Total pages in book: 100
Estimated words: 95609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 95609 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 478(@200wpm)___ 382(@250wpm)___ 319(@300wpm)
Three young women make a pact in high school—
to always be friends and to one day make it big in Manhattan.
My Royal Showmance
Anika Fox knows exactly where she wants to be, and it’s not on the set of a reality TV dating show. She’s working her way up at the production company she works for and she’s close to achieving some of her dreams. The big boss just wants one thing from her. She’s got a potential problem with the director of The King Takes a Bride and she wants Anika to pose as a production assistant and report back.
As the king of a tiny European country, Luca St. Marten knows the world views him as one of the pampered royalty of the world. It couldn’t be further from the truth. His country is hurting and he’s right there on the front lines with his citizens. When he’s asked to do a dating show, his counselors point out that it could bring tourism back to Ralavia. It goes against his every desire, but he agrees.
When one of the contestants drops out at the last minute, Anika finds herself replacing the potential princess. She’s sure she’ll be asked to leave the first night, but Luca keeps picking her again and again. Suddenly she finds herself in the middle of a made-for-TV fantasy, and she’s unsure what’s real and what’s simply reality TV.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
“Do you understand what I’m asking you to do?”
I stare at my boss and wish I could say no and that I’m just not up to this new assignment she’s giving me. Not that it’s all that new. She gave me a week to think about it, and I can’t figure a way out that doesn’t involve me leaving a job I love. I’ve been with Pinnacle Productions for five years now, and I’m so close to getting to where I want to be.
But where I want to be isn’t where she wants me to go for the near future.
“You want me to figure out if Joseph Helms is sexually harassing his crew because you can’t afford to hand over a multibillion-dollar franchise to him if he’s going to cause a scandal.”
Joseph Helms had been Hollywood’s golden boy until he’d gotten too invested in vodka. Now, he’s making something of a comeback. Pinnacle recently invested millions of dollars to acquire a super popular video game franchise, and the rumor is the board wants Helms to direct.
Yep. That’s why she wants me to put my career on hold. Not hold, exactly. It’s worse. I’m taking a step down.
All in all, not how I’d expected my year to go.
I’d started the year with the highest hopes. I’d gone to my bosses with a couple of projects I thought I would be good for. I’ve spent the last ten years in the trenches. First as an intern to a big network known for its educational and reality TV shows, and then as a production assistant on several projects. I’ve become well known as everyone’s Girl Friday. Need a latte at three in the morning because you have an early call and forgot to fit in some sleep? Call Anika Fox. Does the writer need to be soothed into coming up with a fourteenth draft? Anika is every writer’s best friend. Need someone to manhandle a morning news host out of a night club? I’m short but I put some time in the gym, and I can be persuasive.
The woman in front of me often calls me her secret weapon, and it looks like I’m about to be deployed.
Jessica Wallace has been the force behind Pinnacle Entertainment for the last thirty years. Her father had started the studio in the forties, and everyone had expected her brother to take over when he died. I’m still not sure if she had some shit on him or if he really did want to run away to Boca and retire at a young age, but when the board voted, Jessica had come out on top. She’d taken power when women were still mostly on the sidelines. Those are actual Oscars on the wall behind her. In an office that screams power and status, those golden men are hung almost perfectly like horns she could use to headbutt her way through anything. She sits back, looking comfortable and as casual as she ever gets in slacks and a silk blouse, her perfectly silver hair in a chic bob. “Yes, that is the general gist of this assignment.”
“And I have to pretend to be a production assistant on the reality show he’s directing in order to…” I need things to be made perfectly plain. “Am I bait?”
She stares at me for a moment as though trying to figure out how to handle me. “I wouldn’t call you bait, Ani. I hope you know I wouldn’t put you in a position I didn’t think you could handle. I have no idea if you’re his type, but you are everyone else’s, and by that I mean people will talk to you. People confide in you. They trust you, and I want you to let anyone who needs to be heard know that you are listening.”
Well, there’s a reason she’s reached the heights she has. She knows how to get a person on board. If there are women out there being harassed, they’re probably a lot like me. And she’s right. People do tend to talk to me. I think it’s because I’m one of those women—pretty but not too pretty, smart but not intimidating. I sometimes worry I’m a little mid, but I’m also comfortable being who I am. I’m on the basic side, and that’s okay with me.
Which is likely why people I’ve only recently met sometimes tell me their life stories.
“I’m not even certain anything is happening, though it wouldn’t surprise me,” she continues. “Joseph is an old friend of my husband’s. His wife is… Well, I would certainly cheat on her.”
“Jess,” I begin, because one of my jobs is to remind her this isn’t the eighties and we’re not all high on cocaine and meanness.
A slender shoulder shrugs. “I wasn’t talking about her looks. Sylvie is fine if one enjoys the crunchy-vegan look. I’m talking about her personality. That’s still fine to remark upon if one is not discussing something one can’t help. She could be less boring. And seriously, you need to loosen up. I don’t understand your generation. No one in mine was allergic to gluten. Sylvie goes on and on about gluten. Isn’t that one of those things that people make up?”