Charlie Wallis is hoping to luck out and finally land her dream job as a journalist, and lucky for her, best friend Melvin secured her a position at the London Core- a British tabloid newspaper. But not as a journalist, oh no, Charlie is simply the “clerk,” running mundane tasks for others in the office. But when the Core is bought out by Donald Middleton, things around the office begin to change. For starters, Donald’s son is brought in as the corporate manager, and Charlie is immediately gob smacked by him. Handsome, charismatic, rich, but Ben is dealing with some very personal issues. He has just lost his mother, his father is ill, and his sister cannot be found after a very hard family discovery. Charlie and Ben are brought together in the oddest way- both trying to track down the “Gentleman Abductor,” a kidnapper that is targeting prostitutes. But while they don’t realize they are both on the case-Ben searching for his sister and Charlie in hopes of being able to write an article on the kidnappings- their wires get crossed. Soon, Ben thinks Charlie is a prostitute, and Charlie thinks Ben is the Gentleman Abductor! While their budding romance has taken enough hits- Ben being from a well to do family, Charlie being an orphan from the opposite end of the totem pole is the biggest issue- now this latest development causes even more strife. Can Charlie and Ben find love together?
I had a lot of fun reading A Proper Charlie by Louise Wise. It almost reminds me of Prince William/Kate Middleton, with the backgrounds being so different yet they are obviously in love. Charlie is so likeable, sometimes a little dense, especially when it comes to her boyfriend/ex-boyfriend, Andy. There is one hilarious sex scene in the book with Charlie and Andy that absolutely had me cracking up! I like that the book focused so much on Ben and his family issues- and there are a lot of them! I enjoyed the mystery aspect of the book, trying to hunt down the Gentleman Abductor and also Ben trying to locate his sister. There were times where I really didn’t like Melvin’s character, who was Charlie’s best friend and foster home comrade. He seemed really down on Charlie all the time, about her dreams of being a journalist and about falling in love with Ben. And when it came to Andy and his disgusting self-absorbed attitude, I really didn’t understand how Charlie could be so naïve to look past it all. Luckily, she gets to redeem herself in the end with that situation. Overall, I really liked this book and thought it was super funny- chick lit fans are sure to love!
[Rating: 4]
