THE SWEETEST REVENGE

A woman’s attempts to rebuild her life lead her down an unexpected path.

Amy Duffy has suffered a humiliation. Not your run-of-the-mill embarrassment but a full-blown catastrophe. After Chris Ellis, her boss/boyfriend, who's head of development at the TV production company where they work, screws her out of a better job and abandons her moments before they were supposed to go to her cousin’s wedding, Amy gets drunk, blows off the wedding, pees on Chris’ car, and is caught on camera. Amy cannot face seeing her family, which she let down, or returning to work, where everyone has seen the video. Amy leaves New York City for a less prestigious job at a smaller studio in London, where she’s mostly in charge of directing promos for reality television shows. Growing more comfortable in her new life, Amy jumps on an opportunity to land her dream job: Her company is restructuring and they need a new development person. Enter Jake Jones, Amy’s handsome new neighbor, who just so happens to be a gifted writer and, like Amy, is trying to escape his own humiliation: Jake was on a reality dating show and tried to jump off a cliff to swim his way out after having second thoughts. Amy has a proposal for Jake: Will he help develop a TV show that she can pitch at work? Jake agrees, and as they work together on their London-based detective show pitch, sparks begin to fly in a slow-burn romance that readers will delight in. But a company restructuring means a new interim head of development, and, wouldn’t you know it, that interim head is none other than Chris. Anyone can see where this plot is going from a mile away, but, thanks in large part to Dent’s humor, readers will still enjoy the ride.

As fun as it is formulaic.