A heroine with a pretend husband has to think fast when he shows up at her office and expects to accompany her on her company retreat – a four day trip to a posh ski resort. It sounds like a typical, contrived series romance premise, and perhaps it is. Fortunately, Jane Sullivan manages to rise above the plot with an endearing hero and a lot of humor, making Risky Business an enjoyable read.

Jack has never quite forgotten the hot night he spent with Rachel six months ago. They shared their passion for history and each other in a beautiful old hotel in San Antonio, and then she left without saying goodbye, or even telling him her last name. Then Jack travels to Denver on business and spots Rachel through a window. This time he’s determined that when he finds her he’ll never let her go. But when he follows Rachel to her office, he is surprised to find that the receptionist recognizes him as Rachel’s husband – and that there’s a big, framed picture of him with his “wife” sitting in her office.

Jack’s a think-on-his-feet kind of guy, so he’s happy to waltz right in and give Rachel a kiss, and he’s equally happy to force his way into her company retreat. Rachel is a little less happy about the situation. She hasn’t forgotten Jack, but she doesn’t want the chaos he could bring to her life. She’s got a tightly wound corporate image and a fairly detailed story about her “husband,” and she doesn’t want Jack blowing her cover. When Rachel learned that her prospective employer preferred employees to be married, she used Jack’s picture and gave him a job as a humanitarian doctor that conveniently took him out of the country for long periods of time. Jack is game to play along with her story, and Rachel takes him along with her to Silver Springs, Colorado because she feels she has no choice.

This is only a 217 page book, so you can probably guess what happens when Rachel and Jack spend some quality time together in a luxurious hotel suite. But although the love scenes are hot enough to border on burning, the book is not a lust fest. Jack and Rachel are certainly very attracted to each other, but they fall in love because they genuinely like each other – not because Jack wants to spend 217 pages fantasizing about sinking himself into Rachel’s warm wetness, or tight heat, or _________ (insert your own purple prose cliché here). What’s nice is that they appreciate the things they have in common – like an enthusiasm for nineteenth century history and old buildings – but they also love each other for their differences. Jack is spontaneous and gregarious; he’s always laughing and he’s always the life of the party. Rachel is uptight and a little too rigid. Their personalities balance and mesh well.

Rachel, admittedly, is a bit of a romance cliché. We’ve all seen the inflexible career woman who never takes time for herself or does anything wild and shocking. Eating fried chicken or pizza is even a little “out there” for her. Fortunately, there was nothing I didn’t like about Jack. He’s a sunny, sexy optimist who makes no secret of what he wants, but he’s also mature and very likable. He’s the safe kind of bad boy who encourages Rachel to go a little wild in the hotel linen closet; not the annoying kind of bad boy who wouldn’t think of saying “I love you” first.

Sullivan’s effective writing style also goes a long way toward making this an enjoyable read. The writing is smart, funny, and natural. Just when Rachel would do something a little too uptight to be real, Jack would come along and say something humorous that would put everything in the proper perspective.

The humor and style of the writing are really what helped me overcome my objections to a premise that was a little hard to take. Initially, I couldn’t fathom why Rachel’s boss had never been sued for his illegal hiring practices (the last time I checked, it was definitely illegal to discriminate on the basis of martial status) or why Rachel would want to work for such a biased jerk in the first place. I also had more than a little trouble imagining someone perpetuating a lie like hers. But the book really got going quickly, and the humor and personality of the characters really won me over.

Silly premise or not, this is one of the best series romances I’ve read this year. I’d encourage anyone who wants a quick, fun read to give it a try.