STATURES OF NO LIMITATIONS

In this novel, three lawyers with image problems embark on a risky venture.

When Waukegan, Illinois, defense attorney Heather Hightower first meets her two co-counsels on a fraud case, they’re not what she was expecting. Marnie Ames is a woman of “exceptional heft,” and Danielle Dooley—Danni to her friends—is only 3 feet, 8 inches tall. While both have achieved self-acceptance and are highly accomplished, they’ve also been shunted into lesser roles at their law firms and kept out of courtrooms. For her part, Heather is conventionally hot but is sometimes dismissed as an “‘airhead and a Barbie.” Knowing how fulfilling it is to argue cases in court, Heather is outraged on her new friends’ behalf and proposes a bold plan: start their own law firm. Hightower, Dooley, and Ames, LLC faces struggles; few clients want Marnie and Danni to represent them. Their office manager, the elegant and somewhat mysterious Jeanne Coopersmith, assures them that “joy and harmony will abound in this place,” but the odds don’t seem good. Nevertheless, the three attorneys persevere and slowly turn things around in both their work and romantic lives. Jeanne could be right. In her engaging second novel, Helms draws on her experience as founding partner of a law firm to give the book authenticity and a firm grounding for its warmhearted emotions. An especially well-handled theme is how Heather grapples with her beauty privilege: “How could my two closest friends, who suffer the real trauma of everyday indignities, ever accept me? How could an oppressor ever be a true friend with one who is oppressed?” The ending’s resolutions are a little too pat, but readers will empathize with the vivid characters.

An entertaining, feel-good tale that’s also deeply thoughtful about alliances.