tour de forced

Andie is excited about her new job. After years of working in publishing, she’s just been promoted to senior publicist. She will be working with fiction authors on promoting their books, starting with her top author Jack Carlson. When her new boss hands her the list of authors she’ll be working with, Andie is taken aback by his name on the list. He is known as a non-fiction author, and this is his first novel. The publisher is excited about it, so they’ve got him going on tour in Europe. And since his last European tour was a confused mess, he’s insisting that a publicist go with him and make sure all the details are taken care of. And Andie just got the job of being that publicist.

Andie knows Jack from university, where their friendship ended badly and suddenly. For Andie, that incident was followed by a personal tragedy, so it still burns hot in her memory. But she really wants this job, so if that means traveling through Europe for weeks with the person she can’t stand, then she will swallow her personal feelings and do the job the best she can.

The tour starts smoothly. The publicity team back in New York did all of the prep work, making sure they had flights and hotels and knew the schedule for appearances. Andie and Jack act professionally and the interviews and book signings are a success. Andie has time to answer emails from some of her other authors, and she’s on track to get through the tour okay. But when Jack’s book hits the bestseller lists, all bets are off.

Andie hears from her boss that because of the popularity of his book, they were able to schedule him some appearances in Edinburgh. And Andie tries to stay professional, but being back in the city that broke her before means that her facade is coming loose. Her best friend in New York is dealing with her own issues, and her mother is distracted with her grief group. Andie is left to deal with her pain alone, as well as her feelings for Jack, which go back and forth between anger and attraction. Everything is on the line for Andie. Will she be able to keep her job and her sanity, or will she see it all get swept away from her?

Bad Publicity is a debut novel about the ones who get away and the chances we get in life to make things right. Readers who love books about publishing will enjoy the insider view of publicity, and fans of enemies-to-lovers romances will find something to love here. There is a lot of bookstore love as well as some genuinely funny travel scenes.

This book is not perfect. Readers are left in the dark about what happened in Edinburgh that damaged Andie so much; it is not revealed until deep into the story, but it’s the excuse she uses to push everyone away from the beginning. Because of that, she comes across as unlikable and selfish, and it’s hard to root for her. Eventually we get the whole story, but I worry that readers may have already given up on her and stopped reading. The writing is strong, and the characters have a lot of potential. I thought the ending was strong, and that helped a lot. I wanted to like Bad Publicity more than I did, but I did still enjoy the story. It may not be for every reader, but I’m glad I read it.

Egalleys for Bad Publicity were provided by Penguin Books through NetGalley, with many thanks, but the opinions are mine.