Strictly Business By Kallista Kohl

Free read Strictly Business

Ever have a narrator drive you insane? That was Izabelle for me. Meanwhile, leading man Jake reminded me a lot of my husband, Jake. Both workaholics who dislike melon in fruit salad. Sweet and earnest, but oblivious. However this Jake put up with a lot from Izabelle. (Okay, mine dos from me too.)

Izabelle is heading to an investment presentation opportunity at a beautiful resort when she meets Jake in her ride share too the airport. Both bond over their similar work ethics. She is surprised to run into him again at the resort, but unbeknownst to her Jake's company runs the conference she is attending...

This is a meet-cute reluctant couple who then fall very fast. The romance is sweet- but with lots of time spent intimately in hotel rooms.

My issues with this were a few lot devices used to cause conflict in the story. Most involved Izabelle overreacting and blaming it on her past. Others were from Jake being the man behind the competition. Overall both these plots before, neither is my favorite but if presented uniquely they can definitely work. I just didn't find anything new to make this interesting andbreathe some energy into them. Izabelle's emotions and stubbornness ended up making the story drag as a result.

This was still a cute book. I could see this being a movie on the Hallmark channel. If that's your style, you'll find much to enjoy. It is a quick, simple and easy read.

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Kindle Edition 𝑊𝑒𝑙𝑙, 𝑤ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑓𝑟𝑖𝑒𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑖𝑓 𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑑𝑢𝑚𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑦𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑡 𝑜𝑛 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑜𝑝𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑦'𝑙𝑙 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑝 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝑐𝑙𝑒𝑎𝑛 𝑖𝑡 𝑢𝑝?

While this was a cute romcom, I had some issues with it.

Likes:

✨Jake being socially awkward. That was really cute.

✨Izabelle's independence and her working from scratch to achieve her goals. Inspiring, check. Motivating, check. Shows that honest hard work actually pays off.

✨The best friends are to die for. They're the standard for friendship. Plus they're hilarious.

✨Cam certainly is the badass/amazing assistant. She's my favorite side character.

✨It had its laugh out loud moments.

Dislikes:

✨Miscommunication trope. That took from the fun of reading the book. It was honestly frustrating. Just come out with the truth already.

✨Some things felt repetitive.

✨✨✨✨✨✨

Overall, I really enjoyed reading this debut. It's light, fast paced and funny.
One downside is, that I couldn't really connect to the characters until 70% of the book. Sure, the romance was cute. The gestures were top notch, but something felt off, like it was way too good to be true. But then shit went down the hill and it got more real. That I loved.
I can't wait to read more about the rest of the characters.

I received an advance review copy from BookSirens for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

ℝ𝔸𝕋𝕀ℕ𝔾: ⭐⭐⭐.5 /5 rounded up to 4⭐ Kindle Edition Honestly this story is really fun and I was engaged through the whole book.

The concept is well thought out, and I not only loved the story, the characters, and their interactions (the pals are all fantastic! ), but I also appreciated how they happened to run into each other by chance.

The downside for me is how Izabelle seems to believe easily with the guy that she just met without feeling suspicious but I'm glad Jake is such a gentlemen.

Since we have already heard enough of the story's main plot, I genuinely believe that some of the extraneous details can be excluded.

Despite everything, this was still a nice story. It was a short, straightforward read. I can see this becoming an amazing series with strong, independent women who are professional fullbacks. My favorite aspect of Strictly Business was the friendship relationship, which I thought was fantastic.

I received an advance review copy from Booksirens for free and I'm leaving this review voluntarily. Kindle Edition This was a fun read for me. I appreciated the strong female character who learned from past relationship and didn’t let it stop her in work or in love while leading man also had to learn from the past to improve his future. FYI: there will be a moment when you want to punch Simon in the face. Lol #BookSirens Kindle Edition Rating: 4.5 stars

Positive thoughts:
I can’t say it’s a Grumpy-sunshine, although we know before the vacation, Jake is the grumpy character at work, but this grumpiness is not relieved while he is on vacation. He was the swooniest guy ever, and we just love that in our hero. And I loved that our heroine saw his sweetness and didn’t go throughout the entire book resisting him. Here you get to see how good they are together, feel their attraction, love their chemistry and share their struggles. It’s definitely not slow burn (thank goodness).
I love the twist in the end, I was expecting her ex would show up, but I was still surprised by his outcome.
Of course we got our happy ending, and I must admit, the epilogue was a fresh scene.
I love how the author did the dual POV. (Honestly, I’m not a fan of the first person POV. For me it works for audios, but it’s a pain to read).

