Crashing the A-List

Book excerpt: He’s not her boyfriend. She’s not his blackmailer. This is how rumors get started. . . . “Come for the romance, but stay for the hysterical dialogue.” —NPR After four months of unemployment, former book editor Clara Montgomery is officially stuck—stuck sleeping on her little brother’s ugly couch in Queens, stuck scrolling through job listings in search of a new editorial position . . . and just desperate enough to take on a temporary gig clearing out abandoned storage units. If nothing else, she’s determined to keep her rapidly dwindling savings account intact. Unfortunately, she is in no way prepared for stumbling upon dead snakes or dealing with glass jars that she’s convinced are full of pickled eyeballs. And why does everything seem to smell like beets? Then Clara comes across a unit that was once owned by an escort service and finds the brothel “résumé” of a younger Caspian Tiddleswich, an astonishingly famous British actor. She has no intention of cashing in on her discovery, but her awkward attempts to reassure Caspian that his secret is safe go awry. Now Caspian is convinced that Clara is a blackmailer, the tabloids have her pegged as Caspian’s newest girlfriend, and Clara is finding the A-lister’s charms more irresistible than she expected . . . “[A] laugh-out-loud romantic comedy.” —Amy Jimenez, author of The Friend Code