This was a great story with angst, humor, and fun! I love second chance romances and this one did not disappoint.

This is the second book in the author series and I found this one to be just as entertaining as the first. The book opens with the two lead characters texting one another. Harvey Zale is a self-made blue collar billionaire who wants to build two giant towers in Singapore. This part of the is a carryover from the first part. Alma Castillo is an expert in glass and antiques. When Harvey is getting ready to knock down an old building along the Chicago River she is called in because of the old windows appear to be stained glass and there is a question of maybe they are made by Tiffany. This is when you still see the passion they have for one another even though it is put into arguing. Harvey is still in love with her and throughout the story begins to talk to older men who have been married for over twenty years in how they make it work. This for me is where the story changes because Harvey decides to change. Yes, it turns out they are actually texting each other but even when they get past that they both share a part of themselves that they hadn’t done when they were married. For me, the best part of the story is when they find what she has been looking for in the hospital and the way Harvey is quiet and lets her enjoy the moment. That is growth for him and their relationship. Yes, they are some very hot sex scenes, but this story is more than just two people getting back together. It is about them finally becoming one as a couple. A very good story. I got this book from Netgalley.com I gave it 4 stars. Follow us at www.1rad-readerreviews.com

Oh my goodness I’ve never read anything by this author and I absolutely loved this book i couldn’t put it down it had everything needed to keep your attention along with great characters that you cheer on to get back together.....

I'm seriously so sad to say I did not finish this book. For this reason, I'm not going to rate it nor write a detailed review on my blog. I feel like it's not fair otherwise. I started this book 1 month ago and couldn't get into the story. Picked it back up yesterday and tried to keep reading but I just can't force myself anymore.
I liked the concept of two supposed strangers texting/sexting, only to figure out they're actually talking to their exes, it sounded really interesting. But I couldn't connect to the characters nor to the stories.
I found Alma really annoying and Harvey incoherent. I couldn't care what happened to them. Also some scenes were really dragged and uninteresting.

Maybe I'll try to go on later, but right now there's no way I can continue.

I sort of have mixed feelings about this one. I really like the guy. I feel bad for him. I'm not sure I can relate to the girl though. She seems like three completely different people , which I thin is the point, but it doesn't come across as true. Also, the secret romance is fine when they are texting, but I can't suspend belief enough to think that she would not recognize his voice on the phone, even it he is talking sexy (Which I'm sure they did while they were married. Anyway, those are initial thoughts. A fun read though. I'll pull together a full review and cue it up on my site, and send it on to Amazon and Goodreads.

Alma hatea him for what he is, an opportunistc billionaire looking for the next deal regardless of what it costs. Harvey and Alma had a past. She loves the man he was and hates the man he has bwcome. Will he change to get her back? Does he even want to change? He likes who he is and what he does and the next deal....but does he love her more? You will just have to read it to find out.

Unique storyline. It's refreshing to read a romance that has a different track. Harvey was the perfect hero and Alma, his ex, the heroine just needed a little coaxing to find their way back to each other.

Harvey Zale is a billionaire determined to get on with his life after his divorce from Alma. he is texting/sexting Contessa and is getting into this new online relationship even though he hasn’t met Contessa. Alma is Harvey's ex and she is determined to move on and has her own person she is texting.sexting. Here she can be more daring. Alma had left Harvey a year ago as she felt his whole focus was on money and she felt ignored and they had grown apart and she wanted nothing to do with Harvey now. Harvey was stunned when Alma divorces him and he lets Alma know he wants her back Neither knew they were actually texting each other. Harvey and Alma’s paths cross again for work. Harvey is a real estate tycoon and Alma is an antique expert specializes in antique glass. Alma gets a call from a friend that someone was going to destroy a waterfront property that is rumored to have a Tiffany stained glass window which would be priceless. Alma stops the property from being bulldozed down and she finds out the property is Harvey’s . Alma and Harvey fight over this new real estate flipping as she feel she needs to examine the window to see if it is in fact the glass it is believed to be. Alma finds she still loves Harvey.
I really enjoyed reading this book. I really liked how harvey reacted to Alma. I loved the plot. But this did drag for me at times. I chuckled at times while reading this. I loved the relationship between Harvey and Alma both online and off. I loved the relationship between Alma and her younger sister Conchita. I also really liked the relationship between Enrique and Harvey even after the divorce. I will say I sometimes got frustrated with Harvey or Alma or both. I really liked harvey and Alma together. I loved the characters and the ins and outs of this story and I recommend

