One of my more recent arrivals at the library was an eight-book Harlequin Presents bundle, and I dig one out when I need to blob for a few hours. The last book was The Magnate’s Indecent Proposal, and to say I was surprised is an understatement. Frankly, if all HPs were this good, they wouldn’t have the reputation that they do.

Chelsea London’s life hasn’t always been easy, but she and her sister Kensington (blame the mother) have made the best of it. Chelsea now owns a pet grooming service that is just about to expand to two more stores. One morning she meets her sister at a restaurant that charges thirty dollars for a poached egg on toast and requires the clients to leave their mobile phones at the front. In doing so, she crashes into someone.

Damien Halliburton just broke up with his girlfriend of two and a half years. He blames himself partly for not making it clear that he wasn’t in the works for permanency and he’s currently sleeping on his best friend’s couch. All in all, he’s not looking for romance. But he bumps into a caramel blonde who smells inexplicably homey (Chelsea explains it as freshly groomed dog), and they grab the wrong phone ticket by mistake. Let the chemistry ignite.

The Magnate’s Indecent Proposal is really a contemporary disguised in Harlequin Presents clothing. The typical traits of an HP – virgin or near-inexperienced heroine, mega-rich alpha hero (often of foreign extraction), accidental pregnancy, super-bling setting – are all but missing. Instead we have two normal people, one of whom happens to come from a wealthy family, who act and talk like they live in the 21st century. Their feet are planted firmly in a world I can relate to, and both characters aren’t simply sympathetic – they’re nice. They work through their problems and communicate and, although their romance spans only three days, it is utterly believable. The pacing does falter a little in the last few pages, which accounts for the minus, but in many ways the book reads longer than its 185 pages; it’s that convincing and engrossing.

You can attribute most of the book’s success to the writing, which makes it one of the wittiest stories I have read in a long time. Ms. Blake’s prose is a revelation. She lets the characters speak for themselves – no telling here, thank you very much – and their dialogue zips along in a demonstrable meeting of true minds. It’s funny. It’s zingy. It’s touching. It is, in other words, just plain good.

There aren’t many series authors who stand out for me, but Ally Blake is now at the top of my list. This book was a damn good find, and I can’t wait to read more from her.