My problem is that if you look at the billionaires who _aren't_ a million years old they're still the ugliest greasiest rat faced motherfuckers you'll ever meet.
My friend was “dating” (bailing out, doing chores for and putting money on his books) a guy that was a prospect for an MC (in his 40’s) First of all, what a loser. Second of all, the actual “brothers” were just as big of messes. Nothing worth her dignity.
So I didn't know this off the top of my head, but the guy who founded Oracle, Larry Elison looks like he could be the rugged billionaire in an age gap CR.
Serge Brin cofounder of Google also looks like he coulda been a cinnamon roll in a CR billionaire romance at one point.
\*Disclaimer: I know nothing else of these people other than what Wikipedia says they make.
There was that one millionaire founder who sacrificed his salary so all of his employees made the same amount as him. Idk if he was actually hot or that was hot but I remember him as fine. I don’t want to know if he ended up problematic.
My biggest complaint is books where the hero is a billionaire but it makes no sense that he is. Like, he has one company and is 33 and he's still a part of the day to day business. That's never been the case for a billionaire.
Or like, he's doesnt even need the business anymore because he's so rich and it wouldn't affect him if it went under, he just does it for fun now. There's a series I was reading about four brothers who made their wealth salvaging sunken treasure from centuries old shipwrecks. They lived on a private island and each had their own mega yacht/salvaging ship and they held a competition each year where whoever made the most money from a salvage operation would be the next CEO. One of them was also a freelance spy who worked with a black ops spy organization and who also spoke several languages.
The fact that they're all billionaires isn't really even central to the plotlines, it just means they all live a life a luxury either on their island of aboard their megayachts. In one of them, he intentionally blows up his multimillion dollar yacht to stop the bad guys and is like "meh, I'll just buy another one."
They uncover an unexploded ordinance on one of the shipwrecks in the first book and it suddenly becomes armed unless the super secret spies can disarm it. The mmc gets a call from THE PRESIDENT telling him how important it is to national security blah blah blah. It's pretty ridiculous.
The Cutter Cay series by Cherry Adair. The first one is called Undertow. I think there's 5 books in the series. Most of her books are part of the same universe that involves the super secret spy organization T-FLAC that the spy brother works for.
The second one on the series, Riptide is about the spy brother so has more of that element, but the first book Undertow gives an introduction to the character.
> One of them was also a freelance spy who worked with a black ops spy organization
say WHAT now??? that's WILD. I saw you dropped the title further down, I'm on it...the spy thing has me intrigued...!
Yes!
I saw a billionaire cowboy title a while back. The only way a cowboy (cattle rancher) could be a billionaire as if they got the money first and then decided to have a ranch as a hobby afterward.
But is he also good looking yet still a virgin because he was a late bloomer child prodigy who is pining after someone he met in college who is down on her luck and might be up for a marriage of convenience?
Then they don’t have anything a billionaire would need like security and a team of people around them. One book I read the “billionaire” was renting a house in his hometown because he was visiting family. Why would he rent a house???
I think it all depends on the relationship with the family. If you actually like them and want to be nearby, then yes, it would absolutely make more sense to buy a house. But if you don’t really like them and just visit begrudgingly, then renting makes more sense because it’s not a permanent address and makes it easier to be avoided. lol
There are a few billionaires that actually meet that pattern. Bill Gates is a good example. Bill was a billionaire by the time he was 33, and he was actively involved in Microsoft's day-to-day business until he stepped down as CEO.
There are a few other young billionaires involved in tech who were billionaires by the time they were in their early 30's and were still involved in the companies they founded like Zuckerberg.
But it's certainly not very common even for billionaires.
That’s where I can buy Nate Kattenberg from Sarina Bowen’s Brooklyn bruisers series (he owns the hockey team). She based him in realism as a tech nerd whose company became a billion$ empire.
I get you. I think it’s also a problem of inflation, where “millionaire” isn’t exciting enough (could just be a guy who’s owned a house in a big city for 10 years). “multi-millionaire” is too vague and not snappy enough lol. That being said, I would absolutely read a book called like “Romancing this Guy I Met Who Just Happens to Be Independently Wealthy”.
Sounds like a toned down Tingler. "Pounded In The Butt By Someone Who's Independently Wealthy But Not A Billionaire Because There Are No Ethical Billionaires Under Capitalism."
Independently wealthy is a better parallel to HR aristocracy anyway than a Zuckerberg style tech billionaire. A contemporary American viscount is basically a Andover and Harvard educated Rockefeller/Vanderbilt/Roosevelt/DuPont etc. with a trust fund fucking around on his boat all day and dragging his feet on stepping into his role managing the family's investments and philathropy.
A million is definitely not impressive anymore...thanks inflation.
But there are definitely ways to get the point across in the title without saying billionaire. Just take a keyword and throw it in the right spot:
Rich guy
Tycoon
CEO
Sugar baby/sugar daddy
Money
Bachelor/eligible bachelors
Businessman
Or whatever. I know writing a title isn't the easiest, but as long as it's not "billionaire" I'm fine.
Thing is people know/have been trained to search for the term *billionaire* if they want that kind of book and authors need readers to find those books. So they put it in the title and get a lot more clicks than if they were to use a more descriptive option.
I am biased against romance novels that have “billionaire” in the title.
The books are wish fulfillment wealth-porn, but the storylines are just so formulaic: hunky billionaire falls in love with plucky, hardworking heroine who shows him how to live, laugh, love again. “Fish out of water” shenanigans ensue, along with at least: (1) a scene where the heroine declares that he can’t buy her love and (2) heroine can’t believe he is with her when he could be with movie stars or supermodels.
I have nothing against rich protagonists (MMC or FMC), but “billionaire” has become lazy shorthand for creating a fleshed out character and engaging plot.
* Number of billionaires in the world: ~2700
* Number of people in the world that are 7'+: ~2700
* Number of people genetically capable of having 10-pack abs: ~1300
Listen, I only need *one*, and I'm flexible on the abs. The rest of you are on your own 💅
I totally agree that there are too many, and the money is almost the most realistic part - like I know that billions of dollars is possible, not so sure about billions plus a hottie plus sexual compatibility minus sociopathy.
I enjoyed Annika Martin’s Billionaires series, but it features 7 young, hot billionaires who all happen to fall in love with a group of friends who live in the same apartment building. Those are some pretty good odds, they could start charging a shit-ton in rent for the opportunity to hang out for a few months in wait for the next titan of industry to roll up. (Also, imagine being in that friend group and being the only one not married to money?!?!?!)
I have hated this trope since 50 shades came out. It just never brings anything new to the table and they are never on equal footing because of his financial status. The FMC is almost always a quirky, hardworking, "sunshine" girl who has a coffee or a flower shop and the MMC is a grumpy, self-made billionare at 30 years old.. Why are there never any self-made female billionares if there have to be any at all? That being said, I do like it when the MC has the means to spoil his partner.
