A step away from the outstanding Cain Casey series “Beauty and the Boss” is an intriguing mystery/thriller/romance which pulls you in and holds on tight.

Ellis Renois is a NOLA born and bred fashion designer at the top of her game. She, with support from her exceedingly savvy mother and a host of friends in senior places, has built up a fashion label and empire that employs hundreds and stars on the Paris and NY catwalk while catering to the chain store requirements for well priced copies of her creations.

Ellis has never forgotten where she came from and every year gives an internship to one unknown designer to show them the ropes and set them on their way – frequently with disastrous consequences as Ms Renois finds it hard to resist a beautiful women. This year her attention is caught by the 9 y/o daughter of an applicant, and while Charlotte’s drawings are interesting it is the artistic Sawyer who really catches her attention.

So the stage is set for a traditional romance.. or is it? While we quickly get hints of subterfuge and backstabbing from people Ellis thought were friends and trusted to run her business, the evil intent goes much further than we could realise from the opening chapters, and Ellis soon finds herself fighting for her business and the livelihood of her staff.

I love Ali Vali’s writing and this was no exception. The romance is charming, the combination of attraction and wariness is played just right, the charming Ellis is never quite sure where she stands while Charlotte is fighting the attraction to the woman who seems such a player, and Sawyer plays inadvertent matchmaker by her very presence.

The suspense/intrigue keeps on going, with multiple twists and turns, and the plot sustains our interest. People assume Ellis is less savvy than she is because she doesn’t like the detail of running a business, she is the creative genius, but that doesn’t mean somebody isn’t keeping an eye. As the plot unfolds Ellis finds out who she can trust and who are her real friends – and just how creative she can get when pushed into an ever-shrinking corner.

The characters are great, Ellis the seeming player with hidden depths, Charlotte who is almost too good, and the wonderful Sawyer who will steal your heart just as quickly as she stole Ellis’s. The secondary characters ae well drawn and while there are a lot of people involved and at times it feels almost overwhelming as to who did what and who pushed the buttons, that adds to the intrigue.. who exactly is behind all the misfortune that dogs the House of Renois this season?

As well written and creative as always, the descriptions of NOLA are particularly well done – I really enjoyed this… in fact I’m going to make the time to re-read it ASAP.

A disappointing read for me ... I'm a big fan of the Casey series but the last couple of Vali's standalone books have left me a bit perplexed. At times the characters seemed more caricatures and even the main characters lacked the chemistry and I just couldn't invest in them or their relationship. I found the story choppy and it almost seemed like some of the important transitions or set ups were edited out which left me scratching my head (figuratively).

Beauty and the Boss could've been so much more than what it actually was. We follow Ellis Renoir, a fashion designer at the top of her game who needs a summer intern ready for a Fashion Week. What follows is a plot to take Ellis down from the inside of her own company, and whilst she's scrambling to figure out who is betraying her and how to fight back, the dedication and beauty of her intern may be too much of a temptation for her to resist.

As I was reading it, I felt as though key parts of dialogue were missing. The relationship between Ellis and Charlotte seemed to develop out of nowhere and their chemistry together wasn't believable. It's a shame that a romance story can't sell me on the actual romance of the main pairing, and I think this should have been developed on prior to the two of them getting together. It also seemed like characters made decisions without any explanation as to why they were doing them, and it just didn't make sense at all sometimes.

I'm also conflicted about Sawyer as a character. At times, she felt like no more than a plot device which is a real shame. I wanted to buy into the relationship between herself and Charlotte, and herself and Ellis, but sometimes it felt like she only existed as a pawn for something bigger. At other times though, I think the affection that Ellis had for her definitely seemed real and helped sell the main relationship a little bit more.

The crime/betrayal part of the story was predictable. It seemed incredibly obvious who the inside mole was going to be and the only real 'twist' seemed somewhat convoluted in order to connect everyone to each other. I think the bones of a great story are there, but the execution just seems to be a bit lacking.

