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The Wedding Date #2
The Proposal
The author of The Wedding Date serves up a novel about what happens when a public proposal doesn't turn into a happy ending, thanks to a woman who knows exactly how to make one on her own...
When someone asks you to spend your life with him, it shouldn't come as a surprise--or happen in front of 45,000 people.
When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn't the hard part--they've only been dating for five months, and he can't even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans...
At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik's rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He's even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik's social media blows up--in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can't be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes...
When someone asks you to spend your life with him, it shouldn't come as a surprise--or happen in front of 45,000 people.
When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn't the hard part--they've only been dating for five months, and he can't even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans...
At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik's rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He's even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik's social media blows up--in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can't be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes...
335 pages, Kindle Edition
First published October 30, 2018
About the author
Jasmine Guillory
18 books20.7k followersJasmine Guillory is a graduate of Wellesley College and Stanford Law School. She is a Bay Area native who has towering stacks of books in her living room, a cake recipe for every occasion, and upwards of 50 lipsticks.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 10,271 reviews
February 14, 2019
From a seasoned romance reader’s perspective, it’s exciting to see the trend happening in the genre right now with the introduction of more diverse characters. Berkley Publishing Group seems to be at the forefront with books like The Kiss Quotient, Good Luck With That, The Wedding Date and Intercepted. Love happens all around us, encompassing people of all shapes, sizes, backgrounds, colors and social status—so, why should fiction be any different?
The Proposal introduces readers to Nik, a black woman jilted after turning down a jumbotron proposal from her casual boyfriend of only five months. Personally, I found the entire scenario involving “man bun” to be quite ludicrous, only serving to highlight the author’s weak character and storyline development. But hey, some readers will get a kick out of it, I’m sure.
Lucky for Nic, her Latino knight in shining armor is sitting only a few rows away with his sister, watching the madness unfold. Putting his spontaneous ruse into action, Carlos leads Nik away from the cameras and prying eyes of Dodger stadium. What ensues is a light and predictable journey to love for the doctor and the entertainment writer.
The one and only thing this storyline has going for it, in my opinion, is the racial diversity. To be frank, at times it comes across more like a Diversity for Dummies guide than anything else though. Instead of using a fun or clever way to mention the color of her characters when she introduces them, Jasmine Guillory resorts to blunt phrases like, “Carlos didn’t tell me you were black.” Let me tell you, seven such phrases in a five-page span, felt more like the author was trying to meet some type of diversity quota than anything else. There’s also the assumption the author makes that we’re all ignorant when it comes to tacos. Was that Jasmine Guillory's attempt at introducing her readers to Latino culture? She does know tacos exist outside of L.A., and that people of all colors enjoy them on the regular, right? If my husband had his way, it would be #tacotuesday in my house every night. I found her approach and style to be quite—for lack of a better word—basic.
Which brings me to my next point, the writing. No offense to the author—kudos for writing two books and all that—her style just isn’t my cup of tea. Within the first few chapters, the lack of distinct voices between the characters became apparent, and was something I struggled to get past for the remainder of the novel. Most obvious being Carlos. I hope this doesn’t come off as sexist as I think it might—that’s not my intention—but there were too many phrases and mannerisms that felt unnatural being voiced from a man. Or, said another way, you could easily swap any one character’s words for another, regardless of sex. Without the dialogue tags, good luck figuring out who said what or who’s who. Add in the juvenile interactions (that make-out sesh in the car made me cringe), numerous clichés packaged as female empowerment, repetition disguised as concern, the overuse of exclamation points and the incredibly awkward love scenes, and I had no choice but to resort to skimming.
If I had to recommend this book to anyone, it would be the newbies—those looking to dip their toe in a contemporary romance for the first time—or readers who know what they’re in for (if you’ve read The Wedding Date, which I have not, nor will I). My guess would be, readers who frequent this genre with any consistency have already read this story many times before; hopefully a much better version.
*Thank you to Berkley for providing a copy in exchange for my honest review.
The Proposal introduces readers to Nik, a black woman jilted after turning down a jumbotron proposal from her casual boyfriend of only five months. Personally, I found the entire scenario involving “man bun” to be quite ludicrous, only serving to highlight the author’s weak character and storyline development. But hey, some readers will get a kick out of it, I’m sure.
Lucky for Nic, her Latino knight in shining armor is sitting only a few rows away with his sister, watching the madness unfold. Putting his spontaneous ruse into action, Carlos leads Nik away from the cameras and prying eyes of Dodger stadium. What ensues is a light and predictable journey to love for the doctor and the entertainment writer.
The one and only thing this storyline has going for it, in my opinion, is the racial diversity. To be frank, at times it comes across more like a Diversity for Dummies guide than anything else though. Instead of using a fun or clever way to mention the color of her characters when she introduces them, Jasmine Guillory resorts to blunt phrases like, “Carlos didn’t tell me you were black.” Let me tell you, seven such phrases in a five-page span, felt more like the author was trying to meet some type of diversity quota than anything else. There’s also the assumption the author makes that we’re all ignorant when it comes to tacos. Was that Jasmine Guillory's attempt at introducing her readers to Latino culture? She does know tacos exist outside of L.A., and that people of all colors enjoy them on the regular, right? If my husband had his way, it would be #tacotuesday in my house every night. I found her approach and style to be quite—for lack of a better word—basic.
Which brings me to my next point, the writing. No offense to the author—kudos for writing two books and all that—her style just isn’t my cup of tea. Within the first few chapters, the lack of distinct voices between the characters became apparent, and was something I struggled to get past for the remainder of the novel. Most obvious being Carlos. I hope this doesn’t come off as sexist as I think it might—that’s not my intention—but there were too many phrases and mannerisms that felt unnatural being voiced from a man. Or, said another way, you could easily swap any one character’s words for another, regardless of sex. Without the dialogue tags, good luck figuring out who said what or who’s who. Add in the juvenile interactions (that make-out sesh in the car made me cringe), numerous clichés packaged as female empowerment, repetition disguised as concern, the overuse of exclamation points and the incredibly awkward love scenes, and I had no choice but to resort to skimming.
If I had to recommend this book to anyone, it would be the newbies—those looking to dip their toe in a contemporary romance for the first time—or readers who know what they’re in for (if you’ve read The Wedding Date, which I have not, nor will I). My guess would be, readers who frequent this genre with any consistency have already read this story many times before; hopefully a much better version.
*Thank you to Berkley for providing a copy in exchange for my honest review.
May 5, 2018
I really enjoyed Jasmine Guillory's debut novel, The Wedding Date, so I was really excited to get my hands on The Proposal which is an even stronger, more charming novel. Nik is at a Dodgers game with her boyfriend of five months, when he proposes to her on the Jumbotron, but it's all bad. He spells her name wrong. She turns him down. The thousands of people watching are judging her, and then the handsome doctor, Carlos Ibarra and his sister Angela, swoop in to save the day, hustling Nik out of the stadium and into a bar where her friends are waiting to help her lick her wounds. This is such a warm, engaging romance novel, where we see Nik and Carlos start as friends and then become more than friends, and try to figure out if they can love and allow themselves to be loved, while dealing with all manner of baggage. There is so much to relate to and throughout the novel, there is a sharp feminist edge. Loved this one, and you will too.
March 6, 2022
This is a very low stakes read featuring a couple that gets along well and a love interest who would be a great catch IRL (he’s respectful to women, cooks, and cleans after himself?! A rare unicorn indeed.) However, the book lacked the addictive ‘spark’ I’m looking for in romance, and was a bit too vanilla for me. Would I love to have an easygoing romance like this in real life? Absolutely. But for a book I’m reading, I’d like a little more tension, or witty banter, or steamy scenes, just *something* to keep me hooked.
October 18, 2021
DNF'd at 65 percent.
Have you ever heard that story about the lion that was taxidermied by a man who had never seen a lion before? That's what this book feels like. As if the author knew what pieces made up a romance novel, but, having never seen or read one before, she was flummoxed as to how to put these pieces together. She wrote the kissing scenes and there are people saying "I love you," but beyond that, this doesn't feel like a romance. The final result is actually a terrifying facsimile that gets more grotesque the closer you examine it.
This book has been selected for Reese Witherspoon's book club, meaning many people who don't usually read romance may be tempted to pick one up. And this is what they're going to get. This meandering, unsexy mess. That pisses me off so much.
Full disclosure: I read The Wedding Date last year and didn't love it. However, that was the author's first book, and I wanted to give her a fair chance before I wrote off her other work. I wanted to see if — after completing the writing, publishing and reviewing process — she had grown as a writer.
It seems that she has not. This book is somehow worse than The Wedding Date.
1. The writing. The writing is bad, both at the micro level and the macro level, but this bullet will just focus on the actual prose. This was the first line that had me worried:
There's nothing natural about that sentence. Carlos knows Drew is his friend. Why is Angela stating it out loud? It's also just really clunky. I trip over it every time I try to say it. A real person would say "Really? That's fantastic. I never thought Drew would get engaged."
This book feels like it was written by a teenage fanfic writer. I mean no disrespect to teenage fanfic writers. They write in their spare time and are solo operations. This was supposedly written by a grown-up professional and went through a fully-staffed publishing house.
How many times do we need to say "kiss" in this sentence? This is something an editor should have caught and it pisses me off that it made it to the final page.
Also, the characters are constantly making "witty" observations that are, in reality, ridiculous or nonsensical.
I don't know what's wrong with people who use the phrase "all your beautiful faces" or the word "we" when grammatically appropriate. The author never explains why this stuff bugs the characters; the observations are just dropped like turds in a pool.
(That third quote is particularly egregious, because not only is it stupid, it's, again, badly written! It could have easily been reworked to read "Nik could tell Dana was out for a run, but her friend was fit enough to hold a normal conversation at the same time." Also, if she's breathing normally, at what I assume is at a resting rate, how does she know she's running? And is her friend the damn T-1000 or something? It doesn't make any sense. I WANT TO PULL MY HAIR OUT!)
One thing I nearly forgot to mention is that this book frequently gaslights the reader. Characters often refer to events that never happened or happened completely different than how they describe them.
For example:
Here, Carlos is explaining to Drew what happened after he got Nik away from the stadium (it doesn't need to be included because it's repetitive and adds nothing, but ignore that for now). We saw this scene. Nik was embarrassed. Her friends were concerned for her. They did express anger at the boyfriend's actions but that was directed AT THE BOYFRIEND! At the time, Carlos was drinking and laughing about the situation with them. Why is he describing things to Drew as if all the women were angry with him and he barely escaped their wrath? FFS, one of the women was his own sister! This muddling of events occurs so! many! times! Characters are constantly reframing things that happen in the book and it causes you to doubt what you've read. It's a frustrating experience.
Beyond that, there are many instances with inconsistent style, names, etc. No one gave this a thorough edit and it's VERY obvious.
2. The characters. I don't have much to say about the characters because there's not much there. The characters are bland cardboard cut-outs with no real personalities. If you were to ask me to describe any of them, beyond their occupations or what they look like, I'd have nothing to tell you. (Actually, I take that back for Courtney. She is gratingly annoying and doesn't understand personal boundaries. She's constantly asking Nik when she's gonna fuck Carlos. It's gross and problematic.)
