Whole Lotta Trouble
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- $0.99
Publisher Description
Sometimes the best laid plans go sideways . . .
Three single female mystery book editors living in Manhattan meet regularly for drinks to discuss their demanding jobs and their rollercoaster love lives. Tallie Blankenship is a small town girl made good, determined to leave her mark in publishing. Her senior editor is taking a leave of absence for mysterious reasons and has entrusted her with the manuscript of their most popular (and eccentric) author, and Tallie sees the responsibility as a huge stepping stone. But she’s livid when the author’s agent, infamous bad-boy Jerry Key yanks the project and gives it to her coworker who’s willing to sleep with him in return.
Felecia Redmon is a city-bred senior editor with an impressive stable of writers, yet she fantasizes about being a homemaker, stocks her pantry with designer household products and bakes like Betty Crocker. Her brief relationship with agent Jerry Key was a demeaning disaster; he keeps resurfacing to make her life miserable, professionally and personally. When she receives a nude picture of herself in the office mail that she suspects Jerry sent, Felicia is desperate for revenge.
Jane Glass is a neurotic e-book editor with an identity crisis. She’s adopted, and of unknown ethnic background, so she celebrates every cultural holiday and dresses flamboyantly with no apologies. Jane, too, has a beef with agent Jerry Key—a client of his plagiarized one of her e-book authors, and she knows that Jerry was fully aware.
The women decide to give Jerry a taste of his own medicine, and as carefully as they would mold a bestselling plot, they concoct a plan to lure the bad-boy agent into a compromising situation, take a digital photo of him, then send it to everyone in his e-mail address book. The plan goes off without a glitch…until they discover the next morning that Jerry is dead, and not of humiliation. To make matters worse, half of Manhattan’s publishing industry received a picture of him at the crime scene that they sent.
The shaken women realize how incriminating their escapade will look to the police. They agree to remain silent, but loyalties are strained, especially after another person close to them turns up dead. Toss in a missing manuscript worth millions, a sexy cop too smart for their good, and a plot twist on a scope larger than anyone could have imagined, and the women suddenly realize that when it comes to friendship, flirtation and felony, they’re in a WHOLE LOTTA TROUBLE.
Reviews:
“This book is entertaining, with a fun plot, a great cast of characters and a small glimpse into the world of publishing. It will keep you guessing and rooting for Tallie to the very end. A very good read.” –The Best Reviews
“Stephanie Bond seems to get so much enjoyment out of writing her stories that the joy spills over to the reader. If you like a dash of mystery, outlandish situations, great characters, and enjoy laughing, then this is the book for you.” --AOL Romance Fiction Forum
“An author who has remained on my ‘must-buy’ list for years.” --Romance Reviews Today
“Deliciously frothy, and small comedic details abound.” – Publishers Weekly
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
When three young female New York editors come up with a sassy scheme to publicly expose a notoriously womanizing literary agent, little do they imagine he'll end up not just naked (and tied up in S/M gear) but dead. All do, however, have motives for murder: the smarmy fellow has personally humiliated successful Felicia Redmon, professionally backstabbed not-so-successful Tallie Blankenship and plagiarized the plot of a book that means the world to ambitious Jan Glass. So confessing that they were the last to see their tormentor alive is likely to make them prime suspects, even in the eyes of Tallie's protective new cop boyfriend. But if they stay silent, they may wind up being the real murderer's next victims. While whodunit isn't revealed till the book's surprise ending, the suspense isn't the kind that kills you. As is typical of Bond's books (Party Crashers, etc.), the overall tone is deliciously frothy, and small comedic details abound: high-powered Felicia is a secret super housewife who cleans, cooks and lies about it, and Jan has changed her name from plain "Jane" to appear more glamorously French. And though romance is not the book's main focus, there's enough love between the laughs to keep relationship-minded readers happy.
