April Chick Lit Challenge Read: What Stays in Vegas

Welcome to my April Chick Lit Challenge review! I actually read What Stays in Vegas by Beth Labonte way back in February but I've been so incredibly busy with moving and starting a new job that I am only just now able to get a review up. That being said, please forgive me if you find this review a little lacking - I read this ages ago and didn't make good enough notes! I was on a cruise, can you blame me? :) It was a great vacay read because it was funny, cute, and entertaining.

Here's the synopsis for this novel:

Bored administrative assistant, Tessa Golden, is trapped in a life of lousy weather, irritating bosses, and mind-numbing secretarial work. Her dreams of being an artist have rapidly deteriorated into building things out of paperclips while on hold with tech support. To make matters even worse, the love of her life has gone off and married another woman.
So when Tessa is suddenly transferred to the Las Vegas branch of her company - playing wingwoman to her freshly divorced boss, juggling a client from hell, and catching the eye of one very eligible coworker - will her life finally be shaken up enough to straighten itself out?

This was one of those books where I was always thinking about the story and the characters even when I wasn't reading it. The story kept me entertained and wondering what was going to happen to Tessa and her friends. There were some mildly outrageous escapades but it seemed to work for me - perhaps because it was taking place in Vegas and everything about Vegas seems outrageous to me! There were a couple of times I wanted to yell "What are you doing?!?" but I was invested in Tessa and her life, not annoyed by it. Overall, I thought she was a great character.

The romantic storyline in this book was fun and kept me guessing. I thought I had figured out how the ending was going to play out early on but Labonte threw in enough curveballs to make things interesting. And Chris? Sigh...I absolutely love him. That's all I'm going to say about that - read the book yourself to see how things unfold!

I thought the ending was great. I knew something had to totally blow up but the pieces ended up falling back into place perfectly. I'm so happy with the way Tessa's life turned out.

One of the things I liked about this book was that it provided a character who was able to go after what she wanted. She's working a boring job that is just a paycheque, it's not what she really wants to do. Like a lot of people, Tessa figured she would always have to work some sort of job and do her art on the side, as a hobby. It was nice to see her evolution and realization that she can turn her passion into a full time career.

I'm really hoping this review results in at least a few more people reading this book. I really enjoyed it and think many others will too. Plus, if you have a Kindle it's only $0.99! (If you want to buy it, click on the Amazon link below) A big thank you to Beth for sending me a copy of her novel to review. I'm so glad I got the chance to read this one. I encourage you all to give this book a try - and then let me know what you think!

Happy reading! :)