A married couple with their own design show, best seller books, and new projects in the works, sounded like everything was going well for America’s favorite design couple, Melissa and Rusty, but if you asked Carey and James, they’d tell you that appearances aren’t always what they seem. 

This story followed, Carey and James as they tried to manage and keep their bosses, Melissa and Russell (a.k.a Rusty) in check during their promotional tour of their newest book release about their marriage. Turns out that Melissa and Russell’s marriage was not like the image of a perfect, Russell was tried of the show, his lack of a marriage with Melissa. To make matters worse, Carey and James accidentally stumbled upon Russell with Stephanie in the throes of passion, a.k.a. “The no pants dance”, talk about awkward for them to see. With their new book, and new shows on the line, both Carey and James were stuck with the responsibility of making sure everything went according to plan which was making sure their bosses marriage didn’t get any worse or else they’d be both out of jobs.

Carey’s entire day to day life was centered on one thing and one thing only which was managing and helping Melissa with the designs, the background work, and more. Carey was a hard working, kind person, but she was definitely over worked and treated unfairly by Melissa. Carey was actually very creative, and the actual person who helped make Comb+Honey the brand that it was. With Carey’s beautifully decorated window displays, furniture designs she came up with, she had a lot of input into what was so widely loved by all, but obviously Melissa took all the credit. There were moments throughout the book when Melissa acted totally unfair and like a bully by undermining Carey and her skills. You could imagine while reading I had the strong urge to give Melissa a piece of my mind, and help Carey out. Thankfully James was there to help Carey. 

James McCann was Carey’s coworker and de-facto assistant to Melissa’s husband, Rusty. Due to Melissa’s underlying fear that Rusty would inevitably sleep with another woman, she hired James as Rusty’s assistant. James on the other hand imagined he’d be working as an engineer on the show, not running errands and etc. James was intelligent, driven, at times very buttoned up (all those nice suits OOOO) and just kept to himself. As the story progressed though… James started to open up a bit and truly take notice of Carey while they were on the book tour. In a way, you could say that James was the one who fell first for Carey since he layers admits to himself that he definitely developed a crush on her. Initially I wasn’t sure about James, but obviously as I got more into the book, I quickly changed my mind and was like, “Hello Mr. Sexy/ nerdy engineer” *wink, wink. 

With all the work that Carey did for Melissa, she didn’t have much time for her personal life. Essentially, Carey had no life whatsoever outside of her job with the Tripps. With so much on her shoulders, and no one really to talk to about her stress and everything, I did like that Carey had a therapist to talk to. So that aspect was also nice to include in the story. With advice from her therapist to stand her ground and be more assertive, Carey made strides to do that especially against Melissa, it was a journey to see Carey go from simply accepting things and being a people pleasing to saying no and getting what she wanted. 

I really liked being able to read the interview transcripts that were provided as well as the different articles about the Tripp’s. Through the interview transcripts from the very beginning to through out the entire book, it created a sense of mystery as to, what happened?, why were Carey and James being interviewed about the Tripp’s?”. In a way, I was left coming up with potential ideas as to what could have happened that resulted with the police getting involved, and wondering what went down on July 14th?

The romance between James and Carey was great. Workplace romance, forced proximity, yes please! Initially James and Carey were always so busy trying to maintain and do everything for Melissa and Rusty that they never noticed each other, or when they happened to be in the same room, it usually was spent trading bickering remarks to one another. Ironically enough, with the book tour and trying to keep Melissa and Rusty’s appearance of a happy couple, it brought Carey and James together in an unexpected way. I loved the sweetness they exuded together, as well as the communication between them. Also, James being intuitive and patience with Carey’s feelings and even with her disability with her hands, he was a sweetie. 

Overall the book was great. I loved seeing Carey become more assertive in what she wanted, speak her mind, and finally get the recognition she deserved. James and Carey got their happy ending, finally saying their “I Love You’s” to each other, and of course the promises of more things to look forward to together side by side. A sweet, funny, romantic book.