When Lightning Strikes: A Whiskey Creek Novel

By: Brenda Novak
Publisher: Mira/Harlequin
Publishing Date: September 2012
ISBN: 978-0-7783-1351-9
Reviewed by: Mary Lignor
Review Date: June 2012

This book, the first in the Whiskey Creek Series, is a very readable book but also somewhat predictable. It’s a story of boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, etc, an interesting story but not the usual fare from Brenda Novak.

When Lightning Strikes is a romantic tale of Gail DeMarco, the owner of a Public Relations firm in Los Angeles. Gail's biggest client, Simon O’Neal, is a box office king who is a little tarnished around the edges. Simon is so messed up with his impending divorce, trying to get partial custody of his son, drinking and carousing and lousing up his life, that he is not listening to his PR person. It is clear that Simon is in a downward spiral so Gail dumps him as a client and he returns the favor by taking the rest of her famous clients away.

Because Gail is a good boss and worries about her employees, she sets out to find out what happened with her clients and discovers that Simon’s agent, Ian, is the one who is trying to ruin her company. Gail, in order to save her firm, goes to talk to Simon and is not above begging a little to get him to back off. She agrees to a deal to help him get his son back and that deal is that Simon needs a wife who is not a movie star and has no desire to be one. This wife will be by his side so that the public will see that he is a wonderful husband and father. In other words, he needs a new image and Gail needs to rebuild her company so it’s only natural that they team up.

Quill Says: This is a good story with very definitive characters. The writing and plotting is interesting but, not surprising. Because this is the beginning of a series, the author will have to think up some new and interesting characters, but being Novak, she shouldn’t have any trouble.