As a scruffy, disorganised daydreamer, Lucy Mayweather is like a fish out of water at the high-powered offices of her brother’s billionaire best friend. When she agreed to work for Felix, she had no idea quite how cut-throat his world – or he – would be. She just wanted to escape her reclusive life and be close to her childhood crush, hoping he might notice her.
But Lucy’s lonelier in London than she’s even been in her tiny village back home. The boy she grew up with has been replaced by a powerful, ruthless, extremely attractive man who doesn’t tolerate incompetence and who no longer seems to find Lucy’s quirks cute. Instead, he lectures her almost daily on her general crapness, and seems blind to the bullying she endures from his colleagues.
For Felix, agreeing to employ Lucy was a mistake. This shy bookworm with her head in the clouds, who wears tattered jumpers, carries multiple pens in her hair and has an obvious crush on him must be by far the worst assistant in London. But he’s always had a soft spot for the quirky little girl who lived in her own world and told the best stories. Well, now that little girl is all grown up… and he can’t stop thinking about her.
After Felix gives in to his bone-deep longing for his best friend’s little sister, he starts to feel more than he has in years. But Lucy has secrets, and Felix has trust issues. When his inability to trust her leads to a terrible betrayal and places Lucy in danger, Felix is faced with losing her forever. Because the new, hardened, traumatised Lucy is nothing like the daydreaming pushover she once was…
This is a full length, brother's best friend, grumpy billionaire boss romance.
Trigger warning for workplace harassment and assault.
Warning – there is swearing throughout this book.
Praise for "As a reader who loves a betrayal and subsequent grovel this story was 'chef's kiss'." "10 out of 10! Everything you could ever want or need in a romance book." "This author grabs you by the heart, gives it a good shake and slowly but beautifully puts it back together again with some heart-breaking and heart-lifting scenes." "Vibe of a secret crush/she falls first/ he falls harder tale and Is laced with mistaken angst and wonderful scenes of grovel." "Excellent, 5 stars all the way." "This book was so great that I read it all the way through in one day." "This was a heartfelt, angsty and emotional story told in the wonderful, dulcet tones of Susie's brace of creativity and stellar story-telling finesse." "Yet another winner by Susie Tate." "Fantastic book."
Susie Tate is a contemporary romance author and doctor living in beautiful Dorset with her lovely husband, equally lovely (most of the time) three boys and properly lovely dog. She writes feel-good stories which will make you laugh and cry in equal measure.
there's being a daydreamer and then there's being completely inept
this girl... i really couldn't do it lol. the writing was also a little clunky with too many character introductions up front with characters that probably would not be relevant to the storyline anyway.
I always enjoy books by Susie Tate, but I don’t like characters that can’t survive in the world. There is a helplessness to this character, even as her achievements would suggest otherwise, that makes her pathetic to me. I guess it was the early description where she was walking around her corporate workplace with her hair in a bun full of pencils and pens. I just thought to myself, “ Who does this?”
I might go back and reread this one because it’s possible that I am being too harsh on her and this was just an initial reaction.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Whew. The second half of this book deserved a much better first half.
My rating is a very tentative 3 🌟 Had the resolution not delivered so well, it wouldn't chart above 2.
This book did not become worth it for me until the third act breakup occurred. I actually wrestled with whether or not to DNF. However, once the breakup occurs, it became a much better book.
Honestly, it was refreshing to see an FMC realize not only how the MMC did her wrong, but to also see how her own overwhelming feelings for him enabled it - then actually attempt fix it. Lucy is firm with Felix about there being no way to salvage what their relationship was. It was obviously one-sided and unhealthy, so it's over.
The issues then become that substantial character growth is needed on Felix's part to create a new relationship, but his previous characterization causes it to feel almost inauthentic. I never felt the "it was always you" love that Felix claimed to have for Lucy at the end of the book. She didn't exist for him for years and years, until she began working for him, and even then it was a favor to her family.
