Austin, Texas - Present Day

Madeline Piatro has just broken up with her fiancé of four years. Or so she was led to believe by the handsome to-die-for Carlton Connors. See, Carlton never told anyone they were engaged, and when he found out Madeline is pregnant, he wants her to have an abortion. And if that isn't bad enough, she loses the baby, he cheats on her at a bachelor party, breaks up with her, fires her from the company they came up with and claims all her ideas as his own.

Now Madeline wants to get even and may resort to murdering her louse of an ex-boyfriend to make herself feel better.

Madeline’s romance with Carlton was one only found in fairy tales. They met in graduate school and, after a passionate night together, Madeline never looked back. In the beginning, everything was perfect between the two. They had great sex, laughed a lot and, even though they had stress from school and work, they had each other. Madeline was such a good girlfriend she even wrote Carlton’s papers and did his homework for him so he could graduate. After four years together, Madeline was ready to get married and have kids, the whole nine yards. But Carlton wanted to prove first to his rich father that he could make it in the business world and, with Madeline by his side, they would be able to make a ton of money. Madeline came up with an idea for an organic food company for children and, because of her amazing ideas, they started their business from the ground up and were soon on the way to success. But then Carlton starts to change, and that is when he pushes Madeline to the curb.

Revenge becomes the most important thing in Madeline’s life. She wants to hurt Carlton...and bad; maybe not murder him, but make him suffer like she did. Her recovering drug addict brother, Ronnie, wants her to forget and move on. Madeline simply can’t, and that is when she hires a hit man to do her dirty work! Hit man Dick hears Jane’s (Madeline’s alias) story and also wants to make Carlton suffer because he thinks she is a nice lady. But as Madeline’s best friend Heather is also about to give birth, and a new man enters her life, Madeline is at a crossroads. She can decide to move on as her brother and Heather are telling her to do, or stay depressed and have thoughts of revenge overtake her life. But why can’t she have her cake and eat it, too?

Jo Barrett has written an engaging tale of heartbreak about a woman who wants the person responsible to suffer greatly. Madeline’s voice is very amusing as she thinks of ways to kill her lousy ex, Carlton, without getting caught. This is a woman you can sympathize with who thought she had met the man of her dreams, but instead he became her worst nightmare. I was all for Madeline getting back at Carlton, who is the worst kind of man, much like the villain of the piece. Of course, Madeline doesn’t resort to murder, but her revenge is so good that you will want to stand up and applaud.

Madeline’s brother Ronnie is her support and conscience, and so is her friend Heather, who is married to Michael, a Jewish lawyer. Heather is converting to the Jewish religion and those results are hilarious. Also along for this ride is Dick, the hit man Madeline hires and gives marketing advice to, and also Carlton whom we see in flashbacks. Plus, there is the mysterious Nick, to whom Madeline becomes very attracted, but who also has his own secrets.

THIS IS HOW IT HAPPENED had me laughing so much I was near tears. Even though this is about a woman’s quest for revenge, you come to realize that karma will take over, especially when you read the epilogue and see how far Madeline has come. Because this story made such an impression and will most definitely do the same with most readers, it deserves RRT's Perfect 10 award.

Kate Garrabrant