The Pippa Effect, Hardcover

Loosely based on Pippa Passes, Robert Browning's quintessential dramatic poem revolving around an innocent silk mill worker whose simple song produces a profound effect on the lives of the people who hear her, The Pippa Effect centers around Philippa Browning, IT girl at Monroe Enterprises, who lives with the simple belief that love has the power to change lives. Her gestalt comes into direct conflict with Adam Monroe, CEO and heir to the Monroe fortune who, forced to take up the reins of Monroe Enterprises when his father absconded, bitterly runs his company fairly yet with cold precision.

Adam first meets Pippa as she's perched atop a ladder changing the wifi access point in his office. Angered at her presence on the cusp of an important business meeting with potential partners from Beijing, his rude behavior further validates his ruthless reputation. When the hired interpreter realizes the men speak Cantonese and not Mandarin, Pippa shocks everyone in the room when she steps off her ladder and greets the two representatives in flawless Cantonese. Pippa then privately informs Adam that all is not as it seems with the men who have been sent to represent The Hu-Wang Company. Sons of the founders, they have launched a campaign of deceit being completely fluent in Mandarin, Cantonese, and English. Pippa warns Adam to be cautious as he conducts himself around them since they fully understand everything that is being said.

Intrigued by her language abilities, Adam sees her potential aiding his foreign affairs and offers her a lucrative position as his official interpreter and personal assistant. Adam soon learns, however, that Pippa is more than just a low-level IT employee. The daughter of an United States ambassador, she has lived abroad the majority of her life and not only adopted the "hobby" of collecting languages but is also gifted in the art of diplomacy. Philippa's vivacious nature and innate love for people, however, is in direct antithesis to Adam's brutal and surly demeanor. As time passes, however, Adam witnesses the effect Pippa's presence has on everyone that crosses her path: Cynthia, his administrative assistant; James, his personal driver; Charlene, his on-again off-again paramour; even the second-generation Chinese delegates and his own mentally disturbed mother are not immune to Pippa's charms.

But when her troubled past is revealed through unexpected circumstances, Adam learns that all is not smiles and sunshine for Pippa. And when her beacon begins to fade, Adam realizes it is up to him to fan her dwindling spark back into a bright enduring flame.