REVIEW: The Proposal by Lily Zante
"A high-flying career woman with no time for romance finds herself at a loose end for her company's annual marketing convention. Partners are encouraged, and Nadine Stefano has every intention of fitting the image she believes her boss wants. At her sister's recent bachelorette party Nadine finds herself irresistibly drawn to Ethan, one of the male strippers. A single woman, desperate to present the image of being in a settled and happy relationship, she hires Ethan to act as her pretend boyfriend. Not only is he five years younger, but he is also sexy as sin. Theirs is a strong attraction, and the over-worked and uptight Nadine soon finds herself falling for the easy-going young man. But company politics and nasty colleagues stand in their way. Will they follow their hearts, despite their differences, or will Nadine dump Ethan in order to pursue her career goals?"
Okay so at first I was a bit apprehensive about how this was going to work. I think I'd be too busy cringing if a strip dance was going on in front of my eyes to even have time to find an attraction, but it happens of course. Ethan isn't actually a stripper, he's helping a friend out but he is an escort (although he doesn't sleep with his clients). He does that to earn money for materials in order to do his metal sculptures. Nadine is so uptight that she doesn't really take the time to get to know Ethan so she has no idea about his metal work and doesn't hide it very well from her colleagues.
Ethan is absolutely lovely, he's a complete gentlemen and Nadine is such a bitch to him sometimes. You do get the feeling, as does Ethan, that she's ashamed of him and she comes across as a bit snobby. However, the attraction is there and the fact that Nadine has paid him to act like her boyfriend is the reason for her holding back. Not the first story I've read with this plot but it wasn't so bad.
It followed the standard romance novel pattern, and there was a very lame misunderstanding. Despite Ethan saying that he lives with roommates she automatically assumes that the girl who opens the door of his house is his girlfriend and this causes her to believe that it was all just a business deal.
I liked Ethan but I didn't like Nadine as much. It was nice that she found someone who made her see more in her life than her career and of course the bitchy boss got what was coming to her! The only big kissing scene was when Nadine had had a few drinks so that wasn't going to go anywhere, it was steamy but no sex. Booo.
As it's free and can be read in an evening I would say it's a good time filler but no need to rush out to get it.
