Heartbreak for Hire

YA author Hartl (Not Your #Lovestory) makes her adult debut with a fun and flirty but uneven rom-com. Brinkley Saunders is slowly recovering from her disastrous graduate school experience and the devastating breakup that shattered her self-confidence. Though her mother believes she works in insurance, she’s really a skilled operator at Heartbreak for Hire, a business that helps avenge women who’ve been mistreated by men—for a hefty price. Brinkley hopes to use the fantastic pay to one day afford her dream of opening an art gallery. But her plans could be derailed by her current target, Mark Cavanaugh, a man so attractive that Brinkley temporarily forgets about sabotage and the pair of them wind up back at his place. Things get stickier still when Mark shows up at Brinkley’s work shortly thereafter as one of the first ever male Heartbreakers. Brinkley’s determined not to let him distract her from her goals—but their chemistry proves hard to resist. Hartl’s premise is appealing, but the story sometimes misses the mark: Brinkley’s admittedly bad experiences make her mean-spirited and endlessly insecure, and the revenge schemes are sometimes too dark to be amusing. Still, fans of Lyssa Kay Adams and Christina Lauren are likely to enjoy the sexy hero and nonstop banter. [em]Agent: Rebecca Podos, Rees Literary. (July) [/em]