Nik and Carlos are also surprisingly unsympathetic. I didn't love Alexa or Drew from the last one (I also barely remember them because they, too, are nothing but flat stick figures pretending to be people), but I didn't actively dislike them. (Update: I've reread "The Wedding Date" since writing this review and realized they are, in fact, the worst. Alexa's got used cat litter for brains and Drew is a gross fuck boy. All the characters in this series can go play in traffic.) Nik and Carlos go on constantly about how they don't want to be bothered with the other's personal life.
Carlos actively antagonizes one of Nik's friend while helping out with a stressful work emergency. He also shares embarrassing stories about his teenage patients with Nik, which I assume is in direct violation with HIPAA.
Nik's no better.
They're both assholes and I don't think either of them deserve a happy ending.
(Also, another example of the horrible writing in this book! Annoying doesn't mean stupid. Just because she finds her boyfriend's friends irritating doesn't mean she'd be able to insult them to their faces without them noticing.)
3. The plot. THERE IS NO PLOT! This book has no structure and it's frustrating as hell to read. It's just a collection of boring pointless scenes that go nowhere!
The book gets it's title from the opening meet-cute. Nik is proposed to by her boyfriend, Carlos witnesses it and whisks her away, but then ... nothing. Nothing of any consequence happens. They go out to eat, they have sex, they agonize over basic social interactions that normal adults would figure out in .02 seconds, they repeat. This is exactly what happened in The Wedding Date and it drove me insane.
The baseball proposal cannot make up the entirety of the story, and a romance should have action beyond the two leads making kissy faces at each other. What if, after the proposal, Nik and Carlos agree to enter a fake relationship to help recover their reputations? Nik is freelance writer and probably brands herself on social media. The fake relationship could turn into a real one and that would provide the conflict for the story.
Or, what if Fisher, her spurned boyfriend, didn't just drop from the story completely? Maybe he attempts to sabotage Nik or Carlos and the two of them grow closer while trying to figure out how to catch him in the act.
LITERALLY ANYTHING happening would have been better than what we got.
The missing structure also accounts for all the repetition in the story. We read as these characters go out to eat four or five times. Angela bugs her brother about seeing a doctor four of five times. Hell, entire conversations are repeated multiple time throughout the book. I searched on Kindle and the question "How's Jessie doing?" is asked FIVE times with no apparent progress or impact to the story. (Jessie is one of Carlos' sisters and her only defining feature is that she has preeclampsia. What fun.)
I don't want to read about two assholes ranking tacos for an entire chapter. It's boring. Try and utilize a little creativity and add some basic conflict to this story.
And 4. the "romance." LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL what romance? This story is as romantic as the Federal tax code. They meet when Carlos, for reasons we're not told about, decides he has to save Nik from her embarrassing spectacle at the stadium. They text back and forth for a bit afteward, have dinner, comment about how ~*~*~*~*HAWT*~*~*~*~ the other is and then, VERY suddenly, decide they want to jump each other's bones. There's no lead up to it. There's no sense of attraction or chemistry. It honestly feels like that "Now kiss!" meme; someone just shoving two characters faces together because they want to see the sexy times.
The sex scenes range from awkward to non-descript to downright weird. A grown woman nearly shits herself in happiness because a man puts his hand on her shoulder. Once the actual sex happens, we're not told how either of them feels about it. There's no yearning, no passion, no sensuality of any type. The characters spout off some tired sexy "banter" before shoving tab A into slot B (if we're even told that much). It's actually really off-putting. (And OMG they make the same stupid joke about how hard they've "exercised" nearly EVERY time they have sex. It's a stupid enough joke to say once. Repeating it makes me cringe so hard, I cramp.)
If an author doesn't want to include sex scenes in a book, that's fine. If that's the case, however, you've got to give them some way to connect, some form of intimacy beyond sex. These two have no real emotional ties to the other. Nik doesn't even want to be bothered with meeting Carlos' best friend. The bad writing plus their non-existent characterization means I have no investment in this "romance."
I could go on and on, but I've wasted enough time on this book. I will not be reading any more by Jasmine Guillory.
Have you ever heard that story about the lion that was taxidermied by a man who had never seen a lion before? That's what this book feels like. As if the author knew what pieces made up a romance novel, but, having never seen or read one before, she was flummoxed as to how to put these pieces together. She wrote the kissing scenes and there are people saying "I love you," but beyond that, this doesn't feel like a romance. The final result is actually a terrifying facsimile that gets more grotesque the closer you examine it.
This book has been selected for Reese Witherspoon's book club, meaning many people who don't usually read romance may be tempted to pick one up. And this is what they're going to get. This meandering, unsexy mess. That pisses me off so much.
Full disclosure: I read The Wedding Date last year and didn't love it. However, that was the author's first book, and I wanted to give her a fair chance before I wrote off her other work. I wanted to see if — after completing the writing, publishing and reviewing process — she had grown as a writer.
It seems that she has not. This book is somehow worse than The Wedding Date.
1. The writing. The writing is bad, both at the micro level and the macro level, but this bullet will just focus on the actual prose. This was the first line that had me worried:
“Really? That’s fantastic. I never would have thought a year ago that your friend Drew would be engaged.”
There's nothing natural about that sentence. Carlos knows Drew is his friend. Why is Angela stating it out loud? It's also just really clunky. I trip over it every time I try to say it. A real person would say "Really? That's fantastic. I never thought Drew would get engaged."
This book feels like it was written by a teenage fanfic writer. I mean no disrespect to teenage fanfic writers. They write in their spare time and are solo operations. This was supposedly written by a grown-up professional and went through a fully-staffed publishing house.
She hadn’t quite expected them to be at the kiss hello stage yet, but she liked kissing him so much she’d take any excuse to kiss him.
How many times do we need to say "kiss" in this sentence? This is something an editor should have caught and it pisses me off that it made it to the final page.
Also, the characters are constantly making "witty" observations that are, in reality, ridiculous or nonsensical.
Oh God. This was the kind of person who said “all of your beautiful faces.” What had she gotten them into? She saw Courtney and Dana exchanging glances.
Carlos rolled his eyes. Drew was doing that “we” thing that couples always did.
Nik could tell by her regular breathing that she was running.
I don't know what's wrong with people who use the phrase "all your beautiful faces" or the word "we" when grammatically appropriate. The author never explains why this stuff bugs the characters; the observations are just dropped like turds in a pool.
(That third quote is particularly egregious, because not only is it stupid, it's, again, badly written! It could have easily been reworked to read "Nik could tell Dana was out for a run, but her friend was fit enough to hold a normal conversation at the same time." Also, if she's breathing normally, at what I assume is at a resting rate, how does she know she's running? And is her friend the damn T-1000 or something? It doesn't make any sense. I WANT TO PULL MY HAIR OUT!)
One thing I nearly forgot to mention is that this book frequently gaslights the reader. Characters often refer to events that never happened or happened completely different than how they describe them.
For example:
“Some friend you are. But, yes, that’s pretty much exactly what happened. Except we weren’t just with her, we were with her and her two best friends. It was me and four very angry women. I was just grateful I got out of there alive.”
Here, Carlos is explaining to Drew what happened after he got Nik away from the stadium (it doesn't need to be included because it's repetitive and adds nothing, but ignore that for now). We saw this scene. Nik was embarrassed. Her friends were concerned for her. They did express anger at the boyfriend's actions but that was directed AT THE BOYFRIEND! At the time, Carlos was drinking and laughing about the situation with them. Why is he describing things to Drew as if all the women were angry with him and he barely escaped their wrath? FFS, one of the women was his own sister! This muddling of events occurs so! many! times! Characters are constantly reframing things that happen in the book and it causes you to doubt what you've read. It's a frustrating experience.
Beyond that, there are many instances with inconsistent style, names, etc. No one gave this a thorough edit and it's VERY obvious.
2. The characters. I don't have much to say about the characters because there's not much there. The characters are bland cardboard cut-outs with no real personalities. If you were to ask me to describe any of them, beyond their occupations or what they look like, I'd have nothing to tell you. (Actually, I take that back for Courtney. She is gratingly annoying and doesn't understand personal boundaries. She's constantly asking Nik when she's gonna fuck Carlos. It's gross and problematic.)
Nik and Carlos are also surprisingly unsympathetic. I didn't love Alexa or Drew from the last one (I also barely remember them because they, too, are nothing but flat stick figures pretending to be people), but I didn't actively dislike them. (Update: I've reread "The Wedding Date" since writing this review and realized they are, in fact, the worst. Alexa's got used cat litter for brains and Drew is a gross fuck boy. All the characters in this series can go play in traffic.) Nik and Carlos go on constantly about how they don't want to be bothered with the other's personal life.
Carlos actively antagonizes one of Nik's friend while helping out with a stressful work emergency. He also shares embarrassing stories about his teenage patients with Nik, which I assume is in direct violation with HIPAA.
Nik's no better.
The one good thing about Fisher had been that all of his friends were so annoying that she’d made fun of them to their faces constantly without them even realizing it.
They're both assholes and I don't think either of them deserve a happy ending.
(Also, another example of the horrible writing in this book! Annoying doesn't mean stupid. Just because she finds her boyfriend's friends irritating doesn't mean she'd be able to insult them to their faces without them noticing.)
3. The plot. THERE IS NO PLOT! This book has no structure and it's frustrating as hell to read. It's just a collection of boring pointless scenes that go nowhere!
The book gets it's title from the opening meet-cute. Nik is proposed to by her boyfriend, Carlos witnesses it and whisks her away, but then ... nothing. Nothing of any consequence happens. They go out to eat, they have sex, they agonize over basic social interactions that normal adults would figure out in .02 seconds, they repeat. This is exactly what happened in The Wedding Date and it drove me insane.
The baseball proposal cannot make up the entirety of the story, and a romance should have action beyond the two leads making kissy faces at each other. What if, after the proposal, Nik and Carlos agree to enter a fake relationship to help recover their reputations? Nik is freelance writer and probably brands herself on social media. The fake relationship could turn into a real one and that would provide the conflict for the story.
Or, what if Fisher, her spurned boyfriend, didn't just drop from the story completely? Maybe he attempts to sabotage Nik or Carlos and the two of them grow closer while trying to figure out how to catch him in the act.
LITERALLY ANYTHING happening would have been better than what we got.
The missing structure also accounts for all the repetition in the story. We read as these characters go out to eat four or five times. Angela bugs her brother about seeing a doctor four of five times. Hell, entire conversations are repeated multiple time throughout the book. I searched on Kindle and the question "How's Jessie doing?" is asked FIVE times with no apparent progress or impact to the story. (Jessie is one of Carlos' sisters and her only defining feature is that she has preeclampsia. What fun.)
I don't want to read about two assholes ranking tacos for an entire chapter. It's boring. Try and utilize a little creativity and add some basic conflict to this story.
