Review: Where are the sparks?
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 06 30, 2013
Minimal sparks fly in the office of Victor Rossi when Veronica enters his office to make a proposal to save his company from software meltdown. In fact, the reader is hardly aware of their mutual attraction until after the meeting when they can't stop thinking about each other. This doesn't make for the strongest start to the story.However, once we realize Veronica is super into her new boss, we find out that it also terrifies her. Not wanting to mix business and pleasure, she tries avoiding him at all costs. When her nerves get to her and she ends up sneaking into his office, but has no chance of escaping, she finds herself in an uncomfortable position. However, Mr. Rossi finds himself in what may be a more uncomfortable position. As he finds that Veronica has avoided their meeting, he begins to fantasize about her and gets a little into it. With Veronica hiding in the office, her voyeuristic tendencies can't help but be brought to life.After witnessing her boss in this compromising position, he decides he can blackmail her into getting what he wants from her. This is where the story gets a little odd. Mr. Rossi decides to rewrite their business contract, and I - as the reader - am hoping for some hot BDSM contract. But that isn't the case at all. In fact, we hardly find out what the new terms of their agreement are except for one small exchange.They spend several chapters hiding from each other, avoiding each other...which slows the story considerably. However, when Rossi shows up to nurse Veronica back to health, she develops a soft spot for him. It seems Rossi is finally right where he wants to be, but he walks away and leaves the next move up to Veronica - which she takes in a very showy manner.The story was pretty good, but the characters were hard to figure out. I enjoyed Veronica as she was a strong female. She was snarky and wasn't giving in to Rossi.Rossi, on the other hand, was a little harder to figure out. Rossi was clearly a dominant character, taking what he wanted and providing for Veronica. However, he did it in a somewhat sleazy way at times, which was off-putting.I think the story could have benefited from more interaction between the characters - they spent so much of the story avoiding each other, which in a novel can be acceptable, but in a novella such as this, I think it is necessary to have has much interaction as possible to take advantage of every word and page of the shorter piece of literature.Overall, I recommend this story. It isn't long, so it's not like you'll be wasting your time. Just know that Rossi maybe won't be your dream guy. But if you're looking for something to occupy an hour of your time, it isn't the worst choice.