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E.F. Dodd
Author
One Night Standard
E.F. Dodd, author
Boston real estate developer Jamie Standard is about to close one of the most important deals of his life when a gossip rag releases an article painting him as a modern day rake. The bad press threatens to torpedo the deal and tank the largest green building project his company has ever undertaken. With the deal circling the drain, his business partners advise him to escape the limelight and visit his sister, Jocelyn. She happens to be the hospitality manager of L ’Atelier, a hot new resort hotel on the Vegas Strip, so as exiles go, it’s top tier. Especially when he runs into a gorgeous redhead at the airport. \tCoral Triton has reached the pinnacle of her career as a professional mermaid by landing a new job at L ’Atelier. Not just to headline a live action mermaid show, but also help create a vision for everything from set design to choreography. Things are on a definite up-swim for her, and only get better when the hot blond guy she bumped into at the airport turns up at her hotel. But, she’s in Vegas for a job – the job – not a guy, so anything beyond one night is out of the question. With a brief note and one last look, she bails the next morning. \tOnly to be introduced to him days later as her boss Jocelyn’s brother. And Jocelyn thinks Coral is the perfect person to help solve Jamie’s PR problem back in Boston. If Coral will agree to fake a relationship with Jamie, it can restore his reputation, save his business deal, and slingshot Coral higher into the public eye. A win-win-win, right? But when there are no cameras and fake starts to feel all too real, can they keep their heads above water, or will love pull them both under?
Reviews
This charming fish-out-of-water romance, the second in Dodd’s Standard of Love series, has legs. Professional mermaid performer Coral Triton lands in Vegas, eager to start her dream gig at the L'Atelier Hotel, under the management of Jocelyn Standard. A chance meeting with a handsome stranger—first during a baggage-claim mishap and then again at the hotel bar—gives Coral the no-strings, give-him-a-fake-name one-night stand she's jonesing for as she starts her new job and life in Vegas. Little does she know that her "hot, sexy, smoldering" “Airport Guy” is none other than Jamie Standard, her new boss's older brother. A real estate developer on the brink of closing the deal of his career, Jamie is doggedly trying to shake his new title of "Boston's Bad Boy of Business," courtesy of an article in Boston Commons.

After video of Coral and Jamie interacting during her first performance goes viral, Jocelyn concocts just the kind of delicious, forced-proximity scheme that romance readers relish: why not have Coral fake a relationship with her brother to fix his reputation, help him close his big deal, and publicize the hotel’s new show? While Jamie is only in town for two weeks, the ticking clock, plus Coral and Jamie's very real attraction to each other, adds tension and spice to a love story that develops swimmingly. With dashes of welcome heat, Dodd deftly entangles Coral and Jamie's lives despite their every effort to keep it casual. While the Vegas fantasy is fun, the couple’s issues are rooted convincingly in character: Coral is a rootless only child with a mother who still seems to be putting her own life together, while Jamie contends with his playboy mogul rep.

Tension, lust, and personal and career priorities fuel this page-turner, and lovers of meet-cute romances that embrace conventional tropes will swoon as Coral and Jamie, in the throes of what should be a fauxmance, grow closer despite conflicting interests and jaded stances on love.

Takeaway: Winning meet-cute fauxmance centered on a Las Vegas mermaid performer.

Comparable Titles: Jamie Wesley's Fake It till You Bake It, Ali Hazelwood's Deep End.

Production grades
Cover: A-
Design and typography: A
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: A
Marketing copy: A

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