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3.67 AVERAGE
3.67 AVERAGE
OMG!! Katie Ashley, I love you..lol..I loved this second book :)We all need an Aidan in our lives. I'm glad he told Em how he felt and i damn near cried with him. it was beautiful. I was a little nervous about Pesh but i liked him towards the end. he really came thru. I cant wait to read his story next. I was happy to see all the characters back especially her two besties and grandparents. And Aidan's dad is such a sweetie! Overall, I loved it!!! Amazing :) Cant wait to read more of your books!!
I'll be honest. The Proposition (and therefore, obviously, The Proposal) is a book I first read probably close to 10 years ago. I was in my early twenties and just fell in love with it for some reason. Because of this, it's a series I find myself circling around to every few years as a comfort read.
That being said, I've been trying to ease myself into audio books. I tried a book I'd never read before and it just didn't work so I decided to try listening to books I was familiar with to get a feel for them before moving on to new material. So, I just "reread" this by listening to the audio book. After rehashing the book, now into my thirties, I take some issues with it.
I still quite enjoyed the story. We're obviously picking up where we left off after the bomb at the end of The Proposition. Mistakes were made. In my review for The Proposition I note that I enjoy Aiden as a character and that while I used to like Emma as well, I found her more patronizing in this read through. The Proposal makes me change both those view points. I like Aiden less in this book. In the first book, he's a pretty chill guy but generally takes command and knows what he wants. Admittedly, he freaks out and loses sight of that at the end. We all read it, we know what happened. Then, he wants to win Emma back...and just sort of rolls over and waits. What happened to the guy that curated the entire plot of this book to get something he wanted (however selfish his intentions were) or the guy who hopped on a plane to be home for two days knowing he'd have to turn around and go back to where he came from for work just because he needed to see Emma? He makes it clear he wants her back but doesn't quite have the fire I would have expected.
As for Emma, I find her significantly more annoying in this book (not to mention hypocritical). She recognizes Aiden regrets his actions. Many people have told her as much and she's seen it for herself. I get he screwed up and she takes that indiscretion seriously but my LORD does she drag it out and, by doing so, basically goes down the same path Aiden did. It seemed out of character for her and it took WAY longer than it should have for her to realize she was doing to Aiden what he'd done to her.
For similar reasons on my review of The Proposition, I gave this a three mostly because of the bit of nostalgia I mention at the beginning of this review. I've long had a soft spot for these books and that made me more generous with my rating. I think if I'd read this for the first time now, I would probably have rated it a two to two point five.
Now, specifically speaking for the audio book aspect. I still feel like a male and female narration would have benefited the audio book. Justine O Keef was still just fine but I felt like the male voice was missing from the story. Similar to The Proposition, I took issue with a pronunciation that drove me batty (luckily it's only in the book once) but our girl Justine CANNOT pronounce the word boutonniere. I can't even try to phoneticize how she said it because it was just so WILDLY off base. I digress.
Also, my bigger beef with the narration was the accent for Pesh. I get it. The guy is of Indian descent. He was also born and raised in the US. I'm not saying that means there will be no accent simply based on his upbringing. But Justine leans SO HARD into the Indian accent for Pesh, it was cringe-worthy and embarrassing. Thank GOD Pesh doesn't have too much dialogue in this book or it would have been hard to listen to. I was nervous to start a listen of The Pairing knowing Justine was narrator of that as well. Luckily, so far, the accent is MUCH scaled back for Pesh, making it easier to listen to (until Dev makes his first appearance, then we're back to the yikes). I struggled with the narration more for this book mostly for this reason.
That being said, I've been trying to ease myself into audio books. I tried a book I'd never read before and it just didn't work so I decided to try listening to books I was familiar with to get a feel for them before moving on to new material. So, I just "reread" this by listening to the audio book. After rehashing the book, now into my thirties, I take some issues with it.
I still quite enjoyed the story. We're obviously picking up where we left off after the bomb at the end of The Proposition. Mistakes were made. In my review for The Proposition I note that I enjoy Aiden as a character and that while I used to like Emma as well, I found her more patronizing in this read through. The Proposal makes me change both those view points. I like Aiden less in this book. In the first book, he's a pretty chill guy but generally takes command and knows what he wants. Admittedly, he freaks out and loses sight of that at the end. We all read it, we know what happened. Then, he wants to win Emma back...and just sort of rolls over and waits. What happened to the guy that curated the entire plot of this book to get something he wanted (however selfish his intentions were) or the guy who hopped on a plane to be home for two days knowing he'd have to turn around and go back to where he came from for work just because he needed to see Emma? He makes it clear he wants her back but doesn't quite have the fire I would have expected.
As for Emma, I find her significantly more annoying in this book (not to mention hypocritical). She recognizes Aiden regrets his actions. Many people have told her as much and she's seen it for herself. I get he screwed up and she takes that indiscretion seriously but my LORD does she drag it out and, by doing so, basically goes down the same path Aiden did. It seemed out of character for her and it took WAY longer than it should have for her to realize she was doing to Aiden what he'd done to her.
For similar reasons on my review of The Proposition, I gave this a three mostly because of the bit of nostalgia I mention at the beginning of this review. I've long had a soft spot for these books and that made me more generous with my rating. I think if I'd read this for the first time now, I would probably have rated it a two to two point five.
Now, specifically speaking for the audio book aspect. I still feel like a male and female narration would have benefited the audio book. Justine O Keef was still just fine but I felt like the male voice was missing from the story. Similar to The Proposition, I took issue with a pronunciation that drove me batty (luckily it's only in the book once) but our girl Justine CANNOT pronounce the word boutonniere. I can't even try to phoneticize how she said it because it was just so WILDLY off base. I digress.