And 4. the "romance." LOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOLOL what romance? This story is as romantic as the Federal tax code. They meet when Carlos, for reasons we're not told about, decides he has to save Nik from her embarrassing spectacle at the stadium. They text back and forth for a bit afteward, have dinner, comment about how ~*~*~*~*HAWT*~*~*~*~ the other is and then, VERY suddenly, decide they want to jump each other's bones. There's no lead up to it. There's no sense of attraction or chemistry. It honestly feels like that "Now kiss!" meme; someone just shoving two characters faces together because they want to see the sexy times.
The sex scenes range from awkward to non-descript to downright weird. A grown woman nearly shits herself in happiness because a man puts his hand on her shoulder. Once the actual sex happens, we're not told how either of them feels about it. There's no yearning, no passion, no sensuality of any type. The characters spout off some tired sexy "banter" before shoving tab A into slot B (if we're even told that much). It's actually really off-putting. (And OMG they make the same stupid joke about how hard they've "exercised" nearly EVERY time they have sex. It's a stupid enough joke to say once. Repeating it makes me cringe so hard, I cramp.)
If an author doesn't want to include sex scenes in a book, that's fine. If that's the case, however, you've got to give them some way to connect, some form of intimacy beyond sex. These two have no real emotional ties to the other. Nik doesn't even want to be bothered with meeting Carlos' best friend. The bad writing plus their non-existent characterization means I have no investment in this "romance."
I could go on and on, but I've wasted enough time on this book. I will not be reading any more by Jasmine Guillory.
July 9, 2018
This book's saving grace was its superb representation: a black main character, latino love interest, black lesbian side character, and fat Korean side character.
Otherwise, I wished I could love this book, but it just wasn't at all what I was hoping it to be. I'm mainly frustrated with this book because it wasn't pitched at ALL as a sequel or companion to Jasmine's first book, but literally half the book involves the two characters from her debut. I was really disappointed that I got 50% of the way into this before realizing that. It really should be marketed better as a companion novel, because I feel like I lost out on half of the storyline.
My other major issue with this book is that the writing is just so basic. From clichés to a remarkable lack of originality in descriptions, I was just left wanting more with every page. The dialogue is corny a lot of the time, and the inner monologue alongside it felt very immature and stunted. Not just as a reader, but from an editorial standpoint, I think the writing needed tweaking (ie. the characters CONSTANTLY laugh at what the other says to the point where it's every other line; the speaker tags should be more varied.)
Also, most of the sex scenes in this book are skipped over, and the two that exist are so short and bland. I was expecting a lot more from a book marketed as romance.
I really wanted to read Jasmine's first book, but after those characters appeared in this book, it would be too weird to go back in time and see them when they're not together. If you liked Jasmine's first book then you'll probably enjoy this, but I'm just super let down that it was a sequel I didn't know about, and I wasn't a fan of the writing style.
Otherwise, I wished I could love this book, but it just wasn't at all what I was hoping it to be. I'm mainly frustrated with this book because it wasn't pitched at ALL as a sequel or companion to Jasmine's first book, but literally half the book involves the two characters from her debut. I was really disappointed that I got 50% of the way into this before realizing that. It really should be marketed better as a companion novel, because I feel like I lost out on half of the storyline.
My other major issue with this book is that the writing is just so basic. From clichés to a remarkable lack of originality in descriptions, I was just left wanting more with every page. The dialogue is corny a lot of the time, and the inner monologue alongside it felt very immature and stunted. Not just as a reader, but from an editorial standpoint, I think the writing needed tweaking (ie. the characters CONSTANTLY laugh at what the other says to the point where it's every other line; the speaker tags should be more varied.)
Also, most of the sex scenes in this book are skipped over, and the two that exist are so short and bland. I was expecting a lot more from a book marketed as romance.
I really wanted to read Jasmine's first book, but after those characters appeared in this book, it would be too weird to go back in time and see them when they're not together. If you liked Jasmine's first book then you'll probably enjoy this, but I'm just super let down that it was a sequel I didn't know about, and I wasn't a fan of the writing style.
October 22, 2018
This was such a delight to read! I adored the diversity, the humor, and the portrayal of some really relevant, yet tough topics. These characters were all brand new to me, but I’m really excited to go back to The Wedding Date and see how we meet a certain someone initially there. Definitely recommended!
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February 15, 2021this was better than i expected but there’s something about the really cheesy stereotypically “feminist objections” by the heroine that bugged me. yes men suck but why constantly point out ur “strong independent woman” to a man who already gets it...
July 7, 2022
In The Wedding Date, the first book in this series, we meet Carlos Ibarra, the fun and supportive best friend of Dr. Drew Nichols.
We really get to know Carlos on the day he helps Dr. Drew by picking Alexa up at the airport. At the time I was reading that, I thought to myself, this Carlos seems like quite a catch! ((pun intended))
In this novel, Carlos is now the leading man and I certainly wasn't wrong about him!
When Carlos watches a botched proposal made to Nikole Paterson on the jumbotron at a Dodgers game, he feels so bad. This poor girl is obviously having a super embarrassing moment, yet the paparazzi are out in full force!
In order to rescue her, Carlos swoops in and pretends to be a long-lost friend, escorting Nik out of the stadium and away from prying eyes.
He offers her a ride home and subsequently ends up bringing her to a bar to meet up with her friends.
Nik and Carlos really hit it off and the sweetest little friendship develops. But is more than friendship in the cards for them?
They both swear they are not looking for more but then things get physical.
Throughout this story we get a lot more of Carlos and Nik's lives apart from one another.
Carlos spends a lot of his time taking care of the women in his family. He feels an obligation to help them all so much.
We also get to learn about Nik's super tight friend group and the truly supportive circle that provides her with.
One plot point I really enjoyed was Nik and her friend group attending a women's boxing class in order to learn how to protect themselves.
It was a way of reclaiming her power after she was emotionally traumatized by her ex and his horrible proposal.
In the aftermath of that, Nik really struggled with feeling safe. She is such a private person and to have her life exposed was really hard for her.
I appreciated this and take boxing classes so know how empowering they can be.
I would say in comparison to The Wedding Date, this one differed by offering the reader more insight into our protagonists lives away from one another.
They both had really strong support systems and that was refreshing to see.
Overall, I thought this was really sweet. Although it didn't have as much drama or steamy moments as the first book, it was still a very fun read!
I would definitely recommend this to people looking for an easy, weekend read.
I am very much looking forward to starting the next companion book in this series, The Wedding Party!
We really get to know Carlos on the day he helps Dr. Drew by picking Alexa up at the airport. At the time I was reading that, I thought to myself, this Carlos seems like quite a catch! ((pun intended))
In this novel, Carlos is now the leading man and I certainly wasn't wrong about him!
When Carlos watches a botched proposal made to Nikole Paterson on the jumbotron at a Dodgers game, he feels so bad. This poor girl is obviously having a super embarrassing moment, yet the paparazzi are out in full force!
In order to rescue her, Carlos swoops in and pretends to be a long-lost friend, escorting Nik out of the stadium and away from prying eyes.
He offers her a ride home and subsequently ends up bringing her to a bar to meet up with her friends.
Nik and Carlos really hit it off and the sweetest little friendship develops. But is more than friendship in the cards for them?
They both swear they are not looking for more but then things get physical.
Throughout this story we get a lot more of Carlos and Nik's lives apart from one another.
Carlos spends a lot of his time taking care of the women in his family. He feels an obligation to help them all so much.
We also get to learn about Nik's super tight friend group and the truly supportive circle that provides her with.
One plot point I really enjoyed was Nik and her friend group attending a women's boxing class in order to learn how to protect themselves.
It was a way of reclaiming her power after she was emotionally traumatized by her ex and his horrible proposal.
In the aftermath of that, Nik really struggled with feeling safe. She is such a private person and to have her life exposed was really hard for her.
I appreciated this and take boxing classes so know how empowering they can be.
I would say in comparison to The Wedding Date, this one differed by offering the reader more insight into our protagonists lives away from one another.
They both had really strong support systems and that was refreshing to see.
Overall, I thought this was really sweet. Although it didn't have as much drama or steamy moments as the first book, it was still a very fun read!
I would definitely recommend this to people looking for an easy, weekend read.
I am very much looking forward to starting the next companion book in this series, The Wedding Party!
September 27, 2018
ARC provided by Berkley in exchange for an honest review.
“Deciding to spend your life together shouldn’t be a surprise”
I loved The Wedding Date earlier this year, and when I found out that this was going to star one of the side characters I knew I couldn’t resist putting in an ARC request. This was a joy to read, from the first page to the last. Both of Jasmine’s books have been so intelligently, beautifully, and masterfully crafted.
The Proposal is an ownvoices novel that follows a woman who is completely blindsided by a marriage proposal at Dodger Stadium. Yet, before the camera crews come in to make a terrible situation even worse, she is saved by a stranger in the stands, and his sister.
➽ Nikole Paterson - Black, freelance journalist, and the woman who just got surprise proposed to after only five months of dating her partner.
➽ Carlos Ibarra - Latino, pediatrician, the stranger in the stands that we already were introduced to in The Wedding Date.
And we get to see these two build a friendship, and maybe something more, after everything went down at Dodger Stadium. Neither one of them are at a point in their life where they are willing to start something new, but they have each other’s backs and prove that they are there for one another.
Don’t get me wrong, I love Nik and Carlos with my whole heart, but Nik’s friends almost stole the show for me in this novel. Dana is an actress, black, and a lesbian, and has the freakin’ cutest f/f side romance ever. Like, please, I need a full-length novel right this second. And Courtney is a cupcake shop owner, Asian, and plus sized. And I think I had a smile from ear-to-ear every time she was on the page. Seriously, Nik, Dana, and Courtney are the definition of friendship goals and it was a joy to read.
But probably my favorite thing in this book were the seamlessly woven important themes. There was also such a subtle, yet loud, message about how easy it is to not realize you are in an emotionally abusive relationship. And sometimes you don’t start to realize until you are completely secluded from your friends and family. Yet, it also shows that there always can be ways out, even if you have to wait a while, and that it is never too late once you realize when someone is being abusive.
There was also such a beautiful discussion about how important it is to reclaim your safety after you have been violated or felt that it was threatened. Throughout this story, we see Nik take those steps, and it just meant a lot to me, personally. I also loved how she had friends helping along the way.
The reason I did end up giving this four stars, and not five, was because I felt like Carlos acted a little questionably at the end. Trust me, it pains me to say, because I do love him so much. Yet, with the way he and Nik met, you would think that he would understand how she would react to a (quicker) repeat. I’m trying to be vague, but his actions just left me side-eyeing a little at the end, and just dampened my enjoyment overall.
Yet, I still loved this book, and I think Jasmine Guillory is such an impressive author. I can’t wait to read any and everything she writes. The romance world just needs more books like The Proposal and The Wedding Date! I completely recommend this one!
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The quote above was taken from an ARC and is subject to change upon publication.
Content and trigger warnings for public humiliation, racist comments (always in a negative light and challenged), talk of past emotional abuse, brief assault (slap on the butt), talk of past loss of a loved one, brief mention of child abuse, brief mention of past miscarriage, and pregnancy complications.
