Falling for the Grumpy Billionaire Across the Road… Or Not!
A Sweet Montana Pet Rescue Romance, Book 4
By Gayle M. Irwin (Waggin’ Tales Inspirational Pet Stories, 2026)
Genre: Fiction – Western Romance
Pages (print): 197
Note: We received a complimentary copy of this book for honest review.
He’s running from the spotlight. She’s protecting her grandparents’ legacy. Neither expected to fall in love.
Sought-after, but now reclusive, actor Blake Scott trades his oceanside California life for a fixer-upper house in western Montana. He wants one thing: solitude. What he encounters instead is a boisterous rooster named Russell Crow, a donkey in labor, and a woman across the road who is impossible to ignore.
Lilly Warren pours everything into the farm her grandparents built. She cherishes her family and friends, her rescue animals, the greenhouse business, and the land she refuses to lose to the highest bidder. She has no time for secrets, and even less for a man who seems to be keeping them.
Scene stealers: Bernie the Burmese Mountain dog. Angel, a long-haired collie with three legs. Ranger the cocker spaniel. Russell Crow, a Rhode Island Red rooster with attitude. Kinda like a sweet furry face we all know and love. Without the feathers.
Then Blake recuperates from a swan dive off a ladder (Bernie to the rescue!) while wrestling with whether or not he wants to accept a multi-million-dollar movie contract. Meanwhile, Lilly faces rising property taxes and a plot by greedy real estate developer Gordon Huff that threatens her land, her livelihood, and her family legacy. Can Lilly count on Blake to come through in the clutch? Or is he just another self-centered Hollywood movie star pretending to be someone he’s not?
We love the story arc about Blake’s dad and his black lab, Merle. It adds a layer of warmth and texture to the story. Speaking of warmth, these pages radiate it like the glow of a campfire under September stars. The story unfolds like a Big Sky sunrise, a heart you can feel on paper.
Told from both Blake’s and Lilly’s viewpoints in alternating chapters, the plot is well-rounded and robust. Laced with occasional levity, the writing breathes with a quiet, arresting grace. Like a gathered bouquet of shadow and light, written with a tenderness so sharp it aches.
That being said, we have a few bones to pick with this book. (You knew that was coming, right?)
Bones
Lilly’s reaction to Blake’s revelation seems over the top. And Tom Hutchins’s verbal barbs chucked at Blake Scott during the county commissioners’ meeting? They sound canned. Artificial. As is the case with another Waggin’ Tales book we recently reviewed, the type font for Grumpy is way too small for us dinosaurs. We kinda hate that.
Also, why a book with this caliber of writing didn’t get more attention in the editing/proofreading department is baffling. Typos, punctuation errors, misspelled words and dropped commas and quotation marks as well as basic usage errors keep cropping up. Select examples: Blake is in the “throws of deal-making.” (The correct word is “throes.” Ouch.) And “whisp of a sigh.” A bracelet that’s “… pale turquoise and dark corral…” There’s also the part about Lily wearing pajama bottoms on page two. Same setting and scene, on page 9, she’s dressed in blue jeans.
Kimber: Clean-up on Aisle 9!
Speaking of “grumpy,” – sort of – the cover art? Kimber: Gag me with arugula! Way too soap opera-y for our taste. The image also clashes with the book’s description of Blake. In the book he has “growth stubble on his chin and above his lips” and “deep-green eyes.” So, who’s the full-bearded, brown-eyed dude on the cover?!!
We’re also not crazy about the title. Almost made us chuck it in the DNF pile. Just sayin’. (Kimber: We kinda like Rescuing Mr. Hollywood in Big Sky Country. Or Russell Crow to the Rescue! Maybe From Spotlight to Starlight: Romance in Montana’s Bitterroot Mountains. How ‘bout Stars, Solitude, and Second Chances? Or From Fame to Forever: A Montana Romance. There’s also my personal fave: Saved by the Animals of Big Sky Country. Anyway…)
The Bottom Line
Overall, Falling for the Grumpy Billionaire is a lithe and agile read that’s quick, clean, and as refreshing as a mountain stream in July. Beautifully written and expertly paced, it’s a skillful blend of Montana’s wild beauty, animal love, and the hope of second chances. With a heart as big as a Montana sky, this cozy romance shows us what courage, honesty, and the magic of starting over look like, one paw-print at a time.
Kimber: I’d grab a copy now ‘fize you. As for me? I’m gonna hang out with my new best buds. Bernie. Angel. And Ranger. While Her Royal Momness is booking the next flight to the Bitterroots. TTFN!
Our Rating: 3.0
It’ll get a higher rating when that Clean-Up on Aisle 9, et.al, is taken care of.
