CBR18 Book 15: "The Proposal" by Jasmine Guillory

Page count: 325 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Nowhere Book Bingo 26: BIPOC rep by a BIPOC author

Reading Rainbow - Orange cover

Nikole "Nik" Paterson is bored and uncomfortable at a baseball game with her handsome, if rather self-centred, actor boyfriend, and his bros. She is absolutely blindsided when he surprises her with a public proposal, via the scoreboard, and to add insult to injury, he didn't even spell her name correctly. Nik is mortified, her boyfriend is insulted by her rejection, and things are about to take a nasty turn when a couple of strangers come to Nik's rescue.

Carlos Ibarra and his sister witness the proposal first-hand from a few rows behind her and when Nik's scorned boyfriends storms off, and a camera crew appears to be on their way to interview Nik, his sister insists that they step in and pretend to be close friends of Nik's, so they can lead her off to safety and away from the public eye and further embarrassment. They take Nik to a bar where her supportive friends are waiting, and share some drinks to decompress after the humiliating event.

Nik is certainly not ready for anything serious again any time soon, but her friends keep encouraging her to keep in touch with the handsome and kind Carlos, and it doesn't take long before they embark on a rebound relationship. Carlos takes his responsibility to his family members extremely seriously and doesn't want to be tied down to a long-term girlfriend. Nik just wants some uncomplicated sex and fun. Surely they can keep things casual and not catch feelings, right?

Jasmine Guillory seems to be a big favourite among some romance readers online, and while her books are fine, they just never seem to be all that memorable to me, and I only read about one a year. As is so often the case with me, I'm yet again way behind on my reviews, and having finished this book in the middle of February, I'm having a lot of trouble remembering specifics of the plot.

What I do remember:

- Carlos has this idea that he needs to be free to drop everything at a moment's notice in case any member of his family, close or extended, needs anything. Since he already works as a paediatrician, a job that demands a lot of his time, he has convinced himself that he can't have a girlfriend who will also make demands on his time. 

- Nik's ex-boyfriend is a real tool, and after being rejected (in front of a huge crowd of people, in an event he orchestrated), he starts sending her threatening messages. As a result, she drags her two best friends along for a self-defence class that they all end up loving. When he finally tries to confront her towards the end of the book, the lessons prove to have been very useful.

- One of Nik's friends runs a cupcake bakery and seems to need a lot of help, which keeps putting Nik and Carlos in close proximity to one another. 

- Carlos' cousin is pregnant, and her pregnancy is a complicated one. This means that he worries even more about her than any of his other relatives. 

- Both Carlos and Nik have many justifications to themselves about why they're not ready or able to commit to anyone in a long-term relationship, which means it takes a frustratingly long time for both of them to admit that they have feelings for each other. 

I don't regret having spent money on this (chances are, I got it in an e-book sale) or spending time reading it, but I doubt it will become a comfort re-read in the future for me. 

Judging a book by its cover: I like this new cover design a lot better than the original, which had a very nice blue background, but just faces in profile, seemingly floating on the edges of the cover. Not very appealing. This sunset view is much prettier. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR17 Book 17: "The Wedding Party" by Jasmine Guillory

Page count: 352 pages

Rating: 4 stars

Buzzword Title Challenge 25: Event

Buzzword Cover Challenge 25: Food or drink

Maddie and Theo are both best friends with Alexa (from The Wedding Date). Despite what the blurb tries to tell you, they are not enemies, they just dislike each other because of some unfortunate first impressions. Maddie thinks Theo is a pompous nerd who looks down on her for her career choice, while Theo thinks Maddie is shallow, fashion-obsessed and mean. After a night out, they drunkenly kiss each other and end up having sex, and very soon they are hooking up every chance they get (including making really bad excuses to see each other). They don't want anyone to find out about it, however, because they don't want Alexa to start match-making while she's busy planning her own wedding. Both agree that it's a temporary thing that will come to a natural end once Alexa's wedding is over, and they stop having to spend so much time together (they are both in the wedding party).