Buddy Read with Lilly, Stephanie, & Leigh! ❤
❤ I also read this for Contemporary-a-thon!
July 12, 2018
This was pretty disappointing. I completely agree with Whitney's review The only thing I really loved about this book was the diverse cast of characters. The female main character is a POC, there's a latino male love interest, and a korean side character, but that is all this book really has going for it.
The writing is terrible, it reads like a bad fanfiction. There are so many cliches in this story and both of the characters were annoying me. Even their inner thoughts were immature and read more like thirteen-year-olds than adults. I also don't like when romances are written in third person, it makes me feel so disconnected from what's happening. I feel like all the characters in this book are so dramatic and over-the-top and there were just too many cringe-y moments for me to enjoy this.
I really wanted to like this, but this romance was so cheesy and forgettable. I need something more when I need a romance.
The writing is terrible, it reads like a bad fanfiction. There are so many cliches in this story and both of the characters were annoying me. Even their inner thoughts were immature and read more like thirteen-year-olds than adults. I also don't like when romances are written in third person, it makes me feel so disconnected from what's happening. I feel like all the characters in this book are so dramatic and over-the-top and there were just too many cringe-y moments for me to enjoy this.
I really wanted to like this, but this romance was so cheesy and forgettable. I need something more when I need a romance.
October 28, 2018
Take me out to the ball game. Take me out to the crowd. Buy me some peanuts and propose to me???
Man bun... doesn’t know how to spell your name... proposes at a Dodgers game... 3 STRIKES YOUR OUT! The opening scene to this book was epic, something I’ve always thought every time I’ve watched one of those scoreboard proposals.... what happens if the girl says, “ KNOW“? Well this book shows you exactly what happens to Nik after the very public proposal.... and can I just say, if this were to happen to any of us I would certainly hope we’d all have a Carlos in the stands to come to our rescue!
A sweet, fun, love story, about two people determined not to fall in love... so, after Carlos and his sister rescue Nik they head to a bar and meet up with Nik’s Besties.... I have to say the relationship between these three girls was really the highlight of the story, it was kind of “ Sex in the City“ on the West Coast... I loved how there for one another they were, how supportive, how non-judgemental, and I loved how bourbon and cupcakes cured everything.... Looove strong female friendships in books!
The book perhaps was predictable, but it is a romance, there is generally only one satisfying outcome... for me what makes or breaks a romance is the characters and the chemistry.... this book was filled with wonderful characters including all the secondary characters.... both Nik and Carlos had wonderful friends, and Carlos had an amazing family.... also loved all the food talk, can’t get enough cupcakes, enchiladas, tacos, etc. etc. etc. where this book fell a little short for me was in the chemistry I didn’t always buy into the chemistry between Nik and Carlos... but what I did believe was, they had a very strong connection and friendship, and truth be told that is what will get this fictional couple through the years! My other little niggle was the Los Angeles stereotyping, I grew up in the LA area and we all ate carbs especially Pizza! Just saying😉
Recommend when you are in the mood for a fun Romance filled with fabulous characters!💕
*** A huge thank you to Berkley for my copy of this book ***
Man bun... doesn’t know how to spell your name... proposes at a Dodgers game... 3 STRIKES YOUR OUT! The opening scene to this book was epic, something I’ve always thought every time I’ve watched one of those scoreboard proposals.... what happens if the girl says, “ KNOW“? Well this book shows you exactly what happens to Nik after the very public proposal.... and can I just say, if this were to happen to any of us I would certainly hope we’d all have a Carlos in the stands to come to our rescue!
A sweet, fun, love story, about two people determined not to fall in love... so, after Carlos and his sister rescue Nik they head to a bar and meet up with Nik’s Besties.... I have to say the relationship between these three girls was really the highlight of the story, it was kind of “ Sex in the City“ on the West Coast... I loved how there for one another they were, how supportive, how non-judgemental, and I loved how bourbon and cupcakes cured everything.... Looove strong female friendships in books!
The book perhaps was predictable, but it is a romance, there is generally only one satisfying outcome... for me what makes or breaks a romance is the characters and the chemistry.... this book was filled with wonderful characters including all the secondary characters.... both Nik and Carlos had wonderful friends, and Carlos had an amazing family.... also loved all the food talk, can’t get enough cupcakes, enchiladas, tacos, etc. etc. etc. where this book fell a little short for me was in the chemistry I didn’t always buy into the chemistry between Nik and Carlos... but what I did believe was, they had a very strong connection and friendship, and truth be told that is what will get this fictional couple through the years! My other little niggle was the Los Angeles stereotyping, I grew up in the LA area and we all ate carbs especially Pizza! Just saying😉
Recommend when you are in the mood for a fun Romance filled with fabulous characters!💕
*** A huge thank you to Berkley for my copy of this book ***
September 6, 2018
4 stars!!!
I fell in love with Jasmine Guillory’s fresh and charming debut novel, The Wedding Date, so when I saw she had a new book coming out, I knew I had to read it. This author is not a one-hit wonder. I loved The Proposal just as much as at The Wedding Date. Carlos is an amazing man and I want to be besties with Nik and her girls!
Nik is at a Dodger’s game with her casual boyfriend, Fisher. The very last thing she is expecting at this game is a proposal. I mean, who proposes to someone they’ve been dating for 5 months? And someone they’re not even serious about? Nik is befuddled and of course says no. Fisher storms out and it puts Nik in a position. Thankfully, Carlos and his sister, Angela help Nik out and get her out of there.
Carlos likes Nik right away. There is something about her that draws him to her. Neither one of them are looking for a relationship, but they form this friendship, and that friendship turns into sex. As long as it’s just friends with benefits things will be fine. Nik can’t do a relationship now, and Carlos has too many family things on his plate. But when someone catches the feelings- things get a little tricky.
If you’ve read The Wedding Date, you know Carlos is best friends with Drew. It was nice to get their little cameo in this book. I hope this series of stand-alones continues. I would love to get a book for either one of Jasmine’s friends. I loved both Dana and Courtney!
Carlos was by far my favorite character in this book. He was such a stand-up guy. He wasn’t independent by a strong and independent woman. I love how devoted he was to his family, how he truly cares for people, and he cooks. Don’t we all want a man to cook for us? I just adored him! Nik was great, too. She has a big heart and is a great friend/woman.
If you are a fan of friends to lovers books, The Proposal is one you need to check out. It’s sweet, heartwarming, steamy, and made me laugh out loud several times. I enjoyed this one lots!
I fell in love with Jasmine Guillory’s fresh and charming debut novel, The Wedding Date, so when I saw she had a new book coming out, I knew I had to read it. This author is not a one-hit wonder. I loved The Proposal just as much as at The Wedding Date. Carlos is an amazing man and I want to be besties with Nik and her girls!
Nik is at a Dodger’s game with her casual boyfriend, Fisher. The very last thing she is expecting at this game is a proposal. I mean, who proposes to someone they’ve been dating for 5 months? And someone they’re not even serious about? Nik is befuddled and of course says no. Fisher storms out and it puts Nik in a position. Thankfully, Carlos and his sister, Angela help Nik out and get her out of there.
Carlos likes Nik right away. There is something about her that draws him to her. Neither one of them are looking for a relationship, but they form this friendship, and that friendship turns into sex. As long as it’s just friends with benefits things will be fine. Nik can’t do a relationship now, and Carlos has too many family things on his plate. But when someone catches the feelings- things get a little tricky.
If you’ve read The Wedding Date, you know Carlos is best friends with Drew. It was nice to get their little cameo in this book. I hope this series of stand-alones continues. I would love to get a book for either one of Jasmine’s friends. I loved both Dana and Courtney!
Carlos was by far my favorite character in this book. He was such a stand-up guy. He wasn’t independent by a strong and independent woman. I love how devoted he was to his family, how he truly cares for people, and he cooks. Don’t we all want a man to cook for us? I just adored him! Nik was great, too. She has a big heart and is a great friend/woman.
If you are a fan of friends to lovers books, The Proposal is one you need to check out. It’s sweet, heartwarming, steamy, and made me laugh out loud several times. I enjoyed this one lots!
June 6, 2022
3.5 stars
This book is a prime example of writing a good plot with characters that actually have a personality and a life outside of their relationship.
Okay so the book started off amazing with the super funny and ngl awkward scene at the baseball game and we right away me the love interest.
Carlos and Nik both have great and I mean GREAT character plot lines and personalities.
Both have their own set of plot in here with friends and family and it made the book a lot more interesting and not just a lovey dovey romance book.
The relationship wasn’t too slow nor too fast and the cooking scenes were adorable.
The focus on family and the multiple other characters that all also had a pretty detailed personality for a 300p book were quite impressive.
Now the romance scenes were also adorable and since it was written in 3rd person the switches between povs were quite smooth and unnoticeable which made it a smoother read.
The only reason why it isn’t 5 stars is because in the end, the way Carlos confesses is a bit idk underwhelming and sometimes I thought that especially in the end, the romance was t built enough.
This book is a prime example of writing a good plot with characters that actually have a personality and a life outside of their relationship.
Okay so the book started off amazing with the super funny and ngl awkward scene at the baseball game and we right away me the love interest.
Carlos and Nik both have great and I mean GREAT character plot lines and personalities.
Both have their own set of plot in here with friends and family and it made the book a lot more interesting and not just a lovey dovey romance book.
The relationship wasn’t too slow nor too fast and the cooking scenes were adorable.
The focus on family and the multiple other characters that all also had a pretty detailed personality for a 300p book were quite impressive.
Now the romance scenes were also adorable and since it was written in 3rd person the switches between povs were quite smooth and unnoticeable which made it a smoother read.
The only reason why it isn’t 5 stars is because in the end, the way Carlos confesses is a bit idk underwhelming and sometimes I thought that especially in the end, the romance was t built enough.
December 15, 2018
4.5 stars.
Freelance writer Nikole Paterson is spending a beautiful weekend day at a Dodgers game with Fisher, the guy she has been dating for the past few months, and a bunch of his friends.
"She didn't have anything against baseball, exactly. It was just that she'd rather be spending this beautiful spring day at home with her laptop and a glass of bourbon on the rocks than outside at a baseball stadium with a warm beer. But when the hot dude you were sleeping with wanted to go to a Dodgers game for his birthday, you sucked it up and went along with him and his bros."
The game takes an unexpected turn when Fisher surprises her with a marriage proposal on the Jumbotron, in front of the entire stadium. It isn't fake surprise with which Nik reacts to this proposal—it's utter disbelief. (Plus he spelled her first name wrong.) She and Fisher haven't even said they love each other (and she doesn't love him), much less discuss marriage. But there Fisher is, on one knee in the middle of the stadium, holding a princess ring. She has no choice but to turn him down, disappointing the entire crowd, not to mention raising the ire of Fisher and his bros.
Of course, she wants to crawl into a hole and hide, but there she is, still in her seat as the game goes on. When the camera crew starts to descend upon her, a guy watching the action from a few rows up takes pity on her, and he and his sister extricate Nik from the imminent media feeding frenzy, and spirit her out of the stadium to the relative safety of her best friends.
