A Billion Reasons Why [Paperback]

Kristin Billerbeck (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 1, 2011

There are a billion reasons Kate should marry her current boyfriend.

Will she trade them all to be madly in love?

Katie McKenna leads a perfect life. She has a fulfilling job, a cute apartment, and a wedding to plan with her soon-to-be fiancé, Dexter. She can think of a billion reasons why she should marry Dexter. He’s everything she wants in a husband.

And then in walks Luc DeForges, her bold, breathtaking ex-boyfriend. Only now he’s a millionaire. And he wants her to go home to New Orleans to sing for a friend’s wedding. As his date.

But Katie made up her mind about Luc eight years ago, when she fled their hometown after a very public breakup. Yet there’s still a magnetism between them she can’t deny.

Katie thought her predictable relationship with Dexter would be the bedrock of a lasing, Christian marriage. But what if there’s more? What if God’s desire for her is a heart full of life? And what if that’s what Luc has offered all along?

"Katie and Luc dance off the pages of this book, making you fall in love with them and New Orleans. Full of surprises and romance." —Carolyne Aarsen, author of The Baby Promise

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

There are a billion reasons why Katie McKenna has decided to marry Dex Hastings, the main one being that he is not the man who broke her heart eight years ago. Dexter is everything that Katie�s true love, Luc DeForges, is not, and that makes her feel safe. But when she�s honest, she admits that it also makes her feel bored. When Luc concocts a plan to take Katie back to their hometown for his brother�s wedding, Katie must discover where her heart belongs. Throw in a dash of Cajun charm, zany girlfriends, and eccentric mothers, and the award-winning Billerbeck has developed an uplifting romance novel that is sure to be a hit with readers of light contemporary fiction. --Elizabeth Ponder

Review

Billerbeck's light romance is enjoyable and fun. Readers will identify with Katie's desire for stability in a relationship and will delight in her ultimate choice of a partner. ...A fantastic spiritual message makes this novel shine. --Romantic Times

The characters and breezy plotline in this fun, romantic romp by the author of the "Trophy Wives Club" series will please fans of Christian chick lit authors Lori Copeland and Ginny Aiken. --Library Journal

The characters and breezy plotline in this fun, romantic romp by the author of the "Trophy Wives Club" series will please fans of Christian chick lit authors Lori Copeland and Ginny Aiken. --Library Journal

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Thomas Nelson; 1 edition (February 1, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1595547916
• ISBN-13: 978-1595547910
• Product Dimensions: 5.6 x 0.9 x 8.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (115 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #506,239 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Kristin Billerbeck is the author of more than 30 novels, including "What a Girl Wants" and the Ashley Stockingdale and Spa Girls Series. She is a fourth-generation Californian, who loves her state and the writing fodder it provides. Learn more at www.KristinBillerbeck.com

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A puzzle with no satisfactory solution April 6, 2011

By Vanessa VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Eight years ago, Katie McKenna fled New Orleans with her broken heart. Believing she has finally repaired that heart she has found fulfillment in her chosen career of teaching special needs kids and Dexter, her soon to be fiancé. Or so she thought. Luc DeForges enters Katie's life once again looking for her to return to New Orleans as his date to his brother's wedding. He wants her to sing and dance at the 40's themed wedding and show the town that she is past her public humiliation eight years previous.

The synopsis of this book made it sound so romantic and charming. However, I found myself getting lost in several passages. Things didn't seem to flow right the actions seemed choppy and didn't make a lot of sense and I couldn't seem to get a true grasp on any of the characters. For instance, one character acts as though they saw a shared kiss/moment but they weren't even present. Luc acts as though his mother would be proud to know Katie yet his mother was the one screaming at Katie all those years ago. Katie's mother tells her that Mrs. DeForges is not nice but you don't really get that feeling from Luc, yet you do later and you get it from Katie's mother as well as from Katie.

I didn't know which characters to trust and I'm not sure they did either. They seemed to flip flop and change with the wind. I'm still trying to figure out how the stranger at the store could make that random comment about Katie's father when she barely spoke to Katie let alone knew anything about Katie's father.

Some of my biggest obstacles were:

That Luc didn't really seem to know Katie so how could he claim to have loved her all those years? She seemed to enjoy teaching and that was what she had planned to do all those years ago.... The singing and dancing was just to help pay her way through school, yet Luc acts as though her choices gave her a "colorless existence."

I understood that Luc had his reasons for not acquiescing eight years earlier, but he couldn't have attempted to explain anything in all that time?

Why did he stay away for so long and what exactly was he up to? He couldn't have been building his wealth for her because she is not materialistic but his mother is!

I gathered that he sent Katie cards for Christmas to keep her up-to-date about his life, yet she said she hadn't heard from him in three years.

If Katie truly loved Luc then wouldn't she trust him? Yet even she believed the press and tabloids about his playboy ways. He thought she wouldn't believe them even though a few minutes before her comments indicated that she did and she believed them from their initial meeting at the beginning of the story. Later she says, "Eight years and two hundred blondes or so just slipped by." To which he tells her to look him in the eyes and tell him what she believes to be true about him. Of course she does, but her thoughts don't answer him. So I didn't see the point of that.

