Kiersten Archer is fed up with her boss, billionaire Cole Harrington. Like all billionaire CEOs, he’s rude, thoughtless, hard-working, and extremely hot (which a billionaire ought to be if at all possible). So when Kiersten and her girlfriends hit the lottery, she doesn’t quit her day job right away. She decides to have a little fun and make him fire her.
Cole is confused about why his enormously competent assistant is now talking back and making silly mistakes. When he happens into the office Google Doc taking bets on when he’ll fire her, he decides to play along.
Yes, it’s the plot of How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. You know what, though? It’s not bad. Kira Archer avoids a lot of cliches that would trip up lesser writers. Kiersten has girlfriends, but no conveniently catty rival. Cole is cartoon-villain rude (his previous assistant quit when he demanded she work rather than take time for her wedding), but limits it to that one particular relationship. Even the final conflict in the way of the Happily Ever After is pitched at just the right level of stakes. Kiersten goes too far and Cole is rightly upset about the whole thing. It works.
Despite all this, 69 Million Things probably won’t make it into my regular rotation of pick-me-up reads. Kiersten isn’t an interesting heroine. Cole is an eye-rollingly generic hero. (Really? He’s a billionaire because of an app? What’s the app? It’s gotta be more Facebook than Angry Birds, but we don’t know what it is. Handwaving the self-made billionaire under 30 thing strains credulity just a wee bit too far.)
I received a complimentary copy via NetGalley in order to facilitate this review.
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