It turns out Carlos is a pediatrician—and a damned sexy one on top of that, not that Nik noticed. (Well, that much.) But Carlos also spends a lot of his life protecting and caring for his widowed mother, his sister, and the other women in his family, so the rescue role comes easy for him. However, Nikole's beauty isn't lost on him, but he knows better than to let on that he's even remotely attracted to her.
"If she had to pick a strange man to rescue her, at least it was one who was outraged by the right things."
In the days and weeks following the proposal fiasco, Nik finds herself leaning on Carlos more and more, and she can't get him out of her head. Her friends keep encouraging her to have a rebound romance with the sexy doctor, but she isn't sure she needs the complications. For his part, Carlos can't stop thinking of Nik either, and isn't sure exactly what she wants from him—but he knows what he'd like from her.
When the sparks between them finally ignite, they agree that all either of them wants is something casual. They enjoy each other's company, great food, and pretty hot sex. Beyond that, they have an easy, comforting companionship, and each provides the other with the support and encouragement they need. It's the perfect situation—nothing serious, just fun and lots of terrific sex.
You can probably guess how the rest of the book will unfold, and you'd probably be mostly right. But even predicting what will happen (and I wasn't 100 percent right, as I expected a little more melodrama) didn't take away from the appeal of The Proposal . As she did with her first book, The Wedding Date (see my review), Jasmine Guillory hooked me from the very first page. Her characters may have some flaws, but they're just so charming, so much fun, the kind of people I'd probably hate in real life but inexplicably love reading about.
This year has brought many pleasant literary surprises, and chief among them is how much I've come to like so-called "chick lit," or women's fiction. These books have been the perfect foil after too many emotionally laden or intellectually exhausting books, and they've helped bring balance after I start looking at everyone suspiciously because I've read too many thrillers and crime novels at once.
I find the term "chick lit" a bit denigrating, as if the authors writing in this genre don't deserve the same respect as writers of more general fiction. The fact is, much like the young adult genre, there are some terrific, talented writers out there worthy of notice and renown. This year, I've become a huge fan of writers like Guillory, Christina Lauren, and Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I've said on more than one occasion (more like 100 occasions) that I'm a gigantic sap. I'm so glad there are books like The Proposal which are fun reads that also appeal to the sappy part of me. Now I have to wait until July 2019 for Guillory's next book!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
Freelance writer Nikole Paterson is spending a beautiful weekend day at a Dodgers game with Fisher, the guy she has been dating for the past few months, and a bunch of his friends.
"She didn't have anything against baseball, exactly. It was just that she'd rather be spending this beautiful spring day at home with her laptop and a glass of bourbon on the rocks than outside at a baseball stadium with a warm beer. But when the hot dude you were sleeping with wanted to go to a Dodgers game for his birthday, you sucked it up and went along with him and his bros."
The game takes an unexpected turn when Fisher surprises her with a marriage proposal on the Jumbotron, in front of the entire stadium. It isn't fake surprise with which Nik reacts to this proposal—it's utter disbelief. (Plus he spelled her first name wrong.) She and Fisher haven't even said they love each other (and she doesn't love him), much less discuss marriage. But there Fisher is, on one knee in the middle of the stadium, holding a princess ring. She has no choice but to turn him down, disappointing the entire crowd, not to mention raising the ire of Fisher and his bros.
Of course, she wants to crawl into a hole and hide, but there she is, still in her seat as the game goes on. When the camera crew starts to descend upon her, a guy watching the action from a few rows up takes pity on her, and he and his sister extricate Nik from the imminent media feeding frenzy, and spirit her out of the stadium to the relative safety of her best friends.
It turns out Carlos is a pediatrician—and a damned sexy one on top of that, not that Nik noticed. (Well, that much.) But Carlos also spends a lot of his life protecting and caring for his widowed mother, his sister, and the other women in his family, so the rescue role comes easy for him. However, Nikole's beauty isn't lost on him, but he knows better than to let on that he's even remotely attracted to her.
"If she had to pick a strange man to rescue her, at least it was one who was outraged by the right things."
In the days and weeks following the proposal fiasco, Nik finds herself leaning on Carlos more and more, and she can't get him out of her head. Her friends keep encouraging her to have a rebound romance with the sexy doctor, but she isn't sure she needs the complications. For his part, Carlos can't stop thinking of Nik either, and isn't sure exactly what she wants from him—but he knows what he'd like from her.
When the sparks between them finally ignite, they agree that all either of them wants is something casual. They enjoy each other's company, great food, and pretty hot sex. Beyond that, they have an easy, comforting companionship, and each provides the other with the support and encouragement they need. It's the perfect situation—nothing serious, just fun and lots of terrific sex.
You can probably guess how the rest of the book will unfold, and you'd probably be mostly right. But even predicting what will happen (and I wasn't 100 percent right, as I expected a little more melodrama) didn't take away from the appeal of The Proposal . As she did with her first book, The Wedding Date (see my review), Jasmine Guillory hooked me from the very first page. Her characters may have some flaws, but they're just so charming, so much fun, the kind of people I'd probably hate in real life but inexplicably love reading about.
This year has brought many pleasant literary surprises, and chief among them is how much I've come to like so-called "chick lit," or women's fiction. These books have been the perfect foil after too many emotionally laden or intellectually exhausting books, and they've helped bring balance after I start looking at everyone suspiciously because I've read too many thrillers and crime novels at once.
I find the term "chick lit" a bit denigrating, as if the authors writing in this genre don't deserve the same respect as writers of more general fiction. The fact is, much like the young adult genre, there are some terrific, talented writers out there worthy of notice and renown. This year, I've become a huge fan of writers like Guillory, Christina Lauren, and Taylor Jenkins Reid.
I've said on more than one occasion (more like 100 occasions) that I'm a gigantic sap. I'm so glad there are books like The Proposal which are fun reads that also appeal to the sappy part of me. Now I have to wait until July 2019 for Guillory's next book!
See all of my reviews at itseithersadnessoreuphoria.blogspot.com.
September 5, 2018
I received this book for free from the publisher (Berkley Books) in exchange for an honest review.
Please note that I have not read The Wedding Date, so all the characters in this book were brand new to me. I also cannot speak to how this book compares with that book.
It took me forever to read this book because I just started law school, but this was such a fun romance!
First off, I loved the diversity! The main character is black. One of her friends is a plus sized Korean American. The other is a black lesbian. The love interest is Latino. It was just so refreshing to see and read about, especially since the book takes place in Los Angeles which is so diverse.
The premise of being proposed to at a baseball game (if only it wasn’t a Dodgers game- Go Giants!) and saying no was so creative and fun. I could picture this being turned into a great rom-com movie.
I also loved the overall vibe of the book. It felt very LA. Like when I was reading it, I could totally tell that it was LA and I felt like I was there with the characters.
The romance was really good as well. Nik and Carlos made a great couple. I loved their interactions, especially the ones with Carlos’s family. His family is the best.
The ending for me fell a little flat which is why I gave this 4 stars. It ended quickly and I wished that it would have been fleshed out more.
Overall, this was an enjoyable diverse romance!
For more book reviews, be sure to check out my blog: https://oddandbookish.wordpress.com/
Please note that I have not read The Wedding Date, so all the characters in this book were brand new to me. I also cannot speak to how this book compares with that book.
It took me forever to read this book because I just started law school, but this was such a fun romance!
First off, I loved the diversity! The main character is black. One of her friends is a plus sized Korean American. The other is a black lesbian. The love interest is Latino. It was just so refreshing to see and read about, especially since the book takes place in Los Angeles which is so diverse.
The premise of being proposed to at a baseball game (if only it wasn’t a Dodgers game- Go Giants!) and saying no was so creative and fun. I could picture this being turned into a great rom-com movie.
I also loved the overall vibe of the book. It felt very LA. Like when I was reading it, I could totally tell that it was LA and I felt like I was there with the characters.
The romance was really good as well. Nik and Carlos made a great couple. I loved their interactions, especially the ones with Carlos’s family. His family is the best.
The ending for me fell a little flat which is why I gave this 4 stars. It ended quickly and I wished that it would have been fleshed out more.
Overall, this was an enjoyable diverse romance!
For more book reviews, be sure to check out my blog: https://oddandbookish.wordpress.com/
October 29, 2018
'The Proposal' was soooo much fun to read!
As soon as I began reading thew first few pages, I was enjoying the hell out of it.
As per the title, it starts off with a proposal. A disastrous proposal at that. The type where it has not been thought through or even spoken about. Why do people even do this?! And they're alleged grown ups as well.
Luckily, our black main character, Nik (which her casual boyfriend spells as Nic when he proposed. Stupid.) is rescued by Carlos, who is Latino and who becomes her love interest and his sister. The story then unfolds from there.
We follow Nik and Carlos on their own individual journey's as they establish a pretty solid friendship. Aside from our two main characters who I loved, I adored the side characters were pretty phenomenal. (I need a book on them please!). Nik and her friends are actual friendship goals. Their banter, understanding and support of another was so heartwarming. Similarly, I loved Carlos' family. They were such a close-knit family, it was really nice to read and follow them on their journey's as well.
Towards the end, however, the story got sort of ridiculous and was rushed, imo. I don't know why author's always feel the need to add in some sort of mishap in a relationship to keep us on our toes. It doesn't. It just pisses us off. Depending on what the actual mishap is and how it is handled, of course. But this one was just... anticlimactic.
Otherwise, it made me downright happy and giddy. The diversity was awesome and I'll definitely will be picking up more of Jasmine Guillory's upcoming releases.
Thank you to Berkley for a copy of this book.
As soon as I began reading thew first few pages, I was enjoying the hell out of it.
As per the title, it starts off with a proposal. A disastrous proposal at that. The type where it has not been thought through or even spoken about. Why do people even do this?! And they're alleged grown ups as well.
Luckily, our black main character, Nik (which her casual boyfriend spells as Nic when he proposed. Stupid.) is rescued by Carlos, who is Latino and who becomes her love interest and his sister. The story then unfolds from there.
We follow Nik and Carlos on their own individual journey's as they establish a pretty solid friendship. Aside from our two main characters who I loved, I adored the side characters were pretty phenomenal. (I need a book on them please!). Nik and her friends are actual friendship goals. Their banter, understanding and support of another was so heartwarming. Similarly, I loved Carlos' family. They were such a close-knit family, it was really nice to read and follow them on their journey's as well.
Towards the end, however, the story got sort of ridiculous and was rushed, imo. I don't know why author's always feel the need to add in some sort of mishap in a relationship to keep us on our toes. It doesn't. It just pisses us off. Depending on what the actual mishap is and how it is handled, of course. But this one was just... anticlimactic.
Otherwise, it made me downright happy and giddy. The diversity was awesome and I'll definitely will be picking up more of Jasmine Guillory's upcoming releases.
Thank you to Berkley for a copy of this book.
August 10, 2018
This was was a lot of fun! The writing left some things to be desired, but the Los Angeles setting and the characters (Carlos 😍���) made up for that and I'm not mad about it. I definitely enjoyed this one A LOT more than the Wedding Date and I recommend checking this one out when it publishes next month!
