Piper Dove is not your typical private investigator. She has had to work twice as hard as any man to get half as far. Her meet-cute with Chicago Stars football legend Cooper Graham happens when she is busted tailing him for a client. When Piper won’t divulge her client’s identity to the smug athlete-turned-businessman, she does offer him her expert opinion and reveals the many breaches in Cooper’s security team and his club employees. Although she is soundly rejected for the job of Cooper’s personal bodyguard, Piper is given the consolation gig of overseeing and revamping security at his new club. But these might be the least of his worries.

"Fans of Janet Evanovich, Lisa Scottoline, Catherine Coulter and Susan Wiggs will enjoy the mystery and romance of Phillips’ latest entry, which makes an entertaining end-of-summer/getting-ready-for-fall read."

It seems that Cooper’s life could be in danger. Used to getting his own way, usually because of his fame and good looks, Cooper doesn’t quite know what to do with a woman like Piper: “The way she carried herself, the way she charged after what she wanted. She was a woman who attacked life instead of waiting for it to unfold around her. And her general imperviousness to him had stirred up some kind of primitive bullsh*t need to conquer. Which was exactly what other men saw in her. A test of their masculinity.” And for Piper’s part, she is equally miffed by Cooper’s naiveté: “So rich and yet so dumb…. The reality is that you’re so used to everybody bowing and scraping that you don’t understand most people only show you their best side. You’ve forgotten how many creeps there are. All your fame has made you a babe in the woods when it comes to living in the real world.” Perhaps Cooper is too accustomed to everything going his way to truly see his situation clearly. Someone seems hell-bent on destroying his business, and Piper intends to find out who would want to do such a thing.

Despite her tough exterior, Piper is softer and sweeter than she seems. She just has had to be tough to be taken seriously. And when your own P.I. father goes out of his way to make sure you don’t follow in his footsteps, you get a thick skin. She took over his company, Dove Investigations, after his death, in spite of his wishes and turned it into a thriving… well, she was doing alright. But let’s just say, Piper is not in a position to turn down any jobs. Like when her friend informs her of the need for drivers for a Middle Eastern princess who was coming to town with her entourage. Driving a princess around sounds easy enough --- and it was lucrative. It is here that Piper meets Faiza, a young servant girl for Her Highness. After helping Faiza on one of her chores, Piper learns that this poor girl does not have the best work environment and immediately decides to help her devise a plan to escape to Canada, where the 19-year-old has family. But she can’t execute the plan by herself. Enter Cooper Graham, who is starting to prove he is not the pampered jock Piper thought he was.

FIRST STAR I SEE TONIGHT is the eighth installment in Susan Elizabeth Phillips’ Chicago Stars series and the first hardcover with her new, more mainstream publisher, William Morrow. Each book focuses on a different character, all of whom are stars in the Chicago Stars universe. And since the author’s motto is “Because life’s too short to read depressing books,” she assuredly delivers a rollicking, suspenseful adventure tinged with electrifying romance. Fans of Janet Evanovich, Lisa Scottoline, Catherine Coulter and Susan Wiggs will enjoy the mystery and romance of Phillips’ latest entry, which makes an entertaining end-of-summer/getting-ready-for-fall read.