First published 2014
Penny Harrigan works as a low-level associate at a Manhattan law firm. She lives in Queens and has no romantic life to speak of. Then software billionaire C. Linus Maxwell invites her to dinner at Manhattan's most exclusive restaurant. He takes her to a Paris hotel suite where he spends days studying her responses to pleasure, taking notes throughout. Penny thinks she's living a fairy tale until she learns the truth. She was a test subject for Maxwell's new line of feminine products. His company Beautiful You plans to sell these devices through a chain of boutiques. The products work too well. On opening day, millions of women buy them and disappear into their homes. They only emerge to purchase batteries. Maxwell has created a scheme for battery-powered world domination. Penny realizes she must find a way to stop his plan before women everywhere become completely isolated from the world.
Genres: fiction, romance, contemporary, thriller
Vibes: dark, emotional, fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-lovers, fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Manhattan, Paris, Queens
Period: 21st-century
240 pages · Hardcover · Doubleday
Content warnings: sexual-content