We never (outside of a reveal about the office temperature later) see him *in love* with Lucy in the first half of the book. Hell, based on his horrendous behavior toward her as a boss and general disregard of her as a fellow human (especially one he is supposed to be family friends with), I'm not even sure he actually LIKED her in the first half. Sure, he thinks she is gorgeous and he remembers fond memories of her story-telling as kids, but that's about it. He simply doesn't seem to see her as a person, almost at all. He wants her only when there is finally competition, he berates her constantly, never asks her anything about herself, and doesn't ever actually listen to her, generally cutting her off. His lack of consideration to her is abhorrent; even lasting up to a police officer informing him that Lucy, the woman he believes he loves, was harmed at least twice by another male in the office. Uponing hearing that, Felix's instinct is to insist that the guy wouldn't have done that and it must be a mistake. But somehow he doesn't doubt at all, until shown proof that she doesn't need his money, that Lucy committing corporate espionage. But... he loves her? Right, okay.
So yeah, Felix becomes my biggest problem with this book. How can I believe that Felix is actually in love with Lucy, when that has never been demonstrated? Yeah, the "grovel" is great -in fact, one of the better ones I've read- but I just kept asking myself why does he suddenly love her now? He went all that time without Lucy, then having her and not really caring beyond sex... so what changed? Losing her isn't enough when we know he was perfectly fine without her for literal years. Again, it just didn't connect.
Note: This is even worse when you add in the stuff about his ex (exes?) that it is clear Felix might've still been with if they hadn't betrayed him or ended things. He wasn't out of those relationships because he didn't love them, we have no idea whether he did or not. But this is, again, up against Lucy who has always been in love with Felix. It just felt weird.
From reading other reviews, I have gathered that some people are more upset with Lucy's characterization - specifically, her crippling social anxiety and her inability to speak up for herself. I don't share those thoughts. Most of Lucy's actions are incredibly understandable if you are someone that experiences those things, including her willingness be a doormat throughout the first half of this book to be closer to the only guy she has apparently ever loved. Her characterization makes sense, she is terrible at being a personal assistant because she has social anxiety. It is why she can't do tasks other see as simple (the interactions are too much) and retreats to her mind. In fact, Lucy is really only entertaining the job because it gets her within Felix's sphere, she is that far gone for him. It is also why, as pointed out later, she doesn't push back or demand more from Felix - which was unhealthy. Especially combined with the lack of emotion shown on his part.
Best part of the book though? Hands down, Mike Mayweather. Hurt his sister? He'll punch you in the mouth without hesitation and deliver an office-wide dressing down to those responsible. He realizes that you're the only one that can pull his sister out of her head? He'll put aside his pride and anger to get you on board with bringing her back. Mike is the real hero of this book, and it makes me very intrigued for how his straightforward but emotional nature will deal with Vicky in the future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Dear Lord, the male character was irritating as fuck! I just couldn't and in the end didn't give a fuck about his grovelling... I wouldn't waste my time with him... the whole scenario was a tad bit on the "over-reacting" side of the action spectre... Again, I simply couldn't stand the guy... #sorryNOTsorry
I was so excited about a new Susie Tate and am so disappointed that I just liked this rather than loved it. She's still one of my top tier favorite authors.
Heroine is a head in the clouds.. a daydreamer just like the title says. She's come to London to open her horizons and hopefully catch the eye of the guy she's always loved, now an uptight, driven businessman a lot more like his father than he knows.
The problem is the story just did not feel complete. As usual, Tate's heroes do/say something inexcusable to the heroine, but the follow up is just was not there, nor was the defining relationship with his horrible father. Just too much up in the air.
Two things I noticed: one is a change in the sex/love scenes. They've always been steamy, but there was more explicit action that I felt was forced and a change from Susie Tates previous books, almost as if an editor or someone told her to spice it up. I like a good love scene as much as anyone, but the allure of Susie Tate's books is her quirky character, dialogue and banter. The second thing I noticed is she has taken some of the British sayings out. Some of her books have been set in Wales, and I loved having to look up the very entertaining slurs and phrases.