Both characters are absolute idiots when it comes to being honest with themselves about their feelings, and neither of them wants to confess their growing affection for the other, scared that because of their initial antipathy, the other one will reject them. So they keep spending their evenings together, eating SO MUCH takeaway pizza (seriously, it's ridiculous) and ending up in bed together. They are sure they are being very sneaky and that no one suspects a thing, when in fact, every single person who spends time with them (including Alexa) is fully aware of what is going on, and just waiting for them to mutually realise that they are perfect for one another. 

This was a fun read and reminded me that there are a bunch of books in this series that I own, but haven't ever got around to reading. This is why reading challenges are good - they force me to look through my TBR and my many, many owned, but unread books to rediscover stuff I bought years and years ago and completely forgot because there are always so many other shiny books out there to distract me. 

Judging a book by its cover: I really wish they'd used black for the whole title, instead of yellow for part of it, since the yellow against the bright purple background is much harder to read this way. Otherwise, it's a fairly unobjectionable cover. It features the protagonists drinking champagne, so I could use it for my reading challenge. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read

CBR15 Book 13: "By the Book" by Jasmine Guillory

Page count: 325 pages

Rating: 3.5 stars

Isabelle (her friends call her Izzy) was so elated when she got a job as an assistant editor for a big publishing company. It was like a dream come true. Several years later, when she's overworked, underappreciated and still living with her parents at twenty-five, without even getting a promotion, she is starting to wonder if she should change careers. After having her own attempts at writing a book politely criticised by one of her more senior colleagues, that's another dream she's shelved, and now, despite her generally optimistic attitude, she is starting to consider giving up the whole publishing business.

After a conference in LA, Izzy hears her boss Marta complain loudly about one of their most difficult clients, infamous wild child Beau Towers, who got a massive advance on his celebrity memoir and then hasn't delivered so much as a page for over a year. Izzy impulsively offers to stay behind an extra day, drive to Santa Barbara and confront Towers personally, on the company's behalf. She's hoping that this extra effort might make her more likely to get a promotion, and if nothing else, it's another day in sunny California, rather than in wintery New York. 

When she arrives at the gorgeous mansion where Towers is apparently hiding away, she is met by the man's assistant. Towers himself doesn't even want to see her. How is she going to give him an optimistic and motivating pep talk if he won't even come out of his room? After Michaela, Towers' assistant trips and sprains her ankle as she's walking Izzy to her car, Izzy has no choice but to stay behind at the house to help ice and bandage the injured limb, and gets to see first how angry and terrifying Beau Towers can be to strangers, but also how friendly and gentle he is to his friends. Once he realises Michaela is hurt (he calls her Kettle), he completely changes from an angry grump to someone considerate and caring. He reluctantly agrees to let Izzy stay for dinner and listens to one of her pep talks, only to mock her mercilessly, causing Izzy to flee to the luxurious second-floor bedroom set aside for her. Having drunk too much wine with dinner, Izzy has no choice but to stay the night, and in the morning, Beau apologises for his rude behaviour and persuades her to stay for a few more days. 

The few days keep being extended, to one month and then another, and while it's clear that Towers has a volatile temper and can be rather grouchy, Izzy quickly realises that he's actually determined to write his memoir without any assistance from ghostwriters or the like, he just has no idea where or how to start. As the son of a famous supermodel and an award-winning screenwriter/director, Towers has lived a life of privilege and luxury. He clearly has no idea how much Izzy has to work just to make ends meet and how lucky he is to be able to isolate himself from the world in a ginormous mansion, without ever having to worry that his money is going to run out. However, he's also very lonely, having only interacted with Michaela for the past year, and as Izzy gets to know him, she discovers how conflicted he is about his dead father and the way both his dad and he treated his mother in the past. The main reasons for his failure to deliver any book pages isn't laziness, it's guilt and shame.

Even when Beau starts listening to Izzy's pep talks (she also discovers that he's been reading her weekly e-mails, despite them getting more and more informal as she became convinced they ended up in his spam folder) and they start working together to get him to write, it takes him several tries and quite a few temper tantrums before he's ready to really be open, honest and emotional in his writing. Beau's efforts at writing his memoir also motivates Izzy to consider her own writing again, and after being persuaded by Beau that her editor colleague clearly meant to sabotage her efforts with his harsh critique, she reassesses what she wrote and starts accepting that her own writing may have merit. 

