Mad­dy Banks is an entre­pre­neur whose every busi­ness idea seems to be snatched up by her col­lege rival, Derek Rogers. She works too hard, nev­er seems to get ahead, and nev­er seems to meet men of her cal­iber. When she attends the imper­son­al funer­al of her friend Tara, she is inspired to start Lights Out Enter­pris­es, a busi­ness that spe­cial­izes in cus­tomized funer­als and life cel­e­bra­tions. After being hired by her ​“exper­i­men­tal” client, her Uncle Sam, and acquir­ing a UCLA intern named Eve and start-up cap­i­tal from her good-look­ing ven­ture cap­i­tal­ist, Mad­dy is on her way to becom­ing a suc­cess­ful busi­ness­woman. How­ev­er, with the sud­den death of Uncle Sam and the com­pe­ti­tion of Derek Rogers, things get live­ly in Maddy’s busi­ness of deal­ing with the dead. Mad­dy must use her knowl­edge and com­pet­i­tive edge to get ahead, and learn that there is only so long a per­son can mourn the death of a loved one before mourn­ing becomes unhealthy. This book is inter­est­ing and at times enter­tain­ing, but incon­sis­tent in the ways it por­trays Maddy’s roman­tic and fam­i­ly life.