Book Review - This Is How It Happened (not a love story) by Jo Barrett
Category Book Review
Any book that starts out with the lines "I never intended to KILL him kill him. I mean, actually kill him. It started as a joke." deserves some serious consideration for continued reading (and probable fun). This Is How It Happened (not a love story) by Jo Barrett is an entertaining story about one woman's efforts to get back at a guy who conned her for everything she had. Barrett weaves an amusing tale that keeps the pages turning and the laughs coming.
Madeline Piatro is a marketing whiz who's been working for the same boss for the last 14 years. She likes what she does, but her personal life leaves much to be desired. So at a mixer, she ends up finding and falling for a smooth guy who becomes the center of her life. He comes from a rich family, but his hard-nosed dad wants him to work his way up through the company to learn the ropes. Piatro falls hard for Carlton Conners, and pretty soon she's the main means of support in their living-together arrangement. He professes his deep love for her, even going so far as to buy her a ring. But he doesn't want her to wear it around his family, as he's "not ready" for them to know yet. That should have been the first warning sign...
Madeline comes up with a killer idea for a new company marketing organic foods for kids. Her and Conners present the concept to his father and some investors, and they agree to fund it. But before the meeting ends, she ends up without any ownership of the company, with only a "promise" of future stock. Well, *that* doesn't work out too well. The company takes off, Conners ends up as the "genius", and dumps Piatro for another woman. Left with little money, no job, and no options, she decides that hiring a hitman to mess up Carlton would be a great idea. But when you don't run in those types of circles, it's a little hard to figure out where to start. And her "do-it-yourself" ideas, such as poisoned brownies, aren't exactly textbook examples of how to rid yourself of someone...
Barrett does an excellent job with the characters and the pacing in this novel. It's told in the first person from Piatro's view, so it's easy to sense the frustration and confusion that she's feeling. The story alternates chapter by chapter between her current efforts to extract revenge and her relationship with Conners from the very start. So as you're laughing at her misguided efforts to rid humanity of Carlton, you learn little-by-little what led her to this point. The end has an interesting twist that takes a couple of sharp turns before everything clears up. All in all, it's a fun way to kill a few hours on a plane or a lazy afternoon. When this is released in February, it should do really well...
Any book that starts out with the lines "I never intended to KILL him kill him. I mean, actually kill him. It started as a joke." deserves some serious consideration for continued reading (and probable fun). This Is How It Happened (not a love story) by Jo Barrett is an entertaining story about one woman's efforts to get back at a guy who conned her for everything she had. Barrett weaves an amusing tale that keeps the pages turning and the laughs coming.
Madeline Piatro is a marketing whiz who's been working for the same boss for the last 14 years. She likes what she does, but her personal life leaves much to be desired. So at a mixer, she ends up finding and falling for a smooth guy who becomes the center of her life. He comes from a rich family, but his hard-nosed dad wants him to work his way up through the company to learn the ropes. Piatro falls hard for Carlton Conners, and pretty soon she's the main means of support in their living-together arrangement. He professes his deep love for her, even going so far as to buy her a ring. But he doesn't want her to wear it around his family, as he's "not ready" for them to know yet. That should have been the first warning sign...
Madeline comes up with a killer idea for a new company marketing organic foods for kids. Her and Conners present the concept to his father and some investors, and they agree to fund it. But before the meeting ends, she ends up without any ownership of the company, with only a "promise" of future stock. Well, *that* doesn't work out too well. The company takes off, Conners ends up as the "genius", and dumps Piatro for another woman. Left with little money, no job, and no options, she decides that hiring a hitman to mess up Carlton would be a great idea. But when you don't run in those types of circles, it's a little hard to figure out where to start. And her "do-it-yourself" ideas, such as poisoned brownies, aren't exactly textbook examples of how to rid yourself of someone...
Barrett does an excellent job with the characters and the pacing in this novel. It's told in the first person from Piatro's view, so it's easy to sense the frustration and confusion that she's feeling. The story alternates chapter by chapter between her current efforts to extract revenge and her relationship with Conners from the very start. So as you're laughing at her misguided efforts to rid humanity of Carlton, you learn little-by-little what led her to this point. The end has an interesting twist that takes a couple of sharp turns before everything clears up. All in all, it's a fun way to kill a few hours on a plane or a lazy afternoon. When this is released in February, it should do really well...
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