Review: A Ruthless Proposition

A Ruthless Proposition by Natasha Anders
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Gah, someone recommended this or gave a great review of this which prompted me to read it - and I can't remember who!

Cleo(patra) Knight has somehow got a job working for Dante Damaso, one of the youngest, wealthiest hoteliers in South Africa. He is her brother's BFF but she didn't know that his friend 'Dan' from university was Dante Damaso. For his part, Dante didn't want to give Cleo a job, but he couldn't disrespect his BFF's little sister so he has her working for his office. Most days she makes his coffee, hands him his mail and waters his ficus before he sends her to work for one of his other executives and poaches their executive assistant. But when his personal assistant goes on maternity leave he decides to let Cleo accompany him to Japan on a last minute business trip to fix issues with a new hotel the company os trying to build.

Cleo had been an aspiring ballerina until an unfortunate accident ended her career. Since then she has drifted from one job to another, generally losing them through either her own indifference or inability to kow-tow to people more senior. She is determined to stick it out working for Dante's firm, even if he is the most infuriating, bossy, condescending ass, so she doesn't let down her brother Luc.

During the trip to Japan Cleo and Dante end up having torrid sex at every opportunity, but agree that the liaison is a short-term thing and Dante makes Cleo sign an NDA to that effect. Unfortunately, eight weeks later Cleo realises that she is pregnant.

I enjoyed this, it hit pretty much every trope known to (wo)man: billionaire; banging-the-boss; secret relationship; best friend's little sister; unexpected baby etc, but it was a fun read and there was some great banter between Cleo and Dante.

However, I felt that the book could be divided into three very separate books/sections and that both Cleo and Dante had almost a complete characters change from one to the other. So, in the first section Dante is a pig, he's rude, arrogant and treats Cleo like a gold-digger when it is him that propositions her, but it is also raunchy and sexy. In the second section, where they agree to live together while Cleo is pregnant Dante and Cleo become more like friends or roommates; they eat together and watch horror films, its a sweet romance. But then in the third section Dante becomes the sympathetic character and Cleo becomes the unreasonable one. I didn't feel that Dante grew as a person, his character simply changed to fit the demands of the next trope. But that is an accusation that can be levelled at most of these 'taming the alphahole billionaire boss' romances.

Overall, a fun romance with plenty of angst, it nevers strikes out in a new direction but it did what I expect of the genre.

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