Hostile Makeover [Mass Market Paperback]

Wendy Wax (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 25, 2005

It was the first orgasm Shelley Schwartz ever faked. She swore she’d never do it, but she was late for a career-saving meeting at Schwartz and Associates and her options were limited. If she’d faked it five minutes sooner, she might have earned her father’s approval, won the account, and bested her rival and the company golden boy, Ross Morgan.

Calm, cool, and always collected, Ross is the perfect person to take over the ad agency her father founded–and the perfect opposite of Shelley, who’s distracted by her mother’s relentless matchmaking and her big sister’s marital meltdown. Is it any wonder her father has entrusted the agency to the blond, Porsche-driving Ross rather than his own flesh and blood? To add insult to injury, Ross–her new boss–has stuck Shelley with the client list from hell (Falafel Hut, anyone?). But if he thinks he’s going to chase Shelley Schwartz out of her family legacy, he’s got another thing coming. And if Shelley thinks she can resist Ross’s charms, she’s got some surprises in store as well.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

As Wax's latest lively tale begins, it's hard to believe that anyone likes Shelly; the reader certainly doesn't. The quintessential Jewish Princess with a job in name only in her father's advertising agency, she lunches and shops more than works, but deep down she is unhappy with her lack of real involvement. When her father suffers a heart attack and turns his business over to a hated rival who actually expects her to work for her paycheck, Shelly is transformed. Assigned to low-end accounts like a tire store and Falafel Shack, instead of having a tantrum, she channels her anger, comes to work on time, and puts in a creative effort with profitable results. There are a few bumps along the way, but as she improves her life, she helps bring meaning to her sister's life, too, and romance to her best friend. A bit predictable and slightly oversexed, this will nonetheless provide lightweight fun for Wax's fans and other chick-lit and hip romance enthusiasts. Danise Hoover
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

About the Author

Wendy Wax began her broadcast career at a tiny radio station in Athens, Georgia, where she chose to attend college after reading Gone With the Wind one too many times. Over the last twenty years she has written and produced a wide range of corporate and broadcast projects and has worked on commercials and feature films. She is also an experienced on-air and voice-over talent and hosted a live radio talk show called Desperate & Dateless in the early eighties.

She lives in Atlanta with her husband and their two elementary school-age boys.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Bantam (October 25, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0553587951
• ISBN-13: 978-0553587951
• Product Dimensions: 6.9 x 1.1 x 4.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 5.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (7 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #713,596 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

A native of St. Petersburg, Florida, Wendy read voraciously as a child, was a regular at her local library, and became fast friends with Nancy Drew and Anne of Green Gables. Her love affairs with language and storytelling paid off beginning with her first shift at the campus radio station while studying journalism at the University of Georgia.

After returning to her home state and graduating from the University of South Florida she worked for the Tampa PBS affiliate, WEDU-TV, behind and in front of the camera. Her resume includes on air work, voiceovers and production of a variety of commercial projects and several feature films. She may be best known in the Tampa Bay area as the host of Desperate & Dateless, a radio matchmaking program that aired on WDAE radio, and nationally as host of The Home Front, a magazine format show that aired on PBS affiliates across the country.

The mother of a toddler and an infant when she decided to change careers, she admits it was not the best timing in terms of productivity. "I'm still not certain why I felt so compelled to write my first novel at that particular time," she says, "but that first book took forever." Since then she's written seven more, including MAGNOLIA WEDNESDAYS, The Accidental Bestseller and Single in Suburbia. Her work has been sold to publishers in ten countries and to the Rhapsody Book Club. Her novel, Hostile Makeover, was excerpted in Cosmopolitan magazine.

Wendy lives in the Atlanta suburbs with her husband John and her baseball-crazy teenage sons, whom she says have turned her into the shortest person in their family. A former broadcaster, she spends most of her non-writing time on baseball fields or driving to them. She continues to devour books.

