Gretchen Galway

This one almost-but-not-quite manages to escape the chicklit genre, but is dragged back down by an over-reliance on hot-monkey-love sex scenes and a cardboard villainess.

Beverly Lewis is surprised, to say the least, when her estranged grandfather unexpectedly leaves his sportswear company to her, thoroughly pissing off her evil aunt and the hunky executive VP, each of whom expected to be named as the heir. Originally planning sell out quickly, her plans are trashed by unexpectedly losing her job, so she decides to give it a shot until a new buyer can be found. Someone, however, is trying very hard to upset the applecart, and suspicion falls on several people in turn, most especially on Hunky EVP. Unfortunately, he seems torn between whether he wants to snatch the company or ... No, I'm not going to go there.

Galway, however, has no such reticence, and that's the book's biggest flaw. She draws these two intelligent, mature, rational adults as helpless puppets of their own sexual urges who spend most of the second half of the book ripping each other's clothes off whenever (and wherever) they happen to find themselves alone together.

Seriously?

Come on. Chicklit is notorious for 125 pages of lust-at-first-sight-even-though-I-hate-you teasers, followed by The Consummation, followed by The Misunderstanding, followed by The Explanation and happily-ever-after.

Galway manages to hold off for 150 pages before every sweaty moment of The Consummation is lovingly and minutely detailed, but has trouble getting past that part. To her credit, The Misunderstanding isn't some silly thing that could be explained in 25 words or less if the Other Person would just Listen. It's a deep mismatch of ambition and goals between these two people which proceeds to make both of them (and pretty well everybody else in the book) miserable for another hundred pages and six or eight sex scenes, give or take.

The revelation of who has actually been trying to sabotage the company, and what their motive was, makes for a nice twist, even if the about-face of the more viperous of Bev's relatives is a tad unbelievable.

All things considered, the grade on this one averages out only to a "C". Fans of the genre will find too many tropes missing; non-fans will find too many of them present.… (mere)