"Heartwarming sweet contemporary"
Edward McCloud is the sales rep for his family's successful
business, McCloud Tool and Gauge. He job requires him to be
constantly on the road, meeting with developers and
suppliers, and attending trade shows and seminars. After
many years of living out of suitcases, Edward wants to
settle down and perhaps even start a family. A new agreement
with his father allows Edward to work out of the office,
though he will have to do the odd jobs assigned to him by
his father and older brother Dave. One of those jobs is to find someone who can sew doll
dresses for Dave's four-year-old daughter. Toni Rovere, one
of the company's accountants, is an accomplished seamstress
and agrees to make a collection of doll dresses for the
little girl. The project brings Toni and Edward close, and
romance slowly blossoms between them. I really enjoyed this story. The romance between Toni and
Edward develops slowly over time, making it believable for
me. I thought that the two main characters were
well-developed and real. The conflict in this book was more
internal in nature, both for Edward and for Toni. Edward
must fight not only his family's initial resistance to
having him in the office, but also to their antiquated norm
of not allowing female executives. Toni, on the other hand,
keeps her keen intelligence and graduate-level education a
secret from the company for her own reasons. She also knows
that her chances of becoming the head of accounting are
slim, based on the company's all-male norm. The ending was very sweet on all fronts, although I must
admit that I was a bit surprised with the romance ending -- I
didn't think that Edward and Toni's relationship had gotten
to that stage, based on the courtship outlined in the story.
However, it was a satisfying ending nonetheless and I have
no complaints about it. I recommend this novel to fans of sweet contemporary romances.
Reviewed by Charlotte Cowie
Posted April 6, 2010
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