Beauty and the Boss by Ali Vali at Bold Strokes Books
Genre | Lesbian / Contemporary / Romance |
Reviewed by | Kym Palmer on 20-September-2017 |
Genre | Lesbian / Contemporary / Romance |
Reviewed by | Kym Palmer on 20-September-2017 |
Ellis Renois is at the top of the fashion world and has built the Renois Company into a success that dominates the runways of the world. Ellis loves creating clothes, and she loves the beautiful women who wear them. While Ellis deals with design, she leaves the business aspect to others. It’s a mistake that could cost her more than just her life’s work.
Charlotte Hamner has worked her way through school and is ready to make a better life for herself and her daughter Sawyer. She’s far from the teenaged mother who worked a string of dead-end jobs to fulfill her dreams, so she’s not about to fall victim to Ellis’s easy charm.
A summer job presents Charlotte with the chance to learn from Ellis, but it might also land her the position of head designer for Renois. But her promotion will come only through betrayal and perhaps at the cost of her heart.
I can’t believe this is the first Ali Vali book I’ve read, but it was worth the wait. To call it a rich girl/poor girl trope would do it an injustice, as there’s a lot more going on with it than that, but that’s the underlying theme.
Ellis Renois runs her own highly successful fashion house. She has designed for the stars and is at the top of her game. However, she really only wants to focus on the creative side and she has left the business side to people she thought she could trust. She’s a prickly personality, used to getting her own way, and she can be blunt and sharp with people who challenge her. She’s also a loner, preferring the odd meaningless fling here and there to keep her sexual appetite fed.
Charlotte Hamner is about as opposite as it gets. Pregnant at sixteen she’s now the twenty-six-year old single mother of Sawyer, a shy and quiet girl who’s pretty good at art. Charlotte herself is a fashion designer in the making—she has finished working her way through school, schlepping two jobs to pay the bills, and is ready to make her move into a fashion house to grab a future. When she lands a chance at an internship at Ellis’s company, she can scarcely believe her luck.
Ellis and Charlotte do not hit it off well from the get-go, but thanks to the intervention of Ellis’s friend and right-hand man, Rueben, Charlotte is given the chance. Then Ellis’s business suffers a serious threat, as does her entire Fashion Week show, and suddenly Charlotte is front and center of a scandal that could bring down the Renois house.
I know nothing about fashion, nor do I really care about it, but it’s a testament to Vali’s writing that I literally couldn’t put this book down. The story gripped me from the first page, both the relationship between the two main characters, as well as the drama of the issues that threaten to bring down the business.
Ellis is a tough character to like in the first few chapters, but Vali made me want to learn more about her, and to see underneath that harsh exterior. Through the interplay between her and Charlotte, that happened, gradually, and before halfway I was totally cheering her on in her pursuit of the people who were trying to bring her down, as well as her and Charlotte’s burgeoning relationship. The latter happens slowly, and to be honest, felt a little contrived in places, but it soon works and becomes very believable.
There are some great side characters, both nice and nasty. Sawyer is not written all cutesy, which is great—she’s a serious kid, with some serious issues to face regarding her birth father, and I loved that that was given quality time too. Ellis’s mother is awesome, that’s all I’m saying. The nasty characters are good baddies, if you see what I mean—so easy to loathe and yet also interestingly written.
Vali’s writing style is lovely—it’s clean, sharp, no wasted words, and it flows beautifully as a result. Highly recommended!
DISCLAIMER: Books reviewed on this site were usually provided at no cost by the publisher or author. This book has been provided by Bold Strokes Books for the purpose of a review.
Format | ebook, print and audio |
Length | Novel, 88500 words |
Heat Level | |
Publication Date | 01-September-2017 |
Price | $9.99 ebook, $16.95 paperback, $16.95 bundle, $19.95 audiobook |
Buy Link | https://www.boldstrokesbooks.com/books/beauty-and-the-boss-by-ali-vali-2291-b |