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Wow! Brock & Piper’s Steamy Seattle Romance Is A Great Addition To The Bossy Suits Series....
Commenté aux États-Unis 🇺🇸 le 16 décembre 2022
Both Are Serious-Minded, But While Brock Is Cranky, Piper Is A Breath Of Fresh Air. Their Enemies-To-Lovers Story Reflects Real-Life Issues In The Age Of The Internet. Piper Is A Medium-Grade Influencer & Brock’s Company Is Subject To Online Reviews That Can Easily Go Sideways Without Good Reason. Don’t Forget To Download The Free Flash-Forward Via The Link At The Back Of The Book!
ABOUT THIS BOOK:
This is book three in the Bossy Seattle Suits series about bossy billionaires and the quirky women they fall for. This series follows the Chicago-based Bad Chicago Bosses series. Though this Seattle series is somewhat similar, it does have a slightly different feel.
So far, the Bossy Seattle Suits series includes:
1. One Bossy Proposal (Lincoln Burns & Dakota Poe’s story)
2. One Bossy Dare (Cole Lancaster & Eliza Angelo’s story)
3. One Bossy Date (Brock Winthrope & Piper Renee’s story)
Fans will be thrilled as they come across a plethora of crossover references to other books by the author.
From book one, Lincoln’s Haughty But Nice is featured in the story. Lincoln’s friend Wyatt is mentioned as well, along with his girlfriend Meadow. Wyatt spent a year or two in Heart’s Edge in his youth.
Wired Cup from book two – which is Cole Lancaster’s company – gets lots of mentions. It is no surprise since Brock Winthrope, the hero here, was introduced there and played a supporting role in Cole’s story. The two do business together.
Sweeter Grind, a Wired Cup competitor out of Heart’s Edge, gets some mention as well. It comes from book three, No Broken Beast, a must-read book in the Heroes of Heart’s Edge series.
Also from Heart’s Edge is Piper’s father, Harold Renee.
This story revisits Chicago and the Bad Chicago Bosses series, where Ward and Nick Brandt’s stories are told in books two and three. Winthrope Chicago, a Winthrope location that opened a couple years ago, was designed by the Brandts. Ross Winthrope, Brock’s grandfather, hired the Brandts to design his new hotel shortly before his retirement. Ross played a minor role in that series and he returns here.
FROM ONE BOSSY PROPOSAL, BOOK 1:
This story opens in the spring in Seattle.
Dakota Poe, twenty-four, has a lot of attitude. The jaded blonde beauty has a super sweet side, but she also has a strong feisty streak that won’t be tamed. That might be especially true in the last year. She recently moved to Seattle and hopes to make it her forever home. She comes from Dallas, North Dakota. Many of Dallas’s younger folks eventually move away to bigger cities, but until last spring, Dakota had hoped to stay. Jay Foyt broke her heart and forever crushed her dreams of a happily ever after when he failed to show up on their wedding day. Being abandoned and humiliated is hard to live down in a small town. She no longer believes in love, so she is working on her career. She pounced on the opportunity when presented with a job offer in Seattle, but the pay leaves something to be desired and the work is not rewarding. She is therefore looking for something better. Dakota loves writing, and like her distant relative, she gravitates toward poetry. Being related to Edgar Allen Poe has long led to jokes, but she shares in the dark vibe of her ancestor. She won the Young National Poet’s award while in high school, and she hopes to eventually find more time to pursue her poetry.
Lincoln Burns, thirty-two, is the bossy billionaire CEO of Haughty But Nice, an upscale fashion empire. Their focus is quality, and they tend to steer away from over-the-top designs. It is a family company, and he took over the helm when his mother retired shortly after his father’s death. Lincoln worked his way through his grief and has not stopped since. He has brought modern business ideas to the job, and it has paid off in spades. His newest project is the launch of a wedding line. If they can pull it off, it stands to become a lucrative addition to their offerings. But the endeavor isn’t cheap, so there is also great risk. The marketing will be critical to their success. Besides grieving his father’s death, Lincoln’s workaholic tendencies have a few more motivations. His best friend, Wyatt Emory, has had a rough time since they left the Marines. Lincoln took note of the power of love to ruin a man. His own experience with love blew up, too, when plans to spend his life with Regina Swann ended in disaster. Even his parents’ perfect marriage had a lesson for him. Lincoln has decided that work, not love, is a more worthwhile use of time, and with Haughty But Nice, he has found purpose. He only does one-nighters, but even those haven’t interested him in quite some time.