The romance between Ellis and Charlotte was somewhat hard to believe in the beginning since Charlotte disliked her and already had preconceived ideas about her boss.  It seemed a little sudden to learn that Charlotte was into Ellis.

I thought that the interactions between Ellis and Sawyer was cute and I was happy that they got along so great.

There are different POV's in this book besides the main characters.  Not sure if I enjoyed all of the POV's, while some definitely advanced the story and made it more interesting, there were a few where I could've done without and wouldn't have missed it.

The plot of the book wasn't exactly what I thought it was going to be but I still thought that it was a good read.  I enjoyed the mystery aspect to Beauty and the Boss even though some of it was predictable.

It was a fantastic book. I loved the story! It's a little risque for my teenage/preteen students.

I was unable to review this book because of a conflict in my schedule. Sorry for any inconvenience this has caused the publisher or the author of the work. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to review for you and I look forward to reviewing for you in the future.

Ali Vali is one of my favourite authors and I've been following her writing since before she was published. Unfortunately this isn't her best work. The premise is interesting but the book itself didn't quite live up to it for me. I felt the two leads didn't have chemistry and thought their relationship didn't develop at a natural pace. The dialogue was difficult to follow at times.

This was a romance with a little bit of an intrigue plot as well. Business intrigue.

Ellis Renois is a famous fashion designer and the head designer of the Renois House. The story starts when she meets first a young girl named Sawyer, and then her mother Charlotte. Charlotte wants to be Ellis' summer intern and she does get the job, and Sawyer comes along too.

But, just before they can get going working together on the stuff for Fashion Week, Ellis' design bible gets stolen (technically her partner Reuben's is stolen). From the beginning we know who did it and we get to see parts of their plan as well, but, there were also some parts missing, and that was what made the cool little intrigue mystery.

The romance was mostly interesting too, and the characters, heh, they were great.

The only part that was sometimes weird was that in some of the parts of the novel the emotionality of the characters seemed off. Flailing and wailing when I'm not s ure that it made sense in the narrative.

Still, it was a very fun ride and the ending was pretty darn cool too.

I was given this ARC by Netgalley on behalf of Bold Strokes Books.

I really can't make up my mind about this book. On one hand I really wanted to like it because I loved her Cain Casey series. On the other hand it didn't really grab me in the same way. For Vali I found this to be mediocre at best. I'm also struggling a bit with this review because although it was good it wasn't great.

The book is set in the high pressured fashion world. Ellis hires Charlotte as her intern who turns out to be the love of her life. Little does she know someone is trying to take her business away from her.
So will Ellis find out who before it's too laye?

The relationship between Ellis and Charlotte was kind of weird. Charlotte didn't even like Ellis and then they are in love. Seemed a very quick turnaround and maybe a little unrealistic. The other thing that bothered me is why was there so much head hopping. Sometimes I got a little lost. Could be my agw who know's the mind had troble keeping up :). Kidding, but there was a lot and the book had a lot of characters.

Yes I would recommend it but don't expect the Cain Casey quality. Enjoy!


*ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley*

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/2163690131

https://www.amazon.co.uk/review/ROAMZX40F952Z/ref=pe_1572281_66412651_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

I was very disappointed with this book. I never got into it. The plot was super confusing, there were too many characters who weren't well defined. I didn't understand the relationships between people. No one behaved in a consistent way. The dialog was clunky and the general pacing slow. I had higher expectations and was very disappointed. I struggled to finish it.

I thoroughly enjoyed this book by Ali Vali! I have all of Ms. Vali’s books and have never been disappointed. Although many of her writings tend to involve suspense and mystery, I would classify this one as a romance with a thread of corporate sabotage weaving throughout the story.

From the very beginning I was hooked on the book. Ms. Vali creates an exceptional story. As a matter of fact, I have not found one of her books that doesn’t tell a believable story. All of her characters are solid. While reading the dialogue, the language used by the characters makes one feel that the characters are alive.

