Review: Nice First Effort
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 02 27, 2013
REVIEWED FOR: Swept Away By Romance3.5 StarsGrace Locke is a new graduate student in New York City working toward her Masters degree in Criminology.  She aspires to one day be a professor.  Knowing this field is dominated by strong men, she challenges herself to toughen up, especially when surrounded by alpha males.  When she takes a position as an office manager with a private investigation firm, she has high hopes for testing herself.  Until she meets Vinnie Lewis, former mob enforcer, now private investigator.  He's big.  He's scary.  And he doesn't have a high opinion of women.  Funny, then, that, as time passes, the two cannot stop thinking of each other.Nice Girl by Kate Baum is a fun, light-hearted read!  The storyline is simple, straightforward and moves along at a comfortable pace.  I look forward to the undoubted growth in this author's writing style which is gained only with experience.There are some charming and comedic moments in this story.  Many of those are thanks to the cast of supporting characters.  Those characters, particularly Jamie, Grace's homosexual co-worker, and his partner (and chef) Luke, made this story for me.Grace and Vinnie are an interesting, opposites-attract pairing, and they did have quite good chemistry.  The will-they-won't-they of their growing sexual attraction did get VERY frustrating over the course of the book, however.All in all, not a bad first effort from debut author Kate Baum!