cover image WHY NOT?

WHY NOT?

Shari Low, . . Downtown Press, $13 (352pp) ISBN 978-0-7434-8312-4

As a researcher for an important House of Commons minister, ambitious Jess Latham has her political career rolling. Her love life's a dead-end street, but what does she care? All she needs is her job and her mates—that is, until her boss, Basil, propositions her and she realizes it's been too long since she's gotten "hot and sweaty with a member of the opposite sex." Basil manages to be both kinky and dull in the sack, but Jess is willing to play mistress, at least until Basil can extricate himself from his marriage—after all, she almost truly loves him. But Basil and wife both prove wily, and there's another complicated romance to come, this one with a handsome tabloid journalist. When things don't go swimmingly in either liaison, Jess and her coterie of funny girlfriends (each having suddenly decided to settle down with the man of her dreams) seek revenge on the two-timing cheats who have made Jess's life so difficult. This engaging novel by the author of What If? will have readers laughing with and rooting for its likable protagonist—and feeling genuinely thankful for not being in her shoes. Agent, Mary Pachnos . (Nov.)