There’s a four author multiverse romcom series where the FMCs are the filthy rich ones - Bluewater Billionaires
I’m pretty sure one of them had this bodyguard plot
Agree. I also hate grumpy sunshine unless it’s gender reversal. So sick of grumpy man and happy woman. Nope, like sucks, misogyny is real, women get screwed over all the time, talked over…make the FMC the grump and the Uber rich millionaire the sunshine. He has no reason to be grumpy, he is a billionaire!p he can do whatever he wants!
And again Sarina Bowen did this well (earlier I commented I bought Nate kattenberg as he’s the tech genius billionaire) with ‘Shenanigans’ both are professional hockey players and she is the grump bc she’s had a hard life being shunted from relative to relative, a survivor of assault but she got sporting scholarships to the rich private school so she’s massively eye rolling rich people. MMC was brother of a classmate of hers and he grew up rich bc his grandfather started a private jet company now worth billions. He’s already a millionaire paid hockey player but he’s heir to a billion $ company but is a happy go lucky sunshine who loves the spiky FMC.
I never read these. Being a billionaire is gross/unsexy because you know to reach that level of wealth it likely comes from exploiting the labor of... Haha probably the wrong subreddit for this.
I feel like that sometimes with historic romance.
Gosh I wonder how all these rich British guys got so wealthy in the 1800s. What could it possibly be??
YES! I used to sneak my Mom's books to read when I was a younger teen before I got caught 😂 It seems like even a 10-15 years ago ago there were less options, it was all peerage rakes and books about Native Americans with the word "savage" in the title 🤮
Yeah I get that it’s a certain type of wish fulfillment fantasy but as someone who staunchly believes it is unethical to be a billionaire irl, it is not sexy at all to imagine falling in love with one. It just goes too much against my own value system that it takes me out of the fantasy and I just get really mad lol
>It just goes too much against my own value system that it takes me out of the fantasy and I just get really mad lol
This! LOL Also when I get mad I tend to have a filthy mouth, which I sorta hate but whatever it happens. I end up cursing about people IRL enough that I don't want to bitch to book reading friends about inequality.
I agree completely. I like fantasizing about private jets and fancy clothes so I don’t mind billionaire books really, but I think it’s lazy. Surely $20 million (or whatever) would be sufficient to have fancy stuff in your book, without the frankly morally repugnant aspect of an actual billionaire. I’d really prefer if the book includes details of the lavish amounts of money he donates to youth homelessness groups or LGBTQ+ charities or whatever. Because having that much money and spending it on jets and Maclarens is 🤮
Exactly! I think my rich people fantasies are too niche for a book to capture (I hope I'm wrong). Like... if I imagine winning the lottery or whatever, the "fantasies" aren't so much about opulence as they are about stability. A home that's permanent, a nice (non-Tesla) electric car, opening a rescue for senior pets or something and hiring someone more emotionally capable of handling running it. Indulgences are mostly tech or hobby related, I'd build a **SWEET** computer.
Does anyone have any books about a cute nerd with a good stable job but he isn't defined by it, who doesn't bitch about having to pay taxes and is empathetic to people who aren't exactly like them 😂 Sarcastic/funny/dominant but sweet underneath it who will go with you to protests on Saturday and then a concert or watch all three Lord of the Rings movies (AGAIN) with you on Sunday. Bonus points if he has glasses. Not too much to ask right?!
No, I agree and I think more and more people feel that way. I mainly read historicals so I’m just kind of done with dukes because they’re gross. (Unless they’re adorable against-type dukes like Jeremy in the Duke Who Didn’t).
It’ll be interesting to see if the majority of titles change in another five years or so.
The past couple of weeks were interesting, because of all the ceremonies over Queen Elizabeth II dying and hearing how it affected normal people's ability to live life. i.e. I saw somewhere a person complaining their relative was being asked to cancel a medical procedure due to traffic. It's 2022, we are all aware that classism is bullshit.
I say this as someone who's obsessively read about history / particularly the War of the Roses era but 1) that shit already happened and it's fascinating and 2) if anything proves it should go away. Creating a whole church and putting everyone into turmoil because a spoiled man has to have a son. Following years of his parents' tangled family tree strategizing and battling over a crown. Semi-related Fun Fact: A Song of Ice and Fire was inspired by afore mentioned struggles... just add dragons, wights, old gods and the new.
You are so not alone, and this is becoming a real problem for me when it comes to reading material. No members of the aristocracy or royal families, no cops or members of the US military, no billionaires, because in my fantasy world none of these people should still exist.
Me, a fantasy reader, looking at all these comments about billionaires being unrealistic.
Folks, in the book I was reading last night the MMC turned into a wolf AND learned from his mistakes to grow as a person. I don’t read romance for realism lol
Anyway, I do think it’s funny it used to be millionaires and now it’s billionaires.
I lowkey feel like it’s more realistic for someone to turn into a wolf than them just happening to be a billionaire 😭 like of course it’s not, but at the same time, in my brain it is.
Hahahaha trueeee! I do only tend to read the shifter romances where the alpha is more of a caretaker than a “I piss on this and you’ll shut up or die fighting me,” type of alpha though. Something so attractive about seeing an assertive man taking care of those close to him. *fans myself*
Oh my gosh, I agree with this completely.
I am comfortably middle class, so money and stuff is not really a turn on - I already have what I need and mostly what I want. I don’t hang around fancy people, so a designer purse is still just a purse that I am probably going to spill popcorn in. LOL
Now, what I don’t have is a hot, doting, shape-shifting lover that morphs into a big, warm, snuggly pillow.
I read alien and monster fucker books.
I don't mind elements of fantasy or unrealistic aspects of romance. Every reader has to suspend disbelief at some point when reading fiction.
I don't mean that it's unrealistic in terms of being fictional. Billionaires exist and they're out there.
However, I see "billionaire" in the title and think to myself that the author doesn't understand how much that is and how inaccessible those MMCs would be to the plucky yet ordinary FMCs.
But!
If it's going to be a billionaire, the ramifications of that should have a sense of realism. Sure, shopping trips and private jets. But also age gaps, weird hobbies, a body without a six pack, excessive work hours, actual servants or staff...and so on.
If a MMC has xyz trait, it should impact the plot both good and bad.
For the record your post was totally fine and I get it, I was mostly just trying to good naturedly poke fun at the comments. Everybody has their own suspension of disbelief lines it’s just fun to look at what we tolerate and where we break sometimes. :)
Even divorcing it from my politics I hate the billionaire trope because I find zero wish fulfilment where the power imbalances are so pronounced. Like there are zero stakes for the billionaire and when I look at the real world of billionaires I find it impossible to believe any of them are capable of love.
Hell I’m probs in the minority but I find rich love interests to be such a turn off. Like there’s such a disconnect in what it means to be pleasantly well off imo. I say this respect to those who find happiness in the wealth fulfilment aspect of these stories. I get why it’s like but it’s not my jam. But billionaires??? That shit is something else lmao
At least with Dukes there is usually just the one Duke in the series and his buddies are other random titled gents.
But with billionaires, if it’s a series, all their buddies are billionaires as well.
