NOT a Stand Alone

In Pursuit of Happiness by Freya Kennedy

This is listed as a stand alone, but it's not. It's actually the second book in the series. Jo works at a pub with her brother. She's been living at home with her mom and little sister while her dad is out of the country on business. Her roommate wants to break the lease so she can move in with her boyfriend. And Jo is doing nothing. Then, her soon to be sister in law tells her that her bookshop/cafe is hosting a big time author and doesn't Jo always talk about writing? She should come. But first, she should send her the book so she can read it. SiL loves the book and sends it to the author who asks Jo to go with him to look at a town that he's basing his next book in, and that he will give her some professional guidance while he's researching. SiL takes it upon herself to send the book to big time author's publisher, just to see, and he loves it. He emails Jo to set up a meeting. Then, she tells big time author the good news, only he doesn't react like it's good. Turns out, he sent his publisher her book pretending it was his. But, publisher got her version first and confronted him about it. Then publicly dropped him. Now the internet is full of stories about other young writers he did the same thing to! His career is over. Hers is on the rise. Oh, and she meets a nice guy and they start dating. The book ends one year later with her book release party. You didn't need to read book 1 to enjoy this, but the characters from that book are prevalent in this book so it would have been nice if it was labeled as such. I enjoyed this book, but the fact that the author doesn't label her books as part of a series bothers me and I probably won't read anything else from her because I don't want to read it out of order.