“If I couldn’t have Kenny for real, at least we could enjoy the pretending.”

I was so sure this would be the queer autistic romance of my dreams, and I am absolutely devastated that this book didn’t blow me away!

That being said, I greatly appreciate the incredible representation and important themes present in this book, and I’m grateful to @readforeverpub for gifting me an eARC in exchange for an honest review!

While this didn’t quite do it for me, there are so many things to love about it, and I’m sure a lot of readers would absolutely adore this. You might be one of those if you love:

🩵 friends to lovers romance

🩵 realistic autistic representation!!!

🩵 themes of abuse and trauma

🩵 marriage of convenience

The main reason I didn’t love The Broposal is that it had too many side-plots, and attempted to explore too many themes at once. As a result many of the plot elements weren’t satisfactorily resolved by the end, and none of the significant moments hit me as hard as intended.

Because of the many plot elements I also felt that the characters lacked depth, and I found myself struggling to understand the reasons behind their actions and thought processes. Both Han and Kenny are emotionally stunted, but I didn’t feel like this was properly explored, and as a result I was just mildly annoyed by both of them.

I was also incredibly frustrated by Jackie, Kenny’s almost cartoonishly evil ex-girlfriend, who is the driver behind the primary conflict of the story. I felt that the exploration of domestic abuse would’ve felt more nuanced and been more hard-hitting if there had been more depth to her character.