Faith Lewis had always helped out her boss Ryan McKay, but even she knew this was going way beyond the call of her job assignment.  The terms of his grandfather’s will stated that in order to maintain control of his company, he needed a bride that night.  And his anticipated bride-to-be had just left.  Now with only hours to spare, Ryan had turned to Faith needing her help.

This should have been a dream come true.  Faith had been in love with Ryan from the beginning, and now they were married.  Unfortunately, Ryan did not believe he was capable of love or a relationship.  They would be married for one year, and, hopefully, have produced a child by that time.  If they met the terms of the will within that year, they would then be divorced, and she would have complete custody of their child.  There would be nothing personal about this marriage.

Unfortunately for both Ryan and Faith, there was nothing impersonal about their marriage.  Faith had never felt beautiful and had little self esteem.  She knew that she only had one year with Ryan, but decided to allow herself to revel in this time together, knowing there would be heartbreak in the end.  Ryan learned that he enjoyed finding the simple gifts of time and himself that would bring pleasure to Faith.  He was realizing that he wanted more than a relationship that was “nothing personal.” 

Nothing Personal is the multi-millionaire hero and administrative assistant heroine type of romance that was exactly the type of escapism I wanted on a lazy summer afternoon.  I enjoyed watching Ryan slowly start to understand the type of woman he was married to, and that she was exactly what he needed.  She didn’t want the expensive gifts he could afford to give her; she just wanted gifts from his heart.  I found this to be a finely crafted story with well developed characters, and I look forward to additional stories by this author.

July 18, 2007