This book is very typical Lisa Renee Jones and for what is now going on in romantic suspense. So if you enjoy suspense and billionaires then you will probably like this book. Beware of cliffhangers but thankfully this trilogy is fully published. I did enjoy this book and will be reading the other two in the series. My one grip is how many secrets everyone is keeping and continuously talking about. It is just page filler and it drives me crazy. In one book Harper has told Eric all of her secrets but one several different times. You can do better, Lisa.

I had a hard time getting on this story and I just started this a while ago and still, having a little hard time because the writing style seemed a little off to me or maybe I wasn't feeling the vibe of this book.

However it did picked up for a while BUT STILL, I ended up having a hard time because of the characters and that was the point of the story.

I would say that this book isn't my type, especially the characters and the plot stressed me. I was already expecting some scenes and that was it.

Overall, it was an okay for me.

Harper goes to the one person that knows can help her, Eric. These two characters are pushed into a world where they have to figure out who is after them and why. This was a great beginning to the trilogy, it leaves you wanting more, and gives you a cliffhanger, you want to know what happens next.

Lisa Renee Jones delivers a tale of suspense that will keep you glued to every single word. Desperately trying to find out what happens next in a tale that ends way too soon!

Hi, sweeties! This late evening I finished “The Bastard” by Lisa Renee Jones, and although I had high expectations about it, I must say that it disappointed me almost totally. It’s a good book, but not as good as I thought. It didn’t live up my expectations – in fact, as I said before, it disappointed me.

PREMISE
I thought “The Bastard” was one of those books full of sex and complex characters, I was right about 60%. Because yes, this book is indeed full of sex scenes, procrastination and also, also, something I didn’t fully understand. I will explain myself better in the review for this. But yes, it didn’t fully convince me. Sometimes, I found the characters far-fetching and they kept saying the same things for I don’t know how many pages on and on. So, this is one of the reasons why I gave it three stars. It was a good book. But nothing less and nothing more. It could have been ten thousand times better, in my opinion.

SYNOPSIS (FROM GOODREADS)
ERIC MITCHELL'S STORY
I'm the bastard child, son to the mistress, my father's backup heir to the Mitchell empire. He sent me to Harvard. I left and became a Navy SEAL, but I'm back now, and I finished school on my own dime. I'm now the right hand man to Grayson Bennett, the billionaire who runs the Bennett Empire. I'm now a few months from being a billionaire myself. I don't need my father's company or his love. My "brother" can have it. I will never go back there. I will never be the mistake my father made, the way he was the mistake my mother made.

And then she walks in the door, the princess I'd once wanted more than I'd wanted my father's love. She wants me to come back. She says my father needs to be saved. I don't want to save my father but I do want her. Deeply. Passionately. More than I want anything else.

But she's The Princess and I'm The Bastard. We don't fit. We don't belong together and yet she says he needs me, that she needs me. We're like sugar and spice, we don't mix, but I really crave a taste. Just one. What harm can just one taste do?
Don't miss the full FILTHY TRILOGY:
THE BASTARD
THE PRINCESS (January)
The Empire (March

***The Bastard was originally titled Dirty Rich Bastard. Long story short, as I was nearing the end of The Princess, I realized I can't possibly end Eric and Harper's story with this book. It would be unfair to my readers to be shortchanged on their ending. So I made the decision to make their story three books instead of two. I hope you'll understand and be excited for the remaining two books in their story.

These three books can be read independently of the Dirty Rich series.

REVIEW
“The question is, do I want any part of aiding in its success? I must. Why else would I be here?”
(Eric Mitchell)

The story sets in six years before the actual events, in The Castle, or as it’s named in the book, The Kingston Mansion, where Eric’s dad’s is throwing a party with the élite of the élite. All the socialites are there. Even a beautiful brunette who catches Eric’s attention from the beginning. The Princess, a nickname so beautiful and yet so full of hatred and revenge. The Princess is, nonetheless, his father’s protégé and his stepsister, although they don’t have any type of blood relation. The spark between them is instant, and it feels sometimes hurried up to set the story already in. An ‘instant love’, or in this case, ‘instant sexual attraction and chemistry’ that made me angry, even at the beginning of the novel. There weren’t premises of something like this, and it disappointed me a lot.

