THE PLAN
An Adult Contemporary Romance
By Qwen Salsbury
Published by Omnific Publishing
Released February 2014
Synopsis
Day of Employment: 359
11:05 a.m.
Location: Cubicles outside Canon’s office.
Co-workers: Betting on how long Canon’s new PA will last.
Me: No doubts. Ms. Gum-smacker won’t last the day. I need to place my bet.
Manolo Blahnik’s New Fall Shoes: Mine. As soon as Madeline hands over my winnings.
Emma Baker has never spoken a word to Alaric Canon, nor has he to her. But she’s studied him every day across the office tundra for almost a year. Canon is hard and fierce, terrifying and beautiful. He’s also the most stern, unforgiving person Emma has ever seen. Emma’s co-workers run a betting pool for Personal Assistant terminations. There’s a separate pot for the day one leaves without crying. Not likely…Canon made a former Navy SEAL cry.
He has high standards and low tolerance. Everyone knows it. Everyone stays away. Everyone who can, that is. Except Emma. She can’t look away. Alaric Canon is the single most attractive man she’s ever seen. Bar none.
Canon has never noticed her. Not once in almost a year. She’s not even a blip on his radar. But she will be. His radar will be blipless no more.
It is a goal. Emma has a plan.
Review
***Arc was provided by author in exchange for an honest review***
Emma Baker is a planner. She thrives on order, lists, and plans. If one plan goes awry, she quickly develops a new one. Her need for control consumes her life with one exception – her obsession and need to know anything and everything about the owner of the company she works for, Alaric Canon. But, Emma’s not even a blip on Canon’s radar…no matter her plan to be noticed…until she does her boss a favor and becomes his personal assistant, which is a lesson in control all on its own.
Alaric Canon may be exceedingly handsome, but he’s an asshole. No one wants to work with him because he lashes out at everyone; he’s condescending and arrogant. He’s a prick who acts like everyone else is so far beneath him that they have no reason to breathe the same air. The rest of the office places bets on how long his personal assistants will last, and when Emma becomes his next assistant, her colleagues even place wagers on how long it will take her to be fired or quit.
Despite all of Canon’s flaws, Emma is drawn to him, and so even before she becomes his assistant, she plans out how she can get him to notice her. One plan leads to another and then another, but none are successful…until her new plan leads her to create a persona – someone who is the docile assistant in front of others and the take charge woman behind closed doors. But what happens when Emma’s plan works a little too well and the person she is pretending to be is nothing like the woman she is? Can she follow through with her plan or lose the control that she so desperately needs to function?
Let me start by saying that The Plan’s writing style is not for everyone. It’s written in what seems to be diary entries; most of the book is stream of consciousness…most of the dialogue is between Emma and herself. The chapters are disjointed and random; there is not a lot of expansion of ideas, so backstories and deep feelings are not present. While this format is quirky, it works for me, and it definitely makes sense for the type of person that Emma is. Her thoughts come out list like. Her emotions and actions are so controlled that even the sex scenes she describes seem staged, but again, that’s who Emma is. I wouldn’t have wanted those parts of the story to be emotionally amplified because it doesn’t fit who Emma and Canon are. They both have a hard time expressing their feelings or making movements that haven’t been thought out and that idea is clearly demonstrated in their scenes together.
The Plan is a witty and fun read. Emma is not your typical romantic heroine, which makes her that much more interesting. It’s unique in its presentation of both the plotline and its main characters, and while it may not be for everyone, if you are looking for something that’s a little outside the romance genre box that has a nice blend of comedy and smut then this is the book to pick up.
4 poison apples
About the Author
Qwen Salsbury was born in Kansas and somehow keeps ending up back there. Raised on her grandparent’s five acre homestead within the city limits, her imagination was honed during long days of quiet play and spartan access to a TV signal. Now mother to handsome boys, she strives to ensure they appreciate potential adventures found within the pages of a book, an honest day’s work, and what ingenuity may yield from mundane objects like a string and a cup. The boys prefer a PS3.
After spending time in corporate America, she returned to school and received a BA in English, Creative Writing and Poetry from Pittsburg State University, the alma mater of Pulitzer Prize winning poet, James Tate. She worked on a Masters there until going on to receive a juris doctorate from Washburn School of Law.
A seven-time Sigma Tau Delta writing award winner, her fiction and poetry have appeared in literary magazines and have been selected by fiction communities as featured story of the month and year. Predominantly a writer of romance, her romantic fiction varies from contemporary to historical to fantasy, though often with a humorous slant and poetic undertones.
For reasons she can’t even articulate herself, she decided to start writing fiction again while solo parenting and attending law school (during Constitutional Law class, to be exact.).
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Tour Giveaway:
(5) Print Copies of The Plan – International
(5) eBook copies of The Plan – International
(1) Omnific Publishing Gift Cards – choose an Omnific title of your choice – International
Tour Link: http://atomrtours.com/theplan/
Fairest Of All Book Reviews 
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I read a lot of good reviews and I want to read it too!!! Thank you for this awesome giveaway. ❤