When Lincoln makes his usual stop at Sweeter Grind for their famous Regis roll, he panics when he learns that they have sold out. The last roll went to the woman in front of him in line, so it should be an easy fix. When the little firecracker refuses his attempts to sway her into giving up the treat, he finally walks away in disgust. When she shows up a few days later for an interview for the copywriting position to help launch the new wedding line, he hopes to quickly dismiss her, but she seems to impress the rest of his team. Before he knows it, he is offering to pay her top dollar to accept the job. As Lincoln and Dakota embark on a combative work relationship, their chemistry is probably obvious to everyone except themselves. Their walls slowly begin to crumble, but there are rules against an office relationship. The couple eventually earns a very happy ending.
FROM ONE BOSSY DARE, BOOK 2:
This story opens during the summer in Seattle. Lincoln and Dakota have already welcomed baby girl Evermore into the world.
Eliza Angelo, twenty-six, lives and breathes coffee. She believes that a good cup of coffee can make a difference in a person’s day. Eliza bores easily, but she can lose herself in devising the perfect cup of java. For her, brewing coffee is an art. She has been perfecting her methods and writing down her recipes for years. It is her dream to open her own coffee shop one day, naming it Liza’s Love. Her job as a virtual assistant helps her pay the bills in the meantime and gives her the flexibility she needs to make her coffee experiments her priority. Without some serious savings, though, her dreams only get farther away. Money has never really motivated Eliza, but then again, without it she cannot fulfill her dream. She has decided that she does not need romantic complications in her life, devoting herself instead to her love of coffee.
Cole Lancaster Jr., thirty-seven, is the billionaire CEO of Wired Cup Inc., a well-established regional chain of coffee shops headquartered in Seattle and known for its reliable brew. The Lancasters are coffee royalty. Cole is the fourth generation to run his family-owned business, and he hopes to pass it on to his daughter one day. Destiny may be a handful at fifteen, but she is a great kid and he knows how lucky he is. She will leave for college in a few years, and he will hardly know what to do with himself. His late wife Aster died ten years ago, making Cole a single father. The police in Hawaii told him it was an accident, but it never made sense in Cole’s mind. He has avoided returning to the family farm he inherited there ever since. Some have suggested that he needs to accept what happened and move on, but moving on doesn’t sit right with him even though he and Aster had an arranged marriage. It was a good business partnership for their parents. Despite challenges, Cole was determined to make the marriage work. Aster’s death changed him. He closed himself off from the world. He has lived like a monk for the past decade, afraid to make himself vulnerable again and determined not to allow another woman into his life for Destiny’s sake. He knows how complicated relationships can be and won’t put her through that again. Troy wants to see his friend find happiness once again, but Cole is steadfast in his position on dating.
When Eliza shows up one morning at the Seventh Street Wired Cup location for a cup of coffee and to chat with her favorite barista, Wayne, she is appalled by the way his manager speaks to him, and when she has finally heard enough, she gives that manager a piece of her mind. Cole is taken by surprise when he finds a customer inserting herself and her unsolicited opinions into his meeting, and he soon finds himself steaming mad. But when Cole discovers Eliza’s talent with coffee, he knows she has what it takes to bring excitement to their brand again and keep his family legacy strong. Cole and Eliza dance around their attraction to one another as they work to develop Wired Cup’s new menu. They are hot and cold, but eventually, their shared love of coffee and their attraction to one another lead to passion. The couple has a mountain of obstacles to overcome, however, and the past plagues them both as they try to move on. They are both stubborn and rather set in their ways, but they eventually find a happy ending.
IN THIS BOOK:
The story opens during early summer in Seattle.
Piper Renee, twenty-four, is a bird geek. She might be mature for her age, but birds never fail to bring out the kid in her. She always maintains a positive outlook despite the responsibility she shoulders. Her mother walked out ten years ago, leaving Piper to step up as a substitute mother figure for her sister Maisy, who was just seven at the time, as well as look out for her ailing father. She probably gets her pride from him. Harold Renee worked hard as a fisherman to provide for his family until his health took a turn. He doesn’t know that his VA insurance doesn’t quite cover everything, and Piper wants to keep it that way. She also wants to ensure that Maisy doesn’t miss out on her youth the same way Piper did, which means that Piper can’t be away from home for long since someone needs to look after their father. Rather than take a 9 to 5 job and be tied down every day, she has used her resourcefulness to make her own way in the world. She earned a bachelor’s degree in media relations and put her knowledge to work. She combines her brains and beauty, building channels and marketing her content. As a social media influencer, she gets paid to do what she loves – travel. She hopes to travel the world, but since getting away is complicated, much of her travels are limited to B&Bs and cabins in the Pacific Northwest.
