A review by ecobookworm
Hot Copy by Ruby Barrett

Did not finish book. Stopped at 46%.
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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