Spending literally months together in a big house, working together daily in the gorgeous library, and having dinner together every night obviously make the two grow closer. Izzy fights her growing attraction to Beau, however, convinced she's only imagining the increasing moments of sizzling chemistry. She's also determined to stay professional. Besides, Beau is a rich recluse living in California and Izzy's life and job are still waiting for her back in New York. Once she gets Beau to complete the book, she'll never see him again. Right?

There are a lot of very clever and cute nods here, as you would expect. Our heroine is called Isabelle (Belle). She feels so lonely in Beau's big mansion during her first weeks there that she starts having imaginary conversations with the furniture. Beau calls his cook/housekeeper Kettle. There's a sweeping staircase up to the second floor. At one point, Izzy walks down it wearing a beautiful yellow dress. There's obviously a gorgeous library. There's even a rose garden. At work in New York, the colleague who keeps trying to sabotage Izzy (although it takes her so long to realise it) is called Gavin (Gaston). Nevertheless, the story also works in its own right, and I thought it was a fun twist on a well-known story, without ever getting too dark or angsty. 

I should note that this book is completely fade to black in terms of love scenes. The only heat you get is some passionate kisses, and this romance is a very slow burn, it takes Izzy and Beau a frustratingly long time to actually realise that they both feel the same way about each other, and smooching would be totally OK (and even strongly encouraged, in this reader's case). I'm guessing that's the Disney influence, can't have impressionable readers overwhelmed by actual sexy times happening (they clearly are, we just don't get to read about them).

This is the second book in the Meant to Be series, contemporary romance novels commissioned by Disney to retell their most famous animated movies. I've not read the first in the series, a Cinderella retelling written by Julie Murphy, but after this, I'm probably going to check it out, because this was charming as heck. I love a good fairy tale retelling and have a large collection of historical romances, contemporary romances and fantasy books that are all variations on Beauty and the Beast. It's important to note that this is a retelling of the Disney movie, not the original fairy tale. But since the Disney Beauty and the Beast was one of my favourite Disney movies growing up, this didn't present any problems for me. This might not be for everyone, but I thought it was a lovely February read (where I try to combine it being Valentine's Day - so romance, with Black History Month, so books by black authors, preferably with protagonists of colour). 

Judging a book by its cover: Every so often, a cartoony cover comes along to completely charm me, despite my general dislike of these sorts of designs. This is very much one that I adore, it's just so cute. The flowers, the heroine sitting up at the top, the flowing pages, the hero catching them. More of this, please, publishers. 

Crossposted on Cannonball Read. 

#CBR10 Book 101: "The Wedding Date" by Jasmine Guillory

Page count: 320 pages
Rating: 4 stars

Alexa Monroe is in San Francisco to celebrate her sister's promotion when she gets stuck in an elevator for an extended period of time with an attractive stranger. Naturally, they strike up a conversation and Alexa learns that the hot guy, Drew Nichols, is a paediatric surgeon, in town to go to the wedding of his ex-girlfriend and one of his best friends. Obviously, he's not exactly thrilled, and the woman supposed to be his plus one cancelled on him. While they eat some of Alexa's purse snacks (she has cheese and crackers in there to bring to her sister's room), Alexa is persuaded to be Drew's fake girlfriend for the weekend.

While they barely know one another, it's clear that Alexa and Drew have chemistry in spades. After the wedding, they hook up, but rather than go their separate ways the morning after, they spend the day together and agree to keep seeing one another. Alexa works in Berkeley, as the Mayor's chief of staff, while Drew works at a hospital in Los Angeles. So they can only really see one another on weekends, when either one can afford to fly to see the other. Alexa really likes Drew, but he made it very clear at their very first meeting that he doesn't really do long term relationships (he tends to bail when things start getting really serious, but always stays friends with his exes). How long can she keep flying to LA for a guy who will eventually present her with the "Let's just be friends" talk?

