Simply the Best - by Karin Kallmaker (Paperback)

About the Book

"Simply the Worst...Alice Cabot's only great love is science, but a lapse in judgment has exiled the New York journalist to the glitzy Gallerias and vapid bubble-babble of Beverly Hills. The assignment to do a flattering feature series on Simply the Best and the superficial nonsense it sells threatens to crush what little is left of her spirit. Simply the Best...Pepper Addington can't believe she's moved up from grunt intern to personal assistant for Helene Jolie, the celebrity socialite founder of SimplytheBest.com. Succeeding at the job she worked so hard to get is her only priority. Keep a cynical know-it-all reporter in check? She promises Helene that she can. Simply Irresistible...Expecting nothing but games from the beach-blond surfer girl that Helene Jolie has assigned to keep an eye on her, Alice is fully prepared to resist any and all of California's charms. Or so she thinks."--Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

Simply the Worst...Alice Cabot's only great love is science, but a lapse in judgment has exiled the New York journalist to the glitzy Gallerias and vapid bubble-babble of Beverly Hills. The assignment to do a flattering feature series on Simply the Best and the superficial nonsense it sells threatens to crush what little is left of her spirit.

Simply the Best...Pepper Addington can't believe she's moved up from grunt intern to personal assistant for Helene Jolie, the celebrity socialite founder of SimplytheBest.com. Succeeding at the job she worked so hard to get is her only priority. Keep a cynical know-it-all reporter in check? She promises Helene that she can.

Simply Irresistible...Expecting nothing but games from the beach-blond surfer girl that Helene Jolie has assigned to keep an eye on her, Alice is fully prepared to resist any and all of California's charms. Or so she thinks.

Review Quotes

Karin Kallmaker has been writing romance novels for thirty years or so and she knows how to bend the rules just enough to keep things exciting. I didn't read the blurb, because it's Kallmaker and I knew the story would interest me. I wasn't sure for a long time which characters would get romantically involved. Suspense isn't often an ingredient in romance and I enjoyed it.

As usual, Karin Kallmaker writes excellent characters. First impressions turn out to be mostly wrong and the characters' true personalities are unveiled as the story unfolds. Chemistry in this book goes three ways, not all heartwarming and sexy. Sparks fly at first sight and do their best to hold on despite characters being deliciously obtuse and fighting the inevitable. Verbal sparring and powerplay between uneasy enemies bring a different kind of chemistry in the arena, with awe and admiration completing the triangle.

One of the things I love in Karin Kallmaker's books is the way she sets the scene. Her characters have real jobs, not just titles mentioned here and there. It's part of who they are, part of the story, almost akin to world-building in sci-fi or fantasy. Neither fluffy nor too heavy, Simply The Best hits the right balance, incorporating current news and societal themes in what remains, fundamentally, a romance novel.-Rainbow Literary Society