When Sam Kemp and Nisha Cantor mix up their gym bags it sets off 448 pages of hilarious fun, serious drama, and unlikely friendships. It is a story that will remain with you long after the last page is read.
The Marc Jacobs bag Sam accidentally grabs has a beautiful designer jacket and crocodile-skin-red-take-me-now Louboutin sling-backs in it. The shoes may be a bit tight and the heels too high but she can’t show up at meetings scheduled that day wearing gym flip flops and she has no other shoes. Plus those heels make her feel like a new woman. Poised, confident, a serious business woman who can close deals for the company and bring in new business for her abusive misogynistic boss.
But beautiful, uber rich, germaphobic Nisha ends up with a Marc Jacobs knock-off bag containing well worn sensible dark shoes and a wet swim suit in a plastic bag.
Sam’s two-man negotiation team pick her up in the company van after her work-out and rush to their first meeting of the day. Her boss changed the time of the meeting but failed to tell Sam. There is no time to go back for her bag.
Nisha is sounding the alarm that someone stole her bag and demands to see camera footage of the dressing room to see who the thief is. The attendant reminds her that there are no cameras in the locker rooms. So, Nisha, wearing gym flip flops and a white gym robe, rushes to the hotel where she and hubby are staying only to find that she is barred from entering the penthouse and hubby won’t take her calls.
Both women find themselves in situations way out of their comfort zones. Teammate Joel looks at Sam in ways that her husband hasn’t in years. Nisha finds herself adrift from her husband and their son who is in boarding school a continent away. Those issues are just the tip of the iceberg that threatens their homes, jobs, and lifestyles.
As each woman develops new friendships and supporters throughout the story, the reader is left laughing and wondering what will happen next as there is no way these characters are going to get out of the messy situations in which they find themselves.
I loved this heart gripping, fun slice of life as these women redefine friendship, power, and who they are. This is my second Jo Jo Moyes book but not my last. A five star read for me!
Ruth Kirk
KWyly