Rose Sinclair counts through life in sixes. It’s how she gets by when she’s not in the company of her best friend and Tourette’s sufferer, Laurie, or focusing on her busy work schedule as the personal assistant and office manager for the extremely attractive and extremely married, Ezra Conti.Everything has a place and Rose likes it that way. It must be that way.But even her quirks aren’t enough … aren’t enough to keep her in her lane and away from temptation. No matter how hard she tries to fight a detour in her life’s perfect navigation system.
She doesn’t like-like her boss. Not one bit. He belongs with his wife, and Rose…
…
Rose belongs by his side.
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This book was intense which have intensive qualities to keep a reader addicted.
This story has,
tropes that most readers avoid:
-cheating
-the other woman
tropes most readers love:
-huge age gap
-taboo
This book may rub people in the wrong way. Rose is shy, confident, truthful, naive – mention all the good qualities a person rarely has. Ezra was Rose’s boss, a happily married man with an impressionable lovely daughter. Rose and Ezra don’t hit off from the start, they were strictly professional until later.
Rose didn’t want to start something knowing she may ruin lives and Ezra was conflicted with his feelings. Both of them are hateful and likeable. Love happens sometimes in bad timing. The author has given them almost a year before developing their feelings. Being together wasn’t easy, it created a lot of mess. I liked that Rose’s character was realistic, once she had Ezra she didn’t let him go, she was sweetly selfish. Ezra was equally distinguished as a good and a cheating husband.
When everything is right in life what do you do when the lines are blurred. Rose cares for Ezra’s daughter, for his wife. Ezra was in turmoil for he loves his wife with his whole heart but he loves Rose with his whole soul.
This review is not to excuse the ugly tropes the author dared to use. She used this disadvantage to create a story which can be related to reality.
Aware of the warning and still going into the book and then rating it 1 star and ranting is totally unnecessary. Every review under this book provides a cautioning that this story is cheating matter. Maybe some people might find the story distasteful or the situation here can trigger and relate to real life, so avoid the book.
This is a “what if” plot. It’s fiction, we get a HEA. The confliction, love, betrayal can be compared to real life. It’s a worthy 5 star read.
INFURIATING YET PROFOUND & PASSIONATE!
Imagine finding the absolute love of your life….MONTHS after you’ve been working for him.
AND he can never belong to you because he belongs to another woman!
His wife!
Most of the time it was a toss up to whether I hated Ezra & Rose or I loved them. I couldn’t tell you the exact moment that I fell in love with them as anything other than boss+employee. I think that it was a gradual, unintended falling. I just couldn’t resist…any more than they could resist each other. I adored the way they meshed so well together work-wise but then when that intensity rolled over into their personal lives in the form of passion my heart soared uncontrollably. It violated my own morals and left me torn on whether to wish them their own beautiful little world or condemn them back to the lives they lived before their desire shattered the innocence that once encompassed them. But THEN I’d see Ezra & Rose connect in a way that NO ONE else inside this world did! I could SEE them really SEE EACH OTHER so completely and that was just EVERYTHING for me.
Murphy teased my heart with all these innocent little pieces of them for so many pages that I feel like the thought of them in any illicit capacity was overshadowed by all the moments where I could truly feel the strength of how much they loved each other. At some point, along the way of falling for them I realized in no way could I consider my own love for them illicit in any way.
“It has only ever felt right!”
This book just hurt my soul and I just kept coming back for more…more and more until I had every single morsel of Ezra & Rose that Murphy was willing to give us. I didn’t just want it, I needed them in a way that I don’t often experience in most books. I think the hardest part to accept was how fiercely my heart hurt so for Rose; someone who was partly responsible for so much sorrow & pain experienced by so many.
Here comes the but part…what else could you possibly do when you love someone so entirely and unconditionally!
No matter the pain you know you will undoubtedly experience and cause…you just know there’s no possible way you could live your life without them.
This is one of those books that WILL NOT be for everyone! AND I always say THAT’S OKAY! If you have an issue reading cheating or if it’s a trigger for you, just bypass this one! If that’s how you feel beforehand…there is very rarely anything that a writer can do to change your mind…no matter the love that exists between these two characters or how they got there! Keep in mind this is fiction and people can read something without condoning it. It was very eye opening for me, to see this from the other woman’s side of things. It’s single POV (Rose) and oh how I wish I could have had Ezra’s at some point but that truly wasn’t the intention of this book. It was to see HER side of the story and so at that realization his POV became irrelevant to me.
How did I wait two years to read this book! It was simply a case of it getting buried in the thousand+ books I have on my TBR, but I swear…I will forever regret it sitting on my TBR that long! It was just perfect for me! Forbidden love + age gap AND evoked ALL THE EMOTIONS…IT FED MY BOOKISH SOUL!!!
I loved absolutely everything about this book. I’m a big fan of the cheating trope so it’s no surprise that I devoured it. I’m usually on the fence about where I want everyone to end up but not with this one. It was perfect! I loved the quirkiness of both Rose and Laurie – especially Laurie – she broke up tension in an otherwise serious book.
I will admit at times I hated Ezra and had a feeling things were going to go the way they did, but that didn’t stop my heart from pounding or the fact that I had to put the book away for a bit to prepare myself. I rooted for both him and Rose the whole way.
I would LOVE to see a book about Laurie…her growing up with tourette syndrome and how she came to be the person she is today. And then there is Kyle – the one that came along and captured her heart…so please Ms. Murphy give us more!!!
