False Start

Valentin launches the Assignment: Romance series with this quick-moving and thoroughly delightful contemporary. Mattie Ross, an advice columnist at the Chicago Gazette, is getting her life back on track after being left at the altar by unscrupulous Eddie DeRosa. She decides it’s time to talk to the newspaper’s publisher, Lester Crenshaw, about a raise. Meanwhile, Lester is meeting with high school athletic coach Nick DeRosa, Eddie’s twin. Eddie almost ruined Nick by stealing his identity and framing him for embezzling. Lester makes Nick a deal: if he trains an unfit adult to run in the Chicago Marathon, Lester will cut Nick a check to get him back on his feet again. When Spandex-clad Maggie walks into Crenshaw’s office to ask for that raise and unwittingly presents herself as the perfect unlikely marathoner-to-be, the story is off and running. Maggie is an appealing protagonist, flawed and struggling with emotional vulnerabilities but determined to press on with her life. Valentin deftly keeps the reader engaged by allowing details of Nick and Mattie’s pasts to gradually come to light; their mutual attraction constantly increases, but consummation is continually thwarted by misunderstandings and plot twists. This is a lighthearted and endearing blend of comedy, drama, and romance. (BookLife)