This is the romantic office comedy that human resources warned you about. Florida resident Rebecca Blake works as an assistant to a group of psychologists. She is strikingly beautiful and athletic. People see her as a nice, likable girl who is fine in her role but who could never really aspire to more at the company. Rebecca is told in her performance review that in order to get promoted, she is going to have to work on her credibility. As part of her career development plan, she is sent to a behavioral training course (nicknamed 'Club Detention') at company headquarters in Virginia. In error, she is partnered with Foster Diamond, who has the highest intelligence scores in the company. Even though he is a genius, Foster has own issues around interpersonal skills, attitude and his perception overall. Rebecca and Foster have nothing in common, but between his weakness for her beauty and her admiration of his intellect, they forge an unlikely bond. During the course they find that by pooling their respective strengths, they may be able to improve their careers. Sooner rather than later, their startling natural chemistry begins to take their partnership in another direction, and they must face their glaring differences or part ways.
Kimberly's first book, Gumbeaux, received a gold medal for Chick Lit in the 2011 Readers Favorite literary contest. Her second book, Petty Cash, won a gold medal for Popular Fiction in the 2014 eLit Awards contest. Kimberly is represented by the WordServe Literary Agency and is a regular contributor for the WordServe Water Cooler blog. She has called San Diego home for over ten years. Kimberly and her husband Michael spend as much time as possible in the Pacific Ocean, cooking for friends and enjoying life in Southern California.
It was a freebie and I was ready to give it up halfway through if it wasn't good, but somehow it got me. Even despite its obvious flaws - Rebecca and Foster have very little in common, forgive each other too quickly, there's a lot of unexplained drama (why his mom hates her, why she's so traumatized about the ex), the list goes on... - it is fun and made me laugh, so I kept reading and voilà, finished it :)
Whenever I read about romance novels taking place in offices, I feel an immediate pull to read them... I have no idea why, I have never worked in an office!!! I suspect, that the mere presence of many different characters and their interactions in one space, will provide me with an entertaining read. And I am almost right every time...
I really liked this book, although it had some lengthy descriptions about the places the characters lived at and the places they visited. This distracted from the actual story, it felt like I was reading a travel guide...
If you are looking for a book in the lines of "Love conquers all" without descriptive horizontal action, this is a perfect read for you!
This is a not so typical office romance story about Rebecca and Foster. Rebecca is your Florida girl, who likes to look good and have fun, but can't understand why she can't progress her career. Foster is a geeky guy who doesn't care about his appearance, or what people think of him, but is doing very well in his career - opposites. They end up paired together at a work hevaviour course and both their lives change from that point on.
The writing style was unusual, and I found it difficult to get into at first, but I found myself curious as to how the story would pan out so kept with it. I felt that the story could have continued as it ended quite abruptly. ...is there a follow up book?
I read Petty Cash after a nice twitter exchange with Kimberly Vargas. I enjoyed her novel Gumbeaux very much and she suggested that I give Petty Cash a read. I am really, really glad I did.
Petty Cash tells the story of Rebecca and Foster, a couple of opposites who have to work very hard to make their relationship work. I loved how real both Rebecca and Foster felt. I found myself rooting for them all the way through the novel.
Fans of Gumbeaux will appreciate the inclusion of the Musee Fait and Mary Fait in the novel - they are bit players but add a richness to the story.
The end of Petty Cash leaves me hoping that there will be a third novel in the works.
The family dynamics in the story were very nicely done. I can perfectly imagine the grandmother and Foster's mother. It's nice to see a book that acknowledges religious differences and how that can be a stumbling block to some relationships. I don't read a lot of serialized stories, but I would like to know what happens after this book ends.
In some ways, this was just a typical chick lit romance but I found myself really enjoying the characters and loving their interaction. In addition, I laughed through all the work info - as a long time member of the tech industry, I am familiar with touchy-feely programs and company values and so the whole thing, and his reactions to it all, just made me laugh.
