Judith‘s review of The Only Exception by Gina Gordon

For Caroline Cross, business is business.  She will NOT let her profession define her.  She’ll never make that mistake again.  When she finds herself forced to attend a manager’s retreat in the middle of winter, the line between the professional and the personal becomes blurred.  Especially, when she is forced to spend time with Hayden, the man who has secured the starring role in her sexy dreams.


Hayden Cross is the new manager on the block.  The retreat is a chance to let loose and get away from the daily grind.  Until one night in a chance encounter with Caroline at a club morphs his plan into a personal dare.  Mesmerized by the sexy woman writhing on the dance floor, he realizes that she is his fantasy come to life.


Caroline is convinced that Hayden is just another man who wants the fantasy, but his sexual advances are just too hard to ignore.  The more time they spend together the hotter it gets, and the Canadian winter doesn’t stand a chance.


We live in a world today where the need for clear-cut boundaries in the professional world seems more important than ever.  Certainly the issue of professional ethics comes up far more often than was true several decades ago.  Most of us, however, realize that co-workers breach those ethical boundaries all the time.  Perhaps we all assume that those guidelines are in place for one main reason–interpersonal involvement–but in our story that is not necessarily the case.  There’s something quite different going on here.

Caroline is hard working, with clear goals that keep her on track in almost every aspect of her life, both professionally and personally.  Surprisingly enough they don’t grow out of a past messy love affair or loss of reputation in any way.  Actually, at one time in her life, Caroline aspired to be a ballerina and was willing to pay her dues.  She was a member of the auspicious Martha Graham Dance Company and was advancing at a very good rate when she suffered a knee injury–a not uncommon difficulty for dancing pros.  What made her set the fences between profession and personal life was sort of what professional athletes go through with their groupies–rodeo stars with their “buckle bunnies” and so forth.  As an aspiring ballerina that was getting increasing notice, men wanted her to fulfill their fantasy with a lithe, svelt, athletic young woman.  She was one of the “cream of the crop” UNTIL she was injured and fell off the dancing “radar screen” and then her admirers moved on.  Alone, without anyone who seemed to be interested in her as a person, Caroline healed, but she also learned to depend on herself and no one else.  Thus, there was no mixing business with pleasure in her life.

In spite of it all, Caroline still loved to dance and when she had an opportunity to do so–a night out with her friends–she put her whole heart and soul into the enjoyment of the activity.  It was here that her co-worker, Hayden Cross–the same man who couldn’t get to first base with her–saw her in a whole new light, and he decided that her refusal to let him into her personal sphere was a thing of the past.  That their boss was insisting that they go on this retreat together–all his managers–in order to facilitate “team building” just made Hayden’s project success that much more likely.  A beautiful setting out of the office, sitting and talking around a bonfire, wilderness treks, and a mandatory survival overnight in the Canadian wilderness in the middle of winter–guess who Caroline’s partner turned out to be?

This is a fun read in many ways but there are some serious aspects to the story as well.  There is no doubt that Caroline’s life was lonely and relationally sterile.  A fearful or negative response to one’s past experience can do that.  It was also obvious that her unwillingness to become friends with her fellow managers was hurting her advancement in the company and her ability to work well with them.  Yet she was really hungry to be loved for herself, not for what she could do.  Could she really trust that Hayden’s advances were motivated by his interest in her and not because of her position in the company?  There are fun times in this novella and the people are fascinating.  Each seems to be representative of the kinds of people one would find in a similar real-life setting.  I think quite a few authors do this sort of thing and I am glad–gives more depth to the story and I like novels/short stories/novellas that have that underlying meaning to them.

Perhaps when all is said and done, this story reminds readers that we can often shut good people out of our lives for a variety of reasons, some of which aren’t very noble or compelling–they just become habit with us.  As in Caroline’s case, circumstances can force us to re-examine reasons for screening people out.  Each of us has to make the determination of where the boundaries lie for us in our professional as well as our personal lives.  It would seem that all of us would do well to review those boundaries from time to time, moving them toward more friendly territory in some instances as well as firm up those that have become blurred.

I have not read any of Gina Gordon’s previous work but I was impressed with her writing style and her ability to move the story along.  She obviously knows how to write.  I will be watching for future works.  In the meantime, I think this is a very good read.

I give it a rating of 4 out of 5.

You can read more from Judith at Dr. J’s Book Place.

This book is available from Breathless Press. You can buy it here in e-format.