Review: A Proposal They Can't Refuse

A Proposal They Can't Refuse by Natalie Caña
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I received an ARC of this book.
This book was entertaining. But it certainly wasn't terribly original, and it didn't knock my socks off.
It started off alright, with the grandfathers of our two main characters forcing their grandchildren, Liam and Kamilah, into an engagement. Liam and Kamilah have known each other all their lives and have not gotten along very well for the past several years. They hope that by going along with their grandfathers' plan they can in turn get the things they want out of their family businesses. But of course Liam and Kamillah's true feelings for each other only complicate matters.
From the first several pages, I wasn't sure that I wanted to even read the book, because Kamilah's family and Liam's grandfather were each excessively rude, dismissive, and pretty much just mean. Kamilah's family continually put her down, and Liam's grandfather was incredibly hard on him. It was off-putting and harsh to start right off the bat with that. But I pressed on and eventually became invested in Liam and Kamilah's relationship. I grew frustrated, however, because the pacing of the book was strange, which contributed to the fact that their relationship had very little growing or evolution throughout most of the book. The reader knows that Liam and Kamilah have cared deeply for each other--probably loved each other--for years, and have a long history together. But the reader doesn't really get to see it. I felt like I was missing an essential part of the story because I was just TOLD about important events in the history of their relationship in what kind of felt like an off-hand or glossed over way. Then things that were not really important at all, like furniture or friends' hairstyles or decor of competitor's restaurants or the layout of a nail salon were described in MINUTE detail. Too much time was spent on things that had no bearing on the story at all, and things that were important in the building of Liam and Kamilah's relationship were skipped over. Weeks went by in one sentence. It gave the impression that our two main characters relationships with their friends and family were more important to them and to the story than their relationship with each other--which felt very weird for a romance novel.
I did however appreciate the fact that towards the end when the whole fake engagement blew up in their faces (I don't think that's a spoiler--you have to know it's going to happen at some point!), both Kamilah and Liam got called out for exactly what they both had done wrong. They each made mistakes and had issues that need to be addressed and the people in their lives pointed all of that out to them and forced them to admit the things they'd done wrong, why it was wrong, and what they needed to work on in the future. And then both Liam and Kamilah apologized for their mistakes and realized they had truly messed up. That doesn't always happen in romance novels, so this particular part of the story was very well-done.
I am not sure if I would recommend this book or not. It was a very quick easy read, but parts of it were clunky and the pacing was very off. It was okay. Not great, but better than a lot I have read...

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