In the paint Book

At age 25, Anita Bell aka "Trudy" has suffered enough loss and loneliness that could fill three lifetimes. Her White mother, a flight attendant, was tragically taken from her in the much publicized airline terrorist attack over Lockerbie, Scotland in 1988 and her older brother was killed in a car accident two years later. Largely abandoned by her mother's family because they disapproved of their daughter's choice of a black man for a husband, Trudy and her father were left on their own to grieve and support each other. Considered a "plain Jane," Trudy has since lived a sheltered, conservative life in South Bay, California clerking in the family business when in between jobs. She is engaged to James Long, a hen-pecked, chauvinistic, "mama's boy" who she has dated exclusively for the past ten years. When her father's store is robbed and Trudy is sexually assaulted during the burglary, she is determined to find and keep a job that will allow her to escape the ever-increasing crime filled neighborhood.

She lands a secretarial position at Bon Voyage Travel Agency where she meets a group of eccentric travel representatives and a couple of busybody administrative assistants. Ann Oliver, a headstrong, no nonsense office manager, is the most enigmatic of the group. She routinely praises and demeans Trudy; so much so, that Trudy cannot determine if she is friend or foe, causing her to struggle with feelings of admiration and loathing toward Ann. In an act of retribution, Trudy justifies small charges on Ann's corporate account as compensation for ill treatment. Initially, Trudy has no worries of getting caught despite her best friend's warnings. Knowing her job entails paying the corporate accounts, coupled with a striking physical resemblance to Ann - there is no one to challenge her spending. However, exposure to beautiful people who travel to exotic places with marvelous jobs and wonderful love lives sprouts a bout of depression and second thoughts concerning her passionless relationship with James, listless life, and modest appearance. She taps into a resurrecting cure from childhood to energize herself - elaborate shopping sprees and makeovers - funded on Ann's credit! So begins the lies to cover the expensive dinners, parties, trips, couture clothing, etc. She becomes addicted to the lifestyle and when she finally admits to being "the" Ann Oliver things quickly spiral out of control.

Monroe's latest offering is entertaining enough, albeit a tad predictable. As with her previous novels, the characters are wonderfully imagined "everyday" people with vibrant personalities. She aptly taps into the modern problem of identity theft and hypothesizes how an innocent like Trudy could easily succumb to the temptation and how simple it is to accomplish in the Information/Digital Age. Monroe weaves a fairly believable tale via Trudy and leaves the reader with two adages to ponder: "Be careful for what you wish, you may just get it" and "Nothing is free, everything costs".