Awesome! ( )

Everything that a Karin Kallmaker romance is supposed to be. Interesting characters, lots of tension between them, engaging story, and the requisite HEA. I rate this a 4.5 but since there's no half star, I'm quite willing to round it up.

( )

Dr. Nicole Hathaway has written an accidental best seller about love and compatibility, and now her publisher is making her take a book tour to promote it. She has managed to run off two or three (one never showed up) personal assistants, and she fully expects to run off the next one, too.

Lily Smith is determined to keep this job. She needs the money, and it'll get her out of the country for a few months. After dodging the paparazzi and a Nancy Grace clone since her parents' Ponzi scheme crumbled, all she wants is a bit of normalcy.

I really liked the chemistry between Lily and Nicole. They go from disliking one another, to tolerating one another, to liking one another, etc. It's a relatively slow build, which is nice; I don't think it would be in-character for Nicole, especially, to jump into something. Nicole really reminded me of the character of Bones in a way: aloof, brilliant, and forthright to the point of social awkwardness. It's interesting to watch her grow and mature. Just the way she talks changes; in the first few chapters, Nicole is almost clinically detached from her life, but by the end, she sounds completely different.

The book is well-written, descriptive without being overly so. I do think the last few chapters got a tad too "busy," but I buzzed through this book in just a few hours, so that testifies to its readability. I'll definitely be picking up more by this author. ( )