The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory
My rating: 3 of 5 stars
**3.5-stars**
Awwww, that was so fun.
In The Wedding Date we meet Carlos Ibarra as the fun and supportive best friend of Dr. Drew Nichols. We really get to know him on the day that he helps Dr. Drew by picking Alexa up at the airport when Drew gets called into the hospital on an emergency. At the time I was reading that, I thought to myself, this Carlos seems like quite a catch!
In this novel, Carlos takes on the role of leading man and I wasn’t wrong about him!
When Carlos watches the botched proposal made to Nikole Paterson on the jumbotron at a Dodgers game, he feels so bad. This poor girl is obviously have a super embarrassing moment and the paparazzi are in full force!
In order to rescue her, Carlos swoops in and pretends to be a long-lost friend, escorting Nik out of the stadium and away from prying eyes. He offers her a ride home and ends up bringing her to a bar to meet up with some of her friends.
Nik and Carlos really hit it off and the sweetest little friendship develops. But is more than friendship in the cards for them?
They both swear they are not looking for more but then things get physical.
Throughout this story we get a lot more of Carlos and Nik’s lives apart from one another. Carlos spends a lot of his time taking care of the women in his family. He feels an obligation to help them all so much. We also get to learn about Nik’s super tight friend group and the truly warm and supportive circle that provides her with.
One plot point I truly enjoyed was Nik and her friend group attending a women’s boxing class in order to learn how to protect themselves. It was a way of reclaiming her power after she was emotionally traumatized by her ex and his horrible proposal. In the aftermath of that, Nik really struggled with feeling safe. She is such a private person and to have her life exposed like that was really hard for her. I appreciated this and have taken boxing classes so know how empowering they can be.
I would say in comparison to The Wedding Date, this one differed by offering the reader more insight into our protagonists lives outside of one another. They both had really strong support systems and that was refreshing to see.
Overall, I thought this was really sweet. Although it didn’t have as much drama or steam as the first book, it was still a very fun read! I would definitely recommend this to people looking for a fun, easy summer read. Beach season is almost upon us and this would be a good one to take with you.
I am very much looking forward to starting the next companion book in this series, The Wedding Party which releases in July!!
