The Negotiator by Avery Flynn

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Title: The Negotiator
Author: Avery Flynn
Series: Harbor City #1
Published by: Entangled: Amara
Release Date: April 24th 2017
Format: Kindle Book
Pages: 274
Genres: Contemporary, Romance, Romantic Comedy
Reading Challenges: Lenoreo's 2018 AtoZ Reading Challenge, Lenoreo's 2018 Beat the Backlist Challenge, Lenoreo's COYER Winter Switch 2017/18
Find it: Goodreads ✩ Amazon ✩ B&N ✩ Google ✩ Kobo ✩ iBooks ✩ IndieBound
My rating:

Blurb:

Wanted: Personal Buffer

Often snarly, workaholic executive seeks “buffer” from annoying outside distractions AKA people. Free spirits with personal boundary issues, excessive quirks, or general squeamishness need not apply. Salary negotiable. Confidentiality required.

Workaholic billionaire Sawyer Carlyle may have joked he needed a “buffer” from their marriage-obsessed mom, but he didn’t need a waiting room filled with “candidates” to further distract him. (Thanks, bro.) But when a sexy job applicant shooes his mom and the socialite in tow out of his office, Sawyer sees the genius of the plan. And the woman. In fact, Miss Clover Lee might just get the fastest promotion in history, from buffer to fake fiancé…

This “free-spirit” might look like hot sunshine and lickable rainbows, but she negotiates like a pitbull. Before Sawyer knows what hit him, he’s agreed to give up Friday nights for reality tv, his Saturdays for flea markets (why buy junk still baffles him), his Tuesdays and Thursdays for “date nights” (aka panty-losing opportunities if he plays his cards right). And now she wants lavender bath salts and tulips delivered every Monday?

Yup, she’s just screwing with him. Good thing she’s got this non-negotiatable six-weeks-and-she’s-gone rule or Sawyer may have just met this match…

My Review:

3.5 stars — OK, so I enjoyed so much of this book, but somewhere in the middle I started to lose focus while reading it, so I just can’t go full 4 stars on this one.  I honestly don’t know if it was just me, I was tired, or if it was the book.  I think part of my problem was that I had *just* read a fake relationship/billionaire trope story LAST WEEK, so it just felt a bit familiar you know?  I love these tropes for a reason, but I think they stand up better when interspersed between other things.

I really enjoyed both characters, and I loved them together.  I loved how Clover brought Sawyer out of himself, and how Clover seemed to find a bit more purpose and direction while helping Sawyer.  And they really did have great chemistry, I honestly believed their attraction to one another.  In fact, them together was definitely the highlight.  Part of that is because their individual stories weren’t really strong necessarily…there wasn’t a big background story for each of them, and while they both definitely grew, it wasn’t really a strong component of the story.  It really was a fun romance in a lot of ways.  And I guess that is one area where I wouldn’t have minded a bit of expansion…a bit more of what made each of them tick.  We were told a lot of what made them tick, but I didn’t always see it.

Clover was fun and spunky and I LOVED how she gave as good as she got.  But I don’t think I ever quite understood what she was looking for out of life, or how she thought her life was going to go.  I never really *felt* her passions and her purpose.  Heck, I kind of wish I knew why she called herself Clover…never did get that.  I did enjoy seeing her finally see the light about her Mom and the life her Mom chose though!

And Sawyer could be awkward and adorable, and I loved how he couldn’t help but allow Clover to bring some fun into his life.  And I LOVED how he turned everything into a negotiation, and how that was part of their foreplay.  But, as with Clover, I guess I just didn’t understand his passion for his company so much as was told about it.  He was a bit of a mess of contradictions at times.

The secondary characters were not bad.  I didn’t always get Sawyer’s Mom, but I didn’t dislike her.  I enjoyed both Linus and Irving, though their parts were tiny.  And I enjoyed the bits we got to see of Clover’s family…though I will admit I never really connected with her BFF Daphne.  The standout for me for secondary characters was Sawyer’s brother Hudson.  His one-liners made me laugh and laugh, and I loved the sibling relationship they seemed to have.

So yeah, the romance was fantastic…I just wouldn’t have minded a bit more other stuff to flesh it out a bit.