is many things—brooding, talented and a consummate womanizer. The one thing he’s not? The “ski instructor” beautiful, innocent Milly Mayfield thought she was giving herself to in a sumptuous, secluded French ski chalet! And now she’s livid!

Arrogant playboy Lucas is bewildered by Milly’s decidedly unusual reaction to the revelation of his substantial wealth—he’s never had complaints before! But even Milly cannot ignore the sexual chemistry between them. So when a family emergency means he needs a willing woman by his side, Milly suddenly finds herself whisked away to Spain…and engaged!

Charlie Boxer returns in one of Robert Wilson’s best novels to date. Two years after the events of You Will Never Find Me Charlie Boxer’s life is nearing some normalcy. Normal for a kidnap consultant whose services offer a little bit extra revenge on the side. His relationships with his ex-wife Mercy and daughter Amy […]

Entangled Publishing and Victoria James wanted to share an excerpt from Victoria’s holiday romance The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby.  Enjoy!

Excerpt: The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby by Victoria James

Jackson poked the logs in the fire a little too harshly and muffled his cough as a cloud of smoke engulfed his face. He tried to appear calm and natural even though he felt like he’d been backed against a wall by letting this woman and the baby into his home. How had he gotten into this mess? He could tell Hannah was trying to figure him out, and the look in her eyes was unsettling, like she was pleased when he told her about Charlie being a stray. He glanced over at her as she pulled off her red hat and a mass of caramel colored hair came tumbling out. He didn’t want to notice how shiny and soft it looked. He turned his attention to the fireplace again, but watched from the corner of his eye as Hannah straightened out her clothing.

Hannah was definitely beautiful—not in a made up, high-maintenance sort of way. She had high cheekbones and full, rosy lips. And even though he didn’t want to notice, her eyes were like dark emeralds, large and almond shaped, with impossibly thick black eyelashes. Even more perplexing than their indisputable beauty was the emotion and the warmth they held in them. They weren’t vacant, they weren’t flirty, and they weren’t the eyes of someone who had been friends with his sister. They were clear and sharp, not hollow like someone who was stoned all the time. No, she was too pulled together to have been friends with Louise. So then who the hell was she?

He willed himself not to look lower than her chin. Dammit. Too late. She was curvy and slender in all the right places. He felt himself fighting back a surge of complete and total unwanted desire that gripped him out of nowhere. What was going on with him? Must be a natural reaction to a woman who wasn’t thinner than a twig. The last woman he’d slept with had been so skinny he wondered if she had ever eaten a carb in her entire life. But this Hannah woman was off-limits. He didn’t date women with children or people associated with his family. And even though there wasn’t a wedding band on her hand, she was probably with some guy. Not that it mattered. Not in the least, because he wanted nothing to do with her. Anyone connected to his family was the enemy.

“Look, I really am sorry for barging in like this.” She folded her hands in front of her and bit gently on her lower lip. Why were her lips to appealing? Focus buddy, focus. He shrugged, dragging his eyes away from her mouth. “Don’t worry about it.”

“I really wasn’t planning on getting here so late—”

“How did you know I was going to be here? No one knows about this place except my business partner and PA.” He saw the exact moment that her embarrassment turned to discomfort.

She waved a hand dismissively, but her voice sounded forced. “Oh, you can find anything online these days.”

He crossed his arms in front of him. She wasn’t looking so confident now. “No, you can’t. You can’t find anything about this cabin online.”

She averted her eyes. “It wasn’t her fault. I was probably a tad dramatic.” Maybe it was the sudden change in tone or the softening of her expression that made him get defensive.

Jackson narrowed his eyes. “Whose fault?”

“I think her name was Ann,” she said, biting her lip and looking away. Jackson tried to hide his shock. In all the years Ann had worked for him, she’d never released any personal details about him.

“What did you tell her?” He was genuinely interested in knowing how the hell this woman had managed to get the address of his cabin.

“I may have said it was a matter of life or death.”

He rolled his eyes. He was surprised Ann fell for that. “You seem to use that line as a catch-all, don’t you?”

“Well, I really did need to find you. And she was quite concerned when I mentioned the death part,” she said, lifting her chin. Something about the way she stood, the way she wouldn’t stop looking at him made him uneasy.

