A review by agrippinaes
Boss in the Bedsheets by Kate Canterbary

3.0

My feelings on this book are slightly complicated. Firstly, this book had some lovely writing in it - there were some gorgeous bits of descriptive writing and good, strong dialogue. It’s genuinely funny in parts
Spoilerhis irritation at her ‘pocket eggs’ and so on made me smile.


The plot itself was quite interesting and, in my opinion, not quite as advertised. The set up of the story was quite strong - I liked their meeting on the plane, the banter between them and how it set up their dynamic for the rest of the book.
SpoilerI also liked that he was injured and vulnerable initially - I think I’ve read far more books where the woman in the story starts out injured and needing help, so the reversal was interesting.


I liked both main characters. Zelda was a strong main character and I liked how she managed Ash and took him in her stride.
SpoilerI did think she possibly read a little younger than 31 and I was surprised when the text revealed her age - she was occasionally a bit immature, especially early on.


Ash was a surprising character. He was less of the smooth, arrogant businessman than I initially expected, and I liked that he was slightly awkward and unused to relationships with anyone apart from his siblings, not just with romantic partners.
SpoilerAlso - special mention of his habit of stamping books with the date he read them - how cute!


Their relationship was nice. It was sweet and warm and there were some lovely moments between them. Their romance moves very fast, but it felt natural rather than forced, and I thought his affections in particular were clear very early on.
SpoilerI loved that he wanted to keep her as much like herself as possible, and all of the little details about him respecting her really worked for me. After the revelation near the end of the book that she was fleeing an unhealthy relationship, I liked that Ash’s reaction to it was calm and sensible rather than losing his temper. This part, in particular, really touched me: “...He stalked you across the country,” Ash said to my skirt. “Where he openly and repeatedly attempted to intimidate you. I was damn close to dropping his ass to the floor.” … “Why didn’t you?” “You had it under control,” he said, as if it was the most obvious fact known to humanity. I liked seeing this kind of sensible reaction.
Also,
Spoilerhis reaction to her menstruation - wanting to help her and understand her - was really sweet and well-done.


The sex scenes in this book are well-written and very hot.
SpoilerI wasn’t sure how I felt about how authoritative Ash was in the bedroom - in the novel, this is described as if he’s like this elsewhere, but he never felt as dominant anywhere else in the story. I didn’t mind it, it just came as a surprise!
I did feel at first that their sexual chemistry was not as strong as their emotional chemistry, but that improved more as the novel went on.

I also liked his family - they were cute and amusing, and I liked how his siblings’ were dreamers, unlike him.

However, reading this sometimes felt like a bit of a slog. I don’t really like using that word as there is so much I genuinely enjoyed about this book, but sometimes, it felt a bit long-winded and a lot of it read as filler. There wasn’t really a lot of plot to it, which isn’t normally a problem, but some scenes felt like they went on for ages whilst others, that were more interesting to me, wrapped up quite quickly. It meanders a lot, as well.

I liked their relationship and I thought it was a fairly decent example of instalove (I don’t think there is any other way to describe their bond), but I did think that more time needed to pass in the story for it to work.

Also, the major thing for me is that I went into this thinking it was the employee/boss trope. I don’t normally talk about descriptions a lot in my reviews, but the description for this book really drew me in - the set up of it as her letter of resignation and his refusal to accept it.
SpoilerThis is taken directly from the novel, which is fine. But! And it’s a big but! I don’t think the employee thing was needed. The story would have worked fine without it. In my opinion, this book wasn’t really about the dynamic of him as her boss and her as his employee. They meet coincidentally on a plane after she applied to work for him, he sort of hires her, but by 50% into the novel, she hasn’t properly began working for him (but they have started sleeping together and cuddling a lot), and then it rushes through the part of the book where she does work for him. I will say that the author crammed a lot into that part with her helping him, but still. This really didn’t feel like a boss/employee book at all, to me - it was more of an exploration of two people who were in desperate need of each other’s help when they met, and how their love formed from that.

It just felt a lot like the author set out to write a boss/employee romance, but as the story and characters developed, that got lost along the way. It really felt like an afterthought. This is more of a criticism from a marketing perspective, I guess - it wasn’t the book I expected it to be. I enjoyed it anyway, but I think on reflection, for me, using that excerpt gave the impression that their working together is the main focus of the book, when it really isn’t.


This is quite a nice, sweet but steamy romance with a lovely warm tone. The characters are quite funny and quirky and the plot has some interesting ideas to it. But I don’t think it’s accurately described as a boss/employee romance
Spoilerobviously - they are literally a boss and an employee, but that dynamic never felt important and it never felt like the major focus when contrasted with them helping each other grow as people.


I would recommend it if you want a funny, light-hearted romance with two quirky main characters with some elements of a boss/employee romance.

Content Warnings:
SpoilerParental neglect, alcoholism, drug use, domestic abuse (emotional, controlling behaviour).