I don't refer to my romance reading, in general, as my "guilty pleasure" for "reasons" (I've never really cared for the term because it implies we should feel "guilty" about reading romance, like it's some dirty secret to keep hidden...). However, if I did have a "guilty pleasure" in romance it would definitely be the Boss/Secretary Trope. In real life it's an HR disaster with very messy power dynamics, but what can I say? There's something about it that flips the escapist switch in my brain. I blame all the soap operas I watched as a kid.
Lucinda Starling is a single mom with a problem: she's caught feelings for her boss. Truth be told though, she loves working for Angus Wolfe, a marketing whiz who specializes in branding (and rebranding for businesses in need of a makeover). However, he's firmly commitment-phobic - having been raised by a single mom who chased after a series of boyfriends in a desperate bid to escape poverty and find some stability. Lucinda realizes though that pining for her boss, putting herself on the shelf, is robbing her of any hope of finding some genuine happiness. She's currently dating a very successful doctor (a surgeon!) and this weekend they have plans to get away. Just the two of them. If the weekend goes well, if the spark is truly there, Lucinda is ready to take the next big step, introducing the doctor to her son.
Angus also has feelings for Lucinda but he's not admitting that to himself, despite an "almost kiss" at last year's office Christmas party, because....well, he's a romance hero. Then he finds out that Lucinda is planning a weekend away with some guy that he didn't know she was seeing and he subconsciously turns devious. They're working on a big campaign at the moment to rebrand and revitalize a legendary cosmetics firm. And wouldn't you know it? There's a cosmetics/beauty convention going on at the resort Lucinda and Dr. What's-His-Name will be at that very weekend. Angus lowers the boom, tells Lucinda he needs her for work, and Dr. What's-His-Name easily tells her "no problem, we'll do it some other time."
At this point Lucinda's pride is smarting. Her son's father all too easily just up and left her (and their kid!) and now the guy she was thinking could be someone to build a life with is all too happy to hand wave away their weekend getaway. She knows there's no future with Angus, even if he adores her kid and makes her go all gooey inside. She needs to move on, wants to move on, and here's our "hero" standing in her way.
That's ultimately my issue with this story. Angus is too much of a coward to admit he has feelings for his assistant and instead sabotages her life. There's also this really uncomfortable undercurrent of him wanting to "protect" Lucinda's kid - when, in fact, Lucinda is nothing (at all!) like his mother. It's presumptuous in the extreme.
There's a fair amount of emotional backstory info-dumping in the early chapters, but there's plenty of tension and banter to keep the story humming along. However, after a while, I was exhausted by the couple's inability to man up and just admit their feelings for each other. Even after they do the fade-to-black mattress mambo, both of them just keep assuming with neither of them being brave enough to just lay their cards out on the table. Eventually, of course, they get there and cue the requisite syrupy epilogue of once commitment-phobe Angus coaching his stepson's soccer team.
In the end this was a sometimes pleasant, sometimes frustrating read. However it did move quickly and I inhaled it in 24 hours after a solid month of not eyeball-reading anything. So on that score? A success.
Final Grade = C+