Sometimes you read a book and wish you’d just DNF’ed it when you first got the urge. This is one of those books. It got 2 stars because I at least got to the halfway mark before I realised it wasn’t getting any better. It was only 314 pages and it felt like 800. It just went on FOREVER.
I HATED these characters. They were so painfully 2D. She was a spineless pushover (and I didn’t buy that she suddenly wasn’t towards the end, the way she let him control her said it all). He was a controlling dickhead under the guise of being caring. I didn’t buy the turnarounds and I didn’t buy the chemistry.
Why is her entire personality that she’s cold? We barely learned anything about her writing career and then suddenly it’s like “oh she’s basically JK Rowling”, let’s not brush over the literal stalking that she did. Who the hell takes a job they don’t need just to breathe the same air as a guy they fancied as a child. SO CREEPY.
I guess in that respect they’re made for each other because he was also creepy AF. I’m not here for any man who tells women what to wear, who will ignore a woman in distress (in favour of a man who is clearly a predator) and who is generally just a dick to everyone. It felt a bit 50-shades which is a huge ICK.
Then we have the autistic “representation” which I’m pissed about, like we all need someone there to explain what is happening around us socially. Stop it. It was so patronising to the autistic community, and let’s be honest the fact that she was somehow at the top of the company completely ignores the many MANY barriers that autistic people face in the workplace and was never discussed.
I just hated it, I skimmed the last 20% and I couldn’t even stomach the sex scenes because of all the red flags. No thanks.
I was so excited to see this drop because I enjoy Susie Tate books......Anything but easy by her was easily a five star for me and you know I usually hate all books and give one star reviews with no remorse or worries😂😂
But this book......I dnfed because it was sooooooooo boooooooringgggggg!!!!!! Talking about going to make coffee and answering the phones *snoooooorrrrrreeeee*. Then people said it was so good and I made myself finish.
This was VERY reminiscent of Judith mcnaught Double standards. VERY REMINISCENT. Down to the H thinking she was colluding with the enemy and selling secrets to her being kicked out into the cold without her coat or stuff. Uh huh......like........the same 😬😬😬🤔😳😳👀👀 very similar......😐😐😐😐
Honestly, I didn't understand where his attraction to her came from. He thought she was a horrible assistant that he got her a job at his company because her mom was his nanny. And shes already rich but she took the office assistant job to be closer to him 😬😬😬😬
And he never redeems hisself.......he just acts like a dick til he finds out how wrong he is and thinks she's the shit on the bottom of his shoe 🤷🤷 towards the end, I honestly didn't want her to be with him and wanted better for her. She had no reason to forgive him and he didn't do nuffin to really redeem himself to me.
Grovel = H continuously disparaged the h about her abilities to do her job in his company. H had made ZERO attempts to really know the grown up h and yet fell into a FWB situation. H then believed a rotten OM that the h committed corporate espionage. H has known the h since she was born effectively as the h's mother was the H's nanny. Yet H believed the OM instantly. (OM has also assaulted the h twice. After the second assault, h ran straight to H to let him know and get comfort. H (without allowing the h to speak) has the h hauled out and thrown on the street without letting her get her coat, her purse, her phone or her wallet. h has a condition that makes her extremely cold intolerant. h was thrown out into winter conditions and eventually has to reach out to her brother (H's best friend) for help as she was about to collapse. h ended up with "frostnip" on her fingers which prevented her from being able to use her hands for a while.
Unbeknownst to the H, h was a highly acclaimed and very successful writer. h was doing well financially and in talks for more lucrative deals. h only ever took the job with the H for two reasons: 1. h was trying to break out of her shell and be comfortable around people as she needed to be able to promote her books but has not due to severe social anxiety; 2. h wanted to be near the H again as she has had unrequited love for the H for years.
