The females in Amelia Parker's family have a unique and delicious way of handling stress, bad news, disappointment or sadness -- they bake pies. You can tell the seriousness of the issue by the number of pies baked. Losing your fiancé equals 30 days of pies. Watching your recent lover leave equals 3 pies. You get the picture. Well Amelia's been baking a lot of pies. Her on again, off again engagement to her very demanding fiancé Will permanently ended with his announcement that he fell in love with someone who is "everything you're not." Problem is Amelia had defined who she is and how she looks to please him. Three weeks later she finds herself sitting at a Tiki bar writing a list of things to do in her determination to change the direction of her life. That's where she meets Jack O'Connell who seems to be, for lack of a better description, intrigued with her.

Jack's attentiveness is also honed by the fact that Amelia works for Bellagio shoes. So Jack is faced with a personal tug of war between taking advantage of this erstwhile innocent, genteel southern belle who is definitely getting his blood going and yet being careful with her state of vulnerability. However, Amelia's connection to and knowledge of Bellagio is important to Jack and his plans which include his newly acquired seat on their board as a venture capitalist with "new ideas" for the direction of the company. The burning question is why is this particular company so important to Jack and what is he willing to do to ensure his successful tenure with it. As Amelia and Jack continue to spend time together, often working on another item on her list, Amelia is baffled by the fact that he isn't distracted by more obvious beauties. And once she realizes that he has joined the Bellagio board she begins to question their budding friendship and relationship with doubts fueled by his evasive tactics concerning his personal life. Jack is an enigma -- one moment considerate and kind and the next moment secretive and calculating.

Hard to say which characters are my favorites in this latest book by Leanne Banks. Certainly Amelia as she develops into her own person with the help of Jack and her friends and coworkers. Jack is a wonderful, complicated character who gets under your skin as you learn more and more about what makes him tick. Then you have the odd bunch of people who make up the corporate family of Bellagio which is a family owned business with an ongoing practice of hiring any of their relatives looking for employment regardless of talent or qualifications. And then you have the Parker's who have that enviable family bond. Jack is going to have to work real hard to remain on the periphery of this diverse group and it gets harder with each day.

Book Summary

Think working for a leading international shoe company sounds like a dream job? Not if you're Amelia Parker, an overworked, downtrodden temp working for Bellagio, Inc.'s grande dame, Lillian Bellagio. But things are looking up for Amelia. She's just been given the assignment of accompanying Ms. Bellagio to her estate in the Keys. Trading pumps for flip-flops and a cell phone for a conch shell -- could be worse, right?

Especially when life on the island includes her very own mysteryy man -- one Jack "The Shark" O'Connell, dashing venture capitalist. He dares Amelia to use this time to do something wild: drink a hurricane, go skinny-dipping . . . have an affair with a dangerously attractive man. But Jack may have ulterior motives for his attentions, and Amelia will have to decide... should she kick Prince Charming to the curb, or step into that glass slipper?