About two years ago, I approached an unpublished author I’d ‘met’ online through a writing site. We traded novels. Mine: Little White Lies — a work IN progress and her The P.U.R.E. — a work already done. I read The PURE in about 2 days, editing and trading ideas and giving feedback and ultimately being one of those early, early beta readers.

And then, tada! Here is is for me to read again. While the storyline was the same, the new and improved version (remember, I read it 2 years ago for the first time) is tightly written, fast paced and mysterious … just like Gayle, the main character, likes it.

Gayle is one of those girls you either love or hate and those around her pretty much say/believe the same thing. She either grates on you or makes you want to stroke her hair and tell her to sit in a chair and stop worrying. But Gayle doesn’t listen to anyone and just like a curious cat with nine lives, she uses her 1 life to undermine an entire fraud operation that’s going on in the company she works for — her first job, her first company, her first … everything.

Including Jon — boy wonder who is more than meets the eye. Jon is hot. Let me say, he is hot. He’s got this quality about him. He’s not an alpha male (which I love), but he can be when he needs to be. In fact, Jon leaves Gayle to do some of the ‘dirty work’ but not without his oversight.

As they move through the mystery of the problems at the office, the two of them also fall in love. Sure, that might be typical of two coworkers who work together for 12 hours a day, but in this case it really works!

Because this is contemporary romance, the story is like every day and the problems Gayle and Jon face are ‘every day’ problems (aside from the mystery of what’s going on behind the scenes). Things like sexual harassment at work. Two-faced coworkers. Backstabbing coworkers. Fun intimate escapades that any one of us could try (if we were a little spontaneous and silly). That’s the beauty of contemporary romance — it’s ‘real’.

Add in the suspense of the mystery and Claire takes us from ‘hello’ to ‘I love you’ with the idea there could be more in store for Gayle and Jon … especially with her uncanny sleuthing ability and Jon’s … real job.

It’s a fun read, a quick read and if you work in Corporate America … a must read.

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