His Banana by Penelope Bloom

​ROMANTIC COMEDY

Publication date: 07/16/2018
Cliffhanger: No

You’ll have to overlook a few things if you want to enjoy this book:

• There are many, many childish, nudge-nudge-wink-wink “banana” innuendos. Many, many, many…
• Both Bruce, the hero, and his brother, William, are walking sexual harrassment suits. Guys, you can’t make sexual remarks to your employees these days. It’s frowned upon. That’s just a little tip from me to you. You’re welcome. ​

• The whole premise of “I’m going to hire this intern to punish her for eating my banana and make her quit” is pretty silly
• If you don’t appreciate a bumbling, walking calamity of a romance heroine, this book isn’t for you. Seriously, Natasha can’t walk across a room without embarrassing herself.
• Even though she’s a fake intern, Natasha is remarkably unprofessional. She even gets blackout drunk at a client meeting. And who, during a job interview, lets herself into the employee kitchen and helps herself to food in the fridge? How crazypants is that?
• Here we have yet another reporter who wants to report on “big news”, but ends up in a position that will make her dig up dirt on a man she’s obviously destined to fall in love with. I might have seen that trope a time or ten. (Or twenty...or more.) And while we’re on the subject, for an undercover investigative reporter, she certainly didn’t do much investigating. It kind of made me think her boss was right to not give her any big, important assignments.
• How does one eat a banana without noticing that someone has written their name on it in Sharpie?
• How anal is a guy that writes his name on a banana in Sharpie? How about you keep your banana in your desk drawer like everyone else, Bruce?   

Now, if you can overlook all that, the book’s actually not terrible. It’s fairly well-written, and there’s some fun back-and-forth between Bruce and Natasha. The sex scenes are suitably steamy. There were a few times I chuckled while reading. (I didn’t get into laugh-out-loud territory, but it was sort of funny at times) I’ve certainly read worse books.  

So, with that said, I’ll just close with this, for no particular reason other than it made me giggle more than any of the silly banana innuendos in this book:

Does this book contribute to or help crush the romance stigma?
It’s fairly stigma neutral. It lives safely in “meh” land.  

Other reading suggestions
For a sexy, angsty boss/employee/reporter story that also has some good laughs, check out Dirty Headlines by LJ Shen. And for other great billionaire reads, you’ll want to check out this list.

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