Im having a hard time deciding my thoughts on this book. I found this to be a very unbelievable storyline so it was difficult to really enjoy this book. But I'm giving it 3 ⭐️ Because it did have moments that I wanted to keep reading in order to find out what was gonna happen. I got a little bored with all the art history thrown in. I liked the book enough that I would read another of her books. So thanks to NetGalley in giving me the opportunity to read this book

Lost interest before I a made around to this one. May some other time.

Harvey and Alma had an interesting story. It was well put together and the characters were fully developed. I enjoyed the bit of mystery involved. I was surprised at the second chance aspect.

First book from this author, enjoyed it, the depth of the history was a little distracting at first, but it became a integral part of the story, adding to the suspense, would they, wouldn't they across multiple themes, life, love and Tiffany glass. Would recommend.

Exes is the first book i have read by author Aria Hawthorne. I was so hooked right from the very beginning and will be looking forward to reading more great stories. This second chance romance between Alma and Harvey has lots of twists and turns, passion, emotion, amazing characters and story line and hot sexiness that will keep your full attention. I voluntarily read and reviewed an advance readers copy via netgallery.

Hi, sweeties! Yesterday I’ve finished a book full of promises, which haven’t been fulfilled at all. I was excited to read this book, it has excellent reviews on both Amazon and Goodreads, so I said “give it a try”. Meh, enough said that this wasn’t I expected and that I’m beyond disappointed.

PREMISE
“Exes – a second chance billionaire romance novel” by Aria Hawthorne was one of the book I request to review when I began using Netgalley to discover new promising authors. The novel stayed for almost a year in my Kindle, until I decided to read it. I think this book wasn’t very good in so many ways, that you will discover scrolling down this post.

SYNOPSIS (FROM GOODREADS)
Contemporary Billionaire Romance - Full-length, stand-alone novel with HEA - Suitable for mature readers; 18+ years.

When Chicago real estate tycoon Harvey Zale pings a “friend of a friend” with a flirtatious text, he never expects to start an addictive sexting affair with a complete stranger. He’s a billionaire who can get any woman he wants, but he can’t have her—his mysterious, sultry Contessa, who inspires his nightly confessions and soothes more than just his conscience from the consequences of his own shallow ambitions.

He’s determined to build the tallest towers in the world and he needs to sell his Chicago riverfront property to finance it. But when Alma Castillo, the Lara Croft of antique hunters, shows up on his land, claiming the existence of a priceless Tiffany stained-glass window and doing everything in her power to muck up his deal, he knows he’s got more than a stray cat to collar and tame. She’s not only on a mission to save long-lost antiques; she’s also on a personal crusade to hate his guts.

He would know. She served him divorce papers a year ago, just to prove it.
And he’d care a helluva lot more if his ex-wife’s sassy tongue and wicked intelligence didn’t turn him on every time she called him “a**hole” and if she didn’t look so damn cute in those baggy overalls, disguising her affinity for being naughty as much as being nice.

Perhaps even as naughty as his Contessa, who unlike Alma, doesn’t know anything about his real identity or flawed, billionaire reputation, which flames his desires to escalate their fantasy relationship into the reality of one scorching night of mindblowing...

If he could just get his mind off his ex-wife—the only woman he's ever truly loved. God, woman...if she would just let him pleasure her scornful frown and turn it oh, oh, oooohhhh so upside down, maybe he could convince her to marry him again.

