Temping Is Hell (Necessary Evil)

by Cathy Yardley

[kimbacaffeinate]

3.5 I was looking for a good Urban Fantasy after my self-induced historical romance marathon and when Entangled Publishing asked me if I would review Cathy Yardley’s Temping is Hell I was immediately intrigued by the synopsis. This was a fun, smexy action packed tale and the terrific start of a new series. I easily became caught up in the characters, the secrets and the hilarious, feisty, Thelma & Louise protagonist.

The tale begins when we meet Kate O’Hara. She is just beginning another temping job at the corporate offices of Fiendish Industries. When she ends up pissing off her psychotic pageant queen supervisor on the first day, she ends up being given an impossible time consuming task. As she finishs the final pages at almost two am, she bumps into the sinfully smexy billionaire Thomas Kestrel the head of Fiendish Industries. Did I mention she is singing and dancing in her office when he walks in and she bumps him? Kate thinks her work will impress the ice queen and instead finds herself being fired, that is until Thomas steps in and suggests Maggie give her more challenging projects. The next thing Kate knows she is working in the basement with thirteen convicts looking for a symbol on page after page of documents and of course Kate decides there is a better way to do things. The tale that unfolds is hilarious, smexy, and filled with dangerous obstacles Kate must overcome.

I adored Kate and at times she annoyed me. She is impulsive, a champion of the underdog and has some real self-esteem issues. She acts before thinking and speaks her mind; which I found hilarious. You know those pesky little thoughts that pop in your head, the ones you never say aloud, well Kate just blurts them out. Despite her background, she really is quite bright and I am looking forward to more adventures with this meddlesome, protagonist. Thomas is in deep trouble and all the wealth and success he has cannot save his soul. How he got himself in this much trouble will touch you, but the man needs to let Kate know what the heck is going on! I loved the chemistry between them, the denial and all the crazy stuff in-between. Slim one of the basement convicts was delightful and I hope we see more of him. Maggie was a sheer terror in heels and it was fun to hate her. Other characters both good and evil gave the tale believability while creating humor and suspense.

Yardley has created an interesting plot line for this series and I found it to be fascinating. The characters and the daunting task they must complete within a year’s time captivated my attention. While there was some hanky-panky the relationship between Kate and Thomas has yet to be defined. (At least for them) As the reader, we get a strong sense of where this is going and I look forward to the ride. The author did a wonderful job at fleshing out the main characters and giving us a strong sense of who they are through their back-stories. The tale had a nice flow to it with a few twists that kept me turning the pages. While some of the threads seemed unnecessary it laid the ground work for the series. This story is far from over but Temping Is Hell ends without a cliffhanger and an expectation of things to come.

I recommend Temping is Hell to fans of urban fantasy and paranormal romance with snarky characters. The author has over thirty published works and I am looking forward to reading more from her.

I want to thank Entangled publishing for providing an ARC in exchange for my unbiased review.
Kimba @ Caffeinated Book Reviewer