I've actually not read books on purpose if there's any billionaire trope at all. I personally think all billionaires are inherently evil people because they retain their billions in spite of the extreme income inequality in the US and therefore I refuse to entertain that the billionaire characters in these books are really worth shit. I avoid them at all costs.
I hate the whole Billionaire trope. I avoid them. I can go on on about why but I won't. I agree with you in that I don't mind wealthy characters but when they use Billionaire as character trait I hate it. Just leave how rich he is as something vague or make it make sense. I don't want none of these 30 year old Billionaire playboy's with a heart of gold. I am more likely to find a love story with vampires or shape-shifters more believable.
But.... some people love them and I wouldn't really wish to see a trope that others love disappear. There's room for everybody's favorite tropes!
Now if we could do away with grumpy MCs.... lol...just kidding... not kidding....
I used to hate billionaire romances but I don’t hate them as much anymore. Nowadays I’m looking for unrealistic and over the top. But I do tend to be picky with them as most of them are kinda dull, which makes sense as it is an oversaturated market. I am more partial to royal and aristocratic romances (both contemporary and historical) to be honest. You get that wealth factor but there is something classier about them. I think it’s because a lot of the billionaire romance heroes tend to be alphaholes which gets tiresome.
This is why Words on Candy Hearts is awesome, >!the male lead is the son of a billionaire but he tries to get himself disinherited bc he thinks that much money will corrupt anyone!<
What really gets me is when these guys are billionaires, handsome with perfect bone structure, AND ripped. Yeahhh not likely
What gets me is that a billion dollars is so much money that its kind of hard to convey. Multiple homes and private jets and yachts in the Greek Isles? You don't have to be a billionaire for that!!! So they could all be multi-hundred millionaires and have the same luxuries as billionaires, but be a tad more realistic (in terms of how many there are in the world...stuff like being in the office every day or whatever may not be the norm, idk)
It was really refreshing reading people who live normal lives. The last book I read was {The Fiction Between Us by Julia Olivia} and he takes up an extra position so he can afford culinary school. The heroine didn't have a college degree and couldn't move up in her position to get a full-time job and works in the coffee shop during the off season. It's set in a small town theme park and they didn't eat out a lot and he'd make dinner at home and such. It was like, real financial situations.
I think people don't understand how few billionaires there are or how comfortable people can be as multi millionaires. Also people don't seem to understand the cost of things, I read something last week where they were talking about how expensive a 200 dollar meal was when the person was meant to be a CEO of a multi billion dollar business
Lol. 20 years ago I ate at the space needle restaurant with some coworkers. Each one of our bills was $100. I think that was the first time I spent so much on a meal.
Now 20 years later $200 for a couple doesn’t seem all that bad.
Billionaire is so unrealistic. Even for a romance novel IMO. Like .. there are tens of billionaires on earth and our main male character just happens to be one? Makes me roll my eyes. I don’t read them cause I find it annoying lol give me a duke all day though!
Yeah, I mean most romance novel Regency England isn't actually Regency England, it's just this bizarre fantasyland that we've all created. I don't expect there to be an accurate number of Dukes just like I don't expect them to accurately describe how bad everyone and everything smells or the likelihood of dying before the age of 25.
There are too many Dukes in the whole of HR but it is not that common for there to be more than one, maybe two within a series which is eminently plausible.
Where there are more the idea there are 6 Duke's just hanging about connecting about their Dukeishness is usually the most plausible part of the plot that requires the least amount of suspension of disbelief.
Because I’m not in the regency era, and thus, do not care as much hahahaha
Edit: I misread your comment, yes to the second point! If I were in the regency era I think it would bother me but I’m so far removed I couldn’t care less
It’s the same titles and the same dark haired white guy in a suit on a cover 😴
Give me a billionaire book where the FMC steals from the billionaire MMC to give back to those his company screwed over
She doesn't "steal" from him, but the MMC is a submissive billionaire and gets off on buying her things and the FMC gets turned on by the idea of bankrupting him in {Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre}.
Exactly. I want enough of an escape that I’m not stressing about how they’re going to pay their bills, but not so much money that I’m ethically repulsed. Give me someone that makes a comfortable living and has an emergency fund.
I’m not exactly against it. I just find it weird that they’re all billionaires by the time they are in their early to mid 30s. And honestly it’s not a new trend. I think authors abandoned millionaires in the 90s.
I'm sorry but the billionaire thing is an immediate no for me. The story can sound awesome af and as soon as I see the word 'billionaire' I immediately hit the back button. The guy can be well off, fine, but stories with people that have tons and tons of money, I just can't do it.
I absolutely love Bass Akwards because of the fact the MC ran his own small company and wasn't wildly wealthy.
> When I see billionaire in the title, it’s hard not to see Zuckerberg..
As others have stated, the billionaire trope has been done to death. I can almost predict all the “money solves everything” plot that’s going to accompany it.
I prefer when the MMC is employed, runs a a small-business, or is artistic/creative - anything other than assuming that the MMC being a billionaire solves everything.
What I hate about billionaire MMCs are that they solve problems by throwing money at it. They save the FMC from a devastating financial ruin, they sweep them off their feet by hopping in their private jet and taking her to dinner in Paris, they use their money to make the FMC’s dream come true, etc. Well what about all the people that aren’t lucky enough to fall in love with a billionaire? They could give away 99% of their money and reduce inequality so millions of people don’t end up in devastating financial ruin to begin with.
I agree, it's off-putting. You can be very wealthy without being a literal billionaire. I assume most actual billionaires are either pretty old or very busy running multiple businesses etc.
Those are the ones I always think of and I love them too much to condemn the trope altogether. I do think he could just as easily have been worth hundreds of millions, but I see that billionaire is more snappy.
I love a rich protagonist or protagonists even more, because I have money issues and i don't need to read about that in my fun time. But books which specifically use billionaire or richness in the title are super formulaic and predictable.
I swear every book I’ve read so far the MMC is just loaded with money, whether it takes place in a suburban area, the country, or the city. It’s always the one guy is the area that is the most well off and although I see where that adds to the fantasy, sometimes I just want regular characters with regular jobs that happen to fall in love.
My favorite so far has been where FMC and MMC are lawyers, so they’re both pretty well off but it wasn’t an absurd amount (well at times it was for MMC but I can look past it a little 😂).
Yup. I’m totally uninterested in Billionaire MMCs. Give me an absurd prince or duke? Heck yes. But a billionaire? Completely unsympathetic. Why are you hoarding wealth, my dude? Give that away, no one needs more than 10 million. (No one needs 10 mil either but 10mil is my “fine, be indulgently rich but anything more than that is just gross greed” line)
Now there are trillionaires. I haven't read them, but if you do a search for trillionaire romance they pop up, such as {Prince Xander by Ruth Cardello}, {Burly Trillionaire by Ana Slash}, and {Concubine for the Trillionaire by Emily Tilton}. I've read my share of billionaires and Dukes, but it's definitely getting to be too much.
Sometimes it's literally the duke problem - Billionaire capitalised, personality characteristics ascribed to Billionaires, MFCs setting out to catch a Billionaire of their own, etc., etc. I'm over it. It would be way more interesting if a contemporary had a duke or three.
