The Honey-Don't List

December 16, 2019
Lauren (The Unhoneymooners) delivers a breezy, tongue-in-cheek rom-com featuring the beleaguered assistants to a pair of unhappily married reality-television stars. Carey Duncan has worked for Melissa and Russell Tripp since she was 16 and they were just starting out as the hosts of a home-improvement show. Ten long years later, Carey could likely have any design job she wanted, but loyalty to the Tripps (whom she sees as parental figures), fear of retribution, and the medical insurance that covers treatments for her muscle disease keep her in place. James McCann has only been Russell’s assistant for a short time. An engineer by trade, James is ill-suited to managing the Tripps’ meltdowns, but scandal drove him from his last job, and he’ll take what he can get. Melissa and Russell’s feuding gives rise to a series of ridiculous situations that endanger their brand, leading Carey and James to bond as they work together to keep America’s favorite couple’s fights under wraps. Playfully poking fun at the world of DIY TV, Lauren’s romance is as insightful as it is irreverent. Readers will laugh out loud. Agent: Holly Root, Root Literary.

February 15, 2020
Lauren's (Twice in a Blue Moon, 2019) latest focuses on the personal assistants to the Tripps, a married celebrity couple whose home design and renovation empire threatens to take over their employees' lives. James, who cannot afford to lose his job, resents being relegated to working as the husband's assistant despite having been hired as an engineer. Carey, whose education stopped after high school, delights in the fact that she and James perform essentially the same role. Their already high-stakes positions soon become even more stressful as they are tasked with trying to preserve the fiction of their bosses' blissful marriage. Their initially chilly relationship thaws as they bond over their new responsibilities, leaving them free to acknowledge and act upon their mutual attraction. The novel's events are recounted from the near future through alternating points of view, with interview transcripts, book excerpts, and social media posts all adding to the sense of dread stoked by the Tripps' rapidly deteriorating relationship. This absorbing romance may make readers think twice about the human cost of crafting and maintaining a celebrity couple's perfect image.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)

February 1, 2020

Carey Douglas has worked alongside Melissa and Rusty Tripp for years, starting as a teenager in their brick-and-mortar store, Comb + Honey, and continuing as Melissa's assistant as they built their television empire. She works constantly, but Carey has a condition that affects her hands and her insurance is too good to give up. James McCann, meanwhile, was promised a job as a structural engineer but functions as Rusty's assistant. He hates fetching coffee and managing schedules, but his last job was at a firm plagued by high-profile scandals, and he wouldn't be employable elsewhere. Melissa and Rusty are about to go on a West Coast tour to celebrate their highly anticipated new guide to making marriage work. Unfortunately, they can't stand each other, and with a new Netflix series about to drop and so much riding on the success of the book, the company's publicist insists that Carey and James travel with the Tripps and keep them in line. VERDICT The author duo's many fans will enjoy this charming romance. [see the Q&A, p. 71.]--Erin Holt, formerly with Williamson Cty. P.L., Franklin, TN

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