Brock Winthrope, thirty-one, could be living a life of leisure, but it isn’t his style. The billionaire with model good looks took over as CEO of Winthrope International two years ago. His grandfather took the company to great heights, and Brock has big shoes to fill. Ross Winthrope is a legend in the resort industry, known for his successful line of luxury resorts across the world, and Brock has no intention of letting him down. He is close with his grandparents – closer to them than even his own parents. He inherited his workaholic tendencies from his grandfather, who still dabbles in the company business from time to time. Women haven’t interested Brock since high school – not for more than a one-off – since his entire focus is on work. Employees consider him moody and his sometimes explosive reputation instills fear in those that value their job. Keenan Dutton, his executive assistant, is perhaps the only one that isn’t intimidated by his powerful presence. Keenan can get away with giving Brock a hard time, but only because he performs his job flawlessly otherwise.
At Winthrope, nothing but the finest is expected. The food in their restaurants, for example, is locally sourced. Since stepping into the CEO shoes, Brock even collaborated with Cole Lancaster of Seattle’s Wired Cup to bring resort customers an award-worthy custom cup of Kona coffee. Winthrope Lanai is a big test of Brock’s success, and he has spared no detail at the resort. Despite his efforts, though, something has been amiss in recent months. Several Winthrope properties have been review bombed, and the high ratings that they take pride in are dropping fast. Their inner data suggests customers remain happy, so it just doesn’t add up. Brock feels someone has an axe to grind, but others suggest he is just sensitive and perhaps a little paranoid.
When Piper’s best friend Jenn, who works in marketing at Winthrope’s Seattle headquarters, hooks her up with a weekend stay at Winthrope Lanai’s penthouse suite in exchange for a review, she is thrilled for the opportunity. But her brief stay gets off to a rough start when she finds a strange man in her room. When Brock checks into the penthouse, he never imagines that the woman who walks in on him will turn out to be a social media influencer. Confounded as to how the mix-up occurred and desperate to salvage the upcoming review, he sets his mind to fixing things for her. Unfortunately, the beautiful influencer doesn’t seem interested in apologies. They spar verbally, but their chemistry eventually becomes obvious. Brock isn’t about to compromise himself further, so he holds back. Two months pass and he still cannot get Piper off his mind when the pair unexpectedly comes face to face again. Despite the risk to both their careers, they let temptation overpower them. But the problems at Winthrope are just getting started, and the couple gets caught up in a whirlwind of trouble. They eventually earn a lovely happy ending.
Don’t forget to download the free flash forward for a peak at Brock and Piper’s future!
Wow! Brock and Piper’s enemies-to-lovers romance reflects real-life issues in the age of the internet. Piper is a medium-grade influencer and internet star, and Brock’s company is subject to the online reviews that can easily go sideways without good reason. Both are subject to the whims of a fickle and temperamental audience. Piper has learned the ins and outs of online reviews, so she becomes a valuable resource as Brock tries to investigate the reviews that are tearing apart decades of hard work almost overnight. This story is about the power of the internet to make and break people and companies, and the vulnerability that is created by the online world. It highlights the unregulated dangers that businesses face and the difficult task of taking back their reputation after a hit. It is a bit like the wild west.
There are a few issues that merit mention. First, Brock and Piper work together to uncover the truth, but danger follows, testing their young relationship. Brock is surprisingly dense when it comes to fixing his mistakes, even though he admits to having no relationship experience. It gets a little old, and he seems to dismiss outright some great advice more than once. Piper seems to have her act together for the most part, so when she falls apart and it drags on endlessly, it doesn’t quite feel authentic. Their longish separation feels inauthentic, but they eventually get back on the same page. Next, there are a few timeline issues. Most are minor, but at one point two weeks pass which feel an awful lot like three weeks, so I presume that is a simple error. Further, about three weeks after starting, Piper seems to drop off going to work and there is no explanation. There are times that she should know things from having spoken to Jenn, but apparently, she suddenly goes weeks without speaking to her best friend. It gets a little confusing. Brock, too, could easily get the simplest of information from Jenn but doesn’t. I lose respect for them both during those three weeks. Note that I did read the ARC version, so it is entirely possible that some of these details were tightened up before publication.
Brock and Piper’s steamy Seattle romance is a great addition to the Bossy Seattle Suits series. Both are serious-minded, but while Brock is cranky, Piper is a breath of fresh air. Not unlike other young influencers, she believes in the law of attraction. Brock doesn’t see the merit in that, but he does believe that things happen for a reason. He believes he ran into Piper for a reason, but he has a hard time coming to terms with what that means. Their story is nicely written. It is plot-driven and somewhat complex as it takes a dive into the ugly underbelly of internet reviews. The characters are nicely developed and feel real. The story is written in first person. The POV alternates between Brock and Piper. I rate this book 4.5 stars.
I received an advance copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.
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