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Learning Curves: A Novel of Sex, Suits, and Secret Affairs
 
 
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Learning Curves: A Novel of Sex, Suits, and Secret Affairs [Mass Market Paperback]

Gemma Townley (Author)
3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)


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Book Description

February 27, 2007
From the dazzling author of Little White Lies and When in Rome . . . comes a rollicking new novel of love and lust in the boardroom.

Jennifer Bell used to travel the planet with her boyfriend, fighting the good fight for mother Earth. But after the breakup (not a good fight), Jen moved back to London to work for another mother: her own. Harriet Bell founded Green Futures, a consulting firm, after splitting up with Jen’s big-shot father, who runs a rival (and Harriet thinks corrupt) company. But Harriet can’t expose his crimes without proof. And she wants Jen to find some.

Since Jen hasn’t seen her dad in more than fifteen years, it’s a snap to infiltrate his company . . . under an assumed name, of course. Soon she’s worming her way into the good graces of the company’s managers to find evidence of wrongdoing. What she discovers is that her father’s world is a whole lot different from her own–filled with Palm Pilots, MBAs, martini lunches, designer suits, and Daniel Peterson, a guy who puts the gorge in gorgeous. Suddenly Jen is torn between Birkenstocks and Jimmy Choos, tree-hugging and air-kissing. Could it be that her Big Bad Dad isn’t the monster her mom made him out to be? Or is Jen simply being seduced by the power of hard deals, hot nights, and wads of cash? Only time will tell–preferably from a Cartier watch on the wrist of Daniel Peterson. . . .


From the Trade Paperback edition.


Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In Townsley's latest bouncy novel, British 20-something Jennifer Bell navigates corporate and family intrigue with a mix of pluck and naïveté. Jen's divorced parents, Harriet and George, are at political and personal odds: George heads a management consultancy firm, Bell Consulting, and Harriet runs a leftish environmental firm, Green Futures, where Jen is a recent hire. After a 15-year estrangement from her father, Jen surreptitiously re-enters his sphere at her mother's urging. Harriet suspects George of involvement in a property deal bribery and conscripts her pliable daughter to go undercover at his 3,000-person firm, where Jen flies under the radar as a student in the company's M.B.A. program. She snoops for dirt until her father finds her hiding in his closet. While Jen and George (who's not really the "cheating, selfish, unethical ogre" her mother says he is) begin a rapprochement, Jen also falls for Daniel Peterson, an M.B.A. program guest lecturer and bookselling executive, and discovers that, despite her do-gooder convictions, she may have inherited a knack for business. But when news breaks implicating Bell Consulting in the bribery scandal, Jen must re-evaluate which parent she can truly trust. Townley (Little White Lies) delivers a charming if predictable third novel.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From Booklist

Jennifer Bell never thought she'd be getting an MBA. But when Jen's mother suspects her estranged husband's company is behind a scheme to cover up misused tsunami aid money, she signs Jen up for a company-sponsored MBA program and asks her to do some spying. Of course, this undercover mission doesn't go exactly as planned. Jen finds herself falling for guest-lecturer Daniel and becoming more interested in her studies as a result. Then, her father catches her just as she thinks she has found some hard evidence to implicate him. The novel traces Jen's burgeoning relationships with these two men--a new love and the father she never really had. Townley shines at creating characters who are engaging and realistic. She falls a little flat when using business-school metaphors to frame situations, but readers will be too charmed by the romance and intrigued by the family drama to care. Aleksandra Kostovski
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Product Details

  • Mass Market Paperback: 352 pages
  • Publisher: Ballantine Books (February 27, 2007)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0345496019
  • ISBN-13: 978-0345496010
  • Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
  • Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (13 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #310,943 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

GEMMA TOWNLEY is also the author of Little White Lies. She launched her writing career at the age of sixteen with a book review in Harpers & Queen. While at Reading University, Gemma, a singer, cellist, and bassist, found time to record two albums with her band, Blueboy, with which she toured the U.K., France, and Japan. After graduating, she worked on and contributed to a number of magazines, including Homes and Ideas, Pay Magazine, Expat Investor, and Company. She also wrote about music for style magazines including G-Spot and Second Generation. She later became an editor at Financial Management magazine.Gemma is a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and is studying for an MBA at Henley Management College. She lives in West London with her husband, Mark..

 

Customer Reviews

13 Reviews
5 star:
 (3)
4 star:
 (5)
3 star:
 (3)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
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Average Customer Review
3.6 out of 5 stars (13 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Took a while to get into it but glad I stuck with it, May 6, 2006
I had a really time getting interested in this book. I wasn't a big fan of the character, Harriet (Jen's mom), and wasn't looking forward to reading too much more about her and her interactions with Jen. Luckily Harriet was not in all that many scenes in the book.

Once I got going with the book I enjoyed it. I found most all the characters likeable. I didn't necessarily feel like I got to Jen all that much but there was enough to work with and relate to.

The book picked up and I sat down and read straight through the last 80 pages. I would recommend it.
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5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars A witty quick read, April 17, 2006
By 
Stacy Y. Correll (Owings Mills, MD United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This "chick lit" book is better then most - an intelligent heroine does more then just worry about her love life. There is a bit of mystery to it as well. It is not often you read books about MBA students - as an MBA grad myself, it was great!
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Learning Curves about Life, Family, Business, May 15, 2006
This book was truly enjoyable. This book is the 2nd I've read written by her. I enjoyed it and kept wanting to read more!
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Inside This Book (learn more)
Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
sacred feminine, condom company
Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Bell Consulting, Green Futures, Malcolm Bray, Paul Song, George Bell, Daniel Peterson, Bell Towers, Jennifer Bell, Coca Cola, William Pitt, Christmas Day
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