An ambitious intern. A perfectionist executive. And a whole lot of name calling.
Whip-smart, hardworking, and on her way to an MBA, Chloe Mills has only one problem: her boss, Bennett Ryan. He’s exacting, blunt, inconsiderate—and completely irresistible. A Beautiful Bastard.
Bennett has returned to Chicago from France to take a vital role in his family’s massive media business. He never expected that the assistant who’d been helping him from abroad was the gorgeous, innocently provocative—completely infuriating—creature he now has to see every day. Despite the rumors, he’s never been one for a workplace hookup. But Chloe’s so tempting he’s willing to bend the rules—or outright smash them—if it means he can have her. All over the office.
As their appetites for one another increase to a breaking point, Bennett and Chloe must decide exactly what they’re willing to lose in order to win each other. (Goodreads)
I actually added this book to my TBR after seeing another in the series on Netgalley. I’ll admit, I was dubious about it! Being a fan of E. L. James’ Fifty Shades series, I didn’t want a copy cat version being thrown at me. I was worried that I would be comparing it to the Fifty Shades set the entire time and that I would end up DNFing it – but I didn’t! Yay! What this book offered me was laugh-out-loud moments, eye rolling moments and attempted murder – it literally had me choking on my hot chocolate. No joke, I was still coughing five minutes afterward! I didn’t even realise that this was written by two people, which I guess was pretty stupid on my part considering that Lauren is my first name and is in no terms a last name… At least not one I have come across – yet.
This book was told from two different points of view; it alternated between Chloe, an intern and Bennett, our beautiful bastard. The constant changing of POV didn’t distract from the story at all and was fairly easy to follow. In fact, I think it enhanced the events unfolding because we could see into the heads of both people involved.
I absolutely adored Chloe as a character. While she probably wouldn’t be considered a strong female lead like Katniss in the sense the she doesn’t have to overcome trials and stuff like she did, she is a strong character in my eyes. She is sassy, intelligent, quick witted and can hold her own with Bennett where so many others have failed (which is shown in the book!). She is pretty much everything that I love in a female lead character in a book like this and it made for a quick read – I couldn’t put the book down!
I also enjoyed reading Bennett as a character. He is almost like a stereotypical man in the sense that the way he is feeling and what is going on in his head is not that what Chloe, or in fact anyone else, first sees of him. He puts on a front of being a a trying boss – almost reminiscent of Meryl Streeps role in The Devil Wears Prada (can anyone clue me in on what her character name is? I can’t, for the life of me, remember!). I think if this book was written from just Chloe’s perspective, he would be a character that everyone would love to hate until toward the end, where he is so cute! Alliances to certain characters in books can change pretty fast, for anyone who is not a regular reader. I am glad that we got to see the inner workings of his brain as certain events unfolded, because his depth of character was much deeper than it would have been without.
Where does choking on hot chocolate come into it? Well, aside from the fact it would have been my morning coffee were I not pregnant (I’ve been forced to substitute!), it was the first time that Chloe and Bennett… I’m going to delicately say get it on in the conference room. Chloe’s reaction right at the end when she walked out had me in fits. Apparently a body is unable to both laugh and swallow at the same time – rather than spitting it out on my bed and macbook, I decided to choke instead! I stopped drinking and reading after that!
I loved the interactions between characters in this book and I am definitely looking forward to the next instalment! I am thankful that I have managed to find another book like this where I am not comparing Fifty Shades all the time! I gave this book 5/5 stars! 😀
Lauren's Page Turners 