Chemistry and Intrigue Abound in Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ First Star I See Tonight

Piper Dove is a determined to build back up her father’s detective agency after it fell into the wrong hands following his death. She’s broke, frustrated, and looking for a way to get back on her feet after selling everything she had to buy the agency from her greedy stepmother. That includes taking a job following the former Chicago Stars quarterback, Cooper Graham, who has retired from football and opened the hottest new nightclub in the city: Spiral. Piper’s client, a possible investor in the club, wants her to monitor his every move, but Cooper quickly catches on to her tail and she’s left telling a sea of lies to keep her client’s identity secret. Lies that she soon becomes unable to keep when Cooper’s life, as well as her own, are threatened.
Coop isn’t easy to like at first. He’s conceited, controlling, and not a man who likes to admit he needs help. But just as Piper is ready to walk away, she learns that not everything is what it seems at first.
Piper soon realizes that someone is out to take down Coop, and it the threat appears to be coming from inside the club. Faced with the facts that Piper is right, Coop realizes that she’s the only one he can really trust to find out the truth. Reluctantly he hires her to protect him, but that doesn’t come easy. He’s a stubborn man, and he tries to push away all the stirrings her presence causes him. And it’s not just him. Piper isn’t ready to face what’s really building between she and Coop. Each step closer they come to solving the mystery, is also one step closer she comes to opening her heart (and bed!) to a man she doesn’t know if she can really trust to not leave her hurting.

But Piper can’t dedicate all her time to Coop. She has other clients, who provide entertaining side stories in the novel. Like a Pakistani assistant to a prince who longs to escape to be with her family, or a senior-citizen neighbor who is utterly convinced that the elderly man wearing a cheesehead hat in the park is her deceased husband. Phillips succeeds in making the secondary stories just as immediate and necessary as the adventures between Piper and Coop.
First Star I See Tonight is perfect for those who love a swoon-worthy leading man who knows what he wants, a powerful woman who challenges what others tell her to do, and a love story that isn’t all roses and romance. (But it is hot, sexy, and full of feisty exchanges that leave you cheering the hero and heroine on while, wishing you could step into their lives for just one day.) The characters are flawed, have baggage that goes deep, and often push away those who are trying to help. But in the end, you are left loving them almost as much as they love each other. And definitely closing the book with anticipation for what happens in the next installment of the Chicago Stars series.
First Star I See Tonight is on B&N shelves now.