“Everything in the world is about sex except sex. Sex is about power.” ― Oscar Wilde
Author: Shawn Bailey
Publisher: Amber Allure
Pages/Word Count: 31,000 Words
Rating: 2 Stars
Blurb: Boston University graduate Kameron Santella lands a job with a prestigious publishing house, but instead of getting the job of his dreams, he ends up at the bottom of the corporate ladder, working his butt off in the mail room. One afternoon, he meets a handsome older man named Vern, whom Kameron thinks is a senior editor. Vern takes a liking to Kameron and invites him on a weekend trip to the museum and dinner. Before the outing ends, romance ensues, and Kameron finds himself falling for the silver-tongued devil. But on Monday morning, Kameron gets the shock of his life when he learns that Vern is actually Vernon Henderson, the no-nonsense CEO and publisher of Henderson’s Publishing Company whom everyone seems to fear.
Will Kameron be able to forgive Vern’s deception and build a relationship with the alluring man, especially when not only his career but his heart is on the line?
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Review: Conquering Kameron is supposed to be the story of an executive assistant who falls in love with his boss, the CEO of Henderson Publishing. Notice I said “supposed to be?” What it actually reads like is a bad porn script. Nothing in this book was written realistically, and in this reviewer’s opinion, the office romance angle was taken way too far. Having sex in the CEO’s office every day, and the other employee’s being totally fine with it? Not happening. This whole book read like a sexual harassment case that needed to be filed, which made it good for a laugh with lines like, “Your body is so accommodating Kameron. And you know how to work that booty,” or “Vernon spread Kameron’s legs, moved in closer and humped him hard,” or my personal favorite, “I love it when Michael cooks for me and does my laundry.”
The last quote brings me to another issue I had with this book. Towards the end, I felt it became downright sexist. Vernon and his cousin Jonathan are both alpha tops, while their assistants are the stereotypical twinky bottoms. If it stopped there, I’d be fine with that, but lines like the one about cooking and laundry lend a very sexist air to this book. One character in particular inspired a great deal of hatred in me because it’s basically understood that he “doesn’t take no for an answer,” yet he still maintains his position because he’s “one of the best editors in the business.” Way to perpetuate rape culture with that line/character.
The author’s writing style is only mediocre in my opinion. It felt like Shawn Bailey was trying just a little too hard to pull off sexy dialogue, but what it ended up being was ridiculous. I found more than several grammatical errors just in the first few chapters (wrong words used, punctuation, etc.), so the editing was also an issue. Between what was basically a nonexistent plot and there being no conflict to resolve, which kind of threw me, I’m rating Conquering Kameron two stars, though I feel even that might be a little generous.
You can buy Conquering Kameron here:
