cover image Miss Match

Miss Match

Laurelin McGee. St. Martin’s Paperbacks, $7.99 mass market (336p) ISBN 978-1-250-05918-5

McGee charms readers with this story of a busy businessman and the feisty employee who wins his heart. Entrepreneur Blake Donovan decides he needs a wife, but he doesn’t want to expend the effort to find one. He hires Andrea Dawson, a plucky, impulsive marketer who has been blackballed within her own field, to play matchmaker. She doesn’t like her new employer at first, but she soon learns that the man isn’t quite as much of an automaton as he’d like her to believe—and she quickly begins to fall in love, even as she’s setting him up with others. Though at first Blake comes off as completely unlikable, McGee gradually reveals his heart with endearing details, such as his reaction to the puppy Andrea gives him and his playroom full of pinball machines. Andrea’s touching vulnerability grabs the reader’s sympathy from the beginning, and after the author softens Blake up, it’s easy to see why Andrea falls for him. Agent: Bob Diforio, D4EO Literary Agency. (July)