Helene Carlyle is determined to marry off her eldest son, Sawyer. He's had enough of his mother always interfering: he can manage anyone and anything, but when it comes to his mother, he needs a buffer. He had mentioned that tidbit to his brother Hudson when they had too much to drink, and Hudson, joker that he is, took it upon himself to advertise for said buffer. Clover Lee is a bohemian, who flits from job to job, to whichever continent catches her fancy at the moment, but she really needs a job right now if she wants to get the money for a trip to Australia. Her résumé is iffy, but whatever a "buffer" is, she's open to try. When she looks at the applicants, doubts arise, but a few chosen words, she rids Sawyer of his mother, which gets Clover hired on the spot. The cool and generally unperturbed Sawyer is so impressed that he immediately thinks that Clover could be much more useful than a simple buffer: she could be that temporary fiancée that would get his mother off his back for a while!

First things first: THE NEGOTIATOR is Avery Flynn at her finest, if not her finest ever! She gives a fabulous twist to the fake engagement, mostly because Clover is such a fantastic character: Clover is honest to a fault, she is a true original, she has a backbone, and won't back down until she gets what she wants, and yet she does not behave mulishly. Sawyer thinks she's hot, but it's her chutzpah that knocks him over. Sawyer is a businessman, he was always a businessman, that's what he does; he basically doesn't know how to have fun, and let's be blunt: he's boring. Clover baffles him, but he can't deny that he finds her very attractive.

Given the outrageous premise, THE NEGOTIATOR could have been a dismal failure, but Avery Flynn's inventiveness succeeds beyond belief, and for several reasons, beginning with the author's impeccable sense of pacing: everything happens at the right time, for the right reason, and lasts just long enough. Another reason is the genuineness of both characters, of every character, in fact: we are not told that they are so, but they exist on the page, and they honestly do not agree on most things. The conflicts and the conflict resolutions are entirely believable, and done to perfection. As you might have notice, the idea of authenticity is mentioned several times, and this is why Ms. Flynn has made this book a resounding success.

THE NEGOCIATOR is the first book in the author's brand new Harbor City Romance, and if this is any indication, we have a whole lot of fabulousness coming our way from Avery Flynn!