When conversations were started and I truly felt like explanations would be made, someone would inevitably interrupt and nothing was ever explained. It got to be very frustrating. However, I tend to believe that her mother had it right when she said a couple of times during the course of the story, "There's men who are charming and then there's men you marry. Luc ain't the marrying kind." Her mother claimed that Luc is about himself. It sounds like he is about himself when Katie asks him, "If you wanted to marry me, you had eight years to make it happen. Why would you wait until I was engaged to another man? You just wanted to win!" Of course he wonders what he has won and believes he has lost her instead. The man had eight years to correct a wrong and I'm still not sure why it took him that long. I didn't see how his pride was ever affected just hers.

*******POSSIBLE SPOILERS****** The icing on this proverbial cake takes place towards the end. Katie runs away and Luc calls for her, but she doesn't respond to him and ends up running into a post. She is out cold! Do you think Luc sticks around to see if she is okay? Nope, instead he "had an emergency." Seriously? He claims to love her so much, she runs into a post and is out cold and he has an emergency? When she comes to her friend claims that she is getting married to Luc. I swear I must have missed her accepting the proposal! I went back and reread that portion several times and I did NOT see her accepting the proposal.

I wish that I could recommend this book because it started out with such promise, but I felt like I was involved in some sort of puzzle that had no real, satisfactory solution, at least not for me. Read more ›

14 of 16 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars A Billion Reasons Why Not March 11, 2011

By AmazonLover VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Eight years ago Katie McKenna was publicly rejected and humiliated by her then boyfriend Luc DeForges. Now, all these years later Luc has unexpectedly come back into her life and coerced her to come back to New Orleans to sing in his brother's wedding. Katie clearly still has feelings for Luc which complicates things with her fiance Dexter.

I really wanted to like this book. I considered giving it 3 stars just because I like Kristin Billerbeck's previous books so much. Unfortunately, try as I might, I couldn't. My main problem with this book is the characters, I found that I didn't care for them. I was not invested in them in the least bit. First, we have Katie who is a special needs teacher with an obsession with all things from the 1940's. I found this love of the 40's a tad overdone, and I am a huge fan of Cary Grant and movies from this era. There was a great mystery surrounding what had happened to Katie all those years ago to make her stay in California. When the reader is finally told I was a little more annoyed with Katie, after all these years it seemed to me she should have realized that perhaps the way she proposed to Luc was a bit inappropriate and out of the blue and that she should have given him a chance to explain. The time and place was Luc's college graduation party surrounded by guests, most of whom looked on Katie as a charity case. If I had known a bit more about Katie and Luc's relationship maybe it wouldn't have seemed so, well, ridiculous. Second, we have multimillionaire Luc who comes off as a pretty cocky man who thinks he knows what Katie really wants and needs. The author never really gave a clear picture of Luc, in my opinion, not enough for me to root for him. But by far my least favorite character was Eileen, Katie's best friend.... Eileen was very pushy and critical of Katie, making her question her feelings and decisions at every turn. The only two characters I liked were Katie's mother and stepfather, they seemed to genuinely care for Katie and wanted to see her happy. Two nitpicky annoyances, the oft repeated use of the phrase "a billion reasons why." I expect to hear the title over and over in a song but found it a bit strange in a book. It seemed to me that the characters knew that they were in a book and were reminding us constantly of the title. Also, the cover of this book did not at all reflect the characters. Why choose a dark haired girl for Katie when she is referred to quite a number of times as having strawberry blonde hair?

While I cannot recommend this book I do recommend Ms. Billerbeck's previous work. Read more ›

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

3.0 out of 5 stars Beach Reading! June 7, 2011

By janjanmom VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback

A Billion Reasons Why by Kristin Billerbeck is an easy read. Christian romances often leave alot to be desired as far as plot and character development go. This book is not an exception. Shallow characters and a thin plot line make this book a very quick read. However, I did not hate, nor did I consider it a waste of my time. I believe most fiction books are read purely for enjoyment and not every book needs to be a literary marvel.

The New Orleans settings and a bit of family historical mystery add a little Cajun spice to the love story. While I could never give this book 5 stars, the love triangle of Katie, Dexter and Luc warrants more like three stars. This is a book that will whisk you away to another place and time. It will have you strolling through New Orleans and also hanging with the high society. I highly recommend it as a leisurely afternoon read or even better, a beach book. There are no heaving bosoms, just a nice, easily read love story. I think you will enjoy it...about 3 stars worth.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars Cute Story. May 15, 2011

By Lynnette Bonner VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

This was a cute story, but I confess I would have liked to see a little more tension between the two main characters. They've been apart for 8 years because of the fact that he declined her marriage proposal in front of an entire room full of people, which should have made for great sparks of tension when he walks back into her life, yet I just didn't feel it. Perhaps this is due to the fact that I'm not a big fan of old classic movies and many of the "romantic" lines in the book were quotes from them (based on the fact that both the hero and the heroine are huge fans of the old movies.)

The book is well written and the dialog is snappy and fun. And if you like classic movies, then you will probably love this book.

My rating of 4 stars is an attempt to balance the quality of the writing and mechanics of the book with my enjoyment of the story itself. 5 Stars for being well written and having a fairly good plot and 3 stars because I just couldn't seem to connect with the characters and that dimmed my enjoyment of this romance.