Book Review:Temping is Hell (Necessary Evil #1) by Cathy Yardley

Temping Is Hell (Necessary Evil #1) by Cathy Yardley

WORST. JOB. EVER. 

Kate O'Hara can't wait until this temp assignment is over. The woman who hired her is a psychotic pageant queen, her coworkers are convicts-turned-clerks, and it's so boringly corporate it makes her skin crawl. Even her sexy-as-sin boss, famed billionaire Thomas Kestrel, isn't enticement enough to keep her there. Once she makes enough to pay off her bills, she's out. Or so she thinks...

WHAT THE HELL?

Next thing she knows, she's accidentally signed over her soul. Literally. And she's discovered Thomas's real mission: to kill thirteen bad guys in one year, in order to get his—now his and Kate’s—souls back.

IT'S NOT JUST A JOB. IT'S A MISADVENTURE.

From learning to boost the morale of some paper-pushing demons to navigating her way through blood-red tape, Kate has to work closely with her super-hot supervisor and get her flaky act together, before somebody clocks her out—p permanently!

This book had me all over the place! It is a weird mix of genres: humor, urban fantasy, PNR and horror.

*cue the music “one of these things is not like the other, one of these things just doesn’t belong”* 

Everyone knows by now I am a big dark urban fantasy lover and not much of a classic PNR lover. What kept this book from being great for me was the romance. Now let me explain! The story is very humorous and there is some unique and interesting world building going on and then BAM! The story would take a turn down Horror Lane. I loved this! But, then there would be scenes between Kate and Thomas that were very cliché PNR. For me, their romance didn’t fit Kate. I think it would have been better with a more subtle romance therefore nudging it into more of an urban fantasy. But this is just a minor issue for me and didn’t distract me from my favorite thing about this book… Kate “don’t screw with me” O’Hara.

I absolutely loved the heroine Kate. She is funny, intelligent, logical and realistic. You know how most heroines make dumb mistakes or assumptions about the hero’s actions that lead to the “oh, woe is me” miscommunications? There is none of that. Kate is also human, but there is something special about her which hasn’t been revealed yet. She doesn’t even know what it is. I look forward to finding out what is going on with her. The hero, Thomas isn’t as strong a character as Kate. This is one of the urban fantasy elements I like. The story is about Kate’s growth and self-discovery as a character and Thomas is part of that.

A great start to a promising series. I can safely recommend this to anyone who likes any of the above mentioned genres. One last note, the title of the book is Temping, not Tempting. I spent a good while saying it wrong <G>.

4 “don’t eat the help” Sheep

Sharon Stogner (edit by Kalpar)

About the Author:

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I am a fiction addict.
I love J.D. Robb/Nora Roberts, Jim Butcher, J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood, Sherrilyn Kenyon’s Dark Hunter, Laurell K. Hamilton’s Anita Blake series, Stephen King, Jennifer Crusie, Marian Keyes, J.K. Rowling, and a slew of other authors.

I have been known to stay up all night to finish a new novel. I don’t so much read as devour.

I am a foodie.People who follow me on Facebook can attest: I am a foodie-blog whore. Love Smitten Kitchen. Adore Pioneer Woman Cooks. Bake my own bread on a weekly basis. Total Top Chef freak.

I am a geekgirl.I love the San Diego Comic-con. I love Joss Whedon, Neil Gaiman, Jim Butcher. I’m a bit Sherlockian, but I haven’t gone full Whovian yet.

I was part of the SCA — The Society for Creative Anachronism — and briefly sponsored my own mini army. I learned to speak some Japanese from anime.

I have a near encyclopedic knowledge of character actors and obscure movies. I have been called to settle bar bets.

I have a more-flirtatious-than-appropriate relationship with Excel spreadsheets. When I used to work at a day job, if I wore lipstick they assumed I was going on an interview. To this day, an entire marketing department lives in fear of my memory.

I love being an author.Love writing. Love promoting. Love everything about it. And I love hearing from readers.

Character Confession: Kate O'Hara by Cathy Yardley + Giveaway!

Kate O’Hara, TEMPING IS HELL 

(Kate O’Hara shows up in a rush, hair in a pony tail with curls springing like crazy and her smudged glasses askew.) 

Oh, hey, hi! Am I late? Sorry. Swear to God, I could get lost in a telephone booth.

I’m here today to talk about my author, Cathy Yardley. She tried to offer me twenty bucks and the chance to “take it easy on me” in the third act of book two if I behaved myself, but I said to myself, “Self, what other chance am I going to have to humiliate my author?”

So I decided I’d talk about my all time favorite story about her. Specifically, why she doesn't carry a purse.

(Cathy starts waving her arms and shaking her head wildly. Kate pointedly ignores her.)

See, she was going off to college at the University of California, Berkeley. That’s just north of Oakland. And a lot of the people in the small town she grew up in warned her that there was tons of crime, and that she’d probably get robbed. There’s a ton of people at the school – they’d probably just pickpocket straight out of the large purse she always carried.

No, no, she assured them. She’d be careful. She’d be vigilant. But there was no way she was abandoning the purse.

“Wear it crosswise over your shoulder,” the cautioned. “Always make sure it’s shut if you’re not using it!”

“I promise,” she responded.

So one day, she’s in a huge class… hundreds of students. They’re being dismissed. She puts her purse over her shoulder crosswise, gets up, and promptly gets crushed in the mob of students trying to escape.

Her bag’s caught behind her, and she realizes she hasn't checked to make sure it was zipped shut. So she blindly reaches back and feels for the zipper.

Only to realize that her purse feels… sort of funny.

Frowning, she looks over her shoulder…

… and discovers that she hasn't checked the zipper on her purse.

She’s checked the zipper on the pants of the man standing behind her!

Ever since, she has never, ever carried a purse! True story!

(Cathy buries her head in her hands.)

Well, to the guy’s credit, he was definitely carrying more than a change purse and a pencil. Or so I’m told.

(Cathy glares over her hands.)

I’m really going to catch hell in the second book, aren't I?

(Cathy nods slowly.)

Oh. Crap. (Grins.) Well, it was worth it. 

Temping Is Hell (Necessary Evil #1)

WORST. JOB. EVER. Kate O'Hara can't wait until this temp assignment is over. The woman who hired her is a psychotic pageant queen, her coworkers are convicts-turned-clerks, and it's so boringly corporate it makes her skin crawl. Even her sexy-as-sin boss, famed billionaire Thomas Kestrel, isn't enticement enough to keep her there. Once she makes enough to pay off her bills, she's out. Or so she thinks...

WHAT THE HELL?Next thing she knows, she's accidentally signed over her soul. Literally. And she's discovered Thomas's real mission: to kill thirteen bad guys in one year, in order to get his—now his and Kate’s—souls back.

IT'S NOT JUST A JOB. IT'S A MISADVENTURE. From learning to boost the morale of some paper-pushing demons to navigating her way through blood-red tape, Kate has to work closely with her super-hot supervisor and get her flaky act together, before somebody clocks her out—permanently!

About the Author:

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After years in the corporate world, Cathy Yardley managed to tunnel her way out of her cubicle with a spoon she'd stolen from the break room. She now writes urban fantasy and romance, and celebrates her freedom from the cube farm in an undisclosed location somewhere near Seattle, WA. You can read an excerpt from her latest novel, TEMPING IS HELL, on her website.

***GIVEAWAY***

e-copy of Tempting Is Hell
1.leave a way to contact you in the comments
2. what is the worst job you ever had? (if you haven't had a bad one tell us the best job you had.)