Nia Asaba is an Ugandan health worker with strong opinions about the ethics of big pharmaceutical companies, opinions which often get her in trouble. But she thinks it’s more important to ensure the people of her country have access to affordable and reliable HIV/AIDS medication and care.
Magnus Klassen is the CEO of Nordic Wind Pharmaceuticals, developers of a revolutionary new HIV treatment. But their stock prices are falling, due to bad publicity following a post from a random blogger named Nia Asaba.
So it’s up to Marcus to visit Uganda and try and reverse the effects of the bad publicity by offering the Ugandan government some of their new vaccine.
Of course, Nia and Marcus are thrown together, and sparks fly as they’re united by their combined passion for good healthcare and all things Jane Austen (I have to love a hero who reads and loves Jane Austen, and who finds Emma Woodhouse as annoying as I do).
Falling for the Foe is an excellent first novel.
It has a unique plot and setting, which places a fascinating spin on what could have been a mundane repetition of the falling-for-the-billionaire trope (no, it’s not my favourite). But I do love intelligent and strong-minded heroines, which is why liked Nia from the get-go and wanted only good things to happen to her (but this is a romance novel, and we know a good romance never runs smoothly).
I especially liked the way Marcus’s backstory was introduced. Our first impulse was to not like him for the way he’d ignored Nia at university, then didn’t even remember her. But, as we got to know him, we found there were good reasons why Marcus didn’t remember Nia, and that brought us back to wanting him to succeed.
But the price of Marcus’s success might be Nia’s failure, which gives the novel plenty of conflict, and a great I-told-you-so ending.
This is the first book in a series, and the second will deal with Marcus’s widowed brother, Ragnar. I’m already looking forward to it!
About Milla Holt
I’m thrilled that you stopped by, and hope you’ll enjoy your visit at my online home!
I write inspirational romance with an international twist, with stories that uplift and encourage. Heroes with honor and integrity and strong, can-do heroines are my thing. And the good guys always get their happy ending. My fiction reflects my Christian faith.
I’m not a fan of writing about myself, but here goes. I used to be a lot of things: a journalist, a communications manager for a health activist group, and a freelance copywriter.
Before all that, I was a diplomatic brat, trailing along as my mother’s job took us to various diverse locations around the world.
Now, I’m homeschooling my children in the east of England and devoting every spare moment to writing.
Find Milla Holt online at:
About Falling for the Foe
She can’t stand him. He blames her for his company’s woes. Now, they have to work together.
Nia has devoted her career to fighting for life-saving medicines for Ugandans with HIV. But when first-line treatments begin to fail, she must find a new source of affordable drugs before patients start to die. Too bad she just publicly bashed the head of a pharma company that owns a powerful new anti-HIV drug.
Magnus is poised to market a game-changing HIV drug, but an avalanche of bad PR threatens to destroy his company’s reputation and kill his bottom line. When he travels to Uganda to boost his social justice credentials, he’s not expecting to feel such a deep attraction to the woman whose viral blog post led to all his troubles.
To get what they want they must work together. He’s out to rescue his company and she’s trying to save lives. Neither dreamed their hearts would be on the line.