The writing style was a little difficult to get use to at the beginning. An alpha male manipulating everyone to get what he wants with some beauty and the beast mixed in the story line. Clean romance.
I found it was a lot like the life we women lead today where we don't think we are good enough or capable of doing the job. I like that there was not a lot of crude language and that their love was able to overcome all their problems.
An amusing office romance, with elements of beauty and the beast (if Beauty were a bit shallow and Beast a bit Genghis.) the tense of the narrative was confusing, but I got used to it. There was too much description of place and not enough backstory, making the characters opaque at times.
The title of this book appealed to be as working in accounts. I read this book within a couple of days, and didnt want to put it down. Enjoyed the story, would have liked to have found out the story about her parents.
Loved, loved, loved this book! All the struggles the characters went through, and the personal growth they achieved, made them so real. Falling in love was just a bonus. I want to read more!
So it isn't overly imaginative, but it kept me turning the pages all afternoon. Fun, easy read from Florida to Maine with characters that made me smile.
It was a fun story to read. The ending came quicker than I thought, which was a little bit of a letdown, but it was a nice way to end a few hectic evenings.
I thought the happy story was completed until, to my surprise I discovered I was only fifty percent finished. The last half of the book was a disappointment. The behavior of Foster didn't ring true. The reaction of the leading lady to Foster's behavior was also troubling. Much forward development was halted by the story line. Their relationship was too slow to bloom. Maybe this, too, is what happened to Sleeping Beauty after awakening to her Prince Charming. The prospective mother-in-law and the grandmother were harshly drawn.
You people should just read this book yourselves and write your own review on this novel yourself and I really enjoyed reading this book very much so. Shelley MA
I began reading this book with no preconceived ideas, and just really enjoyed the storyline and the characters. There are some real pearls of wisdom in there too!
I received a notice a couple of weeks ago that this book was free for a limited time on Amazon. It had quite a few 4 and 5 star reviews and very few that were lower than that at the time so I got it. Thankfully I didn’t have to pay the regular $4.99 price for this book because I would have been really, really ticked off at myself! It’s been a really long time since I have written a review on book that I hated but here goes…
I only read 67% of this book. I know, you would think that after investing that much time I would go ahead and finish it but after Foster stepped in and made things work the way that he wanted them to go, I just couldn’t. I wanted to scream at Rebecca because she was so blind and stupid to not that what happened to her was his fault. Now I know that I could be wrong on this particular turning point in the book since I didn’t finish the story but I highly doubt it. I don’t want to give anything away because like I said a lot of people really liked this book.
I didn’t really care for this book from the beginning. It starts off extremely slow and boring and I kept hoping that it would get better but sadly, it only got worse. Yes there were a few parts that were funny and okay but they were so few and far between. The characters drove me crazy and the grandma… well she was just plain mean. She never had a nice thing to say about anyone and was constantly putting people down. I couldn’t stand that women! I wanted to throttle the old bitty every time she spoke.
The two main characters were not compatible at all. They couldn’t have more different than each other and I can’t why either of them were attracted to the other one.
You have one super smart guy, Foster, who aced some test at corporate but shows up at meetings looking like he walked in off the streets. Face looking like Chewbacca, clothes that are worn and wrinkled and shoes that are held together with duct tape. Add that to the fact that he treats everyone like crap and yet he can’t figure out why he’s not being promoted. REALLY????
Then you have the main female character, Rebecca. She is his complete opposite in every way. Dresses to the nines, is on a constant cleansing diet, eats nothing but good foods mostly salads, works out all of the time and is apparently model worthy. But yet she hasn’t had a relationship in four years. Apparently something traumatic happened but the author never went into detail, at least not when Foster and Rebecca were first starting the relationship. If it happened later then that I wouldn’t know but to me the time had passed for explaining why it had been so long,
I hate giving up and it’s hard for me to say this but I’ve wasted enough time on this book and will delete from Kindle. 1 STAR ONLY!