Sandra @ My Fiction Nook

This was a fun read, but I had a couple of niggles with the way the females in this book were characterized.

But let's start at the beginning...

Jonah Hollis is a PA to super-gazillionaire millionaire cattle rancher Lincoln Courtwright and half in love/lust with his hot boss. Except bossman has a girlfriend and is presumably not gay, so Jonah has kept his lusty thoughts to himself.

Bossman however has a rather nasty break-up with his demanding, rude, obnoxious girlfriend, and seemingly out of spite, invites Jonah to THE BALL. The big one. The yearly Cattle Baron Ball.

So right there was my first niggle - the ex-girlfriend being a vapid bitch, whose only role was to be just that - vapid, obnoxious bitch/catalyst to get the plot going. But I moved on because this is Dreamspinner's version of the Harlequin romance, and it was sort of expected, right?

Either way, I really like Jonah. He was sassy, kind, unassuming, but also had some backbone, which came out to play later in the story. I liked him a lot.

Linc on the other hand - well, I suppose he grew on me. His motives weren't always clear, and I thought initially that his inviting Jonah to the ball was a "so there, bitch" move, instead of based on real interest in his PA. As the book progressed though, it became mostly clear that Linc's interest was real, and that Jonah was perhaps too blinded by fear to see it. Perhaps understandably so, but that fear and Jonah feeling out of place did play a role in the requisite "huge misunderstanding".

Add to that the wicked stepmother, whose homophobia screamed off the pages, and who is another female character in this book seemingly with her only purpose being that of resident bitch, and the niggles resurfaced.

Still, I did like the whole book quite a bit. It was a fun read, and the most fun was to be had when Jonah and Linc engaged in their banter, which becomes better and better as the book progresses. And I usually go into these types of books from this particular series with the expectation that things will be OTT, somewhat unrealistic, and yet lots of fun. In that, this book succeeded in droves.

If you like the Harlequin-like, sweeping, ooey-gooey romances with a fabulous HEA, this book is definitely one you should check out.

** I received a free copy of this book from its publisher. A positive review was not promised in return. **