The Fine Print Special Edition (Dreamland Billionaires, 1)

Fine Print is the first of the Dreamland Billionaires trilogy. It begins with the funeral of Brady Kane. He leaves behind a son, Seth Kane and 3 grandsons – Declan, Callahan, and Rowan. 30-year-old Rowan is the youngest of the siblings and this is his story. In the will, Brady left instructions for each of the brothers to obtain their inheritance. He didn't want to just give them anything. He wanted them to still earn the money on his terms. Rowan was tasked with becoming the director of Dreamland, the amusement park, and to bring the magic back, to spearhead a renovation project for 6 months that has to be approved by a board of voters Brady selected himself. However, if he fails and if the board vote’s against Rowan renovation then his share of the company goes to his father, Seth. The Kane brothers individually have to work to obtain their inheritance and if one of them fails, they all fail and their portion of the company goes to their father. Determined to not let that happen, the brothers resolve to complete these tasks. First up is Rowan. Despite being labeled shy and reserved as a child, he steps up and goes to Dreamland although he hates the place. Rowan reputation in Dreamland is not the best. He was the tie breaker who voted against increasing minimal wage salaries, he also cut back on paid vacation days, laid off thousands and swapped good health insurance coverage for one that is low quality. In Dreamland, Rowan is a villain and in Dreamland is where he met Zahra. 23-year-old Zahra was beautician at Dreamland salon turning kids into princesses for the day. She is a first generation American and described as a ray of sunshine despite her past troubles with depression. They meet when Zahra is running late for a meeting announcing Rowan arrival. Their initial meeting is less than ideal. Zahra is quick to vocalize her complaint about how the company treats Dreamland staff and when she finds out she is talking to none other than Rowan Kane himself, she laughs it off, unbothered. Despite his run in with Zahra, Rowan is on a mission to build upon whatever weakness Dreamland had so he could return to Chicago. To do this, he opened up early the annual submissions where employees would suggest recommendations for a new attraction. Then from there, he would select the best idea the creator team could work on for 6 months. So when Rowan opened it up for submissions, rather than submit a new idea. Zahra got a little tipsy and trashes the Nebula Land ride. That ride was originally her idea; one she worked on with Brady Kane himself. But her ex stole her idea and resubmitted as his own, except it wasn’t as good as her original concept. Her ex effectively stole her chance to become a creator and her chance to move on from being a beautician. A little impaired, she submitted her critiques unintentionally. Rather than get her fired, Rowan offers her a promotion, a new position as a dreamland creator to work on renovation ideas for Nebula Land. Her constructive criticism is just the renovation project Rowan needs. For the next 6 months he could oversee the renovation to fulfill his portion of the will and obtain his inheritance then leave. Sounds easy enough. Rowan has a plan, but life rarely goes according to plan. Rowan is attracted to Zahra; has been since the moment he saw her and working directly with her on this renovation project has proved itself a challenge for his self-restraint. Shortly after she started to work as a creator, they kiss and Rowan is concerned she’ll go to HR, she assures him that isn’t her intention. To her, he lets it go but in actuality he doesn’t. Although Zahra has an active imagination and ideas, she is not much of an artist so Rowan takes her designs and redraws them for her to save her from embarrassment. A skillset he hadn’t used since being a child due to his father. He gave up drawing to appease his dad and meet his expectations. His father was abusive and destroyed his art and was a drunk. When she asked who fixed her artwork, he lied and didn’t disclose it was him. She gave him her number to pass on to whoever helped her so she could thank them and rather than discard her number, he texted her under the alias Scott still skeptical of her intentions and wanted to know if she intended to report him to HR or extort money from him for their kiss. Rather than find out some ulterior motive, he grew fond of Zahra and her genuineness to the point that he came clean about being Scott. Naturedly, Zahra is shocked and offended, feeling deceived but Rowan explains to her his reasons. He loss his mom to cancer then his father became an alcoholic and verbally and mentally abused his kids. When Rowan tried to trust other people, he got used and taken advantage of, extorted for money. So he trusts no one. That’s why he originally spied on her. Zahra is touched by his story and gives him another chance, their relationship turns physical, but he says he can only promise her casual. He never tells her his intentions on leaving in a few months. Although he told Zahra he wanted casual, his actions are anything but. Her ex who cheated on her and stole