I received an advance copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
I received an advance copy of this from the publisher in exchange for an honest review.
October 30, 2018
3.5 fun stars to The Proposal! ⚾️ ⚾️ ⚾️.5
Nikole is dating an actor, and they are on a date like any other with his buddies tagging along, except this time they are a Dodgers game. In front of a stadium filled with cheering fans, he proposes after only five months together.
And Nikole wants and needs to say no. In front of everyone.
Thank goodness for Carlos Ibarra who whisks her away from the cameras and supports her when she takes a few hits on social media . Carlos becomes Nik’s “just for fun” rebound relationship, but will they ever become more?
The Proposal is not one of my typical reads, but I read it at just the right time. I needed a feel-good, engaging, fun read, and this was most definitely it. Jasmine Guillory has an easy writing style, and I enjoyed Nikole’s story. One of the best parts is the cast of characters are diverse. We need more diverse (in every sense!) reads! Now I need to read The Wedding Date to see where these characters make cameos!
Thanks to Berkley for the complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
Nikole is dating an actor, and they are on a date like any other with his buddies tagging along, except this time they are a Dodgers game. In front of a stadium filled with cheering fans, he proposes after only five months together.
And Nikole wants and needs to say no. In front of everyone.
Thank goodness for Carlos Ibarra who whisks her away from the cameras and supports her when she takes a few hits on social media . Carlos becomes Nik’s “just for fun” rebound relationship, but will they ever become more?
The Proposal is not one of my typical reads, but I read it at just the right time. I needed a feel-good, engaging, fun read, and this was most definitely it. Jasmine Guillory has an easy writing style, and I enjoyed Nikole’s story. One of the best parts is the cast of characters are diverse. We need more diverse (in every sense!) reads! Now I need to read The Wedding Date to see where these characters make cameos!
Thanks to Berkley for the complimentary copy. All opinions are my own.
My reviews can also be found on my blog: www.jennifertarheelreader.com
October 26, 2018
Sweet, sizzling, and modern—The Proposal is a sure-fire hit in the women’s fiction and romance worlds this year! It starts with a meet-cute, as many good love stories do. Only, is it still a meet-cute if our protagonist meets her beau by being horrifyingly and publicly embarrassed by her current love interest??? More like a meet-nightmare! From the opening chapter, you will want to know more about Nik and what happens to her after the nightmare of all nightmare dates!
About the Book
Writer and feminist Nik Paterson is at a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend Fisher and some of his friends. Nik knows Fisher is not the one (he has a man bun and doesn’t eat carbs for goodness sake), but the physical chemistry is fantastic and she isn’t in danger of getting emotionally attached.
So no one is more surprised than Nik when she looks up from her phone to find herself broadcast on the jumbo screen in the stadium and Fisher down on one knee proposing. He can’t be serious, Nik thinks to herself. But he is. And when Nik tries to subtly tell him it won’t happen, he storms off with his friends.
Finding herself in the middle of the public eye, with tens of thousands of fans staring and a camera crew in her face, Nik doesn’t know how to escape. Until sexy doctor Carlos from a few rows back rushes in to rescue her.
What unfolds is a public humiliation that Nik is unprepared for, and an unlikely ally. Over some fun, casual non-dates and some steamy nights, Nik and Carlos are on the same page about keeping this at a friend-level only. But what happens when one of them starts to catch real feelings?
Reflection
This book is 100% pure fun and delight to read! I am on my branching out tour, and romance is a genre I steer clear of normally. I always think of it as being ridiculous-sappy or erotica, with little room in between. But this book proved this skeptic WRONG! The Proposal is the romantic comedy of the 2018 book world, and I absolutely loved it! It was packed with humor, sizzling chemistry, and enough “awwwww” moments to keep this reader hooked until the last page!
Nik is a truly fantastic character. I loved how she is tough but a bit vulnerable, and fiercely loyal. Nik is not a people pleaser—she is very frank and honest. But years of bad dating experiences may have built some walls around her, and she isn’t as open as she should be to love. Nik is also fiercely loyal. One aspect of this book that I adored was the friendship between Nik, Courtney, and Dana. Their friendship made me so happy, and I loved the way Guillory wrote their interactions. Courtney and Dana are the type of friends who will key the car of a guy who wronged you, read text messages you are too afraid to open, and push you towards something that will make you happy.
And then we have Carlos, who has such a sweet relationship with his family. All of the vulnerable moments he has with Nik just melted my heart. What a guy! I think many readers will find themselves shouting out while reading this saying “can’t you two see you are in love???” But that would have made for a much shorter book, so we are lucky they are so out of touch with their own hearts.
A truly loveable story that has made many must-read lists in the women’s world this fall. And I must say those are well-deserved! Thank you to the team at Berkley for my copy to review.
I read this with some book besties!!! We had an absolutely blast!
About the Book
Writer and feminist Nik Paterson is at a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend Fisher and some of his friends. Nik knows Fisher is not the one (he has a man bun and doesn’t eat carbs for goodness sake), but the physical chemistry is fantastic and she isn’t in danger of getting emotionally attached.
So no one is more surprised than Nik when she looks up from her phone to find herself broadcast on the jumbo screen in the stadium and Fisher down on one knee proposing. He can’t be serious, Nik thinks to herself. But he is. And when Nik tries to subtly tell him it won’t happen, he storms off with his friends.
Finding herself in the middle of the public eye, with tens of thousands of fans staring and a camera crew in her face, Nik doesn’t know how to escape. Until sexy doctor Carlos from a few rows back rushes in to rescue her.
What unfolds is a public humiliation that Nik is unprepared for, and an unlikely ally. Over some fun, casual non-dates and some steamy nights, Nik and Carlos are on the same page about keeping this at a friend-level only. But what happens when one of them starts to catch real feelings?
Reflection
This book is 100% pure fun and delight to read! I am on my branching out tour, and romance is a genre I steer clear of normally. I always think of it as being ridiculous-sappy or erotica, with little room in between. But this book proved this skeptic WRONG! The Proposal is the romantic comedy of the 2018 book world, and I absolutely loved it! It was packed with humor, sizzling chemistry, and enough “awwwww” moments to keep this reader hooked until the last page!
Nik is a truly fantastic character. I loved how she is tough but a bit vulnerable, and fiercely loyal. Nik is not a people pleaser—she is very frank and honest. But years of bad dating experiences may have built some walls around her, and she isn’t as open as she should be to love. Nik is also fiercely loyal. One aspect of this book that I adored was the friendship between Nik, Courtney, and Dana. Their friendship made me so happy, and I loved the way Guillory wrote their interactions. Courtney and Dana are the type of friends who will key the car of a guy who wronged you, read text messages you are too afraid to open, and push you towards something that will make you happy.
And then we have Carlos, who has such a sweet relationship with his family. All of the vulnerable moments he has with Nik just melted my heart. What a guy! I think many readers will find themselves shouting out while reading this saying “can’t you two see you are in love???” But that would have made for a much shorter book, so we are lucky they are so out of touch with their own hearts.
A truly loveable story that has made many must-read lists in the women’s world this fall. And I must say those are well-deserved! Thank you to the team at Berkley for my copy to review.
I read this with some book besties!!! We had an absolutely blast!
December 26, 2018
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This book took me a long time to read - not because it was bad, but because it was so sweet and fluffy that I couldn't really stomach finishing it all in a single session. THE PROPOSAL would nearly be saccharine if not for the fact that it tackles some pretty relevant issues for women and features a very large and diverse cast of relatable characters with relatable problems. Reading it kind of made me feel like I was experiencing a book written by an extremely woke Meg Cabot; it's got that same bubbly vibe, but one that exists outside of the pumpkin spice latte basic AF white girl sphere.
Our heroine, Nikole, is dating a fratty douchebag actor named Fisher. He doesn't take her very seriously, and you just know he's the type of guy who would drop a "not all men" into conversation. The relationship is in its infancy and not particularly good, so Nikole is as shocked as anyone when he suddenly proposes to her on the JumboTron at the baseball game he dragged her to after just a few months of dating. Obviously, she turns him down. Obviously, this country being what it is, the crowd turns on her - a woman of color, turning down an attractive white man - and just when things are about to get ugly, Carlos Ibarra and his sister, Angela, decide to save her from the crowd.
Carlos, the hero, is a Latinx pediatrician (swoon) with a huge family and a fondness for cooking. He's gentlemanly but not chauvanistic; living in a family filled with strong women has taught him how to be respectful without overstepping his bounds, and he's smart enough to listen to what the women around him want and try to do that to show he cares. He's immediately attracted to Nikole, and is super supportive of her when her rejection of him goes viral and basically becomes a meme. This support blossoms into friendship when they realize that they actually have a lot in common, and eventually that friendship turns into something sexual when they can't deny their mutual attraction.
I liked this book a lot. Carlos's family was awesome - his sister, his cousin, his mom, his aunt: they were all great. I liked that he was also vulnerable; his sorrow over his father's death, his struggle to be masculine and a provider, and his phobia over going to the doctor all made him seem much more approachable and relatable than most romance heroes are allowed to be. Nikole was great too, and I loved her friends and how they all supported each other. The women's self defense gym was also a nice touch, as were the dialogues about empowered physicality and safe spaces.
The only thing I really didn't like about this book was the Big Misunderstanding that happens in the last act. This is pretty typical of most romance novels as a way to amp up the tension, and I kind of wondered if something like this was coming since their relationship was smooth sailing for most of the book. Seeing it coming didn't make me like it any more, though. I can't stand this trope. I was also angry because it made me mad at Nikole for treating Carlos that way, even though it was basically a gender-flip of the "I don't do relationships" men in romance novels who are so frightened by their own burgeoning romantic feelings that they feel like they have to lash out against the love interest.
Overall, though, THE PROPOSAL was really great. I love that there are romance novels coming out featuring diverse characters who don't read like cliches. Bar that last act, everyone in here was super likable and relatable and the romance is very modern and respectful. I'd read more by Ms. Guillory.
Thanks to Netgalley/the publisher for the review copy!
3 to 3.5 stars
February 25, 2019
Why did I do that? Why didn't I stop at the end of chapter one and throw this book out my window? Who recommended this to me? How will they pay? These were my only questions when I finished this cliché-ridden, trite, rom-com book.
August 16, 2018
I had loved Carlos in The Wedding Date and was thrilled to see that he was getting his own story, so when I got The invite to read this one, I couldn’t wait to get to it.
I love love loved Nik. She’s sarcastic and witty and smart af. Her friends Dana and Courtney were fun and I adored the scenes with the three of them together. Of course I was familiar with Carlos and he didn’t disappoint. He’s supportive and a complete marshmallow. I was so happy to see Alexa and Drew and I’m 1000% here for more scenes of all four of them.
Plot wise, it was, in a word, comfortable, and I mean that in a good way. Nik and Carlos build a relationship out of friendship first and it works. It’s absolutely adorable and when the inevitable conflict happens, I was crushed. Thankfully, it didn’t last long and I loved the grand gesture.
Overall, I loved this story more than the first one. It’s filled with women supporting women, has a cast of diverse characters, and loads of body positivity. My only complaint is that I wanted more at the end.