“We’re wrong. We’re so fucking wrong that we are right in every possible way.”
(Eric Mitchell)

It seemed, at this point, this was a forbidden romance novel. But no folks, it wasn’t. It was a merely contemporary romance with elements of forbidden. Put aside the question of Eric fucking his stepsister, that I care to remind you all isn’t his stepsister at all. So, the first 10 chapter or almost were a sort of premise, I read it in this way, the others were the story in itself.

Six years later, Eric is back from New York City. The sexual tension between him and Harper Evans, his stepsister and ex-lover, is still alive and is still burning. She came to him to ask him to help Kingston Motors. There are problems in the factory, and they don’t understand what’s going on. The only thing they know is that there were fatalities and there are still fatalities from people that buy their cars. Harper Evans, or The Princess, is now working for Kingston Motors and has survived under the direct fire of the major Kingston only to save his father’s legacy from vanishing forever. Her mother even assured her she had a trust fund, a sum of money that could help her when she’s decided to fly with her own wings. The fact is that, nonotehtless this, her mother is changed a lot. Her mother thinks of her and her daughter as ‘the family’ because she married the fuckface that is Jeff Kingston. A man so mean and cruel, he didn’t even want to recognize his own son, this, because in the past he used to put Isaac, The Heir, against Eric, the Bastard.

A motoring company that is set as a sort-of-empire with Kings and Queens and so on, and Harper is its Princess. The most interesting thing we get to know, aside Isaac bitchyness, is that Eric is a savant and has a high IQ that makes him a genius for numbers. I searched a lot what ‘a savant’ really meant, and I didn’t understand if it’s related or correlated to autism in some ways, but the way it’s explained in the book made me think that it’s, in fact, correlated to autism in some way. Eric’s mind works with numbers, and when the numbers are too much, he makes and remakes the Rubriks Cube.

The book was overall a good read, but it was hurried up in most parts. It was, also, extremely repetitive in what they said and in the conflicts created to dilute the book. Its repetitiveness made me bored, most of the times, and I didn’t get what I expect from this book – not totally, at least.

I salute you with a quote from this book, a book that I advise you to read, in this way we can discuss about it. I don’t know if I’ll read the sequel. The cliffhanger was a good literary strategy, but I saw it coming when I reached the middle of the book, this made the book itself a bit predictable.
“We’re both alike and yet we’re different. Both pulled into a world we didn’t ask to join, a world that is why we’re here now.”
(Eric Mitchell)

Xoxo,
Giada

This book really wasn’t for me. It was a typical billionaire alpha book whit some family drama.
I normally like books like that, but this one, was just kinda meh for me.

This book is the first book in the Filthy Trilogy, but it was also the 6th book in the Dirty Rich Series. It is said that it can be read as a standalone, but I didn’t feel that. I felt like this book started in the middle of something, and I had no clue what was happening.

There was a lot of sex scenes in this book. Actually it almost starts out with a sex scene. But these sex scenes didn’t do it for me. It was like there wasn’t really any chemestry between the two MC’s. The MC’s Eric and Harper, I didn’t feel the connection between them at all. I really just felt like the plot was all over the place, and it didn’t really make any sense to me.

Overall thoughts: This book was really just confusing and meh. And I didn’t really like it that much..

I am a huge fan of Lisa Renee Jones. As expected 'The Bastard' only raises the bar. Story of Eric with the Kingston's and Harper is the topic of the book. Keeps the reader on the edge as usual. Eagerly waiting to read the sequel to know what happens to Eric and Harper.

A wonderful read

This book is everything I have comes to love from LRJ! She just does sexy suspenseful stories so well! At first I was on the fence about how I felt about these characters, but as the story went on I became completely enthralled with them. This just proves to me why LRJ is an auto pick up for me!

This was a thrilling, spicy and sexy read!

I have previously read 'A Perfect Lie' by Lisa Renee Jones and even though this book was a different genre, I was still expecting great things and I am pleased to say I was certainly not disappointed.

This super romance was heavily fraught with suspense, revenge, heartache, intrigue and deceit as it dug deep into a world of hidden passion and I loved it! The intriguing story-line totally captured my attention from the start as I found myself transported to a different place, planting me firmly into the lives of Harper and Eric.

The Bastard is the first book in a trilogy and even though it ended with a cliffhanger, nevertheless, it was still an enthralling and deeply enjoyable read. Well worth five stars!

I received a complimentary digital copy of this novel, at my own request, from Julie Patra Publishing via NetGalley. This review is my own unbiased opinion.

