The Decent Proposal audiobook

This book had a lot of surprises and hidden gems. I'm not just talking plot here, I'm talking the diversity of the characters (class, race, culture, age, etc) and the profundity of the writing. Having committed the cardinal sin of judging a book by it's cover, I thought this was going to be a quick, easy rom-com of a book and instead what I found was many overlapping narratives that spoke of family, loneliness, friendships, tragedies, hidden pasts and love. The kind of strange and absurd situations that many of the characters get themselves into reminded me of Amanda Filipacchi's writings, especially Love Creeps.I enjoyed this whole book all the way through, including all the fun cultural references that seemed tailored to my age-group (mid-30's). The only negative I have is that the ending seemed kind of hasty or tacked on. After such a lovely book that made time for all kinds of explorations of character and plot, the rushed ending was out of place and did not match the tone of the rest of the work.

Every once in a while a novel comes along that I just want to put into my friends’ hands immediately, so that someone I know can also bask in the awesomeness of reading it. This one absolutely fits that category. I quite liked the creative plot, and the characters quickly grew on me. The third-person narrator may have been my favorite aspect of the entire novel. There was a formality to his voice (using the generic his, not assigning specific gender), that almost carried a bemused undertone, in that everything he saw and described was in great detail, even if he himself thought some of it to be ridiculous. I couldn’t help but imagine real-life actors whose voices would work well in this role. The one that was the most fitting in my head was Morgan Freeman, with his stately and utterly recognizable voice. Hearing that voice lay the story out for me made me love it even more.

Fun, light read. Different kind of romantic comedy story than typical. I enjoyed the LA setting and the pop culture references.

3.5 stars. Very fanfiction-y premise with a kind of chaotic ending, but I had a good time. Great, easy plane read.

I can't even tell you how in need of a light, fun read I was and I am so glad I had this in my review pile. Right away this reminded me of Catherine McKenzie's Arranged, slightly different but it was the first thing that popped into my head, which is a great thing because I loved that book too. Also worth noting is that this book felt totally L.A. I've never been there but when I think of L.A. this book is what I think it would be like. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or bad thing, but every stereotype and preconception you'd think of when you think of L.A. is in this book somewhere. Right away, I kind of related to Elizabeth because while I can be a bubbly, fun person, I really understand her work ethic and her sometimes awkwardness with people. It's hard to make friends as adults and break into a "group" and not having that natural ability can really hinder your career and maybe other opportunities. Richard.. alright, so I didn't love him so much. He kind of comes off as a loser though it's not like he isn't trying to be successful. He just.. isn't. So pairing these two together not only doesn't seem like an obvious choice but also kind of seems like it's totally right. They each have something the other needs and they both reluctantly jump at this seemingly too-good-to-be-true offer. I liked their "courtship", and the focus on her love of books and his love of movies. Their meet up's/dates are fun and enjoyable and if I was a single gal, I'd hope some of my dates would go like theirs do. The only thing I didn't love about the book is the epilogue. It's a little cheesy and while I usually love an epilogue as a last hurrah for the characters, a peek into their future down the road, this one was just meh for me. To be fair, I am also coming off of some books I was absolutely hooked to and this one was fun, but it wasn't one I couldn't put down, so maybe that's my problem. So feel free to completely ignore my opinion on that. Overall? I'd have to give this a 4/5 stars. It's fun, it's a cute story line, it's funny, it's chick lit but still a light, enjoyable read that even a guy should read to get ideas on decent dates. Just sayin. Ha!

Richard and Elizabeth are perfect strangers until the day a lawyer contacts them both and presents a very interesting proposal. An person who wishes to remain anonymous will give each of them a half a million dollars. All that is required of Richard and Elizabeth is to meet for two hours a week, every week, for a year.Richard starts referring to this innocent plan as The Decent Proposal.His best friend (and ex girlfriend) Michaela "Mike" hates the idea. She has just realized that she's never gotten over Richard, despite having broken his heart in college.Elizabeth's friend Orpheus hates the plan too.Both Mike and Orpheus feel their relationships with Richard and Elizabeth are threatened.I loved that you really can't tell what the reason is the offer was made to Elizabeth and Richard, you have to wait to find out. I also liked all the layers to these characters and their relationships with their friends.Sometimes I found Orpheus hard to bear but he was a good way of illustrating what a big heart Elizabeth has.Sweet story. It made me smile a lot.

The basic premise hooked me: Richard and Elizabeth have never met, but they are offered a million dollars by a mysterious benefactor if they will spend two hours a week together for a year. What kept me reading was the wonderful characters. And Kemper Donovan, who is a male author if you are unsure because of his name, really knows how to write women. I'm looking forward to his next book!

This is such a fine book! Excellent writing. I’m thinking that if you loved the movie “Lalaland,” this is the book for you. Unusual plot. Interesting characters. And most of all, I cared about the characters. I don’t know how the writers make that happen. But I think talent is involved.

