Don't Let It Be True » (Bargain)

Jo Barrett was born in Okinawa, Japan. She moved to San Antonio, Texas, with her family and attended the University of Texas, Austin, where she received the Normandy Scholarship. From Texas she moved to Washington, D.C., to work on Capitol Hill. While working full-time, she earned a law degree from Georgetown University. Instead of taking a legal job, she moved to New York City to become a writer.

A few Texas society gals are hiding sordid pasts as strippers, pole dancers, call girls, Democrats . . . But socialite Kathleen Connor King's secret is far, far worse.

The flamboyant oil heiress, philanthropist, shopaholic, and hostess of the city's most prestigious annual gala, Kathleen King has a skeleton in her closet that, if revealed, will obliterate her good name and cherished social standing: She's broke!

Her longtime beau, Dylan Grant, is similarly busted, ever since his now-deceased father lost the last of the family's oil properties to A-List wannabe Bo Harlan in a poker game. So Kat and Dylan have a plan, and with the help of a small cadre of loyal friends and allies, they're ready to resort to outrageous tactics—not all of them legal—to keep up appearances, win back the lost Grant oil money, elude a psycho Vegas mobster...and solidify their lofty positions among the crème de la crème.

From the acclaimed author of This Is How It Happened (Not a Love Story) and The Men's Guide to the Women's Bathroom comes a hilarious tale of love and deception in the world of the Texas oil uppercrust.

Publishers Weekly

Peeking into the misfortunes of formerly rich heirs of Houston's oil barons, Barrett discovers a mixed Birkin bag of rueful romance and tongue-in-cheek mayhem. The golden Gucci crowd doesn't know that their fave society girl, Kat Connor King, no longer possesses the funds befitting the last heiress of a Texas dynasty. Kat may still run the King Foundation, own a ranch and host Houston's most successful charity fund-raiser every year, but after she emptied her trust fund to finance the building of the Pediatric Cancer Center, she's broke. The money trouble extends to her love life, as well: she lives in a luxurious high-rise with former Enron lawyer Dylan Grant, whose recently deceased father gambled away his son's inheritance. Even if the Cinderella factor's a bit too pat, Barrett's wit makes watching these down-on-their-luck bluebloods reclaim their fortunes a fun little diversion. (Mar.)

Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.