But no matter what, he knew she was here to tell him something he didn’t want to know. Not that it should matter. Nothing she could tell him would make him change his mind about his family. He turned his back to her, focusing on the fire that didn’t need his attention at all. He heard her shuffling around and then the quiet padding of her feet across the wood floor.

“I’m sorry to bombard you with this.”

He ignored her attempt to open up the conversation. He turned to look at her, eyeing her snow-soaked pants. “Do you want to take off your jeans?”

Her green eyes grew comically large. “Pardon me?”

He almost laughed out loud at her expression. “I mean, you’re soaked. I can get you a blanket or something and you can put your jeans in the dryer.”

“Uh, no, I’ll stand here for a few minutes. I’m sure they’ll dry quickly by the fire.” Her face was still red as she moved closer to the fire.

Why should he care if she wanted to stay in wet jeans all night? “Why don’t I show you and uh—” He motioned to the baby with his chin. “—the baby your room?”

You can learn more about Victoria by visiting the following:

Visit Victoria James: www.victoriajames.ca

Twitter: @vicjames101

Facebook Page – www.facebook.com/pages/Victoria-James/412431258807271

You can learn more about Entangled by visiting their website.

If you enjoyed the excerpt, you can order The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby from your favorite bookseller or by clicking the cover below

About The Billionaire’s Christmas Baby:

About Victoria James:

Victoria James is a romance writer living near Toronto, Canada. Victoria is a mother to two young children, and one very disorderly feline. Victoria attended Queen’s University in Kingston, Ontario and graduated with a degree in English Literature, where she met and then later married, her own hero. After Queen’s, Victoria earned a degree in Interior Design. After the birth of her first child she began pursuing her life-long passion of writing. Her dream of being a published romance author was realized last February, 2012, when Entangled Publishing bought her manuscript. Victoria is living her dream-staying home with her children and conjuring up happy endings for her characters.

By Edward Zelinsky

One widely-discussed possibility for reforming the federal income tax is limiting the deduction for charitable contributions. Whether or not Congress amends the Code to restrict the income tax deduction for charitable contributions, Congress should limit the charitable contribution deduction under the federal estate and gift taxes. Such a limit would balance the need for federal revenues with the desirability of encouraging charitable giving.

On December 11th, the advocacy group Responsible Wealth called for the federal government to tax estates over $4,000,000 at rates starting at 45%. Among those joining this call were heirs to old fortunes such as Abigail Disney and Richard Rockefeller and owners of new wealth such as Bill Gates, Sr. Most notably, Warren Buffett agreed (as he has in the past) with this recent plea for higher estate taxes.

I am a fan of my fellow Nebraskan and agree with him that the federal government should impose estate taxes, particularly on large fortunes. I also admire Mr. Buffett for the Giving Pledge which he has promoted with the younger Mr. Gates. Under that Pledge, wealthy individuals commit to giving at least half of their wealth to philanthropy.

There is, however, considerable tension between the Buffett commitment to federal estate taxation and the Buffett commitment to philanthropy. By virtue of the estate tax charitable deduction, when a wealthy decedent leaves part or all of his estate to charity, no estate tax is paid on these contributed amounts.

It is perfectly plausible to call for estate taxation only for those who don’t distribute their wealth to philanthropy. It is, however, hard to reconcile that position with Responsible Wealth’s advocacy of strong estate taxation. Mr. Gates, Sr., for example, declared that “it would be shameful to leave potential revenue on the table from those most able to pay.” However, that is precisely what happens when large estates go to charity, namely, estate tax revenue which would otherwise flow to the federal government is instead diverted to charity. Such charity may be worthwhile but it does nothing to reduce the federal deficit.

Similarly, Ms. Disney argued that “a weak estate tax” falls “on the backs of the middle class,” presumably because the federal government will respond to reduced estate tax revenues by deficit financing, by raising other taxes on the middle class or by reducing government spending. However, when an estate is distributed to charity free of estate taxation, the government confronts these same choices.

A compromise could preserve the incentive for charitable giving while also generating some estate tax revenues for the federal government: Limit the estate (and gift) tax charitable deduction.

