WHAT A GIRL WANTS is the third book in Maya Rodale's brilliant Wallflower Trilogy, although I'm not certain the previous two can be read as standalones, this one can.

Jane Sparks is a librarian by day and a successful historical romance author in what free time she has. Her high school reunion and her billionaire boyfriend's launch for his newest endeavour fall at the same time, on the same day, and she hasn't talked to him about it. Even though she doesn't miss anything about her high school, she wants to show them that she made good, as well as showing off that famous boyfriend, Duke Austen.

Things are getting a bit unsettling: Jane has recently been getting text messages from her former boyfriend, Sam, the one who dumped her after 12 years. She spots a tweet about a former girlfriend of Duke's who has published a tell-all book about their time together, and Jane is suffering from writer's block. A storm is almost upon New York City, and when Jane gets yet another message from Sam, she decides to meet him for one drink, as a friend; after all, what could possibly go wrong. A lot...

To my knowledge, no one has ever accomplished the tour de force such as Ms. Rodale's Wallflowers and Bad Boy Billionaire series, that is: parallel stories, one set in Regency England and the other one in today's Big Apple; it's simply genius. But THE BAD BOY BILLIONAIRE: WHAT A GIRL WANTS is much more serious than the previous ones. I am in awe of Ms. Rodale's skills: she is just as comfortable with historical romance as she is with contemporary, her prose never wavers from one style to the next, her heroes are wonderful men, the women are true heroines. Ms. Rodale's sense of humour is legendary, but in WHAT A GIRL WANTS, she ups the ante and shows yet another side of her prodigious talent. Usually, the tears rolling down my face are from hilarity, this time they are for other reasons.