Dreamland Billionaires #1
Libby audiobook
Author: Lauren Asher
Narrators: Desiree Ketchum and Aiden Snow
Rowan is the youngest grandson of an amusement park and media empire billionaire. His grandfather left letters to each grandson with his will with tasks to be completed in order for them to be able to get their inheritance. Rowan’s is to become Director of Dreamland Park for at least six months and devise a plant to invigorate the park. This is no easy task for Rowan, who shared with his grandfather a love for drawing and the whimsical. This love was suffocated by his father, who saw it as a “minor and unimportant” and he’d better man up. He did.
When he gets to the park, he mets Zahra, who’s his opposite in every possible way: she’s loud, she’s colorful, she’s larger than life. Unapologetically so. And she makes his frozen heart want to thaw for the first in a very long time.
This was a fun listen. I loved the setting of the theme park (clearly based on the Disney empire). I loved Zara and how bubbly and sweet she is and how she takes nothing of the crap Rowan gives her. Rowan is a bit too much of a grump to me and he would almost be one-dimensional if we didn’t have a little plot of secret identity (that I didn’t like because it felt a little like catfishing). I loved his interaction with Zahra’s little sister, who has Down syndrome and is just absolutely adorable. IT made him more human than the romance. He redeems himself in the end but I felt this book could have been a little shorter.
But, it was still a fun listen and I am definitely going on with the series.
Narration: Here we go with narration making things better: could ANYONE play a grump better than Aiden Snow? He’s perfect as Rowan. And Desirée Ketchum is so amazing as Zahra! Highly recommend it in audio.
Rep: Zahra is of Armenian descent. Zahra’s sister has Down Syndrome.
Possible triggers: toxic relationship with a parent, death of a family member (historical), financial instability
