
Operation: One Night Stand on June 2, 2015
Pages: 304
I received this book for free from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
This book may be unsuitable for people under 18 years of age due to its use of sexual content, drug and alcohol use, and/or violence.
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Synopsis
IT'S TIME TO CHANGE HER SEXUAL KARMA
Caroline Frost had it all-until her boyfriend banged the superskank intern, and poof! Caroline's happy little bubble disappeared. Now it's been six weeks of weeping, a mountain of ice cream, and a permanent buttprint on the couch. Enough is enough. She and her ladybits need an intervention-now.
Enter Operation: One Night Stand: Find a man who is hotness personified and have some much-needed sexy time. The only problem is that Caroline is torn between a flirtatious, well-built guy and the ridiculously hot bartender serving her shots. This was supposed to be all fun and no games, but like the perfect scotch on the rocks, no good fling finishes without a twist.
My Review
This book is a WINNER!
Christine Hughes wrote my most favorite book of 2014, Three Days of Rain. Operation: One Night Stand is her newest novel and she has a hit on her hands once again. This book is definitely in the running for favorite of 2015, though she’s got another Operation book coming out (This fall, I think…don’t quote me on that. My memory is crap.), and I’m looking forward to that goodness as much as I did this one.
“There was nothing I loved more than reading and I wasn’t a genre snob. Give me a shampoo bottle and I’d read it.”
Oh my God! Caroline is ME! Check out the About Me page on my blog. I will read ANYTHING. I totally relate to this chick. Plus, she has the greatest friends anyone could ask for. They’re all about telling the truth at all times, and are entirely unembarrassed to be themselves.
“You know there’s a thin line between silly and stupid. Stop fucking border hopping.”
Yeah, shit like that all through the book! As much as I blubbered and cried through Three Days of Rain, that’s how much I cackled and laughed my way through Operation: One Night Stand. One liners, total setups, physical comedy, it’s all there to help cover yourself with happiness and giggles.
Lest you think it’s all about the comedy, you think wrong. There is most definitely romance and hot, dirty sex.
See the romance?
“I looked over and caught his eye. The best feeling in the world is when a girl looks over and her guy is already staring.”
See the hot, dirty sex?
“‘Caroline.’ He grunted my name. ‘Caroline. Slow down. I’m going to come.’
Instead of slowing down, I held on and sped up, thrusting and rolling like a porn star. I was owning this motherfucking one night stand.”
See the author becoming a NYT bestselling author? I do.
The quotes are from an uncorrected advance copy and may not be in the final published copy.

About Christine Hughes

I’ve always wanted to write. Ever since I was little, I would craft stories and poems but the idea to actually do it “for real” never really crossed my mind until last year. After sitting on three paragraphs of what would eventually become my first novel, I decided to expand upon what I had. At the time I had no real idea of where the story would go, I just knew I had the time to do something with it.
I hadn’t researched market trends, I had no idea about query letters or the evil synopsis, and I was green on the idea of agents and editors and all that is publishing, really. I just wanted to write something I enjoyed. I didn’t plot, outline, or character build, I just wrote. And then an author friend mentioned that I should take my writing to a conference.
So with the confidence that my novel would surely be welcomed by all who read it, I signed up for as many seminars and critiques as I could. I knew someone would love it. In those two days, I found out I had a lot to learn.
Funny, but as a former English teacher, you’d think I’d have figured out the importance of editing and revision and revising again. You’d think I’d have known that the first draft is just that, a draft. And when the critiques started coming in, I thought I was done for. Not that the premise wasn’t good (I was told it was), not that the characters weren’t believable (I was told they were), but I used too much passive voice, I tense shifted and there were some holes in the plotline.
A few agents really liked it, but the market trend couldn’t support it. Some were not fond of the way I told the story. I queried and queried my way to 57 flat out rejections and a number of partial and full requests that didn’t pan out. But along the way I got some great criticism and pointers and I made the story better. Then, on a whim, I trolled the SavvyAuthors website and signed up for a three line pitch to an editor and I did a happy dance when she requested my full manuscript.
A month later, she responded that she loved the story and the concept but it moved too slowly but I could resubmit if I revised. I informed her I sent her a revision that was based on the opinions of agents, authors and peers but I had the original (cleaned up, of course) and I was sending it in to see if it was more of what she was looking for. And guess what? It was! One caveat, I had to revise the manuscript into past tense. Easy peasy, right? Wrong.
Revising into past tense from present is line editing your entire novel. And it kinda stinks. By the end, I thought my eyes were gonna start bleeding and pop out onto my keyboard. But you know what? That little “exercise” tightened up what was loose, filled in any plot holes that might’ve still been there and forced me to realize I could be a better writer.
The road to publication can be long. It can be a hop, skip and a jump from your first query. Nothing in publication is set in stone. The market is always changing. And the biggest thing I learned is that it’s all subjective. Agent or Editor A-Y may pass but all you need is Agent or Editor Z to believe in you as much as you believe in yourself. Find that and surround yourself with a tight knit community of people who have a desire to succeed that matches or exceeds your own and nothing can hold you back.
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