When your new boss appears to be your ex and the job is already on the line…

Synopsis

One new boss, one ex-boyfriend, one big dilemma…

Stevie Phillips has just landed her dream job working for a publishing company and it seems like this is page one of her new, improved life.

But her first day throws more curveballs than she thinks she can handle: there’s been a takeover and the whole publicity team has been fired. And her new boss is the last face she expected to see.

Because Noah Anderson also happens to be her ex-boyfriend.

Thrown together on a campaign for a book the rest of the staff don’t want to touch with a barge-pole, Stevie resolves to make the best of a bad situation. This is her chance to prove herself, and she’s not going to let the man who broke her heart ruin it for her.

When Noah starts hinting that there was more to their break up then him just not loving her, Stevie’s resolution starts to wobble. Getting back with your ex is never a good idea, is it? Especially not when your ex is also your boss…

My review

Stevie Philips cannot wait to start her new job for a publishing company. Wit her best foot forward, she is determined to show her worth. Only already her first day at the office is turning into a real nightmare. Because the company has been taken over and the whole publicity has been let go. AS she has just been added on the payroll, her new boss is not letting her go yet, and wants her to show him her worth. Normally Stevie would be up for the challenge, weren’t it that her new boss is the man that broke her heart years go. And now Noah Anderson is back, but he is nothing like the man Stevie fell in love with.

Before Stevie knows it, she is teamed up with Noah to work together on a campaign for a romance book that nobody of the remaining staff wants to look at. Because not only is the author labelled as difficult, but also romance isn’t a genre that is worth the hard work.

Nevertheless, as Stevie is a big romance – lover, she is determined to make this book a great success. And meanwhile Noah is determined to make Stevie understand that him leaving her wasn’t just a case of not loving her. But on him if he fools Stevie once, but shame on Stevie if Noah fools her twice. Or not?

Do you remember when you have the first day of a new job, when you excited but also a bit scared? You are ready for the next chapter in your life, and you just hope that everything is just as you imagined how it would be. And I don’t know how many people can actually get the job of their dreams, but that only can add more stress, even if it’s the good kind of stress.

That is how this story starts, with Stevie looking forwards to her new job, only to get the shock of her life! I cannot imagine how Stevie feels when she discovers that the company just had a takeover, the team she would be working with, has been let go and that she doesn’t know where she stands. And perhaps I have an evil streak, but I found it funny when Stevie learns that her new boss is the man that crushed her heart years ago.

Although it was hard to connect the rather cold Noah with the romantic Noah we have met in the prologue. How Stevie and Noah met years ago, was the perfect meet – cute! If only I could meet the man of my dreams that way! 😊

So I couldn’t understand how that perfect man could change so much. And yes, I know that a lot can happen in years’ time, but it felt like someone else took possession of Noah’s body, so different was he.

Yet I liked it how Stevie wasn’t afraid to stand up against him! Even if a person is your boss, I truly believe that being respectful doesn’t harm anyone. And that also includes when making difficult decisions, you can always communicate them in a humane way.

There is in fact a lot I liked about Stevie! I also recognized a lot of myself in her, like the passion for romance books. How often when I tell someone I like to read, there is this air of dismissal when I say I read romance. What is wrong with loving romance books??? They bring me so much joy in life, they are my escape from a hard day, a difficult time.

So if I could, I would be fighting alongside Stevie for romance to get the respect it deserves!

But I also liked it how Stevie was fighting for her beloved romance author to get the recognition she deserved. Because it’s terrible when you’re not heard and being labelled as difficult to work with, while all you want is to treated right. And now that I think about it, that is a returning theme in this book!

And again that mean strike of mine appeared, reading how Stevie and Noah are working together, to make a success out of a romance book, fighting against all odds.

It was sweet to see how Prologue – Noah in fact is still somewhere in Present – Noah. But it also broke my heart to learn why Noah has changed, or even made the decision to break up with Stevie so long ago.

Despite the sparks still flying around, I comprehended why Stevie is still wary. Noah already broke her heart once, and she just barely overcame that pain. But there is also the fact that now Noah is her boss. In a job that is still at risk…

For Stevie there is so much on the line here, and of course she is afraid, who wouldn’t be?

From the start until the end I enjoyed reading this book, with a female lead just as passionate about romance books as I am. And while this obviously is fiction, somehow it made me believe that meet – cutes and all the other ‘typical’ tropes of romance are not all that fictional at all. I had so many smiles and laughs (evil laughs included), encouraging all the characters in each endavour, to be courageous 

But most important is that we see that sometimes life doesn’t go as expected, in so many ways, even with heartbreak as a result. But sometimes taking that once extra chance on someone, with more wisdom in our lives, can be the perfect plot twist of them all!