Busy Woman Seeks Wife

Hasn't every busy woman, whether they have children, a husband, and/or a career, wanted their own wife at one time or another? A traditional wife who would make sure there was always plenty of food in the pantry, the laundry basket never overflowed, and took care of all the annoying details of daily life such as oil changes and having appliances repaired? Marketing powerhouse Alex Hill is one of those women. In Busy Woman Seeks Wife by Annie Sanders, Alex has both professional and personal situations that suddenly require her full-time attention. Her mother has broken her arm and needs to stay with Alex for several weeks, right in the middle of a launch for a new line of sportwear that Alex has envisioned and worked on from the initial idea. Enter her good friend Saff who places an advertisement in the paper to get Alex some help. The job is filled by a bubbly young woman who appears to have all of the necessary qualifications, she's organized, friendly, responsible, and she can cook! Alex takes off on a business trip for several days, confident she is leaving her mother in very capable hands with Ella. But, like the premise for any story of this kind, all is not what Alex believes. Ella is actually lazy, foolish, disorganized, and a total slob. Luckily for Alex and her mother, Ella is bored by her new job in less than a day and persuades her brother, an out of work actor, who actually does have the skills of a fabulous wife, to take the position. Between Frankie, Ella's brother, and the Bean, Alex's mother, a secret is hatched to keep everyone happy, including Alex, by not telling her that her new assistant is actually a man.

If this sounds implausible, it really isn't when you realize that Alex only communicates with "Ella" via notes, and they never see each other. Of course there are the confusing moments, and the silly hijinks that make this a fun story in which I laughed along on the Bean's excursions, and worried with Alex about everything working out for the launch of her new product line. This is one of those rare stories where there really are not any characters that are unlikeable. Each character is real, with good qualities far outweighing annoying behaviors, and they all are what I would consider honest, decent people. There is only one real villain in the book, and that is not revealed until almost the end of the story. It may surprise some of you who it is, but I figured it out pretty quickly.
I have to say the only thing I didn't care for about this book was the cover art. Showing a woman crawling on the floor digging through a pile of fashionable stilettos, I question if the person who designed the cover even read the book. It is everything that Alex is not. She doesn't own a million pairs of shoes, and if she did, they'd be athletic shoes, which is what she wears almost every day, not high-heels. She also wouldn't both to crawl around looking for the perfect shoes, she'd just grab another pair and go. A small thing I know, but that kind of stuff bothers me!
With Busy Woman Seeks Wife, the writing team known as Annie Sanders has given us a must-read to put in the summer beach bag. It is in paperback, so it's great to carry with you!