Many, including President Obama, have suggested such limitations on the income tax charitable deduction. If, for example, an individual is in the 35% federal income tax bracket, the President has proposed that the donor receive a deduction as if he or she were in the 28% bracket. In a similar fashion, the estate tax charitable deduction could be curbed, thereby generating some additional revenues for the federal fisc while also keeping a tax-incentive for charitable giving.

Consider, for example, a billionaire who leaves his entire estate of $1,000,000,000 to charity. To simplify the math, let’s assume that this billionaire would pay estate tax at the 40% rate if he did not bequeath all his assets to philanthropy. Because this $1,000,000,000 bequest is fully deductible for federal estate tax purposes, no tax is paid in this example. If this billionaire had not made this charitable bequest but had instead left his money to his children, the federal government would have received estate tax revenues of $400,000,000.

Suppose now that Congress limits the federal estate tax deduction to 70% of the amount donated to charity. In this case, the billionaire would leave a taxable estate of $300,000,000. At a 40% rate, this would require a federal estate tax payment of $120,000,000.

To provide the cash to pay this tax, this billionaire would probably reduce his charitable bequest to retain cash to pay this estate tax. However, at the end of the day, charity would receive the bulk of this billionaire’s assets while the federal government would receive some estate tax.

A limit on the estate tax charitable deduction could be constructed to fall only on relatively larger estates. For example, the first $10 million of charitable bequests could be fully deductible for estate tax purposes and only the amount gifted over that threshold would be deductible in part.

Alternatively, the limit could be phased in as charitable contributions increase. For example, the first $10 million of charitable bequests could be fully deductible for estate tax purposes. Then the next $50 million of philanthropic gifts could be 90% deductible and any further gifts would be 70% deductible for federal estate tax purposes.

The details are less important than the basic policy: By limiting the estate tax charitable deduction, all large estates donated to philanthropy would pay some federal estate tax revenues at a reduced rate. This would balance the need for federal revenues with the encouragement of the kind of charitable bequests quite commendably encouraged by Mr. Buffett and the Giving Pledge.

Edward A. Zelinsky is the Morris and Annie Trachman Professor of Law at the Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law of Yeshiva University. He is the author of The Origins of the Ownership Society: How The Defined Contribution Paradigm Changed America. His monthly column appears here.

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Image credit: Macro shot of the seal of the United States on the US one dollar bill. Photo by briancweed, iStockphoto.

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May Contain Spoilers

From Amazon:

Review:

I love series romance, so it’s exciting to see a few new faces in the field.  The latest entrant into the world of wealthy alpha males and headstrong heroines is Entangled Publishing, with their Indulgence line.  For shorter reads, take a look at their Flirts and Ever Afters lines. 

I usually don’t like stories with billionaires, because I have a very hard time relating to the heroes.  They are richer than Midas, and don’t have to worry about things like paying their utility bills or stocking the pantry with food.  They don’t even have to think about cleaning the house or doing their own laundry; they have domestic help to take care of stuff like that.  While I would love to experience the thrills of having someone else clean the bathroom, I admit to having a certain respect for a guy who will scrub his own toilet.

Kidnapped by the Greek Billionaire starts off with protagonist Kizzy making an awful first impression on uber busy rich guy, Andreas, a Greek billionaire who is about to ruin her life by demolishing both her home and her dreams.  Having invested most of her life savings into a  restaurant in London, she is dismayed to learn that the new owner is going to have it torn down to make way for a new housing development.  Timi’s has been her safe haven since her mother’s death, and the previous owners were like family to her.  When they retired, they sold their business to Andreas, assuming that he would keep the business operating with Kizzy as the new manager.  Nope!  That plan was never on Andreas’ agenda!

Desperate to change his mind, Kizzy is soon swept into a fiery affair with the passionate Andreas.  Despite her misgivings, Kizzy can’t resist Andreas’ bold advances.  Their relationship is stormy and steamy.  Andreas is Kizzy’s first lover, and as he introduces her to sensual pleasures she hadn’t even dreamed of, she finds herself falling in love with him.  This leads to lots of angst and self-recrimination on Kizzy’s part.  She doubts that Andreas will stay faithful to her, and she knows that he doesn’t want a permanent relationship.  He marriage ended disastrously, and he’s not about to trust another woman.  He’s keeping his tragic past firmly to himself, and Kizzy despairs at his secrecy.

