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From the publisher:

Mason Christian has twelve weeks to flip something old into something new, and then he’s getting the hell out of Footsteps Bay – a tiny New Zealand coastal town. Not even his temporary secretary and personal assistant–the feisty, luscious Billie McLeod–will deter him, but there’s no denying she makes him feel alive. More alive than he’s felt in three years…

Billie has one dream: save enough money to finish her degree. That’s why she’s agreed to work for hard ass, all-business-no-pleasure Mason Christian–a man who has every intention of destroying through modernization the town’s most cherished historical home. Before she can say ‘see ya’ she’s signed on the dotted line and is contractually bound to be Mason’s forty-second assistant. But working with male perfection every day is awesome with a capital A–as long as they can stick to a hands-off policy that gets harder every day…

Entangled Publishing is on to something. I’m not exactly sure how this all works, but it seems like most of the books I’ve read from them have been written by authors on the other side of the world. They specialize in ebooks that are set in Australia or New Zealand or I’m not even sure where (I am somewhat geographically challenged) but the stories, the characters work just as well over here. I know that American authors often have their books sold to other countries, translated to other languages, but I never really thought about the reverse so much. Every now and then I read a translated book that was originally published in some other country, and I invariably enjoy them. I like learning about other cultures and reading translated books really gives an insider’s perspective that I really like, rather than an American who took a vacation somewhere and decided to set their book there. That works, too, but in a different way.

From what I can tell from my reading, and from my husband’s working in Australia back in the early 80’s, it is very much like America. Liane Moriarity (and her writing sisters) spring to mind – I love her books, and it was always sort of secondary that they were set in Australia. For TV, they moved Big Little Lies to Malibu and it worked perfectly.

So this book was sent to me by the publisher as a “second look,” which means it came out a while back. I didn’t care, if I haven’t read a book then it is new to me. This is a contemporary romance of the rich boss & his assistant variety and that worked for me.

Mason has some secrets he just doesn’t share. He has kept himself closed off, is basically punishing himself, and avoiding relationships. He is a tough taskmaster and expects his assistant to live, work and breathe whatever project is currently underway. In this case, it is a house flip in the small oceanside town. He goes through assistants so frequently that he doesn’t bother to learn their names; in this case, he calls Bilie “42”. Yep, there have been 41 assistants before her. He has her sign a tough contract, and off to work they go. But Billie, even though she really needs the money, is no pushover. And her pushing back causes sparks to fly.

This was a very quick read, I would have like to know more about what they were doing in the renovation – rooms just were magically done. But that’s me and my HGTV mentality, I guess. It probably wasn’t such a big thing back in 2013 when this book was first published. It was an entertaining read, and that works for me.

2/2020 Stacy Alesi, AKA the BookBitch™