Charlie Whitaker is seemingly pretty happy with his life as a senior ad exec with his dad's company, except that he persists in making ridiculous bets with his twin sister Charlotte who works as a romance novel editor – the most recent having lost him his Mercedes (although I am hoping it's just the use of his car temporarily, the book isn't really clear on this). Now they've got a bet over a family heirloom antique sword (don't worry it's only worth $30,000 plus family sentiment) – if Charlie can write a publishable romance novel he can have permanent sole custody of the sword.
Charlie's never even read a romance novel cover to cover so this might be a bit of a challenge and he intends to enlist Liz Fuller, an assistant at work, to be his inspiration. Liz laughs when she sees Charlie's first few paragraphs and convinces him that he needs help. She will be his writing coach if he will help her get his father's attention so that she's got a chance at getting a promotion once she lands the Sporty Feet account. So off they go to his father's cabin to get down to business, only when they get there the housekeeper gives Liz a basket of condoms and makes other innuendos such that when Liz sees the closet full of brand new lingerie in her size she assumes Charlie has changed the rules of the game – and enraged she dresses in one outfit and throws the rest from the balcony into the living room. Only Charlie's got the owner of Sporty Feet over so this wasn't the best move and Liz has to think fast to keep them in the game. And now she's got even less time to come up with a stellar campaign to sign Sporty Feet, while balancing the rest of her life with coaching Charlie. They spend the weekend at the cabin with Liz reading romances to Charlie on the golf course with his friends (where she sees he's nothing like her ex-husband who only golfed for the societal effect) and interacting with Joe who does...something...at the cabin and played a dead body on a tv show once. Can they really spend this much time together and not feel anything?
Of course not! Charlie soon realizes Liz is better than fictitious Jonquil and deliberately writes bad paragraphs so he can get Liz to tell or show him what would've been better. But when the staff at the office (led by his secretary) starts eavesdropping on their discussions about the book and wildly misinterpreting everything that is said, can Liz's career survive?
This book both started out and ended on the wrong note for me but the middle was fun. I really questioned the ridiculous bets Charlie was making and there didn't seem to be a lot of motivation there (although the ending makes it apparent that this may have been to show Charlie's dissatisfaction with his job). I also really question the idea that the gossiping secretary would've been able to keep her job so long with all her unprofessional behavior (and the book doesn't make it clear that she ends up losing it in the end either!) - she starts a rumor that Liz is sleeping with the chairman of the company but finds him boring in bed based on conversations Liz and Charlie have over the book's hero! She's listening to them on the intercom! I did appreciate that Liz and Charlie didn't lust after each other from the beginning – it was a refreshing change – but it did make it harder to understand why Liz wanted to help him with the romance writing. Also, why did Charlie have to be writing a historical romance when they made zero effort to research the time period? Oh well, I guess this was slightly below average for me.
