Review: Weekends Required by Sydney Landon
Author: Sydney Landon
Title: Weekends Required
Release: July 21, 2012
Series: Danvers #1
Reviewer: Mona Leigh
Source: Publisher Edelweiss
Purchase: | Book DepositoryClaire Walters has worked for Jason Danvers as his assistant at Danvers International for three years, and he has never thought of her as a woman until the day she jumps out of a cake at his friend’s bachelor party.
Claire is forced to work a second job at a party planning company to support her ailing mother. She is horrified when Jason not only finds out, but has a front-row seat to the action. With Danvers in the process of merging with another company, Claire is forced to travel with Jason as well as work weekends. Suddenly all the fantasies she has entertained for years about her boss seem to be coming true. Her outspoken best friend Suzy thinks that just getting laid will solve everything. The problem is, Claire sees much more in Jason than just sex.
Jason is determined to know how the beautiful, sexy woman in the cake could also be his Plain Jane assistant who tries her best to blend into the background from 8-5 every day. Now not only does Jason see her as a woman, he fully intends to give her the fairy-tale ending that she deserves!
For a new author, Sydney Landon has done an awesome job of putting together her first book, Weekends Required. In fact, she did her job so well that after self-publishing it and a second novel, Penguin offered her a contract on them and on a third book. Obviously, they were impressed, too.
When Claire Walters’s mother is diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease, she takes on a second job to try to cover the expenses. Since her abusive father and only sister died in a car crash,
Claire’s seen to it that her mother’s bills were paid even when it took every penny she had. She took on a second job jumping out of a cake at bachelor parties. It paid more than she could make elsewhere, so she forced herself to ignore the embarrassment it caused.
Jason Danvers, Claire’s Monday through Friday boss, knows nothing about her sideline. Heck, he doesn’t know anything about her other than she’s worked as his assistant for three years. When he attends a friend’s bachelor party and she jumps out of the cake, suddenly, he’s seeing her in a different light.
Claire’s best friend, Suz, works at Danvers, too, and her raunchy comments about Jason start to worm their way into Claire’s head. After all this time, she’s finally seeing him in a whole new light. When he learns the reason for her second job, he tries to ensure that she has the extra money she needs, but to Claire, that smacks of the manipulation her father was so good at.
It isn’t until Claire’s mother ends up in the hospital that Jason learns why Claire is upset enough to cut him out of her life. Before she can heal emotionally, she has to know more about her father, and before she can love, she has to trust.
At some time in our lives, most of us have to make hard choices about those we love. Ms. Landon has taken that situation and given us a touching and sometimes funny love story with colorful characters set in the great backdrop of Myrtle Beach. I liked Claire and Jason, but I loved Suz. Her irreverent personality lit up the page and gave extra spark to the story. I think the author has a great career ahead of her, and personally, I’m cheering her on.
