Boss

It’s hard to make a boss/employee romance feel plausible and comfortable in the #MeToo era, and Evans (the Real series) doesn’t quite pull it off. Alexandra Croft is a workaholic go-getter who serves as the design team’s backbone at dating app Cupid’s Arrow. When Kit Walker, the playboy son of her much-beloved boss, Alistair, comes in to take Alistair’s place, Alex is expected to report to Alistair on Kit’s progress. This puts Alex and Kit at odds, but soon their intense sexual chemistry brings them together. The book’s erotic moments are a high point, providing the tantalizing pleasure and heat Evans’s readers know and love. However, the story offers little in the way of originality, treading into an area that feels at best outdated and at worst potentially offensive. The number of times Alex considers that she might lose her job if she doesn’t make nice with Kit—especially during a sexually charged scene in Alex’s office—will leave some readers wondering whether she should be talking to HR, while those who are looking for power differential fantasy thrills will find those notes of realism distracting. Other than a few pages worth dog-earing because of the hot and sometimes funny sex scenes, there’s not much to recommend this quick tale on. (Mar.)