Reviews with content warning for Sexism - Hot Copy

Reviews tagging 'Sexism'

Hot Copy by Ruby Barrett

7 reviews

hazmatzo's review

challenging funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Loveable characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.5

There are a lot of stories out there with a male boss and a female intern, etc., and this book intrigued me for being the opposite.

In a typical boss romance, he’s powerful and rich, exceedingly handsome. The morals are sort of discussed, but it’s mostly a fantasy, so we’re not really worried about him losing his job.

In Hot Copy, the “boss” receives about equal amounts of sexual harassment from her own boss as she engages in sexy time with her intern. We’re not given a female power fantasy where we’re just a villain taking advantage of a sweet man who takes care of all our needs at a whim. Instead, we’re being given a look in both directions so that we can ponder the morality of office romances when there are power dynamics… which I’m not really sure I wanted.

You’re also VERY worried she’ll lose her job, because office romances with one’s intern are NOT OK. And for the most part we don’t let women off in life like we do for men.

The office misogyny was probably real somewhere, but I’ll add, working in a male-dominated field, that sometimes the sexism at the office is a bit more understated, but no less impactful. I wish some of the subtler aspects of workplace sexism had been captured instead of the outright “she’s a c*”. Instead, the subtle exclusions, the “we are proud of our diverse workforce” all while not hiring or promoting the qualified candidates of underrepresented groups. Talking over women and then saying “You never speak up”. It also didn’t touch on racism, it was all about the sexism.

Corinne and Wesley’s romance and chemistry was reasonable. I really enjoyed that Corinne was just a bit brittle. I really enjoyed that she also didn’t want kids. I especially loved that Wesley was set up very much as a caretaker. Although, despite the fact that women who don’t want kids are way too underrepresented, because Wesley was so strong as a caretaker, part of me wanted this story to end with him as the house husband and her as the high powered exec. Alas!

Gave me a lot to mull over, but wanted a slightly different story.

3.5 / 5 stars

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skorned's review

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2.0

There is a lot of sex in this book and at a certain point you just have to skim and skip those parts because they feel totally superfluous. It was also super hard to read about someone being harassed at work, and nothing being done about it, while someone is also having a super inappropriate work relationship. It just felt uncomfortable and like obviously things were going to end up badly. The writing felt a little stilted, like Wes and Corinne obviously really like sleeping together but the rest of everything felt a little juvenile. I only read this because I didn't realize i was reading a sequel, and thought I'd get the first book in real quick before I read the second one.

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ecobookworm's review

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I just can't get past the power imbalance of having a boss sleeping with her intern. It's not okay just because the boss is a woman! I can see the author tries to do it sensitively as they do have conversations about consent and it does seem like enthusiastic consent, but the power dynamic is such that it feels wrong - Corinne even says so in the book. The build-up isn't adequate to justify them hooking up or for them to have significant feelings for each other, and in fact they don't. Which makes it worse, because IMO you would need to have a really good reason to sleep with your intern or boss and there wasn't a significant reason here beyond attraction, horniness and emotional vulnerability. There's lots of sex but I didn't enjoy reading it very much as the premise is so questionable, and the first scene so very random. It feels rushed and careless and not thought through. Like, couldn't they wait until his internship is done? She's his direct superior! And they KNOW it would be career-ruining for them both, her especially, but it's kind of just waved aside. Corinne is established as someone super driven and strategic, I don't buy it. I do like them as characters, but I think a different dynamic or setup would've been necessary to make it not seem like an irredeemably bad idea. I'm willing to set aside my expectations of realism to some extent when reading romance, but this didn't work for me.

I know that the boss/employee dynamic can be done well (eg. Something to Talk About by Meryl Wilsner) but this doesn't reach there for me. The quality of writing is fine, it's pretty steamy, I'm sure it's very enjoyable for other people, but the whole thing just made me feel uncomfortable. I'll skim through the rest to see what happens but this book isn't for me.

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ausra's review

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emotional lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

maybe not very suitable for slow burn fans but still very a very nice, light and spicy read. loved a strong female character and her character growth

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treereads's review

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decklededgess's review

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dark emotional funny hopeful reflective tense fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

trigger warnings: age gap relationship, sexual harassment in the workplace, sexist commentary, parents with cancer, dead parents, estranged parent, premarital pregnancy mention, sex and nudity

Well 9 sex scenes really is something else. I will say the age gap paired with a boss-intern relationship was WEIRD. The intern is 25 the boss is 30 so it's not gross in that creepy sense. The book does explore power imbalances in an interesting way where it really takes into account how that affects the relationship. As someone who is really squicky about that...this book didn't feel like it was exploitative. It certainly felt like an even playing field.

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murphymacdo's review

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.75

I'm not really sure how I felt about this one. It was a little too serious considering the cover and blurb -- dealt a lot with grief (parental loss) and workplace sexual harassment. I also love high-heat books, but ended up skipping a few of the later sex scenes because I was just ready to be done with the book. I got tired of the push-pull between the hero and heroine (heroine keeps saying 'no, we can't do this, it's unprofessional' but then has sex with him in her office multiple times?) I'm a bit disappointed because I saw a lot of hype for this and the cover was so cute. Definitely not one of my favorites in terms of characters or even plot, but the writing was good.

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