But no one ever said it was easy being a greedy opportunistic billionaire bastard, especially one who happens to know there’s nothing better than make-up sex with an ex…

Please note that all of Ms. Hawthorne's billionaire romances are stand-alone novels set in Chicago with minor subplots and secondary characters that intersect, but each book can be read and enjoyed in any order.

REVIEW
The book “Exes – A second chance billionaire novel” describes the life and the misadventures of two freshly ex wed people: Alma Castillo and billionaire tycoon Harvey Zale. Alma divorced from Harvey one day, out of the blue, without even asking him if he was ready to do that step or if he preferred working on their relationship. Alma and Harvey met in college and then they got married for five years, but the novel sets the reader in a different time and space: a year after she divorced from him. Alma is a high-super intelligent woman, she is good and with so strong principles... In a word, she is highly stereotyped; she addresses Harvey as one of the greediest billionaire real estate tycoon. Harvey in this novel is the highest stereotyping man I’ve ever read of: he is the incarnation of everything ugly and bad that there’s in this world. This strongly opposition between the main characters was, at the beginning, quite interesting; but then it became strongly annoying. Back to what I was saying, Alma is a super intelligent woman with a QI so high it turns men on, like the gayesque supporting character of Jacques Blac, okay maybe he was attracted to her, but his ways of acting and his annoying use of French words even when it wasn’t necessary, bonded with the fact that he acted and dressed like a gay man (hey, don’t get me wrong, I have gay friends too, and nobody acts like him) made him exasperating. Alma is a romantic woman in her heart, she hopes to find true love in random ways, and in this I could emphatize with her, but then she acted like a kid who-knows-all, like she was the only victim in her relationship with Harvey. Really? The only thing that Harvey maybe did wrong is to pass most of his time working and not with her, but it’s this what business men do, right? They work hard to accomplish their goals. She wants to find the mythical stained-glass windows of Eternal Love of the most influential artist of Chicago: Louis Comfort Tiffany. The quest beings with her, but then Harvey will support her whenever she needed. The most important thing for you to know is that they sexted each other without knowing, and I was like… Really? After five years of marriage you really couldn’t recognized your man? This is isn’t such a big spoiler, most of readers could see it coming as I did. It was so obvious.
The characters weren’t so well developed as I hoped, there was a lacking of their physical description, which came at the 49% of the novel and I got a bit angry. Why? Because, especially in a romance novel, I found it unbelievable to not describe the characters, here the physical appearances played an important role, so that’s the reason I was angry and yes… I felt the need to throw my Kindle against the wall (I didn’t do it, but I felt like this only when I read an Italian novel that I totally disliked). Let’s talk about the developing of the characters: Alma is a bitch to Harvey, that the truth, and while I was reading I found her character extremely frustrating and childish, she wants something but she doesn’t know what she wants. Harvey is treated like a bastard greedy billionaire, when the only thing he did was to expand his work. He is characterized as a bad man with a such bad behavior that it seems like that you, reader, have to hate it with Alma (who doesn’t how to feel with hi, because in one chapter she’s attracted to him, the next chapter she hates him and the next chapter she wants him to let her in peace.) but I felt sorry for him. Harvey isn’t bad as she described him, and his willing to change to please her and to make her stay with him made my heart break, especially since is such a child who doesn’t know what she wants. Conchita Castillo ugh… I disliked a lot her character! She is Alma’s younger sister and she is such a shameless and cheesy characters, I simply couldn’t stand her and her behavior. She is an egocentric young woman who apparently works in Field’s shop, but passes most of her time eating candies without paying them. And this seems one of the main characteristics of her character: being a blatant cheesy character who was thought to support, and instead is everything else. Conchita is one of the most hateful character I’ve ever read of. Enrique Castillo is the father of both Alma and Conchita, he’s a sage old man who works hard but never intervenes in Alma’s life and although she’s divorced from Harvey, he still goes to Sox matches with him. I hoped to see more of Enrique, I think that he could have helped a lot Alma in underlying the fact that you can’t divorce from someone without reason and then hoping to return with that someone. Enrique was one of the main reasons I decided to give this novel one star.

