looking for a book with “dumb blonde” fmc who is not rlly that dumb

this will be a lengthy post so apologies for that lol 🫣 also pls take all the details with a grain of salt, I could very well be pulling things from the ether.

Okay, so I just finished “Dark of Night” by Suzanne Brockmann and was pleasantly surprised. I originally got the rec from a reply on one of the posts here (shoutout to u wherever u are).

The book is part of this super long series (20 books!) that was published a long time ago with some recurring characters across all the books. It’s set in this weird mesh of FBI/Navy/Military environment which is usually an ick for me most of the time, but I was desperate. I think DoN is book 14, and I only skimmed the two books before it, but I think it could work as a stand alone. Ofc the book is riddled with dated views and stereotypes, but I wasn’t rlly reading it for anything other than the trope.

The fmc I was pleasantly surprised by is Tracy, the office secretary. She is widely viewed as kind of dumb, prob due to all the other women in the office being agents/hackers/specialists. Tracy kind of also sucks at her job a little (can’t work the phone, whatever the hell that means lol). She is also very obviously attractive and has no filter. Girlie babbles like no other, which I love. She also loves expensive clothes, knows her designers, and is unashamed by it. I like that she’s not ‘not like other girls’.

The mmc I was interested about in this book was Decker (such a dumb name omg). He was chief-captain-whatever in their security agency/private investigation company/ something (I really wasn’t paying attention to the details of this book omg my bad). He’s kind of plain-looking, which makes him really good at going undercover. Not super tall, not super bulky. He’s quiet and competent (also repressed as hell omg). I think he’s also like late 30s (idk timeline was kind of fucked). I think he was one of the really popular characters when this series was still popular, and everyone was waiting for his book.

Tracy and Decker are actually kind of cute. Though tbh I thought Tracy was the star of that show. Decker rlly wasn’t all that memorable. I did like that Decker held a position of power and was respected. He was treated like a leader (no idea if he actually was), and the guy to call to save the day. It was really interesting to have this guy who multiple women were interested in (I get it, but also why??) end up with a woman everyone thought was not only a little dumb, but, although so attractive/hot/sexy, not rlly worth a relationship 🙄

I guess that’s the trope I’m looking for: super competent mmc that everyone wants ends up with the dumb sexy blonde who rlly isn’t that dumb.

oh, and although I love historical romance, I’m rlly only looking for contemporary recommendations.

thank u besties 🥹