H learned how awful he was to h and proceeded to grovel by word and deed. h was not a doormat despite being an individual who suffered from many anxiety issues and often being unable to stand up for herself due to her issues. h did find her voice to explain in painful detail to the H how the H had damaged her with his words and actions. It takes several months before the h even allowed the H near her.
Eventually, the H perseveres (he has changed his entire workplace environment around, changed his work ethic, changed how he treats women in general) and the h forgave him.
No real OW/OM drama other than the one OM who went after the h (OM was h's direct supervisor and a sexual harassment perpetrator). No cheating.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
A daydreaming girl and a cold-hearted (but deep in heart softie) businessman, the first living her dream the other trying to cultivate until disaster comes. I quite liked the grovel in the end.
This was enjoyable. I like that it was based in England, despite a few instances of confusion over slang. Lucy was an endearing heroine. She took too much crap and needed to stand up for herself more, but I also get that she’s just not the type. It also gave movements for Felix to become overprotective of her which is a characteristic I like in a hero. You get to see real character growth with him and most is due to Lucy’s influence. I’m completely intrigued by several of the side characters and I’m glad it looks like they will be geting their own books. Overall, a great read!
I don’t write long reviews but this hero pissed me off so much I have to talk about it 😤! Here’s a list of SOME of the things he did : 1. made her change her whole style
2. Made her go to a party when even tho she was UNCOMFORTABLE with going
3. Always talking down on her I mean ALWAYS. “Well, I’m talking to Lucy. Interesting girl.” I narrowed my eyes at him. “I bet. “Yes,” Piers said slowly. “Yes, she is. She was explaining to me about how she works. It’s fascinating really.” My eyebrows went up. “Fascinating? Lucy’s work?” Like????? ( even when he said something nice he immediately followed it by something worse) “Shit,” he snapped, letting me drop down to the floor so suddenly I was lucky I didn’t end up in a crumpled heap, and then stepped back rapidly. I shivered in the sudden absence of his heat as I pulled my skirt back down over my fleece-lined tights. “Look, just get back to work, Lucy,” he clipped, smoothing down his tie and tucking his shirt back into his trousers. “I can’t afford all this distraction the whole time. And do your bloody job” mind you he said this immediately after he kissed her .
4. Resented her for taking “so much of his time“ . “Just try a little harder, Luce. Be a bit more on the ball. I can’t have people thinking I’m letting you off the hook because you’re my girlfriend. Or that I’m letting myself get distracted. I’ve already taken too much time off recently. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes. Time off? Felix was home late every night and still worked on weekends. And I could hear the resentment in his tone “
And I’m not going to talk about when he accused her of betraying him🥴
Look I like those type of books , where the hero fucks up and we see him the rest of the book groveling , but this man can give the heroine the moon and the starts and I still won’t be able to forgive him.
Is the FMC 15 years old? Otherwise I can't understand how she's so annoying. She's was given a good job by a childhood friend and she makes no efforts, she's unprofessional as fuck and knows it. But it's not her fault, she's just not like other girls, she has 5 pens in her hair, she dresses like she's at home, it's not her place 🤪
Gut punch, asshole hero’s turning nice, and groveling are my favorite genre. The FMC is a relatable and annoying doormat, and makes this guy work for redemption. Overall, a solid groveling book. Longer RTC soon
This book follows this author’s standard MO: rich family = evil poor family = loving h with some form of mental/emotional struggle (in this case extreme social anxiety and awkwardness) and an H that is oblivious and awful to her.
This starts off with a bang, in the thick of Lucy’s dramatic flighty and seemingly irresponsible daydreaming behavior. We are sort of as clueless as Felix is about Lucy. There’s a lot of secondhand embarrassment for a bit, which I’m frankly not a fan of. But she definitely grew on me, so stick it out. She is the daughter of his childhood nanny and sister of his childhood friend, and he gives her an assistant job believing it’s a favor to his beloved former nanny. He believes Lucy needs help learning to get her head out of the clouds (she’s been a lifelong daydreamer and often loses time in her wanderings) and the guidance to learn how to adult. To be fair, he makes that assumption himself, even believing his former nanny is somehow supporting her still 🙄 At 27yo that is not the case- she’s actually an accomplished author, very wealthy, but she does suffer extreme anxiety that prevents her from attending any events with fans. She’s hoping leaving her small village for a bit will help her overcome her fears, and the added benefit of being near her lifelong crush was the cherry on top.
