"Her Secret" is the 5th book in Penelope Bloom's new rom-com series "Objects of Affection". As of this post, this book is listed as #313 on  the Woman’s New Adult – College Fiction list on Amazon.

Peter has a volatile temper that keeps everyone at bay, including his new employee Violet. She has a secret that could cost her the job of a lifetime. Both are teetering on the edge of disaster, yet the magnetism of these two polar opposites is undeniable.

Having read the other four novels in this series, I was extremely excited to read this book. Penelope Bloom has a way of writing colorful characters that are easy to relate too and this story was no exception. I loved Violet. She was passionate and determined with just enough confidence and timidity to balance her out.  Peter on the other hand, was more like a Scotch-Brite pad, abrasive on the outside, but soft underneath.  Both characters were well developed with enough realism that I had no problem imagining their interactions. As with the other books in this series, Bloom snuck in a few surprise appearances of the “Objects of Affection” characters, including my personal favorite, Grammy.

The plot was fairly believable. The first half of the book had a nice arc to it. The flow felt pretty even and the characters really drew me in. The second half of the book however, felt a bit rushed. The characters went from “hating” each other despite their attraction, to instantly in love in an afternoon. With the book being only 195 pages (kindle version), I would have liked to see the writer develop the relationship evolution a little bit more.

The climax also felt a bit rushed. As a reader and fellow writer it felt more like the writer had a fast approaching deadline and was trying to squeak out an ending. Again, the story-line was good, but the interactions felt so rushed and under-developed that it was hard to appreciate it. I would have liked to have seen more conflict between the Peter/Violet protagonist duo and the antagonist, Kristen Wood. With this conflict coming so late in the book, and having such a small section of the story dedicated to it, the climax felt almost like an afterthought.

Despite the negatives, there was a lot of true-to-life humor that Bloom expertly injected into the story. The Epilogue, was one of my favorite moments (I won’t spoil it for you). It was the perfect ending, causing me to simultaneously swoon and laugh out loud. 

The characters are fun and amusing and the story is easy to follow. I would have liked the story to be a little bit longer, so that the second half of the book and climax didn’t feel so rushed. I think the book would have benefited from an extra chapter or two as well as a few more appearances from the antagonist, Kristin Wood, which would have heightened the climax and added to the reader’s overall experience. Otherwise, “Her Secret” is a good, quick book to sit back and read on a lazy afternoon.