I liked Kizzy from the start, but Andreas was harder to warm up to.  Early in t

Once again Tonto Fielding found himself in the service of billionaire, Ewbank Manchip. Tonto had earned a reputation as an amateur sleuth, ever since he famously solved the “who stole the kishke,” case. Manchip was certain that his business and tennis doubles partner, Eduardo Boner, was out to exploit, harm, and deceive him, even though no evidence existed to support this expectation. After an initial inquiry, I assured Manchip that he was being hyper-vigilant for potential threats, and had to explain to him that his suspicious nature would elicit a hostile response from others at the club. People were starting to perceive him as hostile, stubborn, and sarcastic. That was why no one else would partner with him on the courts. He responded by indicating that this only served to confirm his original theory. I had to explain that another billionaire would have no need for stealing one of his slippers. “That ball at the net was Boner’s to take. Yet he let it drop only to spite me,” he said.

Tonto then believed that a rational discussion about paranoia was hopeless. He had to solve the crime. It wasn’t really that hard for a master sleuth. I only had to follow the trail, which led to an fiendishly adept thief named Spot.

Tweet

Dear Mr. Gates:

You have, by dint of your intelligence and sincerity, become a major spokesman for wealthy Americans calling for higher taxes. Since the nation’s budgetary problems will only be solved by combining spending reductions with tax increases, this is a compelling claim.

However, the devil, as they say, is in the details. Allow me to call three details to your attention:

1) Microsoft’s tax avoidance. Microsoft has become increasingly adept at parking its profits in low tax foreign jurisdictions, rather than paying U.S. taxes. After analyzing Microsoft’s financial statements, Tax Analysts’ Martin A. Sullivan recently concluded that Microsoft “has dramatically stepped up its efforts to take advantage of lax U.S. transfer pricing rules.” In lay terms, Microsoft is avoiding U.S. taxes by accounting maneuvers which shift its profits to low tax havens.

Of course, Microsoft is not alone in this behavior. However, Microsoft is the source of your family’s wealth and influence. I suggest that you start a campaign to press U.S. corporations to pay U.S. taxes and that you lead with Microsoft as the campaign’s first target.

2) Millionaires and billionaires are different. You are the leading proponent of the plan to establish an income tax in Washington State. The tax will be levied at a rate of 5% on annual incomes over $200,000 ($400,000 for couples). The rate will increase to 9% on annual incomes over $500,000 ($1,000,000 for couples).

Individuals earning these kinds of incomes are undoubtedly affluent. But few of them are software billionaires. Unfortunately, the Washington State levy will tax millionaires and billionaires at the same rates.

Many individuals triggering the first tier of the Washington income tax will be professionals like me. Many of the individuals triggering the higher tax level will be small businessmen and businesswomen. As to this latter group, the Washington tax will be among the nation’s highest. For these people, the tax will impose a noticeable burden and could lead to economic distortions such as a decision to leave Washington for a state with a low or no income tax.

It is neither fair nor efficient for the billionaires of Microsoft to pay the same marginal tax rates as these other taxpayers.

I suggest that you call for a third, substantially higher rate for the Washington State tax to apply to individuals such as you. The resulting revenues would permit a reduction of the rates applying to other, less affluent Washington State taxpayers.

3) The Gates Foundation is a tax shelter. The Gates Foundation does great work of which you and your family can be justifiably proud. But there is one thing the Gates Foundation doesn’t do: pay taxes.

You and your son have both been outspoken proponents of federal estate taxation. However, the resources you and he contribute to the Gates Foundation avoid such taxation. Moreover, the foundation, as a tax-exempt entity, pays no federal income tax.

I understand and applaud the charitable impulse which animates the Gates Foundation. My wife and I have established a private foundation in memory of our son though this fund is, needless to say, much smaller than the Gates Foundation.

It is, nevertheless, problematic to call for others to pay higher estate and income taxes while the Gates Foundation, one of the country’s largest, effectively shelters your and your son’s incomes and estates from the federal fisc.

I urge that the Gates Foundation annually and voluntarily