I waffled on 3 or 4 stars. Mixed feelings overall. If I’m judging based on the author’s ability to elicit emotional responses from me as a reader- all the stars. I definitely felt the full gamut of emotions. She’s extremely gifted in making me feel all the feels, and hitting all the depictions of mental health struggles so painfully accurately.
If I’m judging based on whether I liked the characters, or felt they actually belonged together, that’s where it falls apart. For the first 60+ % of the book, Felix literally knows nothing about Lucy. Frankly he treats her abysmally. Even when they start sleeping together and then dating, he only knows that he’s attracted to her and sleeping with her, the memories he had as he grew up with her family, and the misconceptions he’s let himself believe about her as an adult now. And the awful things he hears from her evil boss about her. He’s never taken the time to ask her one single thing about herself. In fact, he shoots her down when she tries to bring things up.
She has been “in love”‘with him all her life. Let’s be real- it’s not love. She was infatuated with him as a child and it continued into her adulthood. She didn’t know him as an adult, just stalked him online and relentlessly begged her brother for information, so she had this idea of him in her head- THAT’S what she loved. The idea of him she created. That’s why it was so easy to allow herself to be mistreated- because she had him on this pedestal so high, and she had such low thoughts of herself, that she never considered fighting for anything more. She was just happy for the scraps.
You don’t get to say “it was always you “ when you know literally nothing about her. When you never spent a moment’s thought on her after you moved away from your childhood home. You knew her as a child, but have made zero effort to know her as an adult. Even after their relationship started- he couldn’t tell you anything about her other than she’s always cold and she’s crap as an assistant. He didn’t even know she was an author for crying out loud!
“I’m only trying to help you, Luce. For your own good. It’s dog-eat-dog out there. You’ve got to sharpen up.”
What a condescending prick. She’s doing her bosses’ job, while he sexually harasses her and bullies her, even physically assaulting her, then he turns around and complains to Felix that she’s not doing her job. All while she’s still being a successful author in her own right. But Felix knows none of this because he has put exactly zero effort into getting to know her at all. But he does toss in many patronizing lectures about working harder and being more responsible 🙄
And that break up is BRUTAL. He is king D bag for what he does to her. He. Sent. Her. Out. Into. The. Cold. Like, I’m still not sure that she should have forgiven him.
“I’d totally misjudged him. I thought we had something real. I thought he felt the same. But, when I looked back on it, I realised that was never the case. It was like the scales had fallen from my eyes now. He was never really mine, was he? He never really knew me at all.”
After the break up, that’s where I think things got better. The end of the book had a different feel for me than the rest. He never deserved to say he loved her before that point - but after that point he at least put in effort to be worthy. To get to actually know her. To think better of her than that she is some pathetic incompetent person who needs everyone else to take care of her and teach her how to adult. He actually thought that of her for most of the book 🙄 Does he deserve her? I still say no. I still think she deserves better. But for whatever reason she thinks she loves him. So it is what it is. In the last 10% he has an epiphany of sorts and realized that even in his groveling he was bulldozing and basically being the same guy, and that he had to change. That’s when I felt ok about them together. That last 10%, I’d believe their declaration of feeling love for each other. Prior to that, again- not based on anything based in truth and actually KNOWING each other. I didn’t even like the grovel up to that point because it was literally him and her family bulldozing and treating her like she couldn’t make decisions for herself. Buuuut… I did like their HEA. And their epilogue was fun.