Representation is hugely important, and there just aren't enough romances written by or featuring women (or men, for that matter) of colour. The Wedding Date has a female protagonist who is black (she's also described as curvy and larger than your average woman - which I found incredibly refreshing, plus size heroines are also few and far between), while the male love interest is white. While his best friend and fellow doctor at the hospital in LA is Latino (and a great supporting character, whose book I'm very excited to read), it's quite obvious that Drew doesn't really know a lot of people of colour and that he has never really had to think about what it's like to be one in a large group of mostly white strangers (this is the situation Alexa faces when going with him to the wedding). Being a handsome white man, Drew just isn't very aware of his privilege and it's nice that the differences in their experience are covered early on in the book.

Being from different ethnicities is only one of the challenges facing Alexa and Drew. They are both professionals who care deeply for their jobs (and it's refreshing to have book characters who actually seem to do something for a living). It's difficult for them to find the time to see each other, since they live in different cities and plane tickets cost quite a bit of money. When communicating via text, nuances are lost and there's a couple of times when they have some fairly tense arguments based on a text message that could have been cleared up fairly easily if they were speaking face to face.

The biggest problem facing them, however, is Drew's rather baffling unwillingness to commit. As seems to be the norm for me this year, I'm reviewing this book almost a month after I finished it, and as such, some of the finer details are fuzzy to me. I forget whether we actually get a good explanation as to why he consistently bails on a relationship the minute it starts getting serious. Apart from his insistence that he can't be someone's life partner and only wants something casual, he's clearly a smart, handsome, successful guy. He's devoted his life to curing children, for heaven's sake. But the whole "can't commit" thing makes him seem rather immature. Another thing I disliked about him is how insecure he was about Alexa's relationship with her colleague (and one of her best friends) Theo. No matter how many times Alexa assured him that she had no romantic (or sexual) feelings towards her friend, he seemed needlessly suspicious of their friendship. Men and women can be friends without wanting to jump in the sack with one another. If Drew can't accept and not be threatened by Alexa's friendships, I don't see a long term future for them - it wouldn't be healthy.

Alexa was pretty much great, and I liked her friendships with both Theo and Maddie, as well as how passionate she was about her job, not to mention the reasons she wanted her special project for at risk youths launched. I could very much identify with her insecurities about her body and figure, but like that mostly, she was happy to be who she was, and didn't constantly limit what she allowed herself to eat or drink what she wanted, not afraid to enjoy life. You really got a feel for her life outside of her romantic relationship, which made her seem like more of a complete human, not just a stock character.

I also loved Carlos, Drew's colleague, who sees that he's found a great thing in Alexa from pretty much their first meeting and keeps trying to convince his friend that he's a complete idiot if he doesn't take good care of her, thanking his lucky stars he was fortunate enough to find such a great girlfriend. As I frankly liked him more than Drew in the scenes they shared, I was very glad to discover that he's the hero in Guillory's follow-up to this (which is already out, because I waited most of a year to finally picking this up).

I read a lot of rave reviews about this when it came out in January. Sadly, I think neither 2017 nor 2018 have been particularly good years for memorable romance, destined to become much beloved classics. This book is fine, and I enjoyed it, but in previous years, when great romance seemed to be everywhere, it would not even have made it into my top ten. Nevertheless, I'm always glad to discover a new author. Of the hyped about novels by women of colour, I liked this about a million times more than the sadly very disappointing A Duke by Default. I will read more of Guillory's contemporary romances. I can't say the same for Alyssa Cole.

Judging a book by its cover: When I first saw the cover for this book, I was convinced it must be a historical romance. The curly font and the silhouettes just seem to indicate a historical to me, and I'm surprised this is how Guillory's publisher chose to sell her first, contemporary, romance. Yes, there are tiny details that tell you it is in fact not set in the Regency era (the little air planes probably being the most obvious hint), but you only see those if you look more closely. It's a pretty cover, but I still think it's a strange choice by the publisher.

Crossposted on Cannonball Read.