Carly Abrams was the lead graphic designer for her up and coming company – until 2 years ago when they hired Matt Jacobs who promptly kicked her off their joint project and made it clear he didn't need to work in any way but solo. Carly is irked that all the plum assignments are just handed to him but when she finds out that what appears to be a fair, but weird, way of assigning the latest job (make everyone compete for it via a compatibility survey) is really rigged and that Matt's already been picked, she gets a little pissed and decides to manipulate the process herself a bit. She gets some help hacking into the answers and changes hers to be most compatible with Matt to land the assignment. However they are truly compatible in their answers to the sex part (Carly's ideal sex life and Matt's actual one) so when he comes onto her in the computer lab (he was planning just to lure her in and then confront her with the fact he knows the truth about the survey) she jumps on the chance – and him. But the stakes are higher than just this one client – Matt and Carly are competing for a promotion. Can their fledgling relationship survive the stress?
I wanted to like this book (I mean, I actually bought it new based on the excerpt!) and in fact did enjoy it, overlooking some minor things (like where on earth did they find those personal massagers when they had sex in the office computer lab – something not planned by either of them – and why does Matt have to be “shoving his tongue in her mouth”) -- right up until the end. Unfortunately I really hated the ending: SPOILERS: why couldn't the author just let Carly quit her job? Why invent this new position and what boss blithely offers the same high salary for a completely different job? Also, Carly was lead designer before Matt got hired so I find it hard to believe that they can really spare her from the design team now that they are planning to grow and use Matt managerially (they've promoted her to manager of training or something new and made up). And given all that and the angst Carly experiences over this job, why on earth is she getting pregnant just a year later? And finally I really don't buy any of the bullshit excuses about Carly's father's behaviour and how he really would've liked to have them on location with him – cuz really, if that was the only problem surely he could spare some money for child support (although it sounds like the parents are still married?). Oh wait, another finally – I really don't like the way Matt's arrogant answers to the test were resolved, with him realizing how much he's changed over the past few weeks. I don't feel like that level of change was shown or even possible given the circumstances. I know it doesn't sound like it but the book was fine until the end! Oh well.