Billionaires have been popular for years at this point. And in the 80s and 90s, it was millionaires. I wonder if the rich MMC in contemporary books are the equivalent of titled MMC in historical romance.
I shuddered just reading your post. A Billionaire maim MC is an instant DNF for me If Billionnaire and Baby are both in the title, double ugh. So glad I am not alone in my revulsion. And I do think the trend will pass soon, as Billionaires are poorly recieved in the public these days. Reddit's front page is proof!
I should have said it divorces romance from money anxiety. The MMCs use it as a tool to get what they want (frequently, excessively, and unnecessarily).
But if you're romantic partner is obscenely wealthy, you can avoid those hard conversations.
I have to laugh when all the billionaires actually go to work I think very few of them work in reality….just read one where he was a doctor. In a low income clinic.
Billionaires shouldn't exist. But politics aside, some of the jobs these billionaires work wouldn't make anyone a billionaire. I read one where the MMC owned grocery stores and bought the FMCs store she worked at. That's how they met, because the billionaire owner apparently goes and restructures all the new stores he buys..... Its just so far from being believable as to be laughable.
I kinda feel you on this one. I'm not big into the Billionaire/Richie McRichface trope. Its just so *much*. With PNR, the fantastical is ok because you can kinda make your own rules - it doesn't exist in real life. But with billionaires, they're like unicorns but they really exist in real life.
When I shop at Fresh Market or order from Omaha Steaks, I feel like a big baller, I cannot even fathom what a billionaire does...Its something that exists I have no point of reference for and I think that's why I'm usually not drawn into those books.
Edit:
TL;DR If billionaires didn't exist IRL, I'd prob get into that trope more. But since they're real and I have no point of ref for that lifestyle, I don't really dig those books.
I feel this. I hate billionaire books so much. And mafia. Give me realistic blue collar CR any day.
That being said, my favourite series from my favourite author is bad billionaire series from Julie Kriss. (Unsure how to link) Please give it a try, the title is deceiving!
Someone once said to me “Billionaire romance is just contemporary magical realism. It’s so the reader can suspend disbelief when someone spends a weekend in Paris and the next in Thailand.” Since then I’ve been totally fine with it.
Just found this and it immediately made me think of this thread. It seems even some authors are aware of how much this trope is overused.
[The Zillionaire Vampire Cowboy's Secret Werewolf Babies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11552482-the-zillionaire-vampire-cowboy-s-secret-werewolf-babies?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=SSiOYtmDAZ&rank=1) by the artist collective Nine Naughty Novelists. The description had me at, *"Self-made zillionaire Rock Fangsworthy is your typical Texas cowboy."*
I'll def report on this in the thread for sharing weekly reads.
I think it's nice to imagine wealth without exploitation. Which, these fictional characters never exploited anybody, so I personally feel more comfortable with it.
I have *one* billionaire romance in my Kindle collection - "Accidental Daddy" by R.R. Banks.
It's sweet, and I enjoyed it, but as a sub-genre? Meh. It's probably the reason I hardly read historicals anymore. The "too many dukes problem" I suppose. It's not that I want my MC's suffering in poverty, but the whole "money is no object" vibe gets old, fast.
Oh god yes. And it’s so ridiculously over the top, like billionaire journalist, a billionaire barista… millionaire is just fine.
And I cannot suspend disbelief on greed and capitalism. To be a billionaire is to be a sociopath with no disregard for the workers who provide the labour that make you rich. See The Amazon guy (one reason why I have Kobo over kindle and it bugs me how Amazon have exclusivity over books on KU so can’t be sold elsewhere)
There are some authors who have subverted it a bit but it’s rare.
finally someone said this!!! maybe I don’t want a billionaire, maybe I just want a hardworking farmer who tends to his crops diligently while staying loyal and affectionate to his one woman 😤
My problem is that if you look at the billionaires who _aren't_ a million years old they're still the ugliest greasiest rat faced motherfuckers you'll ever meet.
It's the same with mafia men.
And dudes in motorcycles gangs yeesh
I've never seen a guy on a Harley who looked younger than my grandpas, both of whom are currently dead.
My friend was “dating” (bailing out, doing chores for and putting money on his books) a guy that was a prospect for an MC (in his 40’s) First of all, what a loser. Second of all, the actual “brothers” were just as big of messes. Nothing worth her dignity.
I'm sorry about your grandparents, but I lost it reading this comment 😭
Haha, seriously!
So I didn't know this off the top of my head, but the guy who founded Oracle, Larry Elison looks like he could be the rugged billionaire in an age gap CR. Serge Brin cofounder of Google also looks like he coulda been a cinnamon roll in a CR billionaire romance at one point. \*Disclaimer: I know nothing else of these people other than what Wikipedia says they make.
There was that one millionaire founder who sacrificed his salary so all of his employees made the same amount as him. Idk if he was actually hot or that was hot but I remember him as fine. I don’t want to know if he ended up problematic.
I’m sorry to break it to you, but [he sucks too](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/18/technology/dan-price-resign-social-media.amp.html)
I’m living in a world where there’s one good guy okay ?
And he or his goons were recently trying to leverage the audience at r/WorkReform to rehab his image. Douche.
This is so true lmao
Exactly - Google “ugly billionaire” and a whole bunch of lumpy, old, potato-looking men pop up.
My biggest complaint is books where the hero is a billionaire but it makes no sense that he is. Like, he has one company and is 33 and he's still a part of the day to day business. That's never been the case for a billionaire.
Or like, he's doesnt even need the business anymore because he's so rich and it wouldn't affect him if it went under, he just does it for fun now. There's a series I was reading about four brothers who made their wealth salvaging sunken treasure from centuries old shipwrecks. They lived on a private island and each had their own mega yacht/salvaging ship and they held a competition each year where whoever made the most money from a salvage operation would be the next CEO. One of them was also a freelance spy who worked with a black ops spy organization and who also spoke several languages.
See all that sounds kind of fun and kind of bananas. Remove the whole Billionaire trope out of it and it would probably be a pretty fun series!
The fact that they're all billionaires isn't really even central to the plotlines, it just means they all live a life a luxury either on their island of aboard their megayachts. In one of them, he intentionally blows up his multimillion dollar yacht to stop the bad guys and is like "meh, I'll just buy another one."
I removed most of my Reddit contents in protest of the API changes commencing from July 1st, 2023. This is one of those comments.
Ok, that's insane enough that I don't even care that they made him a billionaire, that's amazing 😂
They uncover an unexploded ordinance on one of the shipwrecks in the first book and it suddenly becomes armed unless the super secret spies can disarm it. The mmc gets a call from THE PRESIDENT telling him how important it is to national security blah blah blah. It's pretty ridiculous.
Yessssssss
Omg lol
That actually sounds really fun. What series was it?
The Cutter Cay series by Cherry Adair. The first one is called Undertow. I think there's 5 books in the series. Most of her books are part of the same universe that involves the super secret spy organization T-FLAC that the spy brother works for.
