llamareads
Written on Dec 1, 2017
In general, I liked Poppy. She's brave, fearless and excellent at her job. However, I don't feel like I got a good sense of Poppy herself or what motivates her. What I did get was that Poppy is very supportive of others. She excels at "plussing:" basically, taking a design and adding a certain something to make it better, like using violet eye shadow to add highlights to a printed presentation! William felt more well drawn out, though most of it involved his thoughts about Poppy. William is, basically, a control-freak skeptic who's constantly trying to figure out everyone's angle. He's also 100% focused on his company - at once point he equates his family and the company as one and the same.
“There was no way he was going to let her call the shots. He was going to have his way, and he was going to prove that his methods were the right way to win.”
Now, of course, since this is a romance novel, William's alpha-ness is eventually modulated by Poppy, and Poppy... well, I'm not quite sure what Poppy gets out of relationship. Poppy says it's his perspective and experience, but I'm not sure that was reflected in the book, as the only time he helps Poppy out it doesn't turn out well.
Since the project is for a romance publisher, there's some particularly funny bantering about various romance novel couples that I loved. It also includes what I thought for certain would be an oxymoron - a romantic powerpoint presentation!
As for other cons, I thought the team building scene was odd and unnecessary. I'm not sure what the purpose was for the plot, and without getting into spoilers, I thought the added "excitement" didn't fit in well with the rest of the book and really jarred me out of the story.
Overall, this is a fun and sexy novella. I do wish it was longer, as I think that'd taken care of some of my quibbles. I'll be looking up the first two books in the series for sure!
I received an advanced copy of this book from the publisher in return for an honest review.