The Decent Proposal gave me many hours of pleasure on a cold snowy day in April. For that I should rate it five stars. As I read, I had this great fear that it might all end badly and I so much wanted "the decent proposal" to end well. Donovan had me really caring about his characters--flawed as they might be. A few concerns or hesitations--sometimes Donovan felt he neeeded to tell us what his characters were thinking--getting inside their heads a bit too much. And the ending--although all was resolved and the mystery solved, it was forced and artificial in the way he let us know. As others said, the LA setting was fun. The description of Venice and its homeless populatio was very realistic. I appreciated that Donovan's character Mike had a religious faith that was important to her--even if her lifestyle might not have been acceptable to her Korean Presbyterian Church. Most modern novels have no hint of anyone's religion but not only was Mike's faith a factor, but so was Elizabeth's in a more negative way. Chick lit? Romcom? (not an expression i knew before seeing other reviews) The premise of the story may be pretty far-fetched but it was worth the hours I spent with it.

I read this when it first came out after it was comp'd with The Rosie Project and although I did think the overall premise was interesting and new, I wasn't a HUGE fan. I thought that there was a lot of extra shit going on that could've been rewritten to include extra bits of Richard and Elizabeth getting to know each other. It was good but slightly odd in the way it was told. I would give Kemper Donovan another chance though. The writing wasn't the problem, just the way the story had played out.I'm giving this 3.7/5 stars

It's like a chit-lit written by male author. I actually enjoyed the female characters Donovan created even though their inner voices are not truly convincing.

fun little romcom

I liked the premise at first: 2 unrelated people are told if they spend 2 hours a week in conversation they will each get 500K at the end of the year. They can voucher the expenses for the "dates".Their benefactor is a mystery.Richard is a slovenly shallow sort of guy who knows he's handsome so doesn't even try to "impress".He's trying to become a film producer but failingElizabeth is a newly minted lawyer who only lives to work so her firm loves her for being the lawyer with the highest number of billable hours.. La Machina. She too, is beautiful, but single minded and rather dull."Mike" (a young beautiful Korean woman who thinks her natural beauty makes it ok to be mean and callous - loves to mock people). I used to work with a woman just like "Mike". She was Korean and only cared about her looks. She needed to be the thinnest person at work so would bake a lot of sweets to try and fatten us all up while she got up early to go to the gym and come in and do her cleanses and skinny shakes.Her favorite thing to do was to try to get us all signed up to make even more fattening foods to bring to work - it was nauseating. She once got very angry at me because I had made a remark about someone in the office losing so much weight she'd look even better than her!Mike is Richard "best friend" but recently has figured out she's in love with Richard and hates the DP's intrusion (DP=Decent Proposal)Orpheus: a homeless drunken man who has become a sort of project for Elizabeth. Over time as she gets to know him, he becomes her only true friend.The couple at first has little to talk about so they find if they read a book or watch a movie they can while away the time by talking about the book or movie. They don't like each other.Mike is super jealous and wants to end the "dates" and figures out how to track down the money person. The story gets far more interesting from there. /(view spoiler)[ Mike and "Bev" the crazy billionaire actually connect and become friends. Bev and her best friend, Charlotte, had become involved in prison reform projects and had met many inmates. One of them is Hugh, Elizabeth's gay brother that she and her family had not heard from so thought he was dead. Bev is doing this on his behalf to "check on" Elizabeth and Richard. He had left home because asshat Elizabeth and her evil idiot parents did not accept his homosexuality and decided it was a sinful choice made against their imaginary "god". Her brother had been driving a car with Richard's brother, also gay, when they had an accident and Richard's brother was killed. Hugh refused to tell authorities who he was. The authorities figured he must be hiding deeper darker secret crimes so he was imprisoned (hide spoiler)]I liked the weird ending a lot. It shows us that the author is very aware of life is: the passage of time, and the history of families, and how our generations aren't nearly as far apart as it seemed when we were young... and also understands that we have the right to control our own bodies and decide on death when we're dying anyway.

This book had me thinking all kinds of things. It was almost 3rd party distant but the individual stories roped you in to what was happening. If you’re looking for a sappy romance, find another book. Elizabeth and Richard are pulled in for some reason for an experiment of a rich benefactor. They have to meet one day every week for 2 hours for a whole year. If they do, they each 500k. And they have to talk about their lives and no outside friends or family during that time. Richard needs the money as his film producing line-of-work seems to be s standstill. Elizabeth just works too much and rather be by herself. So this forces them to step outside the box and get to know each other. Richard’s friend/ex, Mike (aka Michela) doesn’t like this arrangement and tries to find the benefactor and stop it. Because why? Well because she loves Richard. And there are other characters you find interwoven in Elizabeth and richard’s lives. And the reason why they were picked in the first place. The ending just appeared and after the epilogue, I was like huh so that’s done. I don’t know how I feel about this book in general but I pretty sure I really liked it. It was super real and not a sappy romance. Half the time Richard and Elizabeth never even knew about their feelings. It just kinda crept up. Interesting read.