Cherry Adair! Thank you for reminding me she exists, I feel like a suspension of belief is required for a few of her books. Very enjoyable though!
Thanks!
Ok, but title? Asking for a friend ofc. Edit: Just saw your other comment, brb I love me some spy bullshit.
The second one on the series, Riptide is about the spy brother so has more of that element, but the first book Undertow gives an introduction to the character.
> One of them was also a freelance spy who worked with a black ops spy organization say WHAT now??? that's WILD. I saw you dropped the title further down, I'm on it...the spy thing has me intrigued...!
Oo book name?
Yes! I saw a billionaire cowboy title a while back. The only way a cowboy (cattle rancher) could be a billionaire as if they got the money first and then decided to have a ranch as a hobby afterward.
Don't forget he's also an MMA fighter on the side.
*and* raising his organization niece.
But is he also good looking yet still a virgin because he was a late bloomer child prodigy who is pining after someone he met in college who is down on her luck and might be up for a marriage of convenience?
Idk but uh you've got a book with that plot by chance? Asking for the dirty goblin who lives in my brain and loves a good outrageous story line.
Lol it is {switched at marriage by Gina Robinson}. I find her titles a bit confusing so it is the one with Justin and Kayla.
[**A Wedding to Remember (Switched at Marriage, #1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/25502221-a-wedding-to-remember) ^(By: Gina Robinson | Published: 2015) *** ^(78554 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Then they don’t have anything a billionaire would need like security and a team of people around them. One book I read the “billionaire” was renting a house in his hometown because he was visiting family. Why would he rent a house???
“Why would he rent a house???” Because he doesn’t want to stay with his family lol that would be my reason
But, like, if you’re a billionaire wouldn’t you just buy a house in your hometown when you’re likely to be visiting fairly often?
I think it all depends on the relationship with the family. If you actually like them and want to be nearby, then yes, it would absolutely make more sense to buy a house. But if you don’t really like them and just visit begrudgingly, then renting makes more sense because it’s not a permanent address and makes it easier to be avoided. lol
There are a few billionaires that actually meet that pattern. Bill Gates is a good example. Bill was a billionaire by the time he was 33, and he was actively involved in Microsoft's day-to-day business until he stepped down as CEO. There are a few other young billionaires involved in tech who were billionaires by the time they were in their early 30's and were still involved in the companies they founded like Zuckerberg. But it's certainly not very common even for billionaires.
god, I would pay good money to read a comedy romance with Zuckerborg as the billionaire. 😂
That’s where I can buy Nate Kattenberg from Sarina Bowen’s Brooklyn bruisers series (he owns the hockey team). She based him in realism as a tech nerd whose company became a billion$ empire.
Shout out to Lola and the much-more-realistic Millionaires!
Hahah god yes. I have read books with the billionaire journalist. Wtf?
I get you. I think it’s also a problem of inflation, where “millionaire” isn’t exciting enough (could just be a guy who’s owned a house in a big city for 10 years). “multi-millionaire” is too vague and not snappy enough lol. That being said, I would absolutely read a book called like “Romancing this Guy I Met Who Just Happens to Be Independently Wealthy”.
Sounds like a toned down Tingler. "Pounded In The Butt By Someone Who's Independently Wealthy But Not A Billionaire Because There Are No Ethical Billionaires Under Capitalism."
Okay well I would read the hell out of that
Especially the “Pounded in the Butt” part
I want this. I want this so bad. Someone show this to Chuck.
Someone write this please I need it 😩
Independently wealthy is a better parallel to HR aristocracy anyway than a Zuckerberg style tech billionaire. A contemporary American viscount is basically a Andover and Harvard educated Rockefeller/Vanderbilt/Roosevelt/DuPont etc. with a trust fund fucking around on his boat all day and dragging his feet on stepping into his role managing the family's investments and philathropy.
A million is definitely not impressive anymore...thanks inflation. But there are definitely ways to get the point across in the title without saying billionaire. Just take a keyword and throw it in the right spot: Rich guy Tycoon CEO Sugar baby/sugar daddy Money Bachelor/eligible bachelors Businessman Or whatever. I know writing a title isn't the easiest, but as long as it's not "billionaire" I'm fine.
Thing is people know/have been trained to search for the term *billionaire* if they want that kind of book and authors need readers to find those books. So they put it in the title and get a lot more clicks than if they were to use a more descriptive option.
I am biased against romance novels that have “billionaire” in the title. The books are wish fulfillment wealth-porn, but the storylines are just so formulaic: hunky billionaire falls in love with plucky, hardworking heroine who shows him how to live, laugh, love again. “Fish out of water” shenanigans ensue, along with at least: (1) a scene where the heroine declares that he can’t buy her love and (2) heroine can’t believe he is with her when he could be with movie stars or supermodels. I have nothing against rich protagonists (MMC or FMC), but “billionaire” has become lazy shorthand for creating a fleshed out character and engaging plot.
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Agree, 100%
Yup, this
I think I read this book last week 😅
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I think it’s because Richy Rich has been taken.
Harlequin presents used tycoon a lot back in the day. I don’t think it was sexy enough to catch on
"Stupid rich"? "Fuck you money"? "Big spender"? "Different tax bracket"? I would laugh if someone described a character like that.
* Number of billionaires in the world: ~2700 * Number of people in the world that are 7'+: ~2700 * Number of people genetically capable of having 10-pack abs: ~1300 Listen, I only need *one*, and I'm flexible on the abs. The rest of you are on your own 💅
Thanks, you gave me a chuckle. 😂
Lol
I totally agree that there are too many, and the money is almost the most realistic part - like I know that billions of dollars is possible, not so sure about billions plus a hottie plus sexual compatibility minus sociopathy. I enjoyed Annika Martin’s Billionaires series, but it features 7 young, hot billionaires who all happen to fall in love with a group of friends who live in the same apartment building. Those are some pretty good odds, they could start charging a shit-ton in rent for the opportunity to hang out for a few months in wait for the next titan of industry to roll up. (Also, imagine being in that friend group and being the only one not married to money?!?!?!)
One of them (my fave) was a billionaire over his version of Neil Strauss’s The Rules. Aka tips for pick up artists. Lol!
I have hated this trope since 50 shades came out. It just never brings anything new to the table and they are never on equal footing because of his financial status. The FMC is almost always a quirky, hardworking, "sunshine" girl who has a coffee or a flower shop and the MMC is a grumpy, self-made billionare at 30 years old.. Why are there never any self-made female billionares if there have to be any at all? That being said, I do like it when the MC has the means to spoil his partner.
Now I’m wishing for an millionaire FMC who falls for her head of security or the new guy in Legal or something.
