Phyllis Bourne Williams A Moment on the Lips

A Moment on the Lips

Phyllis Bourne Williams

Leisure, Feb 2006, $6.99, 320 pp.

ISBN: 0843956593

On his seventieth birthday, John Price will be forced to retire as the CEO of the Boston based Price Investment firm. He has groomed his son Grant to take over, though his other child Thomas is still in the running. All Grant has to do to obtain the job is persuade Melody Mason, a Wall St. legend to come back from small town Tennessee to run one of their portfolio's. Grant offers her an incredible deal, but she blithely says no.

A desperate Grant travels to Tennessee to ask Melody in person. She still says no, but admits his company's help to college students is a good thing. Melody provides a counter offer. He stay in town for one week while she works her new knitting store, and she will come to Boston for one week to train his team and to evaluate the portfolio. Grant agrees, assuming he will win her over. He will soon get what he wants as he wins her heart, but she leaves anyway as Melody knows Price Investment is more important to him than she is.

A MOMENT ON THE LIPS is an interesting glimpse at a workaholic and a former workaholic who have had no balance between their money-making lives and their personal lives, until Melody no longer can deal with the headaches, ulcers and other physical symptoms. The work-obsessed Grant is the more intriguing individual as he has not yet found that equilibrium between work and play, while the born again Melody achieves this by quitting Wall Street. Their changing relationship is fun to follow, as fans wonder whether Grant has the courage to modify his goals when he falls in love.