Like many 20-something single women, Jeanie Callahan is struggling with her barely-above-entry-level job. Unfortunately for her, it's in the coupon selling industry. It's about as boring as it sounds; Jeanie spends most of her time cold-calling clients with the hopes they'll shell out the dough for more than a batch of coupons worth 10% off your next purchase of jelly donuts. Her company is holding a contest for the most new customer sales during the summer; the winner gets $1000 for 10 new clients and $5000 for getting the most in the company. With a strategy of "getting close to the business," Jeanie has to find creative ways to land new accounts amidst backstabbing coworkers and bankruptcy-ready business owners.

With the hopes of reeling in some new clients as well as escaping from the drudgery of the every day 9-to-5, Jeanie auditions for a community theater performance of The Sound of Music. Hoping to be cast as Maria, be discovered by a talent agent and get whisked off to Hollywood where people would fall at her feet and worship her awe inspiring glory... Well, let's just say that she's going to need a miracle worker of a voice coach, several million dollars in hush money or the entire world to fall deaf. Luckily, Jeanie made the cut to be cast as "nun" and "ballroom dancer," allowing her to stay "close to the business" and while away her nights at the bar with her cast mates after each disastrous rehearsal ends.

Over the course of the summer, Jeanie scores and loses a number of sales, consoles her best friend Meg during her pregnancy woes and tries to convince the director of the play, Barton, that she really deserves to be Maria and that they would make the most perfect couple in the world (if he could just pay her back the money he owes, stop sending her flowers that are left over from funerals and manage to call her back once he promises he will). With everything hanging perilously in the balance, will Jeanie ever land the big deal both at work and in love?

With each chapter titled with a lyric from The Sound of Music, Jeanie's ordinary life seems to have a heightened sense of drama attached to it. The characters read like people you'd meet down at the local pub -- good ol' boys, shady mobsters with their back to the wall, women who are trying too hard and others who just need a second chance. Cute and funny with an unbelievable farce for an ending, this is a nice debut novel by Ms. Motew.