I’m a little sad that the next book seems to follow the same formula for this author- rich arrogant H, poor struggling h, he thinks she betrayed him when she didn’t…. Will I still read it? Yes. I do enjoy the emotional devastation this author wreaks on me for some reason, so I keep coming back. But I’m crossing all my appendages for something a little more than I got this time. I really like Lottie, so I’ve got my fingers crossed for her.
Anything Susie Tate writes is am automatic yes for me. And that’s not blind loyalty, but it’s the fact that after reading all her books I still want more. Daydreamer is absolutely no difference.
Lucy is fucking funny as fuck! And Felix is the kind of simp that’s a turn on rather than a turn off (if you’ve read Susie’s previous book, you know what I mean).
No spoilers, but the way the situations were handled in this book was inspiring. I loved how even a “doormat” (as Lucy could be described) was still string enough in her “weak” moments that she set her boundaries and made sure they were respected. But also, Felix understanding her boundaries but still being there to help her expand them and find a way to forgive him without sacrificing herself for was beautiful.
I’ve been waiting for this book since the release of Unwanted, and now I am desperate for Lottie and Ollie’s as well as I hope Vic and Mike’s books 🤭🤭
Ooof, there's a very good gut punch and long subsequent grovel starting around the 50% mark, but I was a bit frustrated by the entire setup. Lucy should never have been working in Felix's office, full stop. And both of these people need deep intensive therapy.
However, there's a lot of humor, I looooved the reveal when Felix found out why Lucy would never have to steal anything, and Felix's whole journey in the last half of the book from a cold ruthless CEO to a kind leader who cares about the wellbeing of everyone in his employ.
I love Susie Tate’s writing and look forward to anything she writes, since I binged everything she has written when I discovered her, and now have to wait for new releases.
Daydreamer is the start of a new series. Lucy is a fantasy author who tends to zone out a lot. She’s got a vivid imagination, as you might expect for a fantasy author. Unfortunately her daydreaming is a liability in the real world, and she is introverted and anxious when having to deal with anything away from home. She has challenged herself to face her anxiety by moving from her small town to London, to experience independence and the big city, and is working for a childhood friend. It’s not going well.
Felix isn’t sure what to do about Lucy. He offered her a job as a favor to Lucy’s mother, who was his nanny growing up. Lucy is terrible at the job, and her immediate boss is horrible. Felix doesn’t know about the nasty boss, but does know he’s not going to let his nanny down by failing to help Lucy succeed.
Of course Lucy and Felix adore each other and each thinks the other doesn’t know. While that secret is blown fairly early in the book, these two have a rough road to HEA because they each have a lot of baggage to shed.
There are some great other characters in the book, which make the next installments in the series hard to wait for. Susie writes interesting, complex characters and good banter and I have thoroughly enjoyed every one of her books. If you like angst and a little steam in your romance reading, I highly recommend all her books—not just his one. Daydreamer, as a first book in a new series, of course can be read as a stand-alone.
Is it ever a Susie Tate book without a “quirky” fmc 😀
I was expecting it but I was so irritated by the h she was so annoying I wanted to slap some sense into her. So supposedly she goes to the “big city” to try to make friends and to see her only one true love the H. She’s already financial secure with her writing career but still goes to work for the H. The issue is she doesn’t know how to do simple task at her job so why didn’t she quit is she stupid? Tabitha and the other man who is her boss( forgot his name) were constantly mocking her and judging her. You know the book is bad when your siding with the characters who don’t like the h 💀
Why is she constantly daydreaming so much that it’s getting in the way of her life?!? that’s actually a mental health issue. I couldn’t take her seriously at all and I honestly at some point didn’t feel bad for her when the H flipped on her. Ngl he didn’t need to grovel 🌝
The character didn’t seem like adults they seemed like teens (even worse than teens). I could go on and on about how h was dumb as shit but I have other books to read 💃
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
i just couldn’t connect with the characters in this book… i get not being social and feeling anxious about big book signings but showing up to a corporate job wearing ratty uggs and old knits? someone who’s had cold intolerance her whole life and clearly has enough money to buy clothes but doesn’t know how to dress in a professional way and still keep herself warm? why was she so helpless? the fmc didn’t read like a 27 year old. Also she can’t stop herself from daydreaming long enough to actually be productive?
