The Money Man

by Nancy Herkness, Laurie West (Read by)

Overview

She’s small-town business. He’s Manhattan high finance. Together they ignite in a novel about unexpected love and danger by Nancy Herkness, award-winning author of the Wager of Hearts series.

New Jersey bookkeeper Alice Thurber has a carefully constructed risk-free life. Everything in perfect balance. Until little discrepancies show up in her clients’ accounts. Most would ignore it. Not the impeccably precise Alice. In desperation she reaches out to a high-powered consulting firm for help. New York City’s movie-star handsome financial wizard Derek Killion reaches back. All he has to do is smile and Alice’s fantasies stir. A girl can dream, can’t she?

A cofounder of KRG, Derek’s promise is to advise small-business owners in trouble. He never guessed that assisting the diffident but sexy Alice would be so captivating and make it so hard to keep his desires in check. But just as intriguing is the alarming puzzle behind the computer glitch that’s unsettled his client. As the investigation unfolds, they must also confront an attraction too palpable to ignore. Every new dark twist they follow is only bringing them closer together—in passion and in danger.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781799738671
Publisher:	Brilliance Audio
Publication date:	04/14/2020
Series:	The Consultants , #1
Edition description:	Unabridged
Product dimensions:	6.50(w) x 5.50(h) x 0.62(d)

About the Author

Nancy Herkness is the award-winning author of The CEO Buys In, The All-Star Antes Up, and The VIP Doubles Down in the Wager of Hearts series; Take Me Home, Country Roads, and The Place I Belong in the Whisper Horse series; and Second to None, Second Time Around, and Second Act in the Second Glances series. She is also the author of several stand-alone contemporary romance novels. With degrees in English literature and creative writing from Princeton University, she has earned the New England Readers’ Choice Award, the Book Buyers Best Top Pick honor, and the National Excellence in Romance Fiction Award, and is also a two-time nominee for the Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award. Nancy is a native of West Virginia but now lives in suburban New Jersey with a goofy golden retriever named Brodie. To learn more about Nancy and her books, please visit www.NancyHerkness.com.

Editorial Reviews

The supporting characters, including Derek’s workaholic partners, are just as lovable as the leads, and the well-maintained suspense sends a healthy shot of adrenaline through the tender romance. Readers will be eager for the next in the series.” —Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

03/02/2020

Herkness (Second Act) opens her Consultants series with an intricate, fiery work of romantic suspense. Methodical bookkeeper Alice Thurber loves numbers, her clients, and the small business she’s built for herself in New Jersey. So when she can’t make sense out of a series of tiny discrepancies in her clients’ finances, she contacts a big-time N.Y.C. consulting firm for assistance, and handsome money wiz Derek Killion agrees to look over her books. Derek quickly realizes that the diligent Alice wouldn’t have made such sloppy mistakes, and soon he’s on the trail of the shady tech company behind her accounting software. As Derek and Alice look into the company, they land some powerful corporate enemies willing to go to extremes to protect their secrets. The high stakes propel the couple toward each other, but it is their convincing connection and mutual respect that ignites their passion. The supporting characters, including Derek’s workaholic partners, are just as lovable as the leads, and the well-maintained suspense sends a healthy shot of adrenaline through the tender romance. Readers will be eager for the next in the series. Agent: Jane Dystel, Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. (Apr.)

Publishers Weekly

2020-03-02
A high-finance dreamboat and a mousy bookkeeper become entangled in a white-collar mystery.

Alice Thurber is known for her thoroughness with numbers, finding comfort in their dependability after having grown up in financial uncertainty. But when she takes a chance on new bookkeeping software, the accounts of several of her clients start coming up short, so Alice takes advantage of a free service for small businesses from KRG Consulting Group. Derek Killion, a co-founder of KRG, is riding high after having secured a large international partnership, but his pet project is their new Small Business Initiative. When Alice comes to him with her problem, he assumes he'll find the solution in a matter of minutes. Instead, Derek is stumped, causing him to work a bit more closely with shy, self-conscious Alice. Soon, they're uncovering the origins of Alice's shady bookkeeping software, with its links to Russian programmers, which feels depressingly close to today's news cycle. Alice is living a Cinderella story: Ever since her parents underestimated her looks and her dreams when she was young, she's been full of self-doubt, which permeates every interaction she has with Derek, plus there are clear class differences between her and her Prince Charming. It quickly becomes pitiable to see Alice view herself in such an overwhelmingly negative light. The romance is fine but stilted due to oddly placed information dumps about people like computer pioneer Ada Lovelace and outdated pop-culture references to American Graffiti and The Music Man. The suspense elements are the most interesting part of the book, given their plausibility, but they feel more carefully thought-out than the characters' actual chemistry.

A middling romance that fails its suspenseful setup.

Kirkus Reviews