The females in Amelia Parker's family have a unique and
delicious way of handling stress, bad news, disappointment
or sadness -- they bake pies. You can tell the seriousness of
the issue by the number of pies baked. Losing your fiancé
equals 30 days of pies. Watching your recent lover leave
equals 3 pies. You get the picture. Well Amelia's been
baking a lot of pies. Her on again, off again engagement to
her very demanding fiancé Will permanently ended with his
announcement that he fell in love with someone who is
"everything you're not." Problem is Amelia had defined who
she is and how she looks to please him. Three weeks later
she finds herself sitting at a Tiki bar writing a list of
things to do in her determination to change the direction of
her life. That's where she meets Jack O'Connell who seems to
be, for lack of a better description, intrigued with her.
Jack's attentiveness is also honed by the fact that Amelia
works for Bellagio shoes. So Jack is faced with a personal
tug of war between taking advantage of this erstwhile
innocent, genteel southern belle who is definitely getting
his blood going and yet being careful with her state of
vulnerability. However, Amelia's connection to and knowledge
of Bellagio is important to Jack and his plans which include
his newly acquired seat on their board as a venture
capitalist with "new ideas" for the direction of the
company. The burning question is why is this particular
company so important to Jack and what is he willing to do to
ensure his successful tenure with it. As Amelia and Jack
continue to spend time together, often working on another
item on her list, Amelia is baffled by the fact that he
isn't distracted by more obvious beauties. And once she
realizes that he has joined the Bellagio board she begins to
question their budding friendship and relationship with
doubts fueled by his evasive tactics concerning his personal
life. Jack is an enigma -- one moment considerate and kind
and the next moment secretive and calculating.
Hard to say which characters are my favorites in this latest
book by Leanne Banks. Certainly Amelia as she develops into
her own person with the help of Jack and her friends and
coworkers. Jack is a wonderful, complicated character who
gets under your skin as you learn more and more about what
makes him tick. Then you have the odd bunch of people who
make up the corporate family of Bellagio which is a family
owned business with an ongoing practice of hiring any of
their relatives looking for employment regardless of talent
or qualifications. And then you have the Parker's who have
that enviable family bond. Jack is going to have to work
real hard to remain on the periphery of this diverse group
and it gets harder with each day.
Think working for a leading international shoe company
sounds like a dream job? Not if you're Amelia Parker, an
overworked, downtrodden temp working for Bellagio, Inc.'s
grande dame, Lillian Bellagio. But things are looking up
for
Amelia. She's just been given the assignment of
accompanying
Ms. Bellagio to her estate in the Keys. Trading pumps for
flip-flops and a cell phone for a conch shell -- could be
worse, right?
Especially when life on the island
includes her very own mysteryy man -- one Jack "The Shark"
O'Connell, dashing venture capitalist. He dares Amelia to
use this time to do something wild: drink a hurricane, go
skinny-dipping . . . have an affair with a dangerously
attractive man. But Jack may have ulterior motives for his
attentions, and Amelia will have to decide... should she
kick Prince Charming to the curb, or step into that glass
slipper?
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