**Huge thanks to Berkley Books for providing the arc free of charge**
I love love loved Nik. She’s sarcastic and witty and smart af. Her friends Dana and Courtney were fun and I adored the scenes with the three of them together. Of course I was familiar with Carlos and he didn’t disappoint. He’s supportive and a complete marshmallow. I was so happy to see Alexa and Drew and I’m 1000% here for more scenes of all four of them.
Plot wise, it was, in a word, comfortable, and I mean that in a good way. Nik and Carlos build a relationship out of friendship first and it works. It’s absolutely adorable and when the inevitable conflict happens, I was crushed. Thankfully, it didn’t last long and I loved the grand gesture.
Overall, I loved this story more than the first one. It’s filled with women supporting women, has a cast of diverse characters, and loads of body positivity. My only complaint is that I wanted more at the end.
**Huge thanks to Berkley Books for providing the arc free of charge**
May 25, 2019
I adored this companion novel to The Wedding Date. We get to know Carlos, who I was THIRSTING to become more well acquainted with, who saves Nik from a mortifying public proposal gone wrong from her very short-term boyfriend. Apart from the slow-burn romance done well, I loved how it put bigger topics in perspective, such as discussing marriage before suddenly popping a proposal.
Carlos also discusses his identity as a Latinx American man, and Nik discusses how, after the proposal went viral, she was treated as a Black woman in media. There is a sliding-scale, woman-owned self-defence gym, and a side character who experiences prenatal complications and is diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.
Also - have you heard? I'm a co-blogger now over at The Quiet Pond!
CLICK HERE FOR MY FULL, DETAILED REVIEW OF THE PROPOSAL :)
Carlos also discusses his identity as a Latinx American man, and Nik discusses how, after the proposal went viral, she was treated as a Black woman in media. There is a sliding-scale, woman-owned self-defence gym, and a side character who experiences prenatal complications and is diagnosed with pre-eclampsia.
Also - have you heard? I'm a co-blogger now over at The Quiet Pond!
CLICK HERE FOR MY FULL, DETAILED REVIEW OF THE PROPOSAL :)
February 12, 2022
4.5 When Oh, So Bad Turns Into Oh, So Great Stars
Don't Miss Out, Only $1.99
* * * * 1/2 Spoiler Free
We have all been there...That situation where we wish the ground would open up and suck you in...only so that you would not be the center of attention and have everyone looking at you. There can be any number of reasons for that type of feeling...a small gathering of friends and something is said that causes an uproar...or your business PowerPoint is going along great and then that weird slide pops up making no sense...
Or
You could be Nikole Paterson, award-winning independent journalist, sitting at a Dodger game with her actor boyfriend of five months wishing this game were over so she could be home relaxing on her own. Instead she was pushed to celebrate his birthday with his "Bros" at the game. Nikole has been contemplating as to why she is even with him...and then she remembers she does like the sex...but that is about all. She is deep in her thoughts and scanning her phone when the boyfriend tugs on her arm yelling to look up.
At first, Nikole can't figure out what the deal is...then she sees someone is proposing to a Nicole on the JumboTron and immediately wonders why anyone would do that...Only to then see the boyfriend down on one knee Proposing to Her!!!
IS HE NUTS??? Nikole tries to get him to be normal and settle down. She does not want to embarrass him in front of his friends and the world. Her mind is racing because he never even talked to her about these types of feelings and if he had, she would have shut it down. This is not going well and he will not listen to her polite comments... instead he starts to get upset and then storms off, leaving her there.
Nikole cannot believe this is happening and as she sits there pretending she is fine...
Carlos Ibarra and his sister have watched the entire thing from two rows above. They saw how she tried to be gracious and kind and not have it get out of control. They saw how the guy was an asshat and left her. Now Carlos is concerned. He is watching as Nikole is attempting to look ok and not frazzled. But when a camera crew starts to approach, Carlos tells his sister they are going to help her. They go to block the crew and pretend to be friends, whisking her away.
As they get to the parking lot, Nikole turns to thank both of them and says she will get a ride from Uber or Lyft and not to worry about her. Carlos refuses and insists on driving her to the bar where her girlfriends are waiting. Once at the bar, Nikole insists they come in for a drink on her as a thank you.
Nikole is thankful for her friends are there. She has a solid set who are the world to her. Each of them knows her well and they are like sisters. Nikole starts to retell the story...how the guy even spelled her name wrong...on that everyone howled.
Carols watched Nikole and thought about what an amazing person she was. To have dealt with such an idiot and still be able to laugh with her pals. He liked the way the lights hit her curls and the sparkle of her eyes. He thought she was lovely but at the same time saw flicks of pain. Carlos knew it was time for them to leave when the conversation became a little personal and Nikole would need to just have her crew by her side. Saying goodbye, Carlos and Nikole felt as if they had made a little connection.
When the ladies went to pay their bar and food bill, Nikole discovered Carlos had taken care of it. This gave her the excuse to send an email to thank him.
And that was the beginning of something Oh So Great.
This was a terrific read. It covered so much. It had a multicultural relationship which was there but then not at all there...It nods to differences yet also just told the universal story of two people working through whether they could love, period. Nikole had issues about love... scared to death of it. Carlos thought he was in the same place but as time progressed, he got hit in the face with his feelings. I love it when a guy can be so smitten. What also worked was that they became friends first, then venturing into more.
And Boy Oh Boy...These two knew how to tear it up...Just Sayin' Yum Yum
This was delightful and proved something terrible can happen... but because of that horrible thing...something wonderful can come out of it. I cannot wait to see what Jasmine Guillory comes up with next.
The Wedding Date (The Wedding Date #1)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Proposal (The Wedding Date #2)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date #3)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Royal Holiday (The Wedding Date #4)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Party of Two (The Wedding Date #5)
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
~~~~~ Before Reading ~~~~~
Just as Nikole Paterson was trying to figure out how much longer she was stuck at this Dodger game with her sort-of boyfriend...
He gets the Genius Idea of dropping on one knee and proposing while their faces were plastered all over the Jumbotron!
Yup, he turned out to be one of those clueless guys...
I mean, he Never acted during the 5 months of their dating he was even that into her...
After Nik tries to let him down gently...he leaves her there in the stands alone...
Carlos Ibarra sees this woman a few rows in front of him. When a camera crew starts to approach, Carlos and his sister decide to whisk her away. What starts as a good deed soon becomes something else...and both of them have to thank...
The Proposal- September 4, 2018
A gifted copy was provided by Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley for an honest review.
For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
Don't Miss Out, Only $1.99
* * * * 1/2 Spoiler Free
We have all been there...That situation where we wish the ground would open up and suck you in...only so that you would not be the center of attention and have everyone looking at you. There can be any number of reasons for that type of feeling...a small gathering of friends and something is said that causes an uproar...or your business PowerPoint is going along great and then that weird slide pops up making no sense...
Or
You could be Nikole Paterson, award-winning independent journalist, sitting at a Dodger game with her actor boyfriend of five months wishing this game were over so she could be home relaxing on her own. Instead she was pushed to celebrate his birthday with his "Bros" at the game. Nikole has been contemplating as to why she is even with him...and then she remembers she does like the sex...but that is about all. She is deep in her thoughts and scanning her phone when the boyfriend tugs on her arm yelling to look up.
At first, Nikole can't figure out what the deal is...then she sees someone is proposing to a Nicole on the JumboTron and immediately wonders why anyone would do that...Only to then see the boyfriend down on one knee Proposing to Her!!!
IS HE NUTS??? Nikole tries to get him to be normal and settle down. She does not want to embarrass him in front of his friends and the world. Her mind is racing because he never even talked to her about these types of feelings and if he had, she would have shut it down. This is not going well and he will not listen to her polite comments... instead he starts to get upset and then storms off, leaving her there.
Nikole cannot believe this is happening and as she sits there pretending she is fine...
Carlos Ibarra and his sister have watched the entire thing from two rows above. They saw how she tried to be gracious and kind and not have it get out of control. They saw how the guy was an asshat and left her. Now Carlos is concerned. He is watching as Nikole is attempting to look ok and not frazzled. But when a camera crew starts to approach, Carlos tells his sister they are going to help her. They go to block the crew and pretend to be friends, whisking her away.
As they get to the parking lot, Nikole turns to thank both of them and says she will get a ride from Uber or Lyft and not to worry about her. Carlos refuses and insists on driving her to the bar where her girlfriends are waiting. Once at the bar, Nikole insists they come in for a drink on her as a thank you.
Nikole is thankful for her friends are there. She has a solid set who are the world to her. Each of them knows her well and they are like sisters. Nikole starts to retell the story...how the guy even spelled her name wrong...on that everyone howled.
Carols watched Nikole and thought about what an amazing person she was. To have dealt with such an idiot and still be able to laugh with her pals. He liked the way the lights hit her curls and the sparkle of her eyes. He thought she was lovely but at the same time saw flicks of pain. Carlos knew it was time for them to leave when the conversation became a little personal and Nikole would need to just have her crew by her side. Saying goodbye, Carlos and Nikole felt as if they had made a little connection.
When the ladies went to pay their bar and food bill, Nikole discovered Carlos had taken care of it. This gave her the excuse to send an email to thank him.
And that was the beginning of something Oh So Great.
This was a terrific read. It covered so much. It had a multicultural relationship which was there but then not at all there...It nods to differences yet also just told the universal story of two people working through whether they could love, period. Nikole had issues about love... scared to death of it. Carlos thought he was in the same place but as time progressed, he got hit in the face with his feelings. I love it when a guy can be so smitten. What also worked was that they became friends first, then venturing into more.
And Boy Oh Boy...These two knew how to tear it up...Just Sayin' Yum Yum
This was delightful and proved something terrible can happen... but because of that horrible thing...something wonderful can come out of it. I cannot wait to see what Jasmine Guillory comes up with next.
The Wedding Date (The Wedding Date #1) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Proposal (The Wedding Date #2) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Wedding Party (The Wedding Date #3) https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Royal Holiday (The Wedding Date #4)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Party of Two (The Wedding Date #5)https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
~~~~~ Before Reading ~~~~~
Just as Nikole Paterson was trying to figure out how much longer she was stuck at this Dodger game with her sort-of boyfriend...
He gets the Genius Idea of dropping on one knee and proposing while their faces were plastered all over the Jumbotron!
Yup, he turned out to be one of those clueless guys...
I mean, he Never acted during the 5 months of their dating he was even that into her...
After Nik tries to let him down gently...he leaves her there in the stands alone...
Carlos Ibarra sees this woman a few rows in front of him. When a camera crew starts to approach, Carlos and his sister decide to whisk her away. What starts as a good deed soon becomes something else...and both of them have to thank...
The Proposal- September 4, 2018
A gifted copy was provided by Berkley Publishing Group via NetGalley for an honest review.
For more Reviews, Free E-books and Giveaways
October 30, 2018
2 stars
This book started out strong and halfway through completely fizzled out for me. I really enjoyed this author's debut book The Wedding Date, and at first I thought this one was similar, but by the end it wasn't even in the same ballpark (pun intended).
