Coldhearted Boss by R.S. Grey

An adult rom-com with summer camp vibes? YES PLEASE. Coldhearted Boss by R.S. Grey is in stores TODAY and it’s the perfect romance to kick-off your summer reading.

I’m desperate and destitute when Lockwood Construction rolls into my small town with an offer too good to pass up: high wages to any able-bodied man willing to join their crew.

Say no more. I throw on baggy clothes, tuck my long hair under a baseball hat, and apply for a job. Unfortunately, my half-baked idea of disguising myself as a guy is flawed from the beginning. As Shakira says, these hips don’t lie.

Still, I like to think I might have pulled the whole thing off save for one thing:

I know my boss.

Last month, we met at a bar, and after a fiery first encounter, it seems we’re destined to be sworn enemies.

Ethan Stone is ruthless and arrogant, a man I never would have crossed had I known how much he likes to toy with his prey.

He should just fire me and be done with it. Instead, he decides to make me his personal slave. Oh right, I think they’re calling it personal “assistant” these days.

It’s torture, all of it—his bad attitude, his ruggedly chiseled face, his desire to grind me into dust.

Every one of our friction-filled battles burns hotter than the last.

A girl can only hold out for so long. Soon, I’m bound to go up in flames.

My objective? Survive the heat long enough to send home a paycheck.

My real objective? Stop having X-rated fantasies about my coldhearted boss.

The whole cross-dressing plot in romance is always so eye-roll inducing because of how ridiculously preposterous it is — and Grey tackles that head-on in Coldhearted Boss, with the fact that basically no one buys for a hot second that Taylor, the heroine, is a dude. No one.

It’s no secret that I’ve become a fast fan of R.S. Grey’s romantic comedies, and each new release lives up to all my expectations and then some. Coldhearted Boss starts off with a steamy (but short) first encounter — and ends up pitting these two characters against each other in extraordinarily unlikely circumstances. Grey has such a gift for taking well-known romance tropes and twisting them around in such a way that the journey to Happily Ever After feels unexpected, refreshing, and new.

The summer camp vibes comes from the fact that the construction job is building a resort at the site of an old campground, with workers bunking together in shared housing and tiny cabins — all surrounded by the woods and a picturesque lake. I’m a sucker for a great, immersive setting — and this might be my favorite setting in an R.S. Grey book yet, especially for a book to read at the beginning of summer. I loved the juxtaposition of these nostalgic summer camp vibes with a steamy adult romance; it made for a fantastic and unique environment for this story to unfold.

It also kind of made me want to go camping? And I hate camping? So there’s that.

And we can’t forget the delightful characters! Taylor is sarcastic and funny and utterly charming — and her wit and humor really influence the overall mood of the book. Ethan’s determination to be a grouchy, revenge-seeking boss to her is tempered by the fact that he’s a terrible softy and has a hard time being the hard-ass he thinks he wants to be.

Coldhearted Boss is just a delight from start-to-finish, both sexy and hilarious. It’s available TODAY!

Available Now!

R.S. Grey is the USA Today bestselling author of thirteen novels, including THE FOXE & THE HOUND. She lives in Texas with her husband and two dogs, and can be found reading, binge-watching reality TV, or practicing yoga! Visit her at rsgrey.com