Great characters, steamy story…

I’ve been reading this author’s stories for years and I love the character and story development she brings to each read. In this genre, I have often found an emphasis on the steamier scenes rather than a full, engaging read but Radclyffe finds that perfect balance…

What happens when you bring two very different people together with one goal? Magic actually. I loved the conversations between Derian and Emily. They were easy to connect with as they revealed their obvious strengths, their inner fears and their growing attraction. There was a physical component for sure and their discussions, their dialogues, were honest and even more intimate.
Career, family, needs, desires. All of it was out in the open to troubleshoot. Together.

This was a one-sitting read and reminded me why I liked this author’s stories so much. There will be a whole bunch of re-reads happening I suspect…

*I happily reviewed this story
**Thank you to NetGalley

I didn't really connect with the characters so most of the book I felt meh about.  The thing I liked most was the look into the life of a literary agent.  Towards the end I started to like the characters a little more and enjoyed how the story ended.

3 of 5 stars
Received this book from Bold Strokes Books for an honest review.

This is the second Rad book I've read this year that's a standalone, and I find I much prefer them. This one doesn't quite match the synopsis though, judging by that I was expecting a 'The Proposal', marriage of convenience type thing, but that's not what this book is at all, although it does get a mention. 

I liked both characters, and they do spend a lot of time together, and this time is spent discussing things of substance, they don't just jump into bed. I did think that some time jumps were a bit jarring, (I actually had to page back to work out how long HW had been out of hospital), and for the most part the romance is very sweet. 

I loved that Emily wasn't some shy wallflower type, she wasn't wrong about being reluctant to get involved, there were good reasons not to, but she owned the fact that she wanted Dere anyway, and jumped in with both feet when it got moving. 

I could have lived without the fabricated breakup nonsense, but it was short lived, so I didn't care too much. The father takeover plot and Emily's visa issues also seemed to amount to nothing, so it felt like time was wasted on them. 

What I did care about was that Emily was supposed to be a POC character, as everything we're told about her background, and her visa issues would suggest, but there was nothing at all ethnic about her, she could have been a white woman from the UK for all the part her ethnicity played in the book. Rad should read Jae's Heart Trouble for a lesson on how to write a character with an actual ethnic background. If it wasn't for the repeated mentions of her sister still being in Singapore, I'd have forgotten she was from there. 

Still, I enjoyed this more than I had anticipated, it's a nice sweet romance, and for once didn't come with a slew of background characters from other books that I had to keep track of. I also loved that it was set in the world of publishing. I'm giving it four stars because I enjoyed those aspects of it, but really it should get 3.5 at most for the whitewashing of the POC character.

I could not get into it but I tried. It was interesting and I read it all, but I guess maybe the story wasn't really as exciting as I anticipated.

I feel like the romance could be a bit more develop. 
This is a so-so read for me. There is no critical flaws nor it offered anything exciting to make me give it a higher rating. 3 stars = average. 
A lot of it have something to do with the story line, and I must say it is very predictable. I am looking for more chemistry between the two main characters. Their development is a bit too fast for my taste. 
The book doesn't have any kind of element that can make me "get into it". It is the reason why it took me so long to finish the book. Maybe this one is not for my type of reader