Liza’s Apartment – Joan Ellis (Midwood #69, 1961)

Here we have a lack of communication between author’s text and the art department — the character in the book is named “Lisa” not “Liza.” Then again, Liza looks more sexy.

And this is one of Paul Rader’s more sexy covers — his art often dons the covers of Joan Ellis’ Midwoods and the combo is a good match.

Liza’s Apartment is one of those fresh-young-woman-from-the-Midwrest-looking-for-love-and-survival-in-Manhattan tales.  When she refuses to take any guff from the bombastic office boss at a job, she quits, and this causes the boss to take notice of a girl who dares to walk away from his business.  So he, a man named Guy, asks her out on a date. He wines her, dines her, beds her, and then offers her a different kind of job — as rental manager of a building with 60 overpriced apartments.

Lisa learns the ins and outs of landlords out to make a buck by cutting back on things, waiting until last minute for repairs, etc.  The building has a fast turnaround and only renting at 60% capacity; Lisa’s goal, and job, is to get it at 90% so client investors start seeing better ROI.

One night she finds a guy, Andy, in her apartment, the lover of the girl who lived there before…and eventually they also become lovers, as Lisa continues to occasionally date her rich boss and see another guy and fend off the advances of every married and single man in her orbit.  She’s a modern girl in the dating world…and then she winds up pregnant. Whose baby is it?  She gets guys to pay for the abortion…

Joan Ellis’ novels are never deep, but fun, with a romantic flair — you know, the young girl in the office romancing the Alpha-Male boss.

I’d give this one a B-plus and recommend for a breezy read.