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
I loved this book. Susie Tate’s books have common themes of family being at the centre of life, of love that doesn’t require people compromising who they are but instead being accepted by their partners totally and of course with a sprinkling of spice along the way. This book was no exception.
I loved Lucy - she’s no walkover even though she’s in love with Felix. And Felix’s journey of self discovery and trying to do better was heart warming. As usual the side characters made the story even more funny and interesting and you really feel like these are real people living their lives somewhere. I can’t wait for the next book, and especially for Victoria and Mikey’s story 🥰
I can’t say I liked either of the characters much, or had a great time reading this book. The writing was fine and not bad, but nothing special. But, it was a solid quick fix when I was in the mood for “betrayal / grovel.” It did deliver that.
This is a contemporary office romance. The heroine (who I think is around 27) is a successful fantasy author, but she has social anxiety. So she moves from her rural town to London, to work in the hero's office. The hero (who was around 34, I think) is her brother’s best friend who she’s known (and crushed on) forever. She doesn’t tell him that she doesn’t actually need this job for the money, but rather, for the social exposure. So, that leads to misunderstandings between them, as he berates her for being bad at her job and fails to understand pretty much anything about her.
The betrayal is good, quite a gut punch, it involves him thinking she’s selling company secrets and throwing her out of the office in a painful way. The grovel is also decent – it seems like he can’t come back from that betrayal, but I did feel like the grovel was sufficient.
She was just too pathetic for too much of the book, spending so much of it mooning over him, changing herself for him, and letting him walk all over her - even though she does eventually grow a spine, and she does acknowledge that changing for him wasn't good. So this doesn't go unaddressed, but it lasts for long enough that she tipped the scale and went from being pathetic in a way that made me root for her, to being pathetic in a way that I found irritating. And her social ineptitude felt too exaggerated. He was also an ass for too much of the book, and not in a fun or interesting way. They did have some depth and dimension, but were also a bit flat as "meek heroine" and "asshole CEO rich guy hero." We've seen these characters a million times before, and this doesn't really do anything new with them.
So, I don’t really recommend this as a great read with great characters. But it does hit the spot as a fine enough book if you’re just in the mood for “betrayal / grovel.” And I’m interested in the next standalone book in this world, Goldigger, about their friend who is some kind of Duke and this heroine's office friend who used to work as the Duke's house cleaner, and now he inexplicably hates her. Even though I didn’t love this book, I will return to this series when that one comes out.
They both were a tad overwrought and dramatic. I kept wanting to check their ages as they read like teens … young teens.
I liked the idea of Lucy’s stories and would have like to know more about that.
As a reader, I’m totally willing to stretch my imagination, of course. For instance, a CEO seeing an employee. However, I have to say that it bothers me when authors skirt certain realities. No CEO of a large company with an HR department would do what Felix did to Lucy, especially when we’d been led to believe he was a formidable stickler of a CEO. What Felix did was so over the top, that it ruined whatever I did like about the book. He could’ve just tossed her to the HR department and it would have been just as painful to Lucy and still required some groveling.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
the h has been in (unrequited) love with the H for basically her whole life. They lost touch for a while bc he moved to "the Big City," but he remained best friends with her brother and she kept tabs on him through her brother... She decides she needs to get out of her small town and takes a job as a personal assistant at H's office. Things do not go well...she's a terrible assistant and seems very scatterbrained, etc., but her talents just lie elsewhere. Unfortunately, the H doesn't realize that, and he is trying to change her (or in his mind, help her)....they start hooking up and he is very into her, but then he thinks she betrayed him and he is BRUTAL and doesn't let her explain...major gut punch when he realizes he was wrong.