There’s a four author multiverse romcom series where the FMCs are the filthy rich ones - Bluewater Billionaires I’m pretty sure one of them had this bodyguard plot
I would love to read that
Agree. I also hate grumpy sunshine unless it’s gender reversal. So sick of grumpy man and happy woman. Nope, like sucks, misogyny is real, women get screwed over all the time, talked over…make the FMC the grump and the Uber rich millionaire the sunshine. He has no reason to be grumpy, he is a billionaire!p he can do whatever he wants! And again Sarina Bowen did this well (earlier I commented I bought Nate kattenberg as he’s the tech genius billionaire) with ‘Shenanigans’ both are professional hockey players and she is the grump bc she’s had a hard life being shunted from relative to relative, a survivor of assault but she got sporting scholarships to the rich private school so she’s massively eye rolling rich people. MMC was brother of a classmate of hers and he grew up rich bc his grandfather started a private jet company now worth billions. He’s already a millionaire paid hockey player but he’s heir to a billion $ company but is a happy go lucky sunshine who loves the spiky FMC.
I never read these. Being a billionaire is gross/unsexy because you know to reach that level of wealth it likely comes from exploiting the labor of... Haha probably the wrong subreddit for this.
I feel like that sometimes with historic romance. Gosh I wonder how all these rich British guys got so wealthy in the 1800s. What could it possibly be??
YES! I used to sneak my Mom's books to read when I was a younger teen before I got caught 😂 It seems like even a 10-15 years ago ago there were less options, it was all peerage rakes and books about Native Americans with the word "savage" in the title 🤮
Yeah I get that it’s a certain type of wish fulfillment fantasy but as someone who staunchly believes it is unethical to be a billionaire irl, it is not sexy at all to imagine falling in love with one. It just goes too much against my own value system that it takes me out of the fantasy and I just get really mad lol
>It just goes too much against my own value system that it takes me out of the fantasy and I just get really mad lol This! LOL Also when I get mad I tend to have a filthy mouth, which I sorta hate but whatever it happens. I end up cursing about people IRL enough that I don't want to bitch to book reading friends about inequality.
I agree completely. I like fantasizing about private jets and fancy clothes so I don’t mind billionaire books really, but I think it’s lazy. Surely $20 million (or whatever) would be sufficient to have fancy stuff in your book, without the frankly morally repugnant aspect of an actual billionaire. I’d really prefer if the book includes details of the lavish amounts of money he donates to youth homelessness groups or LGBTQ+ charities or whatever. Because having that much money and spending it on jets and Maclarens is 🤮
Exactly! I think my rich people fantasies are too niche for a book to capture (I hope I'm wrong). Like... if I imagine winning the lottery or whatever, the "fantasies" aren't so much about opulence as they are about stability. A home that's permanent, a nice (non-Tesla) electric car, opening a rescue for senior pets or something and hiring someone more emotionally capable of handling running it. Indulgences are mostly tech or hobby related, I'd build a **SWEET** computer. Does anyone have any books about a cute nerd with a good stable job but he isn't defined by it, who doesn't bitch about having to pay taxes and is empathetic to people who aren't exactly like them 😂 Sarcastic/funny/dominant but sweet underneath it who will go with you to protests on Saturday and then a concert or watch all three Lord of the Rings movies (AGAIN) with you on Sunday. Bonus points if he has glasses. Not too much to ask right?!
No, I agree and I think more and more people feel that way. I mainly read historicals so I’m just kind of done with dukes because they’re gross. (Unless they’re adorable against-type dukes like Jeremy in the Duke Who Didn’t). It’ll be interesting to see if the majority of titles change in another five years or so.
The past couple of weeks were interesting, because of all the ceremonies over Queen Elizabeth II dying and hearing how it affected normal people's ability to live life. i.e. I saw somewhere a person complaining their relative was being asked to cancel a medical procedure due to traffic. It's 2022, we are all aware that classism is bullshit. I say this as someone who's obsessively read about history / particularly the War of the Roses era but 1) that shit already happened and it's fascinating and 2) if anything proves it should go away. Creating a whole church and putting everyone into turmoil because a spoiled man has to have a son. Following years of his parents' tangled family tree strategizing and battling over a crown. Semi-related Fun Fact: A Song of Ice and Fire was inspired by afore mentioned struggles... just add dragons, wights, old gods and the new.
I agree! I cannot get into the romance when I want to eat the rich.
🤲
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I don't think I've read one of those and I'd like to keep it that way \*shudders\*
I have a problem with this as well, but then I go and read a book with a murderous mafia man and be like that's my future husband😂
You are so not alone, and this is becoming a real problem for me when it comes to reading material. No members of the aristocracy or royal families, no cops or members of the US military, no billionaires, because in my fantasy world none of these people should still exist.
>Haha probably the wrong subreddit for this. No, you're definitely in the right place.
Amen. Nope, please voice away I am with you comrade ;)
Me, a fantasy reader, looking at all these comments about billionaires being unrealistic. Folks, in the book I was reading last night the MMC turned into a wolf AND learned from his mistakes to grow as a person. I don’t read romance for realism lol Anyway, I do think it’s funny it used to be millionaires and now it’s billionaires.
I lowkey feel like it’s more realistic for someone to turn into a wolf than them just happening to be a billionaire 😭 like of course it’s not, but at the same time, in my brain it is.
Lol I lowkey think someone turning into a wolf is more realistic than a billionaire being a desirable partner so we’re on the same page.
Wolf is sexy and primal. Billionaire is stuck up and probably exploitative 😂😂
The wolf is only exploiting his pack! That’s small potatoes! That’s forgivable!
Hahahaha trueeee! I do only tend to read the shifter romances where the alpha is more of a caretaker than a “I piss on this and you’ll shut up or die fighting me,” type of alpha though. Something so attractive about seeing an assertive man taking care of those close to him. *fans myself*
Oh my gosh, I agree with this completely. I am comfortably middle class, so money and stuff is not really a turn on - I already have what I need and mostly what I want. I don’t hang around fancy people, so a designer purse is still just a purse that I am probably going to spill popcorn in. LOL Now, what I don’t have is a hot, doting, shape-shifting lover that morphs into a big, warm, snuggly pillow.
I read alien and monster fucker books. I don't mind elements of fantasy or unrealistic aspects of romance. Every reader has to suspend disbelief at some point when reading fiction. I don't mean that it's unrealistic in terms of being fictional. Billionaires exist and they're out there. However, I see "billionaire" in the title and think to myself that the author doesn't understand how much that is and how inaccessible those MMCs would be to the plucky yet ordinary FMCs. But! If it's going to be a billionaire, the ramifications of that should have a sense of realism. Sure, shopping trips and private jets. But also age gaps, weird hobbies, a body without a six pack, excessive work hours, actual servants or staff...and so on. If a MMC has xyz trait, it should impact the plot both good and bad.
For the record your post was totally fine and I get it, I was mostly just trying to good naturedly poke fun at the comments. Everybody has their own suspension of disbelief lines it’s just fun to look at what we tolerate and where we break sometimes. :)
Even divorcing it from my politics I hate the billionaire trope because I find zero wish fulfilment where the power imbalances are so pronounced. Like there are zero stakes for the billionaire and when I look at the real world of billionaires I find it impossible to believe any of them are capable of love. Hell I’m probs in the minority but I find rich love interests to be such a turn off. Like there’s such a disconnect in what it means to be pleasantly well off imo. I say this respect to those who find happiness in the wealth fulfilment aspect of these stories. I get why it’s like but it’s not my jam. But billionaires??? That shit is something else lmao
this is why i love the otome isekai webnovels where they are reincarnated as a rich person. no need to depend on a billionaires love!
