Publisher: Sourcebooks
Publish Date: Out Now
How I got this book: NetGalley
Marley Cartman is fed up with arrogant rich guys who treat her like garbage, so she vows to only date men with modest paychecks and a little dirt under their nails.
Her new boss, William Barclay, is exactly the kind of man she’s trying to avoid: an eccentric millionaire with duct shape shoes and an unexplained vendetta against her.
But as Will and Marley butt heads over grumpy badgers and phallic artifacts, they discover that sometimes the opposite of what you want is exactly what you need.
*Blurb from Goodreads*
From the blurb, this book sounded like it was going to be a funny and lighthearted read, and I was desperately in the mood for one. While it had some great one-liners and zingers, I just couldn’t connect to the story.
Marley is looking to start over in the small town of Bend, and dating a middle-class guy is definitely on her new agenda. She thought she found the perfect one, until she realized that Will could actually afford new shoes, he just refused to buy them. In addition to Will’s millionaire status, he’s also her new boss, so staying away from him is more important than ever.
Will has major trust issues, but something about Marley is makes him want to throw all his issues to the wind. But as Will watches her go on date after date, and sees the way she schmoozes with donors, he isn’t sure that Marley is someone he can trust. As some donated artifacts go missing, Will and Marley will have to work together to get to the bottom of it, and in the process realize that what they want has been in front of them all along.
Like I said earlier, this book had some really incredible one-liners and some great sexual innuendos. However, those little laugh-out-loud moments weren’t enough to sustain the book for me. I had some issues with the pace of the story (the beginning was so slow), as well as the hero and heroine as individuals (they both got on my nerves fairly quickly). While I really wanted to like this one, it just didn’t work for me.
I thought the beginning of the book was so slow to develop. It took a long time for me to become somewhat invested in both Marley and Will, and while they were trading hilarious barbs, I just never felt like I really got to know them. I would have liked to see their characters have a bit more development in the beginning of the story, instead of feeling like I was just getting a surface level understanding of their sense of humors.
For some reason, I struggled to connect to both Will and Marley. I think part of the problem with Marley is that she was so against dating someone with money, she refused to see just how many bad apples there were in the non-rich group of guys she was dating. While bad date after bad date provided for a few laughs, I got to the point where I really needed Marley to open her stubborn eyes and see what an annoying and egotistical wench she was being. Her inability to acknowledge that she was a bit narrow minded really bothered me.
Likewise, Will’s happy-go-lucky, nothing-bothers-me attitude really started to annoy me. I wanted him to show some kind of emotion. Anger, frustration, anything. Especially as it related to his ex-wife who ran off to become a lesbian with Will’s sister. Despite the awkward family dynamic, Will never really admits to his real feelings about the whole situation. Instead, he just plays it off with bad jokes and a shoulder shrug. I really felt like I just needed MORE from his character. More life, more emotion, more everything.
All in all, there were some really great quips in this book, however I wasn’t able to connect with the underlying story. I felt like I really needed to see more development with the hero and heroine, and would have liked to get deeper than just the one-liners and bad jokes. I wish this would have worked for me, unfortunately, it just didn’t.
I give Frisky Business a C-