A Proposal They Can't Refuse by Natalie Caña

Welcome Back, Booklovers! I was in a romance reading mood this past weekend so I decided to read A Proposal They Can't Refuse. This book promised me fun. flirty, and plenty of Puerto Rican food. I recieved an arc from Harper Audio in exchange for an honest review.

This was another fake dating or rather fake engagement one where the reason for faking seemed a little forced. But definitely not as bad as some others I read recently. I wasn't quite clear on the grandfathers and their living situation. But I was able to suspend my belief regarding the fake dating because our main characters Kamilah and Liam have chemistry.

I was actually really enjoying the book for most of it. The audiobook narration is great. I've listened to the narrator, Valetina Ortiz  a few times in other stories I loved and she captured Kamilah's voice perfectly. There's whiskey and Puerto Rican food? What's not the love? And we get to see our main characters in action doing what they love. I even liked how Irish culture was portrayed here.

I don't want to call our hero grumpy because his cynical attitude is a product of family trauma he never got therapy for. Plus Kamilah wasn't exactly a ball of sunshine. It also wasn't enemies to lovers since they weren't really enemies. They just had a falling out and barely talked to each other.

And I really don't mind my romance handling real issues but I hate when the book is marketed as a rom-com and then one of the mc's is dealing with deep trauma. Hearing Liam talk about his dad and nana's deaths was hard. It was very reminiscent of a celebrity death that happened in the past few years. It also was a drastic shift in tone from the other parts of the story, which made the last third feel uneven along with other family drama. The Vega family at the end completely overreacted to the situation..

So I found myself kind of zoning out at the end of what I originally thought would've been a 5 star read. I wanted to get a clear understanding of why Liam and Kamilah stopped being friends and instead that was glossed over. I was a little dissapointed in the sex scene because we got all this hot build up and then it was flat. I actually would check out the next book in the series as long as it's more rom-com.