A Proposal They Can't Refuse by Natalie Cana is a romance in which Kamilah, a chef in her family's restaurant, enters into a fake engagement with her childhood best friend, broody Liam.
The romance in the book was fine. But Kamilah's back story threatened to give me PTSD. Her family treats her like shit. This was obvious from the first scene to the last. When we are introduced to the family, Kamilah's brothers, who are supposed to take out the restaurant's trash, just don't bother, leaving it to Kamilah to do it. As always. The family blocks Kamilah, a trained and talented chef, from updating the restaurant's menu. She agrees to the fake engagement because it's the only way her grandfather, the owner of the restaurant, will allow her to keep the restaurant from failing.
What is supposed to be character development in the book is actually victim blaming. Kamilah admits that she should have told her family that she resents how they treat her! Kamilah admits that she is a bad, bad girl for claiming that she did not get into a fancy cooking school in Paris -- something her family constantly brings up to point out to her what a loser she is -- when in fact she was offered a full scholarship and turned it down because she was needed to keep the restaurant afloat. And the end of all these heartrending conversations -- well, she gets the guy (of course), but she is also given the family restaurant that she has painstakingly admitted that she hates.
Despite all that, I did enjoy parts of the book. Both Kamilah and Liam have sprawling social relationships which is rare in romances, and the book is interspersed with retelling of both Puerto Rican and Irish folk tales that were delightful. In the end, though, my stomach still hurts for Kamilah.
Note from Jasmine Gold: As the name of this blog indicates, I write erotica. Check out my dark, dystopian novel about naked sex slaves, Mindgames. Your darkest fantasies, with a phenomenal plot and characters you will come to think of as beloved friends. Available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited and in paperback. Or read my book of short stories about hot, consensual sex, The Mature Woman's Guide to Desire, available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.
