My new book review is The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory. If you recall, my last book review was also from the same author. This is the second novel from her book series which started with The Wedding Date.

What’s the Story?

This plot is from GoodReads

When freelance writer Nikole Paterson goes to a Dodgers game with her actor boyfriend, his man bun, and his bros, the last thing she expects is a scoreboard proposal. Saying no isn’t the hard part–they’ve only been dating for five months, and he can’t even spell her name correctly. The hard part is having to face a stadium full of disappointed fans…

At the game with his sister, Carlos Ibarra comes to Nik’s rescue and rushes her away from a camera crew. He’s even there for her when the video goes viral and Nik’s social media blows up–in a bad way. Nik knows that in the wilds of LA, a handsome doctor like Carlos can’t be looking for anything serious, so she embarks on an epic rebound with him, filled with food, fun, and fantastic sex. But when their glorified hookups start breaking the rules, one of them has to be smart enough to put on the brakes… 

My Review of The Proposal

I first encountered Carlos Ibarra from The Wedding Date. He’s the best friend of the lead guy in the story, Drew. In The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory, it’s now Carlos’ turn to become the leading guy in his own romance novel. Just like the aforementioned book and Party of Two, the heroine of this story, Nik is a black woman. Carlos though is not a white guy as you probably could tell by his surname. He’s a Latino. She’s a writer and he’s a doctor and the setting of the story is in LA.

All of the three novels I’ve read from Jasmine Guillory had meet cute stories. This is by far my favorite though. Modern day knight in shining armor. Compared to the first two books I read though, this story is lighter and warmer. Its got the romance, the friendship, self relationship and family all rolled into one good read.

I noted that aside from diverse characters, this author seems to like to talk about food through her characters. That trademark could be seen in The Proposal as well as Carlos likes to cook and one of Nik’s friends is a baker who owns a cupcake shop. Reading her novels makes me hungry.

I was initially afraid that I would dislike the characters of this book when I started to read about their worry that they may not be on the same page in terms of what they’re looking for with each other. The Wedding Date characters had that is he/she into me or not? which went on for almost the entirety of the story. Good thing Carlos and Nik knew how to communicate with each other! This book was nicely written. A good balance of romance and sex and other things.

Notable Side Stories

So other things – aside from the romance of Carlos and Nik, I also appreciated and thought it’s worth noting some of the side stories from The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory.

There’s Nik’s heartbreak which made her afraid to be vulnerable towards other men. There’s also Carlos’ secret struggle over the lost of a parent and feeling the need to take on the role of taking care of the whole family. Lastly, there was the emotional abuse story of both Nik and the side character, the gym instructor. They were weaved in the story without it overshadowing the main story while also giving the characters a proper backstory to support the kind of people they are now.

My Book Rating

I’m glad that my impression of Carlos Ibarra didn’t change from when I first encountered him. I enjoyed reading his romance story and rated this 5 stars on GoodReads. If you want a cute romance story, I would recommend The Proposal.