GRR Reviews Trusting Jake (Blueprint To Love Book 1) by Lauren Giordano

Trusting Jake is a contemporary "hot for boss" trope where the FMC seems to be a bit "too damaged" from a cheating husband and sexual harassment at work that lead to some... questionable behavior (not a scandal).

Jenna Stone was fired from her construction design firm job in Baltimore when vicious male co-workers started rumors about her promiscuity because she wouldn't put out, even though her husband had died in a car crash (but not after he slept around for a year before that). Jenna chose to pretend her husband was still alive (and wear a wedding band) to ward off the harassment and insinuations, but that didn't help her find another job in Baltimore. She moved to Stafford Virginia and tried to start anew, and was on her way to an interview when her car died on the way... only to be rescued by Jackson "Jake" Traynor, managing partner of Specialty Construction, the largest firm in the area. Jenna found Jake to be very attractive, but she had to stay aloof because she cannot be inappropriate toward a potential boss just like those nasty rumors suggested. It didn't help when Jake hired Jenna as an engineer-assistant to both manage his schedule as well as his project details. Jake found Jenna to be a strong, beautiful woman and made him realize he longed for a family, and Jenna's two kids are great kids, but he can't go after a married woman (Jenna's still wearing her wedding band)... Then Specialty was asked to bid on a job in Baltimore, and Jenna was sure that it's a "setup", and Jenna must choose in exposing the source of her knowledge... and her shame, or stay silent, and watch the man she loves and his firm suffer...

Surprisingly poignant near the end, but the incredulity kicked in. A cheating husband who's never around and vicious rumors caused her THAT much shame that she can't explain why "it's a trap" even to a man she loved? How deep was this damage? Also, the bad guys didn't get enough karmic retribution. That's why this wasn't 5/5

Category: contemporary

Primary Plot: Woman left city under a dark cloud of suspicion and falls for her new boss (who also wanted her)

Tropes: hot for boss, evil ex

Overall Rating: 4/5