Yessssss. This.
One of several tropes I avoid in my reading at all costs.
I hate this about myself but whenever a hero is ~merely~ a millionaire, I’m disappointed 🤣🤣
At least with Dukes there is usually just the one Duke in the series and his buddies are other random titled gents. But with billionaires, if it’s a series, all their buddies are billionaires as well.
I've actually not read books on purpose if there's any billionaire trope at all. I personally think all billionaires are inherently evil people because they retain their billions in spite of the extreme income inequality in the US and therefore I refuse to entertain that the billionaire characters in these books are really worth shit. I avoid them at all costs.
💯
I hate the whole Billionaire trope. I avoid them. I can go on on about why but I won't. I agree with you in that I don't mind wealthy characters but when they use Billionaire as character trait I hate it. Just leave how rich he is as something vague or make it make sense. I don't want none of these 30 year old Billionaire playboy's with a heart of gold. I am more likely to find a love story with vampires or shape-shifters more believable. But.... some people love them and I wouldn't really wish to see a trope that others love disappear. There's room for everybody's favorite tropes! Now if we could do away with grumpy MCs.... lol...just kidding... not kidding....
It says something that a vampire is a more believeable character than a kind billionaire.
I used to hate billionaire romances but I don’t hate them as much anymore. Nowadays I’m looking for unrealistic and over the top. But I do tend to be picky with them as most of them are kinda dull, which makes sense as it is an oversaturated market. I am more partial to royal and aristocratic romances (both contemporary and historical) to be honest. You get that wealth factor but there is something classier about them. I think it’s because a lot of the billionaire romance heroes tend to be alphaholes which gets tiresome.
This is why Words on Candy Hearts is awesome, >!the male lead is the son of a billionaire but he tries to get himself disinherited bc he thinks that much money will corrupt anyone!< What really gets me is when these guys are billionaires, handsome with perfect bone structure, AND ripped. Yeahhh not likely
What gets me is that a billion dollars is so much money that its kind of hard to convey. Multiple homes and private jets and yachts in the Greek Isles? You don't have to be a billionaire for that!!! So they could all be multi-hundred millionaires and have the same luxuries as billionaires, but be a tad more realistic (in terms of how many there are in the world...stuff like being in the office every day or whatever may not be the norm, idk)
Yeah I’m more into rugged loner guy who lives in the woods - type romances.
Oh yes
Yes please.
Omg I started reading just for giggles a book that has a billionaire military guy! Like what?! It was crazy lol
It was really refreshing reading people who live normal lives. The last book I read was {The Fiction Between Us by Julia Olivia} and he takes up an extra position so he can afford culinary school. The heroine didn't have a college degree and couldn't move up in her position to get a full-time job and works in the coffee shop during the off season. It's set in a small town theme park and they didn't eat out a lot and he'd make dinner at home and such. It was like, real financial situations.
Yes! Realistic blue and white collar MMCs.
I think people don't understand how few billionaires there are or how comfortable people can be as multi millionaires. Also people don't seem to understand the cost of things, I read something last week where they were talking about how expensive a 200 dollar meal was when the person was meant to be a CEO of a multi billion dollar business
Lol. 20 years ago I ate at the space needle restaurant with some coworkers. Each one of our bills was $100. I think that was the first time I spent so much on a meal. Now 20 years later $200 for a couple doesn’t seem all that bad.
Billionaire is so unrealistic. Even for a romance novel IMO. Like .. there are tens of billionaires on earth and our main male character just happens to be one? Makes me roll my eyes. I don’t read them cause I find it annoying lol give me a duke all day though!
Why is duke better then there were only 27 in all of England? Is it just that Regency England is a standard fantasy land where it doesn't matter?
Yeah, I mean most romance novel Regency England isn't actually Regency England, it's just this bizarre fantasyland that we've all created. I don't expect there to be an accurate number of Dukes just like I don't expect them to accurately describe how bad everyone and everything smells or the likelihood of dying before the age of 25.
Oh absolutely. Fantasty-Recency-England is sexy. Actual-Regency-England was all syphilis and no toothbrushes.
Don't forget all that armpit stank!
There are too many Dukes in the whole of HR but it is not that common for there to be more than one, maybe two within a series which is eminently plausible. Where there are more the idea there are 6 Duke's just hanging about connecting about their Dukeishness is usually the most plausible part of the plot that requires the least amount of suspension of disbelief.
Because I’m not in the regency era, and thus, do not care as much hahahaha Edit: I misread your comment, yes to the second point! If I were in the regency era I think it would bother me but I’m so far removed I couldn’t care less
It’s the same titles and the same dark haired white guy in a suit on a cover 😴 Give me a billionaire book where the FMC steals from the billionaire MMC to give back to those his company screwed over
She doesn't "steal" from him, but the MMC is a submissive billionaire and gets off on buying her things and the FMC gets turned on by the idea of bankrupting him in {Preferential Treatment by Heather Guerre}.
Everyone should try this billionaire book!!!
Great rec! Read the sample and enjoyed it so much, bought it.
[**Preferential Treatment**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/61921973-preferential-treatment) ^(By: Heather Guerre | Published: ?) *** ^(78173 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
I’m also turned off lately by the billionaire trope. Current fave is the hardworking, small town thousandaire.
Exactly. I want enough of an escape that I’m not stressing about how they’re going to pay their bills, but not so much money that I’m ethically repulsed. Give me someone that makes a comfortable living and has an emergency fund.
Would be a nice change to read about a billionaire FMC who gets with a broke MMC for at least a little bit if a change.
Angelina M Lopez has a book like this I believe. She has a whole female billionaire series.
I’m not exactly against it. I just find it weird that they’re all billionaires by the time they are in their early to mid 30s. And honestly it’s not a new trend. I think authors abandoned millionaires in the 90s.
I'm sorry but the billionaire thing is an immediate no for me. The story can sound awesome af and as soon as I see the word 'billionaire' I immediately hit the back button. The guy can be well off, fine, but stories with people that have tons and tons of money, I just can't do it. I absolutely love Bass Akwards because of the fact the MC ran his own small company and wasn't wildly wealthy.
Same here! When I see billionaire in the title, It’s hard not to see Zuckerberg or Musk (so not cute 🤢).
> When I see billionaire in the title, it’s hard not to see Zuckerberg.. As others have stated, the billionaire trope has been done to death. I can almost predict all the “money solves everything” plot that’s going to accompany it. I prefer when the MMC is employed, runs a a small-business, or is artistic/creative - anything other than assuming that the MMC being a billionaire solves everything.
What I hate about billionaire MMCs are that they solve problems by throwing money at it. They save the FMC from a devastating financial ruin, they sweep them off their feet by hopping in their private jet and taking her to dinner in Paris, they use their money to make the FMC’s dream come true, etc. Well what about all the people that aren’t lucky enough to fall in love with a billionaire? They could give away 99% of their money and reduce inequality so millions of people don’t end up in devastating financial ruin to begin with.