For more information, visit her website at www.authorwendywax.com.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars fun chick lit tale, October 25, 2005

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Hostile Makeover (Mass Market Paperback)

When sixty something Harvey Schwartz undergoes emergency by-pass surgery and is forced to take an earlier than planned retirement, his thirty-three years old daughter Shelley expects to be placed in charge of the family business Schwartz & Associates. Instead her dad selects hot shot Ross Morgan to run the advertising firm especially after she comes very late to a critical client meeting looking as if she had sex, which she did with her boyfriend Trey Davenport.

Shelley takes out her disappointment on Ross, who pulls no punches that she has not earned the position as he did and if she was not related to the owner she would have been fired years ago. He challenges her to prove her worth by handing her several dormant cases to drum up needed business. Shelley plans to prove him wrong even as their boardroom squabble lead to love.

This fun chick lit tale stars a Jewish American princess who cannot understand why daddy did not entrust her with the company (readers will know why) and a hardworking intelligent hunk who refuses to take any guff from her. The story line is lighthearted especially as her matchmaking mother keeps parading potential Jewish spouses that Shelley rejects because they come from her mom and she refuses to date anyone Jewish. A final twist makes for a fine boardroom to bedroom romance.

Harriet Klausner

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Very disappointed, December 14, 2005

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Avid book reader - See all my reviews

This review is from: Hostile Makeover (Mass Market Paperback)

I was really looking forward to reading the newest book, I even read the excerpt from Wendy Wax's website. It sounded cute and had some great possibility. I should have just read the excerpt and saved myself some money and time.

Shelley is your typical spoiled princess, daddy gave her a job and apparently one with very good money attached to it. She doesn't take anything serious until her father decides to hand over running the agency to her nemisis Ross. They have history, we don't really know why, there is no explanation about the "supply closet sex." They really don't interact,I would think in order to have some type of romance the couple should actually be in the same room together. There are so many characters in this book I would think you would need a program to keep them straight. There were just too many stories going on to really make this a good book. I will have to see if her next book is better. The other two reviews must be talking about a different book.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars The premise had me hooked..., July 24, 2006

By 

Tracy Vest (Northern California) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

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This review is from: Hostile Makeover (Mass Market Paperback)

Shelley Schwartz is the quintessential Jewish American Princess. She is a spoiled daddy's girl who has a job at his ad agency in name only, and comes in when she feels like it - preferring to spend her days shopping, lunching, and getting spa treatments. And ditching the many eligible Jewish Atlanta bachelors her mother tosses her way while her shiksa best friend decides to convert to Judaism to find a suitable husband (a little too "Sex in the City" if you ask me).

Shelley feels that she is ready for more responsibility in the form of a new account, but when she is too busy catering to a boyfriend's sexual needs, the account is given to her nemesis, Ross Morgan, who is second in command at the agency. In the past, the two shared an erotic interlude in a supply closet that neither acknowledges. When her dad has a debilitating heart attack and has to step down, rather than pas the baton on to his daughter, he passes it to Ross, much to Shelley's angst, the only stipulation is that Shelley is to remain gainfully employed..

Then Ross lays down the gauntlet - he may have to keep her on the payroll, but she sure as heck better spend eight hours in the office. He adds insult to injury by demoting her and giving her a series of dead accounts, hoping she will fail. But to everyone's surprise, including Shelley's, she rises to the occasion and comes up with some really great (and costly) ideas for her clients, and soon has Ross impressed. Before long, a supply closet is not enough for them, and while shooting a commercial in LA, the two get pretty cozy. By the next morning, Ross apologizes for it happening, and she is crushed. Will Shelley ever learn from her sins of the past?

Wax's third novel was a little difficult for me to like, since the main character is unabashedly spoiled and her own worst enemy. I also found the ending to be a little to pat and trite. The premise had me hooked, but the execution was a little lacking and full of cliches. But no one can write humorous antics like Wax - even better is her first novel, "Leave it to Cleavage."