Why I read it: This is one of my own purchases. I think Harper and Ronconi are a winning combination.

What it’s about: (from Goodreads) When Sadie and Josh compete for the same Kentucky Tourism Commission job, sparks fly – turns out Kentucky really is for lovers.

Sadie Hutchins loves her job at the Kentucky Tourism Commission. Not only could her co-workers double as the cast of Parks and Recreation, but she loves finding the unusual sites, hidden gems, and just-plain-odd tourist attractions of her home state. She’s a shoo-in for the director’s job when her boss retires at the end of the year…until hotshot Josh Vaughn shows up to challenge her for the position.

Josh is all sophisticated polish while Sadie’s country comfort, and the two have very different ideas of what makes a good campaign. So when their boss pits them against each other in a winner-takes-all contest, they’re both willing to fight dirty if it means getting what they want. But it turns out what Josh and Sadie want could be each other – and Josh’s kisses are the best Kentucky attraction Sadie’s found yet!

What worked for me (and what didn’t): Molly Harper’s sense of humour just works for me and when Amanda Ronconi is narrating, it just adds to the fun. Ronconi’s comedic timing gels nicely with the text. This author/narrator combination feels in sync to me. There’s nothing earth-shattering about the stories, a Harper audio gives me reliable enjoyment and I know it will make me laugh. This series appears to be audio only and Audible only – although Goodreads tells me that the third book is going to be released by Pocket Star this month. When I did a search, the only versions which showed up of this book were from Audible however.

The book comes in at just over 5.1/2 hours so it’s around category length I suppose. As it happens, I felt the length fit the story really well. The animus between Josh and Sadie isn’t dragged out and things move swiftly to a satisfying happy ending. Without being too spoilerish, I think this is a book which turns around the traditional girl-having-to-give-up-her-career-in-order-to-have-her-HEA ending and it made me very happy.

When Sadie first meets Josh there is a spark of attraction but they don’t really know who each other is at that point. When Sadie finds out that Josh is to get the Director job ahead of her, she is understandably annoyed. Sadie’s boss, the current Director, doesn’t so much go into bat for her as he stands up for his right to make decisions in his own department (although he does feel bad that Sadie’s reasonable expectations have not been met) and negotiates a “competition” wherein both will audition for the role by designing a campaign for the upcoming state fair. The winner, by votes of the public attending the fair, will get the Director job, with the other being slotted into the Assistant Director role (Sadie’s current position) if they want it. In the meantime, both will be Assistant Directors and will share the admin services of the assistant, Kelsey.

Frustrated with the sniping and lack of cooperation on other campaigns between Josh and Sadie, the Director assigns them a project where they have to work together and makes it clear he expects them to be professionals and to get along. Sadie tends to the quirky and interesting and Josh to the polished and professional – Josh thinks Sadie is making Kentucky look like a bunch of hicks and Sadie’s view of Josh’s style is that it’s bland bland bland. When the Director’s strategy isn’t bearing fruit quickly enough, Kelsey takes matters into her own hands in a more direct manner. As they work together, Sadie and Josh do come to appreciate the skills and strengths of the other, not just the weaknesses and the physical attraction doesn’t go away. As much as the story is a romance, Josh and Sadie do work together and I appreciated that they were professionals and both were good at their jobs.

Sadie has a wicked sense of humour and when she things Josh has pulled one over on her, she gets revenge by playing on his phobia of mannequins. Which was funny and kind of not because a phobia is a real thing – but Sadie didn’t quite expect the magnitude of Josh’s panicked reaction and she does apologise nicely so I felt it stayed in bounds.

The other cast members, particularly Kelsey, were fun as well and there was a genuine small-office-camaraderie vibe to the story.

I don’t know if all of the information about Kentucky was accurate (I assume it was) but the whole book was kind of an homage to a clearly beloved state and it kind of made me want to go there.

Josh isn’t a bad person at all, but they do have different ways of working and different marketing styles. Gradually, they learn to use that energy for good and create successful campaigns together which combine the best of both of them and their attraction grows as they come to like one another – but the state fair looms and neither is sure what will happen afterwards. It seems that someone is destined to lose and if they start a relationship, things get even more complicated.

I’m glad the story wasn’t longer. It was a good length to show quirky and funny without getting tired or mean and it didn’t dip into frustration territory by dragging out conflicts unnecessarily. Although there were a couple of things towards the end which were mildly irritating because I’m not the kind of person who can’t not ask “What the heck were you doing? Why didn’t you…?” and just wait for something to happen – unlike Sadie.

What else? Even though the story is told from Sadie’s first person POV, there is plenty of Josh dialogue and I felt like I had a good handle on him and he really is a nice guy. Smart and funny and not a dickhead.

As I said at the start, Amanda Ronconi really works for me as narrator of Harper’s books. It’s true that her hero voices are remarkably similar (which is why I’d recommend not listening to them in a row – except for the Jane Jameson books which feature the same main couple) and so do the heroines, but her characterisations are good and her timing is superb. She also just has a pleasing voice to listen to and that can’t be underestimated.

My Bluegrass Baby made me laugh and it turns out, that’s just what I wanted.