her idea, Rowan gave him a promotion in China. So either he resigned or moved to China, he was no longer around Zahra. He met her parents. He was kind to her disabled sister who had down syndrome. He took her to NYC. He scheduled a book signing with her favorite author. He even told her that she makes him want more but before they can become official, he pulls away. His behavior does not go unnoticed by his big brother/parental figure Declan. Declan is the eldest and who took care of him when their dad was absent. Declan helped with homework, and taught Rowan to ride a bike. He even chose to stay close to home for college to take care of his younger brothers. He felt he owed Declan, that he didn’t want to disappoint him. Torn, he gave up Zahra and the possibility of staying on as director of Dreamland to please Declan and become CFO. He broke it off with Zahra but regretted it immediately. Rowan made his choice, but he was not happy. Alone, Rowan has an epiphany. He realizes he’s strayed far away from the values his mom taught. He realizes she would have been disappointed in the man he came to please his father. He felt regret about his actions and how he treated Dreamland employees and how he treated Zahra. He resolves to fix things. First off, he lets his brother know that he will not be CFO and will remain director. Despite his mother dying in Dreamland, he has fallen back in love with the place due to Zahra. He goes to Zahra and apologizes. He admits he made a mistake but she doesn’t take him back just like that. He apologized before when he lied about being Scott and she forgave him. It’s not surprising she is hesitant to believe him and doesn’t want to keep giving him chances. She needs to know he is serious and means what he says. Unfortunately, her doubt about his intentions are increased when she finds out she is on the board of voters and thinks Rowan knew the entire time and their whole relationship was a lie. Despite her doubts, Rowan doesn’t give up. When the time came for his presentation to the board of voters Brady Kane selected, rather than focus on revenue and the ride renovation; he made it about employee satisfaction. That was the companies greatest weakness. The company failed them, and he vowed to do better. He suggested increasing the minimum wage by 50%. He also wanted to reinstate other benefits for employees as they were the company's best asset, establish a mentorship for people with disabilities, make Zahra pilot plan official and make Dreamland more inclusive to kids with disabilities to enjoy. His presentation hits home with Zahra because it shows he was listening, he cared, risked his 25 billion inheritance to focus on the employees rather than revenue and most of all that he means what he says because he intends to stay Director of Dreamland, declining the CFO position. In addition, with his company share, he plans to continue to look out for employee interest and build upon Dreamland. The board of voters approve Rowan changes. As a result, he fulfills his portion of Brady Kane’s will and secures his inheritance, but the story isn’t over. Rowan asks Zahra to hear him out and after his moving presentation, she agrees. Rowan declares his love for Zahra and his desire to stay in Dreamland and build a life with her. Her resolve breaks and she declares her love for him as well. The story ends with a HEA. In the 2 epilogue's, there is a time jump of 3 years, Rowan and Zahra get married, and have a child. So my personal take away. In a nutshell, I liked the story. It was an enjoyable read. It had an intriguing plot, Rowan character had depth and went through personal growth, but I didn’t really like Zahra. I liked them together, I liked how Rowan strived to be a better person with her, how he finally started being happy again, but Zahra wasn’t appealing to me. It was her personality. I got she was supposed to be this bubbly, happy character but she annoyed me. It wasn’t that she was happy. It was that she always seemed to be laughing, especially in the beginning of the book. It was countless she laughed up to the ceiling; she bent over laughing or she laughed until she couldn’t breathe. I have literally never met anyone who laughed like that, that often. Maybe that was how she was supposed to come across? Maybe she was supposed to be different. Who knows? I personally didn’t care for it. Then she’d laugh at inappropriate times, for example when she became a creator and Rowan gave her a tour. He was looking at her butt and she caught him, then she laughed. I kept waiting for some kind of explanation to explain why she behaved like this but there wasn’t one. Yes, she was sweet but a combination of that laughing, lack of respect for authority toward Rowan when they were strangers, and becoming too familiar too fast with Rowan almost made me not finish the book. I ended up taking a break and returning to the book. I am glad I finished it. It is a good book, a decent, enjoyable read. Just overlook Zahra and focus on the plot and Rowan character growth. Representation: Zahra is a character of color; she is brown skinned. Zahra father is Armenian. Ani has down syndrome. Zahra was in therapy for depression.

