“It started with the layoffs, and then it just kept getting worse. I thought I’d get out, and I haven’t been able to, and it’s just a lot. I’m fine. It’s just exhausting to be around people sometimes.”

Nora Hughes is an Editorial Assistant with a small publishing company, Parson’s Press. She just had a pay cut, two of her favorite co-workers left in the downsizing and she feels overworked, underpaid and unappreciated.

To make ends meet, Nora moonlights for Weber, another publishing company. Neither company knows she works for the other. Nora runs into an author (Santos) at a conference who takes a liking to her and they start to see each other on an informal basis. Santos tries to help Nora decide what to do with her life (she currently describes her happiness factor as a three out of 10). Nora also struggles with suicidal thoughts.

This novel is slow moving, not really a romance and more about the publishing industry.