There are three main characters in this story with a second tier of support characters to help round out the intrigue. Ellis Renois is the head of an international fashion company. Over the years the Renois Company has been successful and their designs are always held in high regard. Ellis enjoys designing clothes and the women who wear them. A fling with the interns who work at her company is not uncommon.

Charlotte Hammer is the summer intern for the Renois Company. Although she is raising her daughter Sawyer alone, Charlotte has worked very hard studying fashion design in college. She has completed her studies and hopes that this internship with the Renois Company will provide her with an opportunity for a job and a future for her family.

The attraction between Ellis and Charlotte is electric. I enjoyed the buildup of their relationship. Ms. Vali’s writing is extremely smooth and entertaining. I highly recommend this book and give it 5 stars out of 5.

I was given this ARC in return for a fair and honest review.

This is my second book by Ali Vali and it is brilliant. So why the four stars? That's because I found the flow of the book floundering at times and it is in fact easily fixable by some editing. I don't think adding a few more sentences in each chapter will be catastrophic.

On to the review. I loved that both the leads and supporting characters are extremely likeable and relatable. Ellis is one of those people who are not just workaholics but are happy to take a break and spend time with family and friends; hence despite her anti-social behaviour at times, one cannot help liking her.

Charlotte and her daughter Sawyer are a the mother-daughter duo who go with Ellis to New Orleans to get everything ready in time for the NY Fashion Week. However, before all this, there is a heated exchange and some attempts at adding bogus charges, Ellis fires her top two people from the company. Only to have it back-fired by them stealing all the latest designs ready for debut at the upcoming NY Fashion week.

Madness ensues and we are all backstage with Ellis (through Charlotte) as we go through the stages of creating high fashion designs.

The book is splendid in its storytelling, surprise twists, legal drama, corporate espionage and what not. It's difficult to put down.

I voluntarily reviewed a Readers Copy of this books.
This was a good story. I liked it and it was well written.

This story does have the romance thing going on but it's tied into the whole mystery surrounding a girls' death from a decade or so ago. Every once in awhile the killer's thoughts pop up into the story and initially that change in POV irritated me. It didn't irritate me enough to stop me from reading but it did throw me off the first couple of times it happened. Then I got used to it in the flow of the story line and just tried to figure out who among Reese's friends was the murderer. You don't really know until near the end (or at least I didn't).

Complete transparency, I don't necessarily think this book was for me when it comes to the fashion subject matter. A lot of people I'm sure do and will enjoy the fashion story & terminology woven in, but I was a little bored by it. I'm clearly the person whose eyes glaze over at too much description of clothing, so this is absolutely nothing on the author or this book. Lesson learned for me...

The authors writing style is enjoyable. The romance between the two leads had a good build up and didn't just get hot and heavy right off the bat. I loved the character of Sawyer and thought she sounded like a kid which was great.

Is this book like the Caine series? No. Should it be? No. I liked that she went a different way with an industry and New Orleans. Overall it was pretty well done.

Ms Vali, with this book gives us a view of the fashion world while telling a wonderful story. Ellis Renois designs clothes that have made her company Renois into one of the top fashion houses in the world. Charlotte Hammer always wanted to be a clothes designer and even having a child at a young age didn't stop her, though it did make the journey a little bit harder but having Sawyer has never been considered anything but a blessing. Ms Vali tells a great story that when you first start reading you think this is just another romance but you soon discover it's so much more. Someone is stealing Ellis's designs and trying to put her out of business but Ellis doesn't quit and having Charlotte and Sawyer by her side makes her even more determined to find the people responsible. Great story. Enjoyed it very much as I'm sure you will to.

I received theirs book as an ARC from netgalley for a fair and honest review.

So first of all that ending was fucking weird and seemed very rushed considering the pace of the book. So let's start at the beginning. One of my biggest pet peeves is how the book seemed really confusing. So at the beginning they just started in the middle with her mother finding the error in the contract and then it just got crazier from there.