4.0 / 5.0 It’s Disney but with artistic license. It’s also interesting since the behind the scenes of how theme parks like that work is in line and made easily digestible in this story. The characters are good, with plausible back stories and good motivations for their behavior and I especially liked the inclusiveness of the cast. This is not smut per se but it is more than a soft romance. The use of “electric touch” and a feeling of being fated for one another is lazy in my opinion. These two lead characters are written well and that more natural attraction/chemistry could have been written into the story. This author has the skill to elaborate more and I think it would have made this even better. It gives me high hopes for the other books in the series. As to those two books, I can see some development for them in the interactions those character have in this story. I am not a fan of the emotional abuse this ML (Rowan) subjects the FL (Zahra) to. Seriously, after the whole Scott thing (serious red flag), she should have moved on, especially if she suffered as seriously as she did from the relationship prior to Rowan. That he got to be so horrible towards her three times, and she took him back, is very concerning. It is extremely unhealthy and I am not a fan of the promotion of women being written as excusing such manic behavior because it propagates dangerous behavior. Overall, the plot flows, it is very readable, and I am invested enough in the other two ML (Declan and Cal) to read at least the next book. Until Next Time MC

📚The Fine Print📚 By Lauren Asher Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️ Review: This might be an unpopular opinion, but I didn't love this book 😕 It took me a very long time to get into it and even then I struggled. The story just didn't hit me and I didn't find the Disney vibes as charming as everyone else did apparently. Rowan is the youngest grandson of the late Brady Kane, who I guess is suppose to be a Walt Disney of sorts. He created “Dreamland” and now all three of his grandsons have to jump through hoops to get their shares of the company. Rowan is a very grumpy character but he's set on his goal. Then Zahra happens... In my opinion Zahra was by far the best part of this book. She is a colorful character with so many amazing traits. I love her talent, her kindness, her sense of humor, her optimistic nature. She's very easy to fall in love with as a reader. While she has worked at Dreamland as a stylist, she has always dreamed of being a creator. And as fate would have it, she is given that opportunity. Rowan and Zahra’s story is heavy grumpy/sunshine. Rowan was starting to piss me off. Why even bother with someone that damn grumpy? This story was also a VERY..... SLOW.... Burn 🤦🏻‍♀️. Nothing good happened until chapter 30. I’m not all about the spice but when you read a romance that you know has spice in it, I don't expect to have to wait until chapter 30 to see any action 🤨. There were some cute parts and some spicy scenes, but all and all this book just didn't do it for me. I’m not sure if I should bother reading the other two books in this trilogy. Are the other books better? If you’ve read them let me know what you think!

Ok! Eu gostaria muito de detalhar a história toda pra vcs se apaixonarem por ela tal como eu, porém, muitas vezes o simples é mais que o suficiente. Queria agradecer a Lauren por essa história incrível e apaixonante, ela tem tudo o que um bom livro precisa ter: um casal com química, personagens bem construídos, uma mulher maravilhosa, super forte e resiliente, um boy lindo e extremamente bem trabalhado, com altos e baixos, erros e muitos acertos… Se eu encontrasse um homem como o Rowan eu ia ser tão feliz sabe?? Kkkkkk As troppes são maravilhosas também: grumpy and sunshine, ele é o chefe dela, found family e um pequeno age gap. Venham ver como um bilionário se apaixona e voltar a ser um sonhador ao conhecer uma mulher tão incrível quanto a Zhara ❤️🌸

This was my first book of Lauren and definitely wasn't my last. Rowan and Zahra has my entire heart. They're one of the sweetest couples I've ever read. Zahra is such an amazing and powerful woman, I've love her in every page. She inspired me a lot. And Rowan omg! He's so perfectly imperfect! Read his character evolution through the book is so good. His heart is solid gold. All storyline about Dreamland is so freaking good and a really original plotline. Something that I loved btw bc Im a fool for all things about Disney. An amazing read, highly recommended!! So excited to read DeclanIris but I really can't freaking wait for Cal story, need him asap!

الكتاب جميل والقصه حلو، انا ما كملته لان القصه فيها بطء شويه لكن ناويه اخلصها بعد العيد بإذن الله

I absolutely LOVED this book. I first fell in love with Lauren Asher's books through the Dirty Air series and I was so excited to read this book when I found out it was a Billionaire series but also set in a theme park!! I honestly think that Rowan is my new favourite grumpy billionaire man. I loved seeing his humour come out and his POV's where honestly some of my favourite chapters. His growth was amazing throughout this book and I loved that it was so up and down all the time! I loved being with his POV when he was first drawing again, that was super sweet. Zahra was hilarious. I loved her character, the way she wouldn't take any of Rowan's crap and challenged him at every turn. Her sister Ani was just gorgeous and she quickly became my favourite side character. I loved the relationship the 2 sisters have and how much Ani was there for both Zahra and Rowan. Rowan's presentation at the end was full of adorable, totally romantic, softie "aww" moments I definitely got the sniffles! It was so perfect. This book was beautiful. I was cackling so many times, my toes were curling, there were so many 'awwww' moments and some really great 'fu' moments too (*cough* the Lance & Rowan moment *cough*) I loved every minute of reading this book & it's 100% going on my rom com re-read lists when I need something that's feel good & fun!

O livro veio impecável. Relativamente ao livro em si, 4.5/5, história muito boa não consegui largar o livro enquanto não o li todo. No fim de ler só queria voltar a lê-lo.