Saving the CEO (49th Floor Novel) Paperback – October 20, 2014

Confession: I was never into the billionaire craze, because they all seemed to be alphahole control freaks, and that is not my type of romance hero. Now, I’m not sure if the hero in this book is a billionaire, but he is a rich businessman, and I ordinarily would have passed this book right by.However, I follow @TropeHeroine on Twitter, who posts gems such as: “You’re no one until there’s a wager about you in the book at White’s.” “I babble when flustered (which is pretty much all the time around you) even though I am otherwise a very successful litigator.” “I like a man who smells of soap and man.” “I often look in mirrors and make note of my own hair and eye color. I might forget what I look like otherwise.” On and on, insightfully.This book was written by Trope Heroine’s alter-ego, Jenny Holiday, so I had to read it to see how she handled the “curvy barmaid catches the eye of rich businessman who doesn’t interact with anyone else in the restaurant” trope. In a word? Hot.Cassie is the barmaid in question. She doesn’t have the ballerina body or bleaching and grooming habits to be a server, but her dad was friends with the restaurant’s owner so she has a job behind the bar. Jack is the meticulously dressed businessman who comes in several times a week, sits at the same table, and leaves a giant tip. Then, one night, he shows up only to find that his table is occupied.Jack has to sit at the bar. He learns that Cassie knows her fine liquor, she keeps a non-fancy jug of distilled water behind the bar just for his drinks, and she helps wayward teenagers (aka the boss’s daughter) with math. It’s not long after that, he has his tongue in her mouth, and not much longer after that, he has her against an alley wall while he’s kneeling in dirty snow and…hot.Jack is the most vulnerable CEO I’ve met in a book lately. He’s got dyscalculia, which is like dyslexia for numbers, and he’s recently discovered that his best number-crunching employee has been stealing from him. He needs to follow the evidence, but his brain won’t let him. And he needs to close a business deal without the betraying employee.Cassie needs money, of course. When Jack offers her a lot of it to pose as his employee and help him close the deal, she takes it. She also points out that she’s not really his employee, so his “no sleeping with employees” rule doesn’t technically apply.You know how Trope Alpha Male is always “I’m in charge in the boardroom and the bedroom”? Cassie and Jack make silly bets or they race up the stairs to see who gets to be in charge. It was wonderful to see Jack lose himself when he was with Cassie, just as it was wonderful to see Cassie find another side of herself when she was with Jack.So, this book has the following tropes: Gay Best Friend, I’ve Never Had Good Sex Until You, Seeing You Interact With Children Makes Me Like You More, and of course, I’ve Never Slept With a Woman More Than Once Until You. And they were all awesome.This was totally fun, I stayed up too late reading it, and yes I’m on board for the next in the series. For you, Trope Heroine, I will read more about rich men in office buildings.Rating: A-This review was originally posted on Red Hot Books at: http://redhotbooks.com/2014/11/review-saving-the-ceo-by-jenny-holiday.html

I discovered this author/series early in 2016 when I devoured Sleeping with Her Enemy. This book is the prequel and I found it to be even more engaging. I think I have found a new author to become obsessed with!The hero is Jack Winter, owner and CEO of Winter Enterprises which is a prominent real estate company in Toronto. He is in a tight spot because he has discovered that an employee is stealing money from his company, but he doesn't want the news to get out until he can complete a major business deal. Cassie James is the bartender at a restaurant that Jack frequently dines at and, through a series of events, Jack ends up figuring out that she is a math wizard who is exactly the type of person he needs to help get the deal done. It also doesn't hurt that they have insane sexual chemistry even if that will complicate things much further when the facade has to end.I loved almost everything about this book. I found both Jack and Cassie to be super likable and down to earth. Jack has a lot of responsibility and his personality shows that along with his issues with math that force him to turn to an outside person for assistance. Despite his alpha attitude, I thought Jack was very sweet and it was obvious that he was falling for Cassie from the beginning. For her part, Cassie is exactly the type of heroine Jack needed as well as being a strong character in her own right. She has had to work very hard to get where she is at and still struggles to keep her head above water with school, work, and a troubled mother.Jack and Cassie's romance is super steamy and lots of fun to read. They don't really beat around the bush when it comes to their chemistry though both of them agree that there is a time limit for this "relationship". These types of stories are intriguing to me because there are always repercussions for when things get real and feelings get in the way of just sleeping together for fun. The relationship develops fast, but it didn't feel rushed because of the amount of time that they spent together, both in and out of bed.This was a very quick read, but that does not mean it isn't powerful or underdeveloped. All the characters are richly drawn from the protagonists to their co-workers to their friends/family. The plot, while a little out there, was easy to follow and never went off the rails crazy. There was a minor communications problem toward the end that I thought got fixed too quickly, but that is the only quibble I had with the story. I highly recommend this book and can't wait to read more of Jenny Holiday's work especially in the 49th floor series.

So I first found this on an app called chapters but you have to spend so much to choose the preffered choices so I decided to look for the book and found a series. I love the characters in this. The leading lady is brilliant, makes you feel like it could be you, a down to earth person with hidden talents for numbers. Just working your way through life hoping to finally get that grade to give your life a boost then out of nowhere Mr hot ceo just happens to notice you and see all the positive that you looked over.I love the too and throw of the chatecters and the hope they will eventually work it out at the same time as wanting to pull your hair out when the main man misreads a situation.The flow of the book was great and kept me reading until the early hours as I just could t put it down.Not what I'd call your normal ceo novel which was so refreshing!

The title of my review tells what I thought of this novel.I made two attempts to read it, some months apart, but it was very predictable and similar to other stories which wouldn't necessarily have been a problem if the writing hadn't also been lacklustre.Millionaire meets poor young woman, naturally they both had terrible patents happily either dead or mostly absent, they insist that they don't have a relationship but want lots of sex..

This was really good for a free book - played a bit with the classic CEO hires a bartender trope.So Cassie is your typical YA/NA heroine. Father's dead, mother is in rehab (again), works in a bar, curvier than all the other girls who work there, slowly paying her way through college whilst also funding her mother's rehab.A guy normally eats in the restaurant attached to the bar two or three nights a week, although he is a big tipper they nick-name him Ebenezer Scrooge because he is always alone. Then one night Jake (Scrooge) sits at the bar instead, a night he doesn't normally come in. He and Cassie get talking about whisky and water and she impresses him with her knowledge and sass. He notices that she is helping one of the staff's children with their maths homework and is intrigued to find out that she is taking a maths degree.After a scorching kiss outside the bar, Cassie is surprised when Jake contacts her with a proposition - not that one! His CFO is stealing from the company he set up and he needs someone he can trust to assess the size of the damage and come with him to a very important meeting where he is trying to acquire a company - someone with financial skills.This had the obligatory smoking hot scenes between Cassie and Jake in every conceivable location but the real enjoyment was that Jake was such a nice guy. The scenes where Cassie is engrossed in reviewing the financial data and Jake just watches her are really engrossing.Overall, I really enjoyed this book and will look our for more by Jenny Holiday, I suspect that Amy and Dax may have a story shortly.

Although this type of story has been done many times before, I enjoyed this one more because of the banter between the two characters - it had me smiling quite a few times. For all his wealth Jack didn't seem to flaunt it and came across as down to earth and likeable and Cassie was a lovely normal woman with curves. I love a romantic story where the main characters are like real people and not the formulaic type that I often read in other stories. :)

Read it in one sitting! Loved that Cassie had brains and knew what to do with them. Liked that Jack was a CEO who wasn't perfect. Loved the conversations between them and the hot sex wasn't a bad thing either! Will definitely be reading more by Jenny Holiday.