4.5
Rose is a quirky, hardworking PA to Ezra. She has OCD, horrific fashion sense, and mostly keeps to herself. But she’s amazing at her job, super smart, and has huge heart. I was nervous going into this book and wasn’t sure that I was going to be able to get into it since its basis story about cheating but A.E. Murphy did such a great job with this story that I ended up loving it. There was great character development with the main characters and the supporting characters. You got a great picture of who they were separately and together before anything ever happened between them. I loved the way you were able to see their feelings and relationship grow instead of it being an Insta-love story. My only issue was how quickly I felt like she forgave him for things that he did but I won’t go into spoilers about that. But otherwise I thought it was a great story!
A very intriguing book. Perhaps morally challenging for some readers but I am not one of them 😉
Does love just happen or does it grow? Can love be ignored? Is sacrificing love justified or does that leave all parties involved just plain miserable? These are a few of the questions that you shall find answers to while reading this book. On top of that, you get to meet some sassy and quirky characters, some disturbed ones and some “stiffs” but they all come together as a wonderful whole. Some you may love more than others but isn’t that just normal? My personal favorite is Laurie and I leave it to you to discover why 😉
In short – a good romance novel to curl up with.
It’s been a day since I finished this book and I am still at a loss for words on how to talk about it. I know this book won’t be for everyone and some people are going to hate the characters on principle alone but I’m going to say that I loved them. I loved the ups and downs, the taboo aspect, the steam and the connection that these characters share. Rose was funny and seeet and just an all around awesome characters. Mr. C was a jerk at times but deep down he was awesome and I loved him from the start. All the secondary characters rocked too. I would love to see some of them get books and that way we can see them get HEAs and see these characters again. My biggest complaint is that I wanted into Ezra’s head. I wanted to see what he was feeling and experiencing but even with that it was an amazing book. 5 stars #2OCCJD
I loved reading this book. Yes, some might not like cheating… But, stories like this gives you a better understanding of why this happens with relationships. This story was REAL, in the aspect that this does happen daily in the real world. And, to have Rose with her issues, and Ezra, who doesn’t seem to mind is another plus. And we can’t leave out Laurie, who is very entertaining. However you want to look at it, this was a love story, which was amazing.
Persuasion results in her joining his world.
He’s not her type, he’s married and she’s not interested.
She’s not like any other personal assistant hes ever had before. From the way she dresses, to the way she acts.
She’s only an employee, she’s not unique and she’s definetly not special.
How long can they convince themselves for…
I dont think I have it in me to shed even one more tear! completely and utterly emotionally drained!
I laughed so hard, I cried and gave myself a stitch. I sobbed so hard my partner thought someone had died.. oh my I’m a mess folks!
A.E Murphy is simply a genius!! I’ve not read her before and now I want to kick myself because this book is simply outrageously everything!!
I thought I was going to hate Rose because due to the title it was obvious what was going to happen, but from the moment I met her that all flew out the window!
Her nervous habits, counting, and obsessive compulsive disorder all stole my negativity and I simply loved the bones of her!
Add into the mix her completely crazy hysterical best friend and I was a complete goner!
Ezra I wanted to hate but again I just couldnt! It wasnt his fault as much as it wasnt hers. he didn’t ask to feel the way he did and his mask of indifference was amazing!
Though the naughty and bad times, came goodness, honesty and a bucket load of soggy tissues!
Now my heart has finished bleeding and crying I can breathe again!
Five stars is not enough, I would give a vase full if only I could..
This book was so good! I loved Rose, and enjoyed reading her story. This book was funny. Laurie killed me every time she was mentioned. When Laurie screamed “COTTON CANDY ORGASMS AND YOUR LOCAL ALCOHOLIC!” I about fell over laughing at their antics.
Rose deserved a family. She dreamed of one. She was settled, and it was one of her goals. I felt her pain, and at one point I wanted to just hug her. She tried so hard to overcome her anxiety. I loved that Ezra understood her. He just loved her. I also LOVED the SnapBack. I mean laughing so hard I was crying.
This book is more than these few sentences. I 100% recommend!
I’ll be honest I’ve have read plenty of cheating books and I love some of them and others I don’t. But like always, every time I read a A.E. Murphy book. She makes the story unique and hers. She makes the characters more real.
The characters are so different and not your typical cheaters. This story makes you feel for every single character in the book not just the main characters. You want to root for everyone and not sure how everything will work out in the end but it does. All the characters are funny with their own quirk. Some more than others.
This is a must read story. Even if your not sure about a cheating story. Take a chance with Rose and Ezra love story. And you we see why it’s a 5 star read.
When You Can’t Hate the other Woman
This wasn’t the tipical “Cheating” book, I feel it read as a second chance romance. if this is a personal trigger or something you don’t look for in a book I’d like to invite you to put aside these notions and follow Rose’s journey to happines, allow author A.E. Murphy to give the other side of the affair.
Becoming his Mistress was for me a battle, my heart went to war with my logic and unlike a tipical romance this read as someone’s life. With Choices, heartbreaking scenes, moments of anger where my kindle could have suffered an early grave, not only was my mind invested on Who or What will hold HEA be but also standing on the shoes of this Woman where my heart related to some extent, as I finished and got my answers I felt satisfied in the Love story we where given.
Loved loved loved this book
I couldn’t wait to get stuck into this book because I knew it would have me feeling every emotion possible and it did not disappoint!!!
From the very start I was hooked yes a book about cheating is not everyone’s cup of tea but wow the way it’s written draws you into the lives of ezra and rose and for the first time ever I was on the side of the mistress!!!
The book is full of twists and turns some amazingly hilarious laugh out loud moments, moments that hurt your heart and gut you to the core but also moments that have you crying happy tears and smiling from ear to ear.
I flippin live laurie that chic needs to tell her story !!!