Daisy is a somewhat awkward software developer with no plans to get married despite her aunts’ interference. Liam is a bad-boy trying to prove himself to a long-dead father. When Liam’s grandfather dies and leaves him the family business on condition that he get married before his next birthday, it seems perfect that he’s just run into Daisy at a tech conference. The fact that she announced to her aunts that the two of them were engaged is just icing on the cake. The two have a complicated history, but the arrangement will work out for both of them if they can get over their Issues, and not fall in love in the process…

Yes, this is an absolutely cheesy, rom-com romance novel. I got it from Book of the Month this month, knowing it would be an absolutely cheesy, rom-com romance novel. What I didn’t expect was all the stereotypes (drunken, abusive Irish family; interfering and in-your-business Indian family; just on the “right” side of geek manic-pixie heroine; etc). That put me off from the beginning, and honestly? I’m one for one in the “wish I’d abandoned” category this year already. Not the best way to begin 2021.

It wasn’t all bad. It didn’t take itself seriously, which is good, and once I got past all the stereotypes (which were laid on really thick in the beginning), some of the story was fun to follow along with. But it wasn’t really my kind of book, tbh. I only kept reading because…well, because I hadn’t finished a book in weeks, and I hadn’t enjoyed any fiction I’d read since November. I was feeling book-starved. Of course, reading a book that I didn’t really like wasn’t going to help me, but I didn’t have anything else to read at that moment. I miss the libraries being open more than I can express right now.

I’m not bashing the book. It’s exactly what it said it would be – it’s just not my cup of tea, so to speak. I knew better, but read it anyway, and that’s on me.