Blurb - Rom Com

[Suzie]

Would love feedback on this blurb for this story (Liar, Liar, Tabloid Writer):

How the mighty have fallen.

Investigative journalist Cleo Morgan’s stories have created Pulitzer buzz, but circumstance push her into a lucrative but career-destroying job writing for a tabloid.

Alejandro Ramirez is blown away by the new star reporter. There's definitely chemistry. Except she thinks she's better than everyone at the tabloid where they work. That grates on him since she's going to be writing stories about aliens and Elvis sightings just like the rest of them.

In spite of the chemistry, she doesn't want to have anything to do with the smug news whore she thinks he is. Except she's already having fantasies about this hot Cuban ex-pat who's showing her the ropes at her new job. Before they have a chance to make this attraction work, Cleo's mother, an ex-Vegas showgirl, is charged with the murder of a Las Vegas casino owner. To clear her mother, Cleo will have to see that Alejandro hasn't sold out, and he will learn that she really is as good as she thinks she is.

[Fiona]

Like the blurb overall. It gets to the point and the voice is very clear.

"Investigative journalist Cleo Morgan’s stories have created Pulitzer buzz, but circumstance push her into a lucrative but career-destroying job writing for a tabloid."
Should be circumstances (plural).
"Career-destroying" doesn't seem like the right word. She's building a career, even if it's not the career she wants. "Soul-destroying" maybe?

"Alejandro Ramirez is blown away by the new star reporter."
Not clear from this whether he is "blown away" by her work (my first guess, since the initial focus is on her as a star reporter) or by the sexual chemistry (the next sentence). Can you be clearer?

"In spite of the chemistry, she doesn't want to have anything to do with the smug news whore she thinks he is."
This phrasing is a bit clumsy, making it unclear who is the "smug news whore" until a reread. Plus you've already mentioned the chemistry and the next sentence is about her fantasies, so the first few words are overkill.
Maybe something simpler like "Initially, Cleo doesn't want anything to do with Alejandro, that smug news whore."

"Before they have a chance to make this attraction work, Cleo's mother, an ex-Vegas showgirl, is charged with the murder of a Las Vegas casino owner."
Whoa! I didn't know they were trying to make this attraction work, rather that they were struggling against it. And this seems unrelated to the bombshell about Cleo's mother (although that bombshell really raises the stakes and gets my interest, so nice).

"To clear her mother, Cleo will have to see that Alejandro hasn't sold out, and he will learn that she really is as good as she thinks she is."
There's a lot to unpack in this sentence, and the causality is unclear. How does seeing that Alejandro "hasn't sold out" have anything to do with clearing Cleo's mother? "She really is as good as she thinks she is" at what? Reporting? I'm guessing that the two of them do some kind of investigative work together to try to clear her mother's name, but it needs to be spelled out more.

Best of luck.

[Suzie]

Fiona wrote: "Like the blurb overall. It gets to the point and the voice is very clear.

"Investigative journalist Cleo Morgan’s stories have created Pulitzer buzz, but circumstance push her into a lucrative but..."

Thanks, Fiona. Exactly the feedback I needed.