Harley Jane Miller is a sweet sort of adult comtemporary pop star who has run away and Duncan Lang is the man her manager hires to find her. Harley has had enough of being a good girl for the last 9 years and when her manager won't let her celebrate the end of her tour with her crew or go out in NYC or even have a hamburger for dinner, she takes off, dying her hair and checking in and out of various midtown hotels under female rock star aliases. Duncan is the much put down younger son of the company owner who is trying to emulate his brother Brandon who the manager had wanted to hire but who was out of town on another case. He instantly relates to Harley upon seeing her high school yearbook photo and recognizing a fellow rebel and finds it easy to track her down while admiring her cunning strategies to avoid being found. For her part when she runs into Duncan, literally, while buying a forbidden electric guitar, Harley recognizes him as a playboy and someone who she has no business getting involved with.
But get involved they do, first as Harley negotiates additional days of freedom, building on suspicions in Duncan's mind about her manager's odd behaviors and then as she agrees to date in his penthouse apartment after hiring him to investigate her manager. When things get more complicated and Duncan gets accused of stealing diamonds from the French mob (whose security he assisted his brother in designing) will he be able to crack the cases and clear his name? Will Harley get her music back and become her own person at last?
I've reread this book way too many times in the past year or so - it stands up well to rereading and although I am starting to feel that not all the dialogue feels natural (it can be a little too pat, like Dawson's Creek or Juno or something) I always enjoy it. Duncan and Harley are great characters and the plot is fun - I always laugh at the French thugs Desmond and Louis and although I don't know any French people who talk like them, I still think they should get their own HEAs, at least in a secondary romance. Well worth reading.