The characters are plain and boring, far-fetched childish and contradictory (especially Alma), sometimes they are even annoying and got me angry various times. The only time I’ve felt like this reading a novel was when I read After by Anna Todd. They don’t do a complete developing, when I finished reading the novel it seemed to me that they had come back to the beginning, because Alma was complicating (again) things between them. The novel was really frustrating, yes, frustration was the main feeling this novel made me feel, and not a positive way. Harvey did his best to impress her and show her he had changed (for what, I asked myself) and she didn’t do a thing to change things between them, she stayed firmly in her positions. Alma was such a Mary Sue, I really couldn’t stand her in many way. I hope that not all Billionaire Novels are like this, because I’m concerned that I won’t find a satisfactory novel of this kind. I’m open to read other Aria Hawthorne novels, hoping that they will be better than this.

Lastly, the Spanish used here is not always right. Okay, I might be a little nitpicky but even the Spanish was wrong.

I’m really sad to give this novel one star, but I couldn’t give it one more. As I said before, I hope to be able to read other Aria Hawthorne’s novels, because I tend to give a chance to other author’s novels, even if I disliked their first.
I can’t advise this novel to anyone, so I quote you one sentence from the book, in order to give you an idea of it:
“Perfect and sinless is boring, and boring is far worse than flawed.”
(Harvey Zale)

xoxo,
Giada

NOTE: This review can be read both in Italian and English on my blog.

Despite knowing from the beginning where this story was going in my head, I couldn't wait to see how the author was going to get from point A to point Z. I was completely enthralled by all the mystery and intrigue involving the beautiful Tiffany stained glass and the art history lesson as well as Chicago history definitely kept me riveted throughout the book. Harvey is one of those guys...hot? Yes, Billionaire? Yes. Cocky? Heck Yes. There is more to him though...and although it takes while to finally get there, we see who he can really be. Alma knew THAT Harvey and didn't like who he became in his quest for a better life than he'd grown up in. They are forced together by circumstances and while she doesn't hate him. she wishes she did. Both Harvey and Alma are trying to move on with their lives with secret relationships with others...but there are some HUGE surprises in store for both of them. A meddling sister, a loving father and some of the best relationship advice from others, there may be a chance for these two yet. "I will always love you. In fact, it's probably the most dependable thing about me."

I really wanted to like this book. I tried so hard to like this book. I even read it all the way to the end. The problem is, I hated the main character. She was a bitchy perfectionist who wanted everything just so.

When she started having marriage problems, instead of talking it out like a normal person, she served him with divorce papers.

Then you got this guy who was basically the perfect husband, who adored his wife, who just kinda got the shit end of the stick.

The story itself was the typical couple loses their way and finds their way back to one another. Nothing was special or stood out to me. It just blended in with millions of other books just the same.

Alma got mad at literally everything and I wanted to go up in that book and slap her stupid idiotic self across the face in hopes she would wake up and do something different.

I hated the end. Poor Harvey deserved better than her.

All in all the book carried itself and I was never bored, but I just didn't like it. I didn't like the characters and I didn't like the end.

Rating: 3 stars.

Hilarious, fun story I really enjoyed it. Harvey was a sweetheart but I can imagine how he could drive someone nuts with his antics, poor Alma, you can't help who your soulmate is and Harvey obviously will give her a run for her money.

I love this serie but this book is a little slow. The story is good.

The premise of the book seemed good, but it just wasn't a book I could get into.

I found this story made me laugh , I enjoyed the interaction between this couple, very good story. I received a free copy of this book and voluntarily chose to review it.