The Book: His Secretary's Nine-Month Notice by Cathy Williams

The Particulars: Harlequin Presents #3811, 2020, Out of Print, Available in eBook

Why Was It In Wendy's TBR?: I am trash for boss/secretary romances. Yes, I'm well aware I'm the problem. Look, I can't explain it. I know how problematic they are, it's an HR nightmare in real life with really icky power dynamics, but something about this trope flips my escapist fantasy switch.

The Review: This book lands in the Hall of Shame for having an egregiously inaccurate back cover blurb. It makes the reader think they're getting one thing when they're getting something else entirely. To add insult to injury, the something else isn't very good. But first, let's look at the blurb Harlequin slapped on this book:

There’s a billionaire on her doorstep…ready to secure his legacy!

As commanding tycoon Matt’s secretary, it’s Violet’s job to be prepared for anything. Though absolutely nothing could have prepared her for today. Handing in her notice was not part of dedicated Violet’s plan…and definitely not because she’s carrying her boss’s baby!

Still, nothing is quite as unexpected as Matt’s reaction. He wants his child—and Violet! It’s a negotiation he’s determined to win…but he’ll need to offer more than just passion for Violet to sign on the dotted line of a marriage contract!

Here's the problem: our heroine, Violet, resigns at the start of the book, but not because she's pregnant with the boss's baby. Nope. She's in lurve with him (because, of course) and she can't keep working with him. Plus her Dad needs her and he lives in Australia and blah, blah, blah.

Matt immediately shows up on her doorstep all butt-hurt, acting like a big ol' man baby. Then he's even more butt-hurt and man-babyish because he finds out her father is a famous rock star and how dare she never share any details of her personal life with HER BOSS! HOW DARE SHE KEEP HER PERSONAL LIFE STRICTLY PRIVATE!

Then it's back to the office where he treats her like a something he stepped in, she ends up leaving early and moves to Australia. Matt, of course, can't stop thinking about her but doesn't admit that to himself so goes to Australia under the pretense of business and sees the heroine performing on stage with her dad wearing a sexy outfit (so unlike her prim office wear! 🙄) - he ends up hanging around in Australia longer than expected, they have sex - she's a virgin with a magic who-ha because of course she is - and that's when we get our unexpected pregnancy. Right around the 50% mark.

Besides the hero being a whiny man-baby, the story isn't helped by it's boring first half and the fact that all the relationship building happens off page. There could have been some dynamite stuff included in the Australia portions of this story - we're told Matt and Violet spend time together prior to bumping uglies, but it's a couple of sentences dashed off in a perfunctory manner. How these two fall in love outside of thinking the other is hot was lost on me.

Then there's the family stuff. Matt's all butt-hurt about Violet not sharing any of the personal details of her life with him when their relationship was strictly professional, and yet he never shares anything with her about his cold fish parents or his lonely childhood spent in boarding school. I did understand Violet going the completely opposite direction of her old man - he's the hard-partying rock star, she was a child acting as the responsible parent to her own parent - but she's on the road with him a lot, her childhood was amazingly unconventional - the virgin thing strained folks. Sorry, it did. Also, there's no meaningful scenes in the book featuring Violet's father and it really could have added some depth to both Violet's character, as well as Matt's once he's knocked up Violet.

And speaking of - Matt doesn't want kids, he doesn't believe in love, and yet he doesn't use a condom his first time with Violet. Of course she's using "something" but it inevitably fails because....Harlequin Presents. Oh, and did I mention that Violet starts working as a PA at 20, has two previous jobs prior to working for Matt and she's all of 26 at the start of this story? Only in Presents Land!

It's readable. It was a quick airplane read while traveling, but it's a mess. Not only is it a mess, it's a boring mess. Which honestly, boring is the kiss of death for a Presents.

Final Grade = D

This was an ok story. The plot was fairly basic. The characters were ok. I hadn’t read this author before, so there weren’t any expectations.
**I voluntarily read and reviewed this book

ARC provided by NetGalley and Harlequin in exchange for an honest review. I liked this book, I liked Matt. It was well written, easy to follow and you get caught up into the characters. I would enjoy reading another book by this author.

Who are Violet and Matt? What do they each do for a living? What happens after Violet sends on email to Matt on a Sunday? What happens the next day at work? Why does Violet go from England to Australia? What do we learn about Violet's past? What happens when Matt surprises her with a visit to Australia? Why is he there? What happens that night at the venue? How does that change things? What is agreed upon? When Violet returns for a visit to London, what happens? Read and see!

RECEIVED THIS BOOK AS A GIFT from Netgalley FOR A FAIR/HONEST REVIEW and REVIEWER FOR Bloggin' With M. Brennan.

I wasn't a fan of this book at all. I forced myself to read it but I found the story boring. I was very disappointed because it sounded like it would have been very good.

The idea was good and catchy but the storyline and writing were spotty. I didn’t enjoy how there were moments that were over explained and then there were periods that were skimmed over. It really lacked continuance and the character development was very poor. Not up to Harlequin Romance standards.

I usually really enjoy this trope of pregnant secretary, but for some reason, I couldn't at all connect to the characters as much. I like both strong and independent heroines as well as shy heroines. In this case, it seemed as if the author couldn't decide between what type of character she wanted Matt and Violet to have which led to a lot of confusion and contradictions. In the beginning, we see that Violet has feelings for her boss but there's never an explanation of why. She's very composed and private about everything but immediately tells him about her background as a rock star's daughter when pushed. As far as Matt is concerned, one minute he is a ruthless CEO the next he's acting like a diva ranting and angry because Violet didn't confide her personal life to him...even though he never did the same for her either? As much as I tried I couldn't see the basis of their relationship. I did enjoy the love scenes and Matt's love confession which was nice.

