Genre: Contemporary Romance
Publication Date: April 23rd, 2020
Reviewed On: September 29th, 2022
BASIC PLOT
Dominic was staring at me like he couldn’t decide whether to chop me into pieces or pull my hair and French kiss me.
Dominic
I got her fired. Okay, so I’d had a bad day and took it out on a bystander in a pizza shop. But there’s nothing innocent about Ally Morales. She proves that her first day of her new job… in my office… after being hired by my mother.
So maybe her colorful, annoying, inexplicably alluring personality brightens up the magazine’s offices that have felt like a prison for the past year. Maybe I like that she argues with me in front of the editorial staff. And maybe my after-hours fantasies are haunted by those brown eyes and that sharp tongue.
But that doesn’t mean that I’m going to be the next Russo man to take advantage of his position. I might be a second-generation asshole, but I am not my father.
She’s working herself to death at half a dozen dead-end jobs for some secret reason she doesn’t feel like sharing with me. And I’m going to fix it all. Don’t accuse me of caring. She’s nothing more than a puzzle to be solved. If I can get her to quit, I can finally peel away all those layers. Then I can go back to salvaging the family name and forget all about the dancing, beer-slinging brunette.
Ally
Ha. Hold my beer, Grumpy Grump Face.
Author’s Note: A steamy, swoony workplace romantic comedy with a grumpy boss hero determined to save the day and a plucky heroine who is starting to wonder if there might actually be a beating heart just beneath her boss’s sexy vests.
REVIEW
Let me start off by saying that this was 100% the longest romance novel I have ever read. It took me a while to convince myself to pick it up and read it… because thick books can be daunting. There are two sides to this review – the good and the bad.
I’m going to start with the bad, because I like ending on a good note.
So… The bad. Ack. I really wanted to LOVE this book, but a few things help me back. Ally is 39-years old, and Dominic is 44-years old and yet… they act like 20-something year old’s half the time. There wasn’t enough character growth for me to ever feel really comfortable with them – I would have liked to have seen more, throughout the book, not just in the last little bit. If the mains had been written as 20-something year old’s I think I would have been more okay with the story. Next, there was A LOT of sex. I mean, whoa. The book was basically porn at some points. I was NOT expecting that. It didn’t really bother me, but I do think it could have been toned down just a little. I do think the book was a little too long, but looking back, I don’t think I would have removed any of the scenes. So, this is kind of a moot point.
Okay… On to the good! I did like that Ally and Dom are both older – there aren’t enough contemporary romance novels where they main characters are in their 30’s and 40’s (I just wish they had acted more their age). Dom basically becomes Ally’s protector (until he turns on her – idiot) – but, and this sort of twists back into the “bad”, he was a little too possessive for me at certain times. There where so many absolutely adorable moments between these two. I love the Disney name calling (Charming and Maleficent). There was one chapter that was just them emailing each other which made me giggle and then Dom tried to apologize to Ally by emailing her again in a “Getting to know me” series – this was really sweet, and I was glad to finally see him opening up. I also have to add the sex stuff to the good. While yeah, there might have been a little too much in my opinion… It was also really hot… Like REALLY hot. To the point where I was sending my best friend pictures of the pages because I couldn’t get over how hot it was. Phew. Totally needed a cold shower after reading some of those scenes.
Overall, I’m giving this book 3.5 stars because I didn’t hate it… but I also didn’t love it… It sort of just fell in the middle for me.
FAVOURITE QUOTES
“I don’t hate you, Ally.” His voice was quiet, gruff.
Those blue eyes bore into mine. He looked frustrated. Angry. Hungry.
“I’ve never seen a man look at a woman like that. Like he’s a kid looking in the window of a candy store and he’s deciding if he’s willing to break the glass to get to the candy and devour it.”
“I don’t know if I can walk away when I need to,” I confessed, the panic rising in me.
“We’re past walking away, Ally.”
To: Ally
From: Dominic
Subject: Getting to know me
I’m never getting over you, Ally. And I’m not going to try. My heart was yours from the pepperoni on.
Love,
Dom
STAR RATING
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