So.... Nicky?

Interesting stretch of the genre: A rich couple who like kinky sex have to squeeze it in between chemo sessions to treat his leukemia. Unlike the first book in The Boss series, this one took itself very seriously; even in the midst of her (first-person POV) passion during sex play, she worries about her boyfriend's mortality.

I thought the medical scenes, especially, were well handled, both at the beginning for Sophie and during the treatments for Neil. The couple has totally understandable ups and downs, and his daughter and ex-wife also show steady motivation and human reactions, including mistakes and recovering from mistakes. Sophie's kicking roommate Holli and Neil's friend Rudy have less to do in this story, the second in the series; maybe they'll come back in the next book?

The money thing was harder for me to ignore this time than with The Boss. Sophie's insistence that money makes no difference while simultaneously worrying herself sick about it ("her career") makes her seem dumb; the solutions seemed too easy. The "he's twice her age" and the "he fired her because she was dishonest but she's still honest enough to be his girlfriend" continued to be issues for me, but in the moment, in their interactions on the page, I could suspend disbelief. The disagreements over legal issues (visas, wills, property) didn't always ring true. And the ending was... abrupt.

I'm glad I read it; I've been thinking about it a lot. I wish I had brought fewer expectations to it.