The Spare

Biotech Billionaires, Book 1

De: Ava Rani

Narrado por: Vikas Adam, Sharmila Devar

Gossip Girl meets Succession in this steamy romance about a tenacious Indian-American heiress who’s ready to prove she can lead her family’s business, and her best friend’s brother, a CEO hiding a secret that might be worth billions.

When the stakes are sky high, is love worth the fall?

Sloan Amari has spent years in the shadow of her older brother Henry, heir apparent to their family’s company, Amari Global. Determined to show she’s been the right choice all along, she’s become a powerful corporate attorney and is on track to make history as the firm’s youngest senior partner. Now, the role of CEO at Amari Global may be within her grasp and Sloan’s eyes are on the prize.

That is until Marcus, her brother’s best friend turned business rival, returns to Manhattan after spending time abroad leading his own company. They’ve had unspoken feelings for each other for years, but he was her brother’s best friend, and now he’s the competition. Still, after all this time, their electric attraction hasn’t waned, and bumping shoulders at work events and parties makes it hard to resist, even if they both have corporate secrets to keep.

With succession plans at Amari Global moving forward, can Sloan land the role she’s always coveted, or will her heart get caught in the crosshairs?

The Spare is the first book in a series of interconnected standalones in the Biotech Billionaires series. Look for The Heir, available now!

©2023 Ava Rani (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Loved the cultural rep on this one

Sloan Amari is a BAMF lawyer and the heiress to one of the biggest biotech corporations in the industry. So when Marcus, her biggest crush and her brother's best friend, comes back into their lives after being gone for years, she has to navigate her feelings around his return while trying to figure out what happened that made him leave in the first place. With so many unanswered questions about his sudden departure from all of them physically and emotionally - especially between Sloan and Marcus - its a feat to try and wade through the sea of awkwardness between them.
Marcus is a very quiet, reserved man with his entire life centered around his business, it was easier for him to run from his emotions than to face them. Sloan doesn't know that Marcus reciprocates the same romantic feelings for her, and Marcus has to face those feelings head on now that he is in her life again. After spending years traveling and then being in London for years, coming back home was difficult, but letting himself lean into his relationship with Sloan helps him find a center of gravity again. While Sloan is determined to make her own way in her career vs following the family company, she is on the verge of a big promotion, as long as she can close this deal in London. Going to London means remaining close to Marcus and with just the two of them in a new city away from their prying family and friends, it provides the space for their relationship to blossom.
But Marcus has more secrets that he is keeping from everyone, including Sloan, and as the feelings between them deepen the more their new relationship is at risk of crumbling under the weight of those lies. Navigating through all of that past trauma and pain only adds to the pressure of this relationship and seeing how they find their way back to each other when everything falls apart was rewarding to see. An HEA well deserved.
As a Latina, I love that this story is full of rich cultural rep and brings the diaspora experience to the forefront, helping readers to empathize with the lived experiences of being too American on one side and too Indian on the other. This story was fun and had well written main characters as well as side characters making me even more excited for the next books in the series.
Vikas Adam and Sharmila Devar were fantastic on this title. They brought the story and cultural aspects to life in the best ways and I loved the listening experience.

No hook

Five hours into a 10 hour book, and I’m still waiting for the buildup. No drama, no steam, no spice, just passing-time chitchat. Too boring, so I didn’t finish.