I found myself underwhelmed with this story as a whole. It had some great moments that captured my attention. But at the end of it I found I wasn’t dying to read the next book. Considering the last book I got from NetGalley I immediately bought the rest of the series this was a massive let down.

It’s not that the writing wasn’t good. We had a great mix of past and present, twists popping up at the right time etc. But I felt like I just didn’t really care. I feel like maybe there was some emotional buy in missing right at the start of the book.

If I had that buy in, I think I would’ve liked this a lot better.

Would I read the next book if it was given to me? Probably, but only if I felt like I had nothing else to read.

I’m kinda hoping that I just wasn’t in the mood to read this style, or at all when I read this. It would make me feel better about not really being interested given how highly it’s rated on Goodreads. But it just didn’t do it for me. Sorry.

The book was okay & I read it very quickly.
I would have liked it better if the main love interest characters, Eric & Harper, we’re not so repetitive all the way through the book. Eric keeps on stating that he’s a bastard, hates & wants to destroy his family. Harper comments on how much he hates his family & how he thinks of her as one of them. Over & over & over again.
There were also moments where they would ask something at random times & it didn’t really fit into the story line. I would get confused & have to reread the sentence or paragraph to see if I blanked or read something wrong.
Eric & Harper’s story is all over the place. They’re happy, sad, angry...you name it & they’re going through it.

The story revolves around Eric and Harper. Eric, the bastard son, who is bitter and hardened and a high achiever in life. Harper a sheltered and priviledged heiress. When circumstances dictate that Harper seeks Eric help, their old longing towards each other flickers to life. But this is not an ordinary love story. This is about becoming from nothing to everything, about loving with whole self, about secrets, about betrayals, about hurt and lots of sex. The book is a roller coaster of emotions and is highly recommended. I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley in exchange for my honest and unbiased review.

I'll start by saying I had no idea what I was getting into with this. I had never read Lisa Renee Jones prior to grabbing this, but wow. I just...wow! I will not be stopping with this book.

The Bastard had my attention from the very beginning and it did not let go. I couldn't put it down, it was just. that. good.

I am excited to continue the story of The Princess and The Bastard!

A great sexy romance book from one of my favourite authors. This book delivers all the spice we all crave. Well written with great characters.

3.5 stars This is book one of a trilogy. I enjoyed reading Eric and Harper’s story, and their romance is definitely palpable. The book is laced with mystery and questions of loyalty. I did feel some aspects were repetitious. The ending is a cliffhanger and it’s a big one. I look forward to reading the second book.

Another enjoyable read from Lisa Renee Jones. The chemistry between the characters was off the chart. I always look forward to the subplot. I’ll definitely look forward to more in this series.

This book is absolutely compulsively readable in a way that I found stressful but also entertaining. I bought the second book in the series the second I finished this one but then DNFed this at the half-way point, once I woke from the fugue state the book caused. I do very much not like books that play with consent apparently. The main couple was angsty and horrible to each other and I don't want to read about this type of relationships when I am supposed to root for them. The book does what it sets out to do but just is not for me whatsoever.

This characters have a strong pull towards each other to the point that it affects their focus from the situation at hand. Eric is a bit of a loose canon with a hot and cold attitude. And Harper needs to learn to take control because having him as a distraction is getting her in trouble. Too many secrets between these two and too little trust. The best option is to get ahead of it. because there is a mystery to uncover and lots of truths to discuss. This is an interesting story with a lot of tension that will leave you guessing what will happen next.

The Bastard by Lisa Renee Jones
Eric Mitchell hates his father and his family. What he endured as a young adolescent set the course and revenge seemed sweet until he met his new half-sister, Harper. She is the daughter, of his father’s new wife. Their attraction is instant and Eric believed that she was different from this evil family, until she proved him wrong. Six years pass and Harper is back to convince Eric that she needs his help with the company. Eric is a self-made billionaire and a mathematical genius. With his brain, she is sure he can find the problems that the company is facing. But what happens when they start to find more than they should and their lives become threatened. Can Eric trust Harper or is she playing him? And why did she really need his help? The pace is slow and at times a tad too slow; repetition of trust issues comes into play too often. Yet the characters complement each other and are intriguing. The story has passion, mystery, suspense and we are left on a cliff hanger with a bit of a plot twist.

I received The Bastard by Lisa Renee Jones for free in exchange for an honest review. I enjoyed this book. Lots of chemistry. I will read more by this author in the future.