Who's The Boss

Who's The Boss
by Jill Shalvis
Rating: 4 of 5 stars

My Review:
I needed a break from the current books, so I went old-school again. This book was written in 1999. It was a good example of old-school romance. A Harlequin Temptation, so the sex is pretty mild. The story had some signature Jill Shalvis plot points: nice, misunderstood characters who grow up and learn to communicate, good friends who act as wonderful sidekicks, not quite a much humor as some of her later works, but lots of crazy mishaps too.

Caitlyn is a petite, blonde bombshell and Joe is the computer programmer/CEO. Tall, handsome man, meets spoiled, little rich girl. Except in this case, Caitlyn's father died, leaving Caitlyn with nothing except a promised job at Joe's company. She's never had a job before and is sort of klutzy, but she works hard.

Joe sees Caitlyn as a spoiled, rich girl and it takes him a while to soften up and see that she's more than just a pretty face. He really just wants to be left alone to work on his projects. We don't find out too much about his work, but it's going to take the software world by storm.

I liked how the characters interacted. I liked that you could see Joe caring, even when he didn't want to. Caitlyn gave herself too little credit for a while, but grows a greater self-confidence and starts finding her place.

I had to roll my eyes a little bit with the way this book portrayed Caitlyn's intellect. When Joe and Caitlyn go out to dinner, Caitlyn calculates the tip in her head. And OMG, Joe is shocked. Caitlyn can add... in her head... real numbers. It was so sadly comical. I think it's a sad commentary on what society thought of women, especially rich ones, in the 90s. And something we still have to work through today. Yes, I'm a woman and I can add. I have high hopes for every woman and man, that they can add – even balance a bank statement – without breaking a sweat.

Bottom line, it's a good retro book for when you're looking for something fun. The ending was so satisfying that I was crying. Everyone was sweet and happy to be alive and had just the right touch of angst. But the view of women was troubling and thought provoking for me.