I liked the concept of honoring second generation immigrants by focusing on Ana Movilian's story. She's struggling to balance her own needs while regularly feeling as if she's never living up to her mother's dreams for her. Ana dropped out of Harvard medical school to pursue what we'd consider a career as an influencer and has actually done quite well. She not only has a large audience for her successful self-help podcast but is about to begin a book tour for her first book. Everything seems to be going well until, uh-oh, her publicist, Meredith, quits. The replacement? Well, Ryan Grant is handsome but seems to look down on her work, preferring his "important" client list. I bet that even if you haven't read the blurb, you can see what's coming. I'm not quite sure I'd dub Ryan as an enemy, hence the enemy-to-lovers trope, but, well, sparks do fly.
And that's about all I'm going to share about the plot. As a character driven reader, I had difficulty relating to Ana, to be honest. While the plot moves along smoothly and there is humor, I didn't really dislike Ana but her need to prove herself over and over to everyone and fret that she wasn't respected seemed like a large chunk of the text. Ana knew her family had given up a great deal to immigrate to America and she couldn't quite help feeling as if she'd let them down by not fulfilling her mother's dream of her becoming a doctor. Ryan is initially seen only through Ana's eyes, so our initial expectation is that he is going to be stuck on himself and his own importance, so to speak. As it turns out, there's far more depth to him, however, and I found myself quite liking him as we find out more about his own family responsibilities and life. He hasn't had an easy life, either.
While Ana and Ryan clash initially, it was satisfying to get a bit of a look behind the scenes of the publishing world and book tours in particular, too, always a plus for this book addict. While I'd have rather liked to have gotten to see things through Ryan's eyes, too, mostly to explain their attraction to each other, it worked for the most part for me. Thanks #Ballantine - #Dell for this early peek at how Ana finds her way to not just success on the public level but a more solid personal foundation. Oh, and readers, there's a Reading Club Guide and more at the end, so be sure to check them out.
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