I love that Berkley is publishing more work by authors of color and books with characters who are persons of color, so I was glad to see this book. I hope Berkley continues to publish books like these because they are needed. The story in this one just wasn't more me, I wish things had been more fleshed out.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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This book started out strong and halfway through completely fizzled out for me. I really enjoyed this author's debut book The Wedding Date, and at first I thought this one was similar, but by the end it wasn't even in the same ballpark (pun intended).
I love that Berkley is publishing more work by authors of color and books with characters who are persons of color, so I was glad to see this book. I hope Berkley continues to publish books like these because they are needed. The story in this one just wasn't more me, I wish things had been more fleshed out.
ARC provided by the publisher in exchange for an honest review
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October 25, 2018
The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory is a sweet, charming, and fun romantic novel.
This was my first read by this author and definitely won't be my last! This was a very cute plot.... Nik had her boyfriend propose to her at a baseball game in front of everyone... and let's not forget to add that she turns him down in front of the entire world. Talk about embarrassment!!! This adds the perfect scene for an entertaining romance with a hint of sassy spice :).
What I enjoyed about this book was the diversity in characters. I hate seeing novels with the typical cookie cutter couples. But, at times I did feel it was a bit over the top with diversity? If that makes sense? I think the author could have pulled it back a little bit.
All the characters were fun.. I especially loved Courtney. I thought she was hilarious.
This is a romance novel that isn't over the top.. or too graphic. So for my newly fans of romance this would be perfect for you!
Only minor issue I had was it was a tad bit predictable. This was a fun and super easy read.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Berkley publishing for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest thoughts.
3.5 stars!
Expected publication date: 10/30/18
Published to GR: 9/9/18
This was my first read by this author and definitely won't be my last! This was a very cute plot.... Nik had her boyfriend propose to her at a baseball game in front of everyone... and let's not forget to add that she turns him down in front of the entire world. Talk about embarrassment!!! This adds the perfect scene for an entertaining romance with a hint of sassy spice :).
What I enjoyed about this book was the diversity in characters. I hate seeing novels with the typical cookie cutter couples. But, at times I did feel it was a bit over the top with diversity? If that makes sense? I think the author could have pulled it back a little bit.
All the characters were fun.. I especially loved Courtney. I thought she was hilarious.
This is a romance novel that isn't over the top.. or too graphic. So for my newly fans of romance this would be perfect for you!
Only minor issue I had was it was a tad bit predictable. This was a fun and super easy read.
Thank you so much to Netgalley and Berkley publishing for the opportunity to read this in exchange for my honest thoughts.
3.5 stars!
Expected publication date: 10/30/18
Published to GR: 9/9/18
July 27, 2018
The Proposal features two likable lead characters that meet under incredibly awkward but memorable circumstances. This new-found acquaintanceship leads to more opportunities to connect until a no-strings-attached romance blooms. Each have past and present circumstances that make this type of non-relationship ideal, and although the ending may be predictable, this romance trope is a winner for a reason: the journey to the last page is typically filled with plenty of sexy fun.
The Proposal hits the mark with its characters. Jasmine Guillory uses her characters to showcase elements of feminism, diversity, inclusion, and the concept that love doesn't always have to feel like a trap. In my opinion, the writing is dialogue heavy and very easy to read (which may be a positive or negative based on reader preference), and there are appreciated nods to the importance of family and physical health. There's also lots of cupcakes and laughter-inducing rosé wine, but I liked that this book was not just about these two characters and their romance. We also get to meet family and besties and are privy to some great bonding moments.
This was my first reading experience with this author and I liked it overall. The theme of female empowerment runs strong and Guillory writes a believably respectful hero that compliments our heroine well. Overall, a smile-worthy storyline that many readers will likely enjoy.
Access to an advance reader's copy (ARC) of The Proposal was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This generosity did not impact my honesty when rating/reviewing.
Source: NetGalley
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Genres: Multicultural Interest, Romance
Pub Date: October 30, 2018
The Proposal hits the mark with its characters. Jasmine Guillory uses her characters to showcase elements of feminism, diversity, inclusion, and the concept that love doesn't always have to feel like a trap. In my opinion, the writing is dialogue heavy and very easy to read (which may be a positive or negative based on reader preference), and there are appreciated nods to the importance of family and physical health. There's also lots of cupcakes and laughter-inducing rosé wine, but I liked that this book was not just about these two characters and their romance. We also get to meet family and besties and are privy to some great bonding moments.
This was my first reading experience with this author and I liked it overall. The theme of female empowerment runs strong and Guillory writes a believably respectful hero that compliments our heroine well. Overall, a smile-worthy storyline that many readers will likely enjoy.
Access to an advance reader's copy (ARC) of The Proposal was provided by the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This generosity did not impact my honesty when rating/reviewing.
Source: NetGalley
Author: Jasmine Guillory
Publisher: Berkley Publishing Group
Genres: Multicultural Interest, Romance
Pub Date: October 30, 2018
February 18, 2019
Really liked this! Carlos was a more enjoyable character for me than Drew (the first book's lead) was. There were great discussions about feminism, expectations of women of color, and there was a short scene with a side character who talked about a past abusive relationship that I loved.
You do NOT need to have read The Wedding Date to read this, but those characters are mentioned and make an appearance. They seemed to only be included for fans of the first book but did not impact the plot of this story. This WILL spoil the end of The Wedding Date though.
Audiobook review: Great narration! Would highly recommend the audio format.
Representation: Black MC, Latinx MC. Black and lesbian side character. Fat and Korean side character. Latinx side characters.
tw: preeclampsia during pregnancy in a side character, mentioned often. Abusive relationship of a side character, mentioned briefly. Nik's ex says some racist things to her in the few scenes he's in. Grief/mourning a parent.
You do NOT need to have read The Wedding Date to read this, but those characters are mentioned and make an appearance. They seemed to only be included for fans of the first book but did not impact the plot of this story. This WILL spoil the end of The Wedding Date though.
Audiobook review: Great narration! Would highly recommend the audio format.
Representation: Black MC, Latinx MC. Black and lesbian side character. Fat and Korean side character. Latinx side characters.
tw: preeclampsia during pregnancy in a side character, mentioned often. Abusive relationship of a side character, mentioned briefly. Nik's ex says some racist things to her in the few scenes he's in. Grief/mourning a parent.
July 2, 2018
This might not have been the perfect romance read I was looking for but there were a couple of things I did enjoy. First of all, I always appreciate when a book has a diverse cast of characters. I also really liked the premise of the book which involves a woman at a Dodgers game with her boyfriend and he surprises her with a wedding proposal with everyone in the stadium watching on the Jumbotron. It was very easy to relate to her feeling of horror as I would have hated it if my husband had proposed to me in such a public way.
The rest of the story is a typical romance which I would have enjoyed much more if I felt more invested in the main characters. To me, in the romance genre in order to love a book you really have to root for the characters and feel their chemistry together. I just felt indifferent towards the characters. I'm not really sure why that is the case but it is what it is. I'm sure others will love this book though, especially since it features characters, including Carlos, who were featured in the author's previous book, The Wedding Date.
Thank you to First to Read for the opportunity to read an advance digital copy! I was under no obligation to post a review and all views expressed are my honest opinion.
The rest of the story is a typical romance which I would have enjoyed much more if I felt more invested in the main characters. To me, in the romance genre in order to love a book you really have to root for the characters and feel their chemistry together. I just felt indifferent towards the characters. I'm not really sure why that is the case but it is what it is. I'm sure others will love this book though, especially since it features characters, including Carlos, who were featured in the author's previous book, The Wedding Date.
Thank you to First to Read for the opportunity to read an advance digital copy! I was under no obligation to post a review and all views expressed are my honest opinion.
June 15, 2020
4.5 Stars
2020 Reread
In 2018 I read Jasmine Guillory's first novel The Wedding Date and I fell absolutely in love with it. I was shocked because I don't usually love Contemporary Romance or really any Romance at all. I tend to prefer dark and depressing romances. The kind that usually don't end with a happy ending. But since reading The Wedding Date last year I been expanding my horizons and reading more Contemporary Romance.
Some have been good but most have been just okay. And none have hit me like The Wedding Date did. So I finally decided to break down and buy the next 2 books in The Wedding Date series The Proposal and The Wedding Party.
Nikole Paterson a black woman goes to a Dodgers game with her boyfriend of only 5 months and his friends. Without warning her boyfriend decides to propose on the Jumbotron, she obviously says no, incurring the wrath of the crowd who all loudly boo her and harass her online.
Carlos Ibarra(best friend of Drew from The Wedding Date) who is at the game with his sister comes to Nik's rescue.
And I think we all know what happens next.....They fall in love but first they get to know each other and actually become friends as well as lovers.
I didn't love The Proposal as much as The Wedding Date but I still had a whole lot of fun reading it. The Proposal was cheesy and corny but I liked it. I loved the small glimpses we got of Carlos in The Wedding Date and I enjoyed getting to know him and his family better. Nik was a great love interest and I loved the fact that she wasn't fawning all over Carlos and that they came to care for each other in a realistic way.
I also wanted to say one thing about Jasmine Guillory, I've heard a lot of people say she's overrated and I just don't agree. I don't think its possible for a black woman to be overrated.
Do I think that more black female authors should be getting attention?
Yes! But I don't believe putting down one black woman will help to raise others up.
Read this book and SUPPORT BLACK AND BROWN AUTHORS!
2020 Reread
In 2018 I read Jasmine Guillory's first novel The Wedding Date and I fell absolutely in love with it. I was shocked because I don't usually love Contemporary Romance or really any Romance at all. I tend to prefer dark and depressing romances. The kind that usually don't end with a happy ending. But since reading The Wedding Date last year I been expanding my horizons and reading more Contemporary Romance.
Some have been good but most have been just okay. And none have hit me like The Wedding Date did. So I finally decided to break down and buy the next 2 books in The Wedding Date series The Proposal and The Wedding Party.
Nikole Paterson a black woman goes to a Dodgers game with her boyfriend of only 5 months and his friends. Without warning her boyfriend decides to propose on the Jumbotron, she obviously says no, incurring the wrath of the crowd who all loudly boo her and harass her online.
Carlos Ibarra(best friend of Drew from The Wedding Date) who is at the game with his sister comes to Nik's rescue.
And I think we all know what happens next.....They fall in love but first they get to know each other and actually become friends as well as lovers.
I didn't love The Proposal as much as The Wedding Date but I still had a whole lot of fun reading it. The Proposal was cheesy and corny but I liked it. I loved the small glimpses we got of Carlos in The Wedding Date and I enjoyed getting to know him and his family better. Nik was a great love interest and I loved the fact that she wasn't fawning all over Carlos and that they came to care for each other in a realistic way.
I also wanted to say one thing about Jasmine Guillory, I've heard a lot of people say she's overrated and I just don't agree. I don't think its possible for a black woman to be overrated.
Do I think that more black female authors should be getting attention?
Yes! But I don't believe putting down one black woman will help to raise others up.
Read this book and SUPPORT BLACK AND BROWN AUTHORS!
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