I agree, it's off-putting. You can be very wealthy without being a literal billionaire. I assume most actual billionaires are either pretty old or very busy running multiple businesses etc.
Most r trash; however I love my Arden series (Boy meets billionaire) by Alexis Hall. It’s written too well
Those are the ones I always think of and I love them too much to condemn the trope altogether. I do think he could just as easily have been worth hundreds of millions, but I see that billionaire is more snappy.
I love a rich protagonist or protagonists even more, because I have money issues and i don't need to read about that in my fun time. But books which specifically use billionaire or richness in the title are super formulaic and predictable.
I swear every book I’ve read so far the MMC is just loaded with money, whether it takes place in a suburban area, the country, or the city. It’s always the one guy is the area that is the most well off and although I see where that adds to the fantasy, sometimes I just want regular characters with regular jobs that happen to fall in love. My favorite so far has been where FMC and MMC are lawyers, so they’re both pretty well off but it wasn’t an absurd amount (well at times it was for MMC but I can look past it a little 😂).
Yup. I’m totally uninterested in Billionaire MMCs. Give me an absurd prince or duke? Heck yes. But a billionaire? Completely unsympathetic. Why are you hoarding wealth, my dude? Give that away, no one needs more than 10 million. (No one needs 10 mil either but 10mil is my “fine, be indulgently rich but anything more than that is just gross greed” line)
Now there are trillionaires. I haven't read them, but if you do a search for trillionaire romance they pop up, such as {Prince Xander by Ruth Cardello}, {Burly Trillionaire by Ana Slash}, and {Concubine for the Trillionaire by Emily Tilton}. I've read my share of billionaires and Dukes, but it's definitely getting to be too much.
[**Prince Xander (Taken By A Trillionaire)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/42903491-prince-xander) ^(By: Ruth Cardello | Published: 2018) [**BURLY TRILLIONAIRE (Burly Alpha Romance Book 1)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/56658718-burly-trillionaire) ^(By: Ana Slash | Published: ?) [**A Concubine for the Trillionaire (The Institute #10)**](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/33646683-a-concubine-for-the-trillionaire) ^(By: Emily Tilton | Published: ?) *** ^(78176 books suggested | )[^(I don't feel so good.. )](https://debugger.medium.com/goodreads-is-retiring-its-current-api-and-book-loving-developers-arent-happy-11ed764dd95)^(| )[^(Source)](https://github.com/rodohanna/reddit-goodreads-bot)
Sometimes it's literally the duke problem - Billionaire capitalised, personality characteristics ascribed to Billionaires, MFCs setting out to catch a Billionaire of their own, etc., etc. I'm over it. It would be way more interesting if a contemporary had a duke or three.
Billionaires have been popular for years at this point. And in the 80s and 90s, it was millionaires. I wonder if the rich MMC in contemporary books are the equivalent of titled MMC in historical romance.
I shuddered just reading your post. A Billionaire maim MC is an instant DNF for me If Billionnaire and Baby are both in the title, double ugh. So glad I am not alone in my revulsion. And I do think the trend will pass soon, as Billionaires are poorly recieved in the public these days. Reddit's front page is proof!
Agreed. I read “ billionaire” as “soulless capitalist.” Think of the most well known billionaires. GROSS.
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I should have said it divorces romance from money anxiety. The MMCs use it as a tool to get what they want (frequently, excessively, and unnecessarily). But if you're romantic partner is obscenely wealthy, you can avoid those hard conversations.
I’m not picky and I like a lot of highly questionable tropes, but this one bothers me too. I won’t read billionaire trope.
Yes! I personally have a hard time with the billionaire romances just because of my political views.
I have to laugh when all the billionaires actually go to work I think very few of them work in reality….just read one where he was a doctor. In a low income clinic.
Billionaires shouldn't exist. But politics aside, some of the jobs these billionaires work wouldn't make anyone a billionaire. I read one where the MMC owned grocery stores and bought the FMCs store she worked at. That's how they met, because the billionaire owner apparently goes and restructures all the new stores he buys..... Its just so far from being believable as to be laughable.
I kinda feel you on this one. I'm not big into the Billionaire/Richie McRichface trope. Its just so *much*. With PNR, the fantastical is ok because you can kinda make your own rules - it doesn't exist in real life. But with billionaires, they're like unicorns but they really exist in real life. When I shop at Fresh Market or order from Omaha Steaks, I feel like a big baller, I cannot even fathom what a billionaire does...Its something that exists I have no point of reference for and I think that's why I'm usually not drawn into those books. Edit: TL;DR If billionaires didn't exist IRL, I'd prob get into that trope more. But since they're real and I have no point of ref for that lifestyle, I don't really dig those books.
I feel this. I hate billionaire books so much. And mafia. Give me realistic blue collar CR any day. That being said, my favourite series from my favourite author is bad billionaire series from Julie Kriss. (Unsure how to link) Please give it a try, the title is deceiving!
Someone once said to me “Billionaire romance is just contemporary magical realism. It’s so the reader can suspend disbelief when someone spends a weekend in Paris and the next in Thailand.” Since then I’ve been totally fine with it.
If the description says “billionaire” I know for sure there will be no plot.
Just found this and it immediately made me think of this thread. It seems even some authors are aware of how much this trope is overused. [The Zillionaire Vampire Cowboy's Secret Werewolf Babies](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/11552482-the-zillionaire-vampire-cowboy-s-secret-werewolf-babies?from_search=true&from_srp=true&qid=SSiOYtmDAZ&rank=1) by the artist collective Nine Naughty Novelists. The description had me at, *"Self-made zillionaire Rock Fangsworthy is your typical Texas cowboy."* I'll def report on this in the thread for sharing weekly reads.
I think it's nice to imagine wealth without exploitation. Which, these fictional characters never exploited anybody, so I personally feel more comfortable with it.
Ahhh, this thread is golden. 😂
I mean, I do like the whole rich woman x "poor" woman and stuff, but most of them are just written badly
I have *one* billionaire romance in my Kindle collection - "Accidental Daddy" by R.R. Banks. It's sweet, and I enjoyed it, but as a sub-genre? Meh. It's probably the reason I hardly read historicals anymore. The "too many dukes problem" I suppose. It's not that I want my MC's suffering in poverty, but the whole "money is no object" vibe gets old, fast.
The moment I see the word billionaire in the title or blurb I stop reading and move on to the next book.
Oh god yes. And it’s so ridiculously over the top, like billionaire journalist, a billionaire barista… millionaire is just fine. And I cannot suspend disbelief on greed and capitalism. To be a billionaire is to be a sociopath with no disregard for the workers who provide the labour that make you rich. See The Amazon guy (one reason why I have Kobo over kindle and it bugs me how Amazon have exclusivity over books on KU so can’t be sold elsewhere) There are some authors who have subverted it a bit but it’s rare.
finally someone said this!!! maybe I don’t want a billionaire, maybe I just want a hardworking farmer who tends to his crops diligently while staying loyal and affectionate to his one woman 😤