book review : terms and conditions

Genre: Romance

Reading age: 18+

Rating: 7/10

You’ll like this if you’ve read: the Shatter Me series, Ugly Love

I’ve been in a reading slump for the longest time, after reading a really confusing fantasy novel. So I was on the hunt for something easy to read, romantic and steamy - and Lauren Asher did not disappoint!

This is your typical marriage of convenience, enemies to lovers type book. And even though I knew where it was heading, I couldn’t bare to put this down (Yes, I completed it in 24 hours). It does have some deeper themes of domestic violence, childhood trauma and neurodiversity but Asher touches on these very loosely.

The story follows a young billionaire Declan and his assistant Iris, who enter a contractual agreement to help Declan acquire a large inheritance and gain control of his family business. Declan is your typical handsome but cold protagonist with daddy issues and only seems to be moved by a very cheerful Iris, even though he doesn’t like to admit it. Iris similarly also has her own daddy issues but it’s interesting to see how this manifests in a different way. I liked that book is split into a dual narrative, which allows us to understand both characters more intimately and see different perspectives of the same events.

I think there were 3 main things which could’ve improved the book:

1. Although Iris was getting a large pay-out from the contract, it was kind of unclear why she would sacrifice so much of her life for Declan in the first place. Asher slightly touched on the fact that Iris was of a working class background, and that the characters clearly had some co-dependency issues or undercover feelings but I would have liked to see this a bit more at the start to build up to the plot of the story more.
2. Iris is a black woman and Declan is a white man, so it would’ve been interesting if Asher touched on the issues that come with interracial dating. Their difference in class was a common theme but it felt like a slight oversight not to mention race when Iris was being treated as inferior to Declan.
3. And finally, childhood trauma was often mentioned but in a very surface level way. In a way, these characters could have done with a bit of a prologue of some sort to flesh out their individual journeys better, it was difficult to be moved by their life choices as we don’t get a chance to really dive into their pasts, which clearly had a lot of pain and impact on them as adults.

To counter the third point though, I later found out this is the second book in a three part series about Declan and his brothers. People do say the books can be read as standalones but I’m a sucker for an origin story, so currently adding The Fine Print to cart.

And even without reading the first book, I can definitely see why this is a BookTok favourite. It’s not a difficult read and it has some really sexy scenes. What more do you need to get you out of a reading slump? 

Buy it here: https://amzn.eu/d/01NdPswJ