Also, my bigger beef with the narration was the accent for Pesh. I get it. The guy is of Indian descent. He was also born and raised in the US. I'm not saying that means there will be no accent simply based on his upbringing. But Justine leans SO HARD into the Indian accent for Pesh, it was cringe-worthy and embarrassing. Thank GOD Pesh doesn't have too much dialogue in this book or it would have been hard to listen to. I was nervous to start a listen of The Pairing knowing Justine was narrator of that as well. Luckily, so far, the accent is MUCH scaled back for Pesh, making it easier to listen to (until Dev makes his first appearance, then we're back to the yikes). I struggled with the narration more for this book mostly for this reason.
Aiden, Aiden, Aiden....one of the best proposals....EVER. I loved that most of the angst was over by 70% and that we got a nice long HEA. It was refreshing to get that much detail after the couple finally committed to each other. I will say that I really empathized with Emma in book one, but that I was in Aiden's court during this one. At some points, I felt like Emma was just downright mean to him and the hold out on her forgiveness was a tad too long.
Overall, the characters and story were captivating, and I will read anything Ms. Ashley writes in the future.
Overall, the characters and story were captivating, and I will read anything Ms. Ashley writes in the future.
AHHH AMAZZINNGGGG. I really didn't want to like Pesh and didn't until the end. I LOVE AIDEN AND NOAH AND THEIR FAMILIES. Aiden's nephews were absolutely adorable.
I read this quite some time ago. I just listened to the audio and hadn't realized what a lasting impression this story had made up me.
I am in love with this series, and this couple!! Too cute!! So funny at times too :)
After the way the previous book in this series ended, I honestly didn't know how Aidan was going to fix his big mistake. Even though he screwed the relationship up, I still was cheering him on and hoped the author could fix it.
Aidan is desperate to win Emma back. He knows he messed things up when he got scared with his feelings, but in this book it is Emma's turn to throw it back in his face. When Emma must take Aidan's father to the hospital after a health scare, she meets the young and sexy Dr. Alpesh Nadeen. Aidan recognizes him as competition for Emma and knows he is going to have to fight twice as hard. Can I just say that Aidan has some serious groveling to do in this book and he goes all out. Then throw in the McHottie doctor and we have some hard decisions for Emma.
Now for the parts I didn't like too much. I didn't like the pace of the book this time around. We start at one time, then it jumps two weeks, then two months, then just a few days, months again, then and epilogue 8 months later. It would have been so much better sticking to just a monthly jump to have flowed better. Also, after Emma makes her decision on which man she will be with, it is drawn out in sappy moments for few chapters. When the climax is reached in the story you expect it to end, but with this one you get a series of small climaxes that took away from the best parts of the book.
While I did enjoy the book, I found this one lacking compared to The Proposition. Overall a good book, but it does fall in the dreaded sequel trap of not being as good as the first.
Aidan is desperate to win Emma back. He knows he messed things up when he got scared with his feelings, but in this book it is Emma's turn to throw it back in his face. When Emma must take Aidan's father to the hospital after a health scare, she meets the young and sexy Dr. Alpesh Nadeen. Aidan recognizes him as competition for Emma and knows he is going to have to fight twice as hard. Can I just say that Aidan has some serious groveling to do in this book and he goes all out. Then throw in the McHottie doctor and we have some hard decisions for Emma.
Now for the parts I didn't like too much. I didn't like the pace of the book this time around. We start at one time, then it jumps two weeks, then two months, then just a few days, months again, then and epilogue 8 months later. It would have been so much better sticking to just a monthly jump to have flowed better. Also, after Emma makes her decision on which man she will be with, it is drawn out in sappy moments for few chapters. When the climax is reached in the story you expect it to end, but with this one you get a series of small climaxes that took away from the best parts of the book.
While I did enjoy the book, I found this one lacking compared to The Proposition. Overall a good book, but it does fall in the dreaded sequel trap of not being as good as the first.
This was a cute series. First book was better than the second.
It is moments like these where I have to be honest with a review. I loved The Proposition and remember wanting to build a time machine so that I could leap to the date when The Proposal was going to be released and I didn’t have to wait for it. I was so ready to start this book and just be in as much as love with it as I was the first, but unfortunately, I wasn’t. Honestly, I can’t really explain why. I have some theories: maybe I waited too long between the books and had a hard time connecting with the characters again, or maybe it was just me this time and something didn’t click. Whatever it was, I just didn’t feel the same while reading. And I feel so bad that I didn’t connect with it. I really, really do.
I still love Emma and Aidan. You know from the moment they got together in The Proposition that they were meant to be together for life. This book allowed me to see the strain on their relationship from Aidan’s inability to commit and how far he was willing to go to get Emma back. It was so sweet. He truly stepped up in this book. And I loved Emma’s pregnancy hormones throughout the book. One minute she wanted Aidan and the next she hated his guts. I thought Pesh’s arrival was a great addition to the plot line because he made both Emma and Aiden realize what they truly wanted. Plus, he was just a great guy.
I still love Emma and Aidan. You know from the moment they got together in The Proposition that they were meant to be together for life. This book allowed me to see the strain on their relationship from Aidan’s inability to commit and how far he was willing to go to get Emma back. It was so sweet. He truly stepped up in this book. And I loved Emma’s pregnancy hormones throughout the book. One minute she wanted Aidan and the next she hated his guts. I thought Pesh’s arrival was a great addition to the plot line because he made both Emma and Aiden realize what they truly wanted. Plus, he was just a great guy.