His Gal Friday

Nothing Personal
By Jaci Burton


The Premise: Ryan McKay stands to lose the family company to his loathsome cousin if he doesn’t fulfill the terms of his grandfather’s will. It seems the old man had an end of life epiphany – he felt he had neglected the importance of family, sent the wrong message to his grandson about same, and felt the only way to straighten things out was to force Ryan to marry and have a child. Ryan looks upon the whole thing as a business transaction – after a year of marriage and the conception of a child, he will divorce and his wife will receive a five million dollar settlement and generous child support. Unfortunately, the woman he’s made a deal with to fulfill his grandfather’s terms reneges at the last minute, leaving him with a deadline measured in hours and no bride. Enter Faith Lewis, who has been his assistant for five years. She is devoted to her job and possibly the frumpiest woman ever. From Ryan’s point of view, this makes her just about perfect. There will be no possibility of emotional entanglement, she’s genuinely nice and has already demonstrated the ability to put up with him, and underneath the bad hair, bad clothes, and awful glasses, is decent looking enough. Unfortunately, Faith has always harbored a little passion for Ryan, and isn’t sure she can hide her real feelings through a fake marriage. She’s also has no confidence in her appeal as a woman, thanks to growing up with a mother who constantly put her down, and is thus still a virgin at the ripe old age of 26. But she just can’t say no to Ryan, so before you can say “I do,” she does – with one caveat. No sex for two months, unless she says it’s ok sooner.

What I liked: Let’s face it – this is a standard plot device in the romance world. My fears were that this would end up being pretty lame. However, the characters are really well drawn and very likeable, and the book is well paced. We don’t get to see a lot of the secondary characters, but the good guys are suitably charming and the bad guys are suitably loathsome.

What I didn’t like: Again, standard plot device. And this is something like the third or fourth book I’ve read in which the insecure-heroine-with-a-heart-of-gold is named Faith. Or Hope. Or something equally virtuous.

Overall: Light, fast, fun. If you are looking for something entertaining you can read in an evening, pick this one up.