Jennifer Echols is one of my go-to writers for quality character development, sharp dialogue and memorable stories. Needless to say, her foray into fiction for adults with Star Crossed was one of my most anticipated novels of the year.
While I adore Jennifer's dramatic novels like Such a Rush and Going Too Far, I have a soft spot for her more light-hearted books, particularly Major Crush. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a good romantic comedy to balance out all the angst and drama.
Fortunately for me, Star Crossed falls into the lighter vein of Jennifer's oeuvre.
Wendy Mann is a publicist to the stars. She's spent six years saving celebrities from their public disasters, rescuing their images and turning around careers. She's blunt and tough, and that's why she's so good at her job. Her beloved career is threatened when one of her clients pushes back and almost gets her fired. In order to save her job at the high powered PR firm where she works, Stargazer, she's sent to Las Vegas to salvage another career--that of a young singing who's nasty habit of posting inappropriate photos of herself on Twitter and publicly sparring with her ex-boyfriend.
Wendy finds herself up against her old college rival, Daniel, who's representing her client's ex. The two competed for top rankings all through school and their firms are also rivals (Daniel's father owns the firm where he works and he's expected to take over leadership of the family business). The pair's history is pretty fun. Daniel secretly crushed on Wendy from afar, but Wendy simply saw him as a rival to be squashed (she's extremely competitive). I enjoyed that their shared history wasn't as dramatic as is in a lot of novels of this ilk, it's more of a vague thing that doesn't have a lot of baggage.