Heat Factor: She’s a virgin with a magic vagina, folks
Character Chemistry: I’m not at all convinced because I had no insight into their relationship
Plot: Not what you’d expect
Overall: I was bored.

Please look at the title of this book. Please look at the cover of this book. Please look at the description I had when I requested this book:

"Description
"There’s a billionaire on her doorstep…

"Ready to secure his legacy!

"As commanding tycoon Matt’s secretary, it’s Violet’s job to be prepared for anything. Though absolutely nothing could have prepared her for today. Handing in her notice was not part of dedicated Violet’s plan…and definitely not because she’s carrying her boss’s baby!

"Still, nothing is quite as unexpected as Matt’s reaction. He wants his child—and Violet! It’s a negotiation he’s determined to win…but he’ll need to offer more than just passion for Violet to sign on the dotted line of a marriage contract!"

It looks like a secret baby book, right? RIGHT?!

It. Is. Not.

At best, it is an accidental pregnancy book. But the protagonists don’t even have sex until the 50% mark, so for the first half of the story I was wondering what exactly it was that I’d gotten myself into. If I’m honest…. I was bored.

The whole “marketing this book as a secret baby story” was only one of the interesting decisions about the composition of this novel. It’s written in a remarkably detached 3rd person that bypassed all of the relationship development in a matter of paragraphs, focusing instead on a series of conversations associated with Resignation, Sex, Pregnancy Announcement, Marriage Proposal, Resolution. I’m sure length had a bit to do with the development choices, but in that case I’d say just scrap the whole first half of the book, because it was not interesting at all, and skip to the part that is being marketed, which was much more emotionally interesting. But I didn’t get to decide, so here we are.

Here’s the low down:

Violet is the single, friendless, virgin assistant to a...man (we’ll deal with him separately). She thinks this man is outrageously hot and sexy, but he’s her boss and she is supremely professional. She resigns from her job not because she is pregnant from a scandalous night of illicit lovemaking with her boss, but because her widowed father in Australia is ill and she needs to fly halfway around the world to take care of him. Six months later, she’s living her musician dream life, wearing sexy rocker clothes instead of suits, and she ends up in bed with her former boss and so on.

Matt is a billionaire tech CEO with no patience and a history with busty blonde women that’s miles long. He’s finally found a no-nonsense assistant who’s smart enough to follow his business and patient enough to deal with his nonsense. Then she quits on him and shows him a side that he never expected to see, so naturally when he has to go Down Under for business, he has to see her. And he pursues her. And sleeps with her. And goes back to London to live as he’s always done. Of course, love will never be a part of his life plan because his parents married as an alliance of wealth and estate, and he grew up with no love in his life.

Aside from the bizarre decision to brush over all of the actual relationship development (seriously, it’s like, “they went on walks together, ate dinner together, she helped him whip the Australian businesses into shape…”), I couldn’t figure out why Williams opted to give Violet the background she did. Ostensibly, Violet is reserved and prim and proper because after her mother died she was responsible for taking care of her irresponsible rocker dad. As the adult in the relationship, she didn’t do the wild things that other young people would do. Okay but...she’s on tour with her rocker dad. Even if she did feel like she needed to be the adult in the relationship, I don’t see how she didn’t do some wild stuff simply by virtue of the environment she grew up in. Or make some weird friendships with the adults she was constantly surrounded by.

Instead, she’s independently wealthy but she becomes a personal assistant at the age of 20, going through three separate bosses by the time she resigns Matt’s employ at 26.

And then she goes to Australia to take care of her dad and make a go of it with her music, and she’s wearing a crop top and motorcycle boots with tights and cutoff shorts. People can have multiple sides and not show them all the time but that is a serious 180, especially considering how shy and reserved she is in her own head.

But that’s just the “what did I even get myself into?” first half of the book. Then Violet gets back to London to tell Matt she’s pregnant, at which point Matt is the one who appears to have the personality transplant. As we would expect (generic verisimilitude, y’all), he wants to be in the baby’s life, and he wants to be married to his baby momma.

And Violet really likes to be taken care of and maybe Matt is more reliable than he at first appeared and, and, and…

If the book had started at the 50% point and there had been, like, any emotional relationship development in the story, I would have been pleasantly surprised by this book. But there wasn’t, so it wasn’t particularly interesting. Between magical virgin vaginas and personality transplants, the story was filled with predictable twaddle. And the sex writing ventured into old school purple prose territory, but with eyebrow-raising results I’m not sure Williams intended.

“...he pushed apart her legs and gently inserted his bigness, nudging his entry gradually.”

His bigness, folks.

WUT.

I voluntarily read and reviewed a complimentary copy of this book. All thoughts and opinions are my own. We disclose this in accordance with 16 CFR §255.

This review is also available at The Smut Report.

This is Matt and Violet’s story. He was a tech mogul. She was his secretary. She was wealthy in her own right because her father was a famous singer. He didn’t want her to leave. She had to go home and take care of her father. He follows her. They have one passionate night. She finds out she is pregnant. She wants nothing from him. He wants to be a full time father and he wants her to marry him. I loved the story.

Matt is a force of nature, ‘well, at least we’ve dropped the sir. That’s a start. Let me in. I need something strong to drink.’ The man doesn't waste any time, 'Matt smiled, a slow, curling smile that made her pulse race. ‘I’ll let them know that we’ll only need one room, shall I?’ I liked this book, I liked Matt.