The Proposal by Jasmine Guillory.

Ugh, this book is so fun.

I hadn’t read a fiction book in a really long time before I scooped this one after the gym on a Saturday, but I’m so glad that I made this choice.

I was experiencing a bout of depression at the time of this purchase, and I didn’t really want to think about anything. I didn’t know until I started reading it, but I was looking to reconnect with something that didn’t put me under any obligation to perform, or learn, or retain, or project. I just wanted to enjoy reading again.

Sidenote: I genuinely love to learn, and if I could, I would be a career student. This leads me to choose books that require a pencil and paper when reading them, and I find myself operating as though I am in the middle of a tense semester when I’m supposed to just be enjoying a good book with half a glass of wine. Continue.

The Proposal accomplished my goal. There were nights when I would stay up until 2am (read: 3am) adjusting my position from the couch, to the kitchen, to the bathroom, to the bed, back to the couch all with this book in my hand, completely invested in the story of Nik and Carlos. Sometimes, I had to leave it out in the kitchen and away from my bedside so that I could get enough sleep to accurately function the next day. It was good and it was fun.

There is always a lesson to be learned from everything, really, and just because this book is a work of fiction does not mean that there isn’t a lesson intertwined into the hot sex scenes and giggly bar trips amongst girlfriends. I’ll let you figure out what that lesson is when you read it.

I felt like a shy, chubby, 10-year-old again, tucked underneath a blanket with a flashlight at my grandma’s house reading until my eyes burned and I could no longer make sense of the words. It was nostalgic and it was comforting, and it was also just plain fun (Take a shot every time you read the word “fun” in this post.). Jasmine Guillory was consistent with her characters throughout the book (which is so refreshing), and was also a very candid writer, making sure not to lose the reader with too-fancy terms and rabbit trails within the context. It’s a great read, and highly recommended for those who want to feel something good again.

Read duration: I think I finished this book in less than two weeks, 14 days max.

Here it is on Amazon, at Barnes & Noble, and my fave — Target.