Trust Me On This by Jennifer Crusie *****

Trust Me on This by Jennifer Crusie

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Another winner for Crusie - fast paced story and dialogue, read by Angela Dawe who is quickly becoming a favorite narrator for me. Crusie herself calls it a "screwball comedy" - there are mistaken identities and con men and undercover cops and a bunch of staid and not-so staid college professors all holed up in a hotel for a four-day convention that ends up being not very conventional at all. Crusie even manages to introduce a dog into the story - after she finished writing it, because the publisher decided to put one on the cover! I found myself laughing out loud several times during this relatively short read - it definitely goes into my list of re-listens.



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Interestingly, it seems I can post my Goodreads reviews here! (see above!) However, I try to write short reviews there, and here is where I can rant and rave and go on and on cuz it's just me.

The plot: journalist heroine Dennie (I had a hard time with this being a woman's name) is looking for a break, something to break her out of her rut in the bridal/women's section of the paper. When she learns a famous marriage-guru's own marriage is on the rocks, she heads to a convention where the woman is speaking, hoping to get an interview. Coincidentally, undercover cop hero Alec heads to the same convention, expecting a serial con artist to appear.

The con artist appears, and - based on a tip - Alec assumes Dennie is working with the con man. The two are stuck in this hotel, him trying to trip her up so she'll turn state's evidence on the con, her trying to get to his aunt because she's a friend of the woman she hopes to interview; however, neither will own up to the other what they are actually doing. Both have honed their charming ways, so there's a fair amount of time each is trying to charm information out of the other - and the other recognizes the methods! Dennie picks up pretty quickly that Alec is not the dumb farm-boy he pretends to be so she'll sell him swamp land; Alec starts to think maybe she's not the con's bimbo associate after all.

The secondary romance (over at Goodreads they are calling it the May/December romance - I think it's more like early/mid December, considering she's 62 and he's 58...) is fun and much faster paced than the slow build of Alec and Dennie. There's even a tertiary romance that's pretty funny, all things considered. OK, it was only 4 days but still... I really enjoyed it! 5 stars!