One Bossy Proposal
by Nicole Snow
My review:
“One Bossy Proposal” is an engaging standalone from author Nicole Snow. It’s a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers story with clever word play, sizzling passion, and excellent secondary characters.
Lincoln Burns is an extraordinarily wealthy CEO of the business started by his beloved mother and his now deceased father. He’s a former Marine, a total workaholic, and totally jaded about love. Dakota Poe is a poet, but that’s a very tough way to pay the bills, so she works as a copywriter. She get an interview with a big fashion company, and is shocked when she shows up to find that one of the people on the interview panel is the CEO, with whom she had a crazy altercation at a coffee shop that morning. Yes, Lincoln desperately wanted something Dakota had purchased the last of at the coffee shop, and he was willing to go to great lengths to try and get it from her.
Lincoln recognizes that Dakota is the best candidate for the job. Although she has reservations based on their first meeting, when the job is offered to her she accepts. She ends up doing her job, and filling in for somebody else who goes on maternity leave. It’s complicated, and it gets even more so when Lincoln and Dakota are pushed into a fake engagement scenario for business purposes. Past traumas and complications in both of their lives continue to complicate the present day, and have lingering effects on their fears and decisions.
This is not a short read, but it pulls you in and most of it moves fairly quickly. Much of the banter between the two main characters is witty and sharp. There is a good combination of steamy passion, sad moments, and humorous ones. Dakota and Lincoln both change and grow as a result of their relationship with one another, and sometimes it is painful for the reader as it is for them to watch them struggle. In the end though, that makes it even more satisfying. Several secondary characters in this book are particularly good. Wyatt is Lincoln’s homeless best friend, and his heart-wrenching story leaps up off the page. I thought the ending of the story was well done, and I really appreciated learning what happened a little further down the road for these two. This author never disappoints!