There is a lot of miscommunication, angst, and childhood trauma to overcome.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
• Childhood crush • Age gap • Brothers best friend • Free spirited FMC • Cynical possessive MMC • Animals named after LOTR characters
“Storytellers change the world, love,” he’d said. “There’s nothing as powerful as a good story told well.”
This book was the perfect!
I have always loved Susie Tate's ability to make you feel her stories. The inner dialogue of her characters is always so incredible! And her quirky characters are always my FAVORITE!
"There were different types of discipline. Okay, so mine was of the more haphazard variety, but that didn’t mean I never achieved anything."
This book was definitely for all the dreamers. The ones who don't fit into a perfect little box that society thinks we should.
Lucy was one of my favorite Susie Tate characters. She was quirky. And even though she felt like she was a weak person, you just knew there she wasn't. She knew her own mind. She just needed to find her way. And she definitely did. Her character development was 😍 😭
Felix didn't always see what a gift Lucy way of thinking way. Or how it could make her successful! Especially because of the way he was raised, in a household where money and success was the main goal. But when this man realize what a gift Lucy was he fought so hard for her and encouraged her! Remember what a gift her stories were for him growing up!
“You’ve supported me since I was five years old. Nobody, not even Dad, listened to my stories like you did. I loved you then, and I love you now.”
I can't wait for Lottie and Ollie's book!!! And I'm crossing my fingers for a Victoria and Mikey book!!! 😍
Daydreamer is an absolute joy of a story brilliantly written with characters that have depth and wonderful personalities and emotions that jump off the pages. Lucy is a daydreamer whose world revolves around the stories she creates continually jumping around in her head. Felix a brutally tough business man and old family friend has given her a job at her mothers request. Now a personal assistant to a an executive in Felix’s company she is a fish out of water, dressing scruffily compared to everyone else and no idea what she is doing, said executive is foul to her continually telling her she is useless. Lucy has always loved Felix and he is deeply attracted to her, they start a relationship where Lucy has hearts in eyes and allows Felix to lead the relationship and doesn’t feel it the time to tell him what she has actually achieved in her life. When Felix devastates her by completing letting her down with an appalling incident at work she runs back home completely broken. Felix finding out the truth and realising how cruelly he has let Lucy down starts to pull out all the stops to win her back, though Lucy is less that receptive to him. This story has everything, friends to lovers, deep emotions, terrible heartbreak but it also has great humour and a cast of characters past and present from the wonderful to quirky to downright evil. This author grabs your heart, gives it a good shake and slowly but beautifully puts it back together again with some heartbreaking and heart lifting scenes. Congratulations Susie Tate another exceptional read that should zoom up the best sellers list. My thanks for the ARC and opportunity to review this book honestly.
I've read a lot of Susie Tate's books and there's a common arc. Hero or heroine comes from rich family with one or both parents invariably mean, vicious or bad. On the other hand, the partner of the hero or heroine always comes from a less wealthy family which is fairly functional. Basically rich bad, middle or working class good. Then the wasteful & inefficient NHS she has great respect for and is, as far as she is concerned, firmly a Good Thing as is being pro-left. Higher taxes good because of course the govt is always so wise and makes much better use of our money than we possibly could. Conservatives/Tories/the Right invariably bad. Basically her naive and unquestioning worldview annoy me. Why do I read her then you may well ask? Simply because she also invents likeable characters, is good at telling a tale and can be funny and warm. There are enough redeeming factors for me to read her books but I can't help letting out a few groans too when the usual tropes and prejudices come up. Daydreamer is no different. Hero comes from super rich background but has hateful father. Heroine's nice kindly middle class family provides him with emotional support through otherwise bleak childhood which is why, as he himself says, he's relatively well-adjusted. He is attracted to heroine too but she seems too woo-woo, irresponsible etc not to mention badly dressed. It then goes on along the pretty typical Susie Tate track - hero makes huge mistake, heroine very hurt, hero grovels (a lot) and we have our HEA.