After Mitch, her feckless ex-husband abandoned her during her third pregnancy to come to terms with being gay (and dabble in drugs on the way), hair stylist Sam Monroe is struggling to make ends meet. The only bright spot is her monthly Drinks and Desperation night with her colleagues and select clients.
Jack Tolliver, rakish womaniser, is making a play for the big leagues and needs to make over his image. When adviser Kara DeMarinis suggests that hiring Sam to play his fiancee would make him look solid and dependable, it doesn't take much to convince Jack to try the plan.
That the acting gives way to real emotion is hardly shocking, but the barriers (including Jack's jilted ex, news reader Christy Schoen attempts to reveal the plan; his mother, the icy and patrician Marguerite Dickinson Tolliver aka MDT; and the return of Mitch) are fresh and interesting. The sub plots (which includes an evolving relationship between Christy and sleazy lobbyist Brandon Miliewsky) aren't bad, though I was heartily sick of the thread about youngest son Dakota's willful struggle against toilet training by the time the kid finally gave up diapers to be a big boy. The epilogue was wholly unnecessary, but seems to be a genre requirement lately, and certainly didn't take away anything from plot.
All in all it was an enjoyable read, but not extraordinary. - Alex
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