Review: The Sassy One - Susan Mallery

Author - Susan Mallery
Category - Fiction
Genre - Contemporary Romance
Rating – 3.5/5

Story Blurb

Francesca Marcelli married at 18 as per the norms of her family who always believed that beauty like her will have no trouble finding love. But after a few years later finding herself widowed, Francesca pursues her education with a ton of interesting experiments where she disguises herself. One such disguise introduces her to Sam Reese – CEO of a security firm. After accepting being fooled by Francesca, he invites her out to dinner. Both Sam and Francesca do not want to start an emotional entanglement and are delighted by each other’s suggestion about no-strings attached relationship. But Sam suddenly finds a secret from his past in front of him for which he needs Francesca’s help to smooth things out for him. Both of them develop a relationship outside of bedroom and find themselves in love. But can they accept this change in their relationship? The story is a realization of love and family for Francesca and Sam.   

My Thoughts 

Good read, I seldom find a novel from the author which I don’t like. All the Marcelli sisters’ stories are a bit similar in nature. Only this novel stands apart from others because the male protagonist has no ulterior motive while developing a relationship with the heroine. 


Sam is an honest character who does not like lies so when a secret from him past is revealed he is furious. But the character’s maturity is shown in the way he handles the situation and how Francesca helps him through all this. What I do not like in these stories is the character of Lorenzo, the family patriarch. Due to his beliefs all of his granddaughters had taken a path to please their family without considering their hearts desire. I hope he realizes the error of his ways soon.