Negative thoughts:
I’m not a big fan of too long paragraphs, it means I’ll get a lot of descriptive text that most of the time can be left out. I call it too much information and information that the story can go without. I found myself skimming a few times.
I also thought it was unnecessary to go over the same time line or scene just because we were changing the POV.

Overview:
I enjoyed the book how our hero gave all his support to our heroine. Although she was reluctant to share because of past disappointments, and then his reluctance when he knew his identity would put her off. The romance kept me going, it was a page turned. Super interesting, you’re just waiting for Jakes identity to hit the fan and how things will escalade. You feel for him when Izabelle flees, he’s such a good character, you fall in love with him right away. The business topic of the story was interesting and because it didn’t go into too much depth, I didn’t feel bored with it.
This is not a closed door romance, so you get detailed scenes throughout the book. Look out if this is not something you enjoy.

Romance: 4/5
Spice: 4/5
Chemistry: 4/5
Humour: 3/5
Foul language: 3,5/5

Tropes:
- business vacation
- shared cab
- (sort of) forced proximity
- Independent heroine
- grumpy – sunshine
- forbidden romance
- romantic comedy
- swoony hero

Thank you Booksprout for the ARC, I was given a free copy in exchange for an honest review. Kindle Edition

Izabelle has one rule: never mix business and pleasure.

It’s taken Izabelle Green five years to rebuild what her ex-boyfriend stole from her. With the biggest presentation of her life looming, she can’t afford any distractions. Even if that distraction is a tall, dark, very handsome stranger named Jake. As a one-woman CEO, she normally insists on doing everything herself. But with just two weeks until her pitch she needs help, and there’s something about Jake’s delightfully awkward charm that has her wondering if some rules are meant to be broken.

Jake Masterson should be thanking his lucky stars. He thought this forced vacation was going to be two weeks of can’t-access-the-company-network torture. Instead, he’s run into his dream woman—not once, but twice—and she’s asking him for help in his area of expertise. There’s just one problem, Izabelle is the one woman he shouldn’t be talking to, and he can’t find the words to tell her why.

As their chance encounter at a luxury Sedona resort heats up, both Jake and Izabelle fight the urge to mix personal and professional. But as they bond over life, loss, and having little to no free time the urge gets harder to resist. With hearts and companies on the line, how are they ever going to keep things strictly business?

Strictly Business is a full length romantic comedy with a happily ever after and all the steamy heat of the Arizona sun. Strictly Business

I'm always trying to find books that really make me feel something--something that keeps me from putting it down into a (crowded) graveyard of half-read books. Strictly Business seriously has that something. The genuine laughs that make onlookers wonder what you're reading; that good heart race when things are spinning out; the painfully relatable inner-monologue when dating; the SPICY female-centered content all of us can't get enough of; and the dream guy we will all hopelessly set our standards against. Truthfully, this rom-com book bats way above its competitors, due all in part to the thoughtfulness of these characters' richly detailed backstories and the numerous Oh my GOD, YES plot moments that keep you turning the page. Truly loved it; exactly what I wanted to read.
Kindle Edition POV- Dual
Spice- 🌶 🌶 🌶

This was a fun, well written debut novel that is sort of a workplace/forbidden/secret identity romance with a backdrop of the gorgeous red rocks of Sedona!

Jake is not your normal CEO book boyfriend, but that made me like him even more! He is awkward and not exactly smooth with the ladies, and it’s cute how he instantly is interested in Izabelle. I would’ve preferred to find out his secret when Izabelle found out, because that made him a little less likable for me knowing what we know from the beginning. My feelings about Izabelle are a little more mixed up, because while I can appreciate her independence, I spent most of the book frustrated with her and if I wasn’t frustrated I felt bad for her. I do think she redeems herself by the end of the book and I still enjoyed reading about them both.

A little steamy and light on the angst with a HEA, I feel it’s also a unique take on the workplace trope because of the crazy competition that it revolves around. There is also a great group of girlfriends that are always there to support Izabelle as well as be the voices or reason that she very much needs. I hope we get stories about the rest of the group!

