Nowhere Book Bingo: First in a finished series
CBR16 Sweet Books: New (new author AND first time reading romance in Swedish)
Financial bad boy and seemingly ruthless venture capitalist David Hammar is a self-made man and has acquired his wealth and power for one purpose, which he is close to achieving. He is determined to take over Investum, one of the biggest companies in Sweden, owned and controlled by the powerful De la Grip family. Since the takeover might go smoother if his company has at least one member of the family on their side, he arranges to meet the daughter of the family, Natalia De la Grip, for a business lunch.
Natalia is extremely good at her job and keeps getting great references from current and previous employers. Working as a financial analyst, she desperately wants to prove herself capable and skilled enough to earn a place on the board of Investum. After her fiancée left her, she more or less lives at her work. She has no idea why David Hammar, considered a dangerous young upstart by her father, would want to meet with her, but is curious enough to go to the appointment (especially after her best friend Åsa goes on about how handsome and sexy David is). It doesn’t take David long to conclude that Natalia is far too eager to please her father to ever betray the family name and join his revenge plot. The two have undeniable chemistry, however, and although he knows it’s a terrible idea, he goes out of his way to do her a personal favour, even though he should forget about her and continue with his takeover plans.
Natalia knows her father and brother consider David Hammar some sort of personal nemesis, but when he claims to have double-booked so he won’t be able to attend a concert (this is a total lie), offering her the tickets instead (an intimate concert with her favourite artist), they start texting, and soon he’s invited her to dinner, which ends with them spending a passionate night together. It’s only supposed to be one single night (the Swedish title of the book, in fact), but despite both knowing it’s a terrible idea, they keep meeting and gradually falling for one another. David’s best friend and business partner, Michel, is deeply uncomfortable about the rapidly escalating situation and keeps asking his friend to let Natalia down gently, before she discovers he’s been lying to her the whole time, and his major personal and professional motivation is to ruin her family.
So this book has been on my actual physical bookshelf since 2016. I tracked down a copy and bought it in paperback after reading this very favourable review over on Smart Bitches, Trashy Books, and since then it’s lingered unread. More fool me, this book was a cracking read, with so many soap opera elements. It not only kept me up far too late at night reading after I started reading it, but I spent most of a Sunday doing almost nothing but reading to finish it.
Full review on my blog.