I thought the entire story after the inconsistencies a with pace and writing was very clever and I never saw that coming. I have read everything Ali Vali has written and this one was the worst of the bunch. I felt like she was leaving too much for the reader to figure out. I found myself re-reading passages because I thought I had missed something. I found that there would be whole
Conversations in the book that the reader wasn't privy to and they never told us such as exactly what Kyle wants a from Charlotte, and how Ellis figured out Reuben was betraying her. Overall not a bad story, but I'm getting a little sick of the tired trope of broken female Meets her savior in the most beautiful women she has ever met. The live story felt very forced and very sudden. In most of her other books the love story builds, in this one it felt like there was no love sorry and then there was. So the pacing was off it started out too slow, built up a lot and then ended so abruptly. Overall not a bad book, but not my favorite. I am VERY excited about the new Cain Casey prequel. I cannot wait. I love those books.

I have read several Romance books throughout the years and have learned that when it comes to these types of stories, clichés are a thing that should be handled in a way that makes the reader enjoy the story regardless of already knowing the outcome and the inevitable happy ending.

Ali Vali manages to handle the story in a way that is enjoyable and somewhat easy to read, however, there are moments in this book when the chemistry between the two main characters seemed forced, as well as the situations that led them to be together. Now, I will not go out of my way to say I did not enjoy this book because of the lack of chemistry, I did enjoy it and was rooting for the main couple from the beginning, do I wish it had been written more beautifully? Yes, this book lacked that “certain something” that makes you fall for the main characters.

As a reader you can feel the appeal Charlotte felt for Ellis Renois with her being a power figure with a bad reputation and a caring side that not a lot of people see, but the inconsistency between the buildup of their relationship makes it a bit difficult to actually sympathize and feel whatever the author is trying to convey in terms of Charlotte and her feelings towards Ellis.

Above it all the story was good but had the opportunity to be shine and make the romance more palpable. I do recommend reading the book, if you enjoy your romance with dose of drama and deceit.

When Charlotte lands the coveted summer intern position at Ellis's Renois Fashion Company she's ecstatic to have finally made her move into the fashion world and dreams of making a better life for her and her ten year old daughter Sawyer. Neither Ellis nor Charlotte are prepared for the attraction between them or the nefarious carrying on that threatens to derail Fashion Week plans and topple the company.

I definitely had my issues with some of the aspects of the story but honestly I couldn't put this book down. The story was so intense and surprising and unique that I was absolutely enthralled and I loved the journey so much.

I never really felt the chemistry or the romance between Ellis and Charlotte, but when they were together damn they were on fire. I also had no idea what the characters looked like for most of the story. I don't know if I missed a sentence or two at the beginning but usually the author will refer to character's appearance here and there throughout the book.

I wouldn't so much call this a romance novel because the romance wasn't particularly developed, but damn the drama and the intrigue and the twists and turns were so exciting and downright amusing.

Everything just works out perfectly, and may be frustrating to some readers, but sometimes you just need that perfect escape from reality and to lose yourself in the story and not think about the how.

I received an ARC via Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

An internship at Ellis Renois’ fashion house is a dream come true for Charlotte Hamner. She could never have imagined the opportunities laid before her, both professionally and personally. Everything is not smooth sailing though as Ellis fights for her business against traitors in her midst. As Charlotte and her daughter, Sawyer, become embroiled in it all, what will become of her dreams?

This was a story of love and passion but also of surprises and secrets. I loved it! The fashion world was fascinating as was the New Orleans setting. The descriptive writing had me in the midst of it all and I could imagine how amazing it all was for Charlotte and Sawyer. The mystery involving Ellis’s business was very well done with more than a few twists and turns. And as a succour for a great love story I was more than delighted with this book. 5 Stars!

I was given this ARC by Netgalley and Bold Strokes Books in return for an honest review.