The Proposal knocks it out of the ballpark, pun intended in this case ... Rollicking, charming, and infinitely zesty, The Proposal packs all the feel-good punch of a rom-com, with a weighty kick of gravitas around dating issues, loss, and male privilege. It's vibrantly diverse, from the characters to the food they love and the world they live in. Ultimately, The Proposal magnifies Guillory's delightful voice, showcases her sharp, invigorating wit, and keeps her considerable momentum going strong.
Writer Nik Paterson is, reluctantly, attending a Dodgers game with her model-actor boyfriend when suddenly her name, spelled wrong, is on the Jumbotron and he’s down on one knee. A stadium full of people witness her rejection of the proposal, but only Carlos, a doctor, and his sister, Angie, come to her rescue, pretending to be old friends and whisking her away from the descending photographers ... Full of warmth, quick banter, girlfriend group-texts, and food—so much good food!
... a straight-up contemporary romance that’s as likable as it’s unsurprising ... a novel that’s the book equivalent of a movie rom-com: light, sweet, enjoyably uncomplicated. You know exactly how things are going to work out, and they do, because that’s how rom-coms work. But the real pleasure here is the little world Guillory has created...
As much as I enjoyed The Wedding Date, The Proposal is an even stronger book. Nik is a lovable character, blunt but good-hearted, a good friend to Dana and Courtney, and kind to casual acquaintances, too ... At least four of the secondary characters—Angela, Jessie, Courtney and Natalie—are so vibrant that they leap off the page ... Initially, this book was less page-turning than The Wedding Date... Eventually, though, the that subplot connected to the main storyline, and the two threads were woven together in a way that was truly inspired ... [The Proposal is] an effervescent, even buoyant read, and readers looking for a good light contemporary will find a lot to appreciate here.
One thing the author gets all kinds of kudos for is the best depiction of an alpha female/beta male pairing I have ever seen in romance. EVER ... The characters, therefore, are perfect not in the sense that they don’t have flaws but that the author skillfully uses even those flaws to move her plot along and endear her creations to the reader ... Funny, warm and romantic The Proposal is a fantastic, not to be missed romance. I recommend it to anyone who loves – or even just likes – contemporary romance novels.
As she did in The Wedding Date, Guillory does a great job of populating her novel with an interesting, diverse cast of supporting characters, from Nik’s best friends to Carlos’ sister and cousin. She also writes with wry but genuine fondness about Los Angeles. Here the stakes might not seem as high as they did in her prior book, nor the conflicts as insurmountable. But readers shouldn’t fear—there’s still plenty of tension, of both the dramatic and sexual kinds, to be had here.
[Like her previous novel, The Proposal is] marked by [its] sparkling humor, painfully relatable characters and absorbing plotlines ... Often, lovers of romance novels find themselves getting sick of, well, romance, or at least the sappy, hyper-dramatized kind. The lack of clichés and unnecessary turmoil make this novel a breath of fresh air in the genre ... If cold weather and stale genre staples have you down this winter, pick up The Proposal. It’s the perfect pick to warm your heart and light up your smile.
The Proposal is delightful with humor, heat, and banter. Jasmine Guillory created a well-developed story of what happens after the public proposal goes wrong in the age of social media. Ms. Guillory provided an entertaining and diverse cast of characters, with Drew and Alexa from The Wedding Date as secondary characters. Fans of Penelope Ward and Jessica Lemmon will love The Proposal.
Nikole Paterson has been dating her boyfriend for all of five months when he goes for broke and proposes to her on the Jumbotron at a Dodgers game. When she turns him down and he leaves, furious, the attitude in the stadium begins to turn, and that’s when Carlos Ibarra and his sister, Angela, step in. Pretending to be her friends, they get her out of the park and back on her home turf. Knowing that neither of them wants to be in a serious relationship at the moment, Nik and Carlos give in to their mutual attraction and decide to just have something casual. While Nik struggles with suddenly feeling vulnerable and Carlos is dealing with possible health problems in his family, their fling becomes more and more serious until the two have to reckon with just how much they mean to each other ... While there isn’t much of an overall plot, the majority of the book being devoted to just watching Carlos and Nik going on dates and being cute, it’s hard to get upset about it because the whole thing is just so delightful ... A charming book for the modern romance lover.