*I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.* Kindle Edition #StrictlyBusiness by @kallistakohl rated ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ on #goodreads and #storygraph

Thank you to the author and Book Sirens for the Advanced Reader Copy.

What a book!!! Books by Independent authors are seriously worth reading - this one certainly. I loved every page!!

Izabelle is a wonderful main character, who after so much difficulty and trauma, continues to push herself for what she wants, pursue her dreams and never give up. I love how strong she is but I’m glad that she realises that every person is allowed their weak and low moments and can come back even stronger.

Jake was the perfect love interest. I love how well they gelled together and bounced off each other from the very beginning. Jake was so human, experiencing loss, life and love, yet still had so much to give.

They are one of my favourite book couples to date. Their chemistry was undeniable.

The story and concept had me continually wanting more, I’ve personally never read anything like it, yet would love to read more. I loved the CEO-future CEO dynamic and business storyline, it opened my eyes to a world I didn’t know much about.

This book of course had its sad, difficult, ugly (side characters) and tense moments, but were overbalanced by the sweet, wonderful, caring, big-gesture, slightly smutty moments.

Side note - I did find the font difficult to read, it switched to typical book font around location 1963, which I preferred, but noticed this location also had a spelling mistake ‘waiting for what I what’ should be ‘waiting for what I want’, and another spelling mistake was noticed ‘Helen’ instead of what should have been ‘Helena’. These did not detract from the book, it would be truly perfect with these corrected.

A wonderful book with promise to do well out there in the world. Highly recommend.

#book #books #bookish #bookworm #bookshelf #booklover #bookreview #bookstagram #booktok #bookrecommendations

I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. Kindle Edition I love a holiday romance. And an office romance. I felt like I got the best of both worlds in Kallista Kohl’s Strictly Business. In a shared ride on the way to the airport for the most important pitch event of her career, Izabelle meets Jake. He’s handsome, a workaholic like herself and deliciously awkward when it comes to social interactions. But not wanting to get distracted by a pretty face Iz doubles down on her desire to focus on one thing only - her work. Running into him again at the resort where she will present her pitch seems like maybe fate is trying to tell her something. Their chemistry is instantaneous and if Iz can let some of her past demons behind she might be able to kick goals in her professional and personal lives. Jake is likewise enamoured with the beautiful and passionate businesswoman. But when he realises she’s there to present at the event his company runs it’s a giant conflict of interest. Not wanting to give up on this fledgling relationship, Jake uses his business knowledge to help Iz with her presentation whilst trying to work out how to come clean.

I loved the setting and the concept for this book. Sonoma seems like such a beautiful place and I could feel the vacation vibe throughout the novel. The set up was great and it was lovely to see Iz having such a great group of supportive friends. But there were a few things which got in the way of this being a five star read for me. With us the reader knowing about Iz’s past and also about Jake’s keeping things from her, all the scenes between them had a bit of a dark cloud hanging over them. And I found myself growing frustrated with Iz. She’s such a dedicated businesswoman who has been burned in the past. I wanted her to be more suspicious that Jake didn’t tell her anything about his work. Instead whenever she opened up and told him personal stories which made her the woman she is today he would just think how great she was and maybe he would tell her the truth later. And Iz was never questioning why Jake seemed to know so much about pitching and the business world. I also had a few problems with Iz being such a workaholic and the type who is so over prepared she turned up to an airport over three hours early but she hadn’t googled the company presenting the pitch event? I just feel she would have known the names and faces of all the big hitters at the event and known all about Jacoby/Jake.

Putting all of that aside, this was a fun book and a great introduction to Iz’s friends. I can see this being a fantastic series featuring strong, independent women who are kicking goals professionally. I loved the friendship dynamic and feel like that was the highlight of Strictly Business.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. Kindle Edition The plot is well thought out and it keeps you reading to the end - it could be a very successful movie.
Besides really enjoying the story, the characters and their interaction (the friends are all great, but Cam is a riot!), I also liked the serendipity of their finding each other. If I were to choose which character I'd like to be, though, I would probably choose to be Helen.

If you read the book (which I recommend) you will understand why. So go ahead and enjoy it, I would certainly read another book by this author.

I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review. Kindle Edition