Indecent Proposal (Boys of Bishop, #4) by Molly O’Keefe
Romance Contemporary
E book, 384 pages
September 30, 2014
Bantam
Reviewed by Tori
Favorite Quote: I am my own damn Prince Charming.
Harrison Montgomery lives what seems to be a charmed life but no ones knows the extent of the dysfunction that thrives beneath the surface of his picture perfect family. When he announces he’s running for congress, he never imagines a one night stand will come back to haunt him and possibly ruin everything he has worked for. His entire political future rests on a woman who may not want anything to do with him.
The one time Ryan Kaminski, a down on her luck bartender and part time model, breaks the rule of no employee/customer fraternization, she ends up with more than she bargained for. Fired, sick, and broke her brother Wes takes it on himself to let Harrison know that he left Ryan with a sizable parting gift and needs to take responsibility. Ryan is shocked by the cold calculating man who blackmails her into marrying him. Married to man she doesn’t know and a family that hates the sight of her, Ryan just needs to play the loving supportive wife for two years. But nothing in the contract she signed says anything about what to do if she falls in love.
Unplanned pregnancy, political scandal, and two very different people provide the platform for Molly O’Keefe’s fourth installment in her Boys of Bishop series-Indecent Proposal. While you don’t have to read the series in order, each one can stand on its own with a single hero/heroine romance and resolvable conflict, we do get sightings of previous couples and advancement in their lives. Readers may want to read Never Been Kissed to gain some back story on the hero of this book-Harrison Montgomery.
Molly O’Keefe has a definite gift of slicing through the artifice and getting to the heart of the matter in an engaging and receptive manner. Her stories offer a refreshing take on modern romances; giving us bittersweet love stories that don’t offer us a convenient happily ever after but more of a hope that with work, this relationship has all the necessary ingredients to survive.
Marriage of convenience , opposites attract, and unexpected pregnancy aren’t new tropes in romance but in O’Keefe’s deft hands, they become a visual feast for the senses as she expertly builds and refines her world and the dynamically flawed characters who live there. O’Keefe doesn’t write easy. She doesn’t minimize the emotions or situations in order to make the story easier for her characters or the readers. Life can be painful…but it can also be triumphant, vibrant, and well worth the journey you undertake to get to the prize. Lucky for us, O’Keefe understands that.
An emotionally convoluted storyline gives a poignant look at abuse, family, and the pain that comes from both. Politics and the ugliness that can reside behind the scenes plays a heavy part in the storyline and the protagonists’ relationship. O’Keefe sends a powerful message in her examination of being true to oneself regardless of the consequences.
“I saw the person I could be with you, and that was exciting. […] But I can be that person without you, too.”
Harrison and Ryan have each taken (or been forced) down the hard road in their lives and each have paid heavy prices for their choices. Harrison Montgomery isn’t an easy man to like yet you instantly gain an understanding for him as we are drawn deeper into his back story and learn the parameters that guided his upbringing. He and his sister were nothing more than photo ops in their parent’s lives. Easily replaced when they failed in their parent’s expectations. Never allowed to be himself, he has a rock solid facade he shows the world. A facade he has lived with so long, he no longer knows who the real Harrison is. An idealist, he genuinely cares for his family and the people around him., only he’s been conditioned to feel that no one wants the real Harrison.
“No one-not ever-has stood by my side.”
Ryan is a fascinating heroine whose strength and tenacity appeals to all who march to their own beat. She has made mistakes in her life and paid for each of them many times over. A high school dropout, she married young and found out the hard way her prince charming was nothing more than an abusive con man. Dead end jobs and a family who abandoned her when she needed them most only reinforced her feelings that she is nothing and deserves nothing. That’s not to say she’s a fatalist automatically accepting of the hard knocks that life throws at her as her fate. Ryan is fierce, intelligent, realistic, and honest to a fault. She knows that life can be better and it’s up to her to make it that way.
“Listen, Harrison, you broke into my apartment. Called me stupid. All but accused me of being gold-digging whore. I wouldn’t marry you if you were the last man on earth.”
Your heart will hurt as you watch these two seemingly different people lie to one another in public but try to speak only the truth to each other in the dark, away from prying eyes and listening ears. Ryan’s strength in facing the political animal head on is a vision of greatness as she regains her voice and self esteem that she thought lost so long ago. Her strength and ability to see past the artifice to the real man behind the mock up reinforces the notion that she is perfect for Harrison if only he would let go enough of his past to see it.
“So I just 8 Miled it”
“8 Miled?”
“That movie with Eminem? He’s doing this rap battle and before anyone can use his past against him, he just admits to all of it.”
And that right there is the difference between Ryan and Harrison. She makes no excuses for who she is. She lays herself open, showing all her faults and flaws, daring the world to judge her. She doesn’t expect absolution or acceptance…just acknowledgement.
A bold and delicious chemistry between them permeates the story and is dangerously explosive. Sexy uncontrollable bittersweet love scenes capitalizes on their compatibility.
“Even wrecked by that orgasm, he was still pushed to the edges of his control by what he felt for her. Again, he thought, when he could think again. I want that again. Over and over until all the bullshit between us is gone. Until all that’s left is how we make each other feel.”
A plethora of strong willful secondary characters will leave you laughing and groaning as they wiggle their way into your heart. Wes, Ryan’s brother, shows his unconditional love by trying to do the right thing even if it does backfire spectacularly. I really hope O’Keefe gives voice to his story. Nora, Ryan’s sister, offers Ryan the acceptance she thought long denied her. Patty, Harrison’s mother, is a dark horse who becomes decidedly complicated the more she reveals. Wallace, Harrison’s campaign manager, is a snarky front man whose worldly indifference is belayed by the fact he wears ugly ties because of his mother.
“She agreed to your indentured servant idea?”
“Marriage.”
“You say potato…”
Once again Molly O’Keefe blows the curve by writing a beautifully complicated and equivocal love story that romance readers abound will delight in reading.
RATING: A
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Thanks for the great review! I have this book & series on my list.
This series really gives you the “feelz.”
Tori, I can feel how much you loved it! I have not read this author…sound like a must read! Great review!
Thanks and yes, I did love it. Ryan was fabulous and the chemistry between her and Harrison was off the charts. I loved she wasn’t willing to “settle” no matter how much she loved him.
Can this be read, as a stand alone?
Yes.
Great review, Tori, it makes me want to read it all over again. One of the best books I read this year!