PW #426: Adult Rom-Com Thriller: NO CAN DO

Manuscript Status: Finished

Mentor Name: Sarah Henning
Mentee Name: Danielle Fifer (pen name Dani Denatti)
Title: NO CAN DO
Category: Adult
Genre: Rom-Com Thriller
Word Count: 97,000

Pitch:

After a workplace blunder earns Kate a notoriously doomed assignment at a Chinese factory, she vows to change her reckless ways: no more flirting with VPs, no more vodka milkshakes, and definitely no dating sexy Asian playboys with secret agendas. Then Kate is implicated in the theft of a priceless, industry-disrupting prototype, and the only way to clear her name—and escape the homicidal maniacs convinced she took it—means being reckless with her career, her heart, and maybe even her life.

Excerpt:

When given a career-ending project overseas, a smart employee focuses on the important things, like how to pack a three-month supply of chips and queso. Smart employees don’t go looking for Alistair Cartwright, the senior VP whose lips had landed them in hot water.

“Is he in?” I asked his assistant after lunch.

Rosarita Goldstein raised one dark, perfectly tweezed eyebrow and gave me her best disapproving-mom look. We’d been friends too long for it to work. “Shouldn’t you be busy?” she asked. “When did you apply for your visa?”

I stared at my feet and tried not to shuffle them. “There’s still time.” Assuming I couldn’t sweet-talk my way out of going.

“I knew you wouldn’t take this seriously.” Shaking her head, she handed me a thin folder. “Here’s everything you’ll need. He signed your guarantee letter this morning. Don’t lose it.”

I flipped through the documents, half of which she’d already completed for me, and whistled softly. “I don’t deserve you.”

“No one does, Malibu.”

Rita had decided years ago that my straight blond hair and unjustly long legs made me look like a Malibu Barbie doll, and despite my protests (and my hips) the nickname had stuck. Since her boss looked like Corporate Takeover Ken, it wasn’t as funny as it used to be.