Help! Either I have no life or I read/skim too fast - two Julie James books in one day! Truth is, both - I don't have a life and I loved these books so much, I couldn't read fast enough!!
This one is related to Something About You by characters, making it Book #2 in a series of sorts - the hero and heroine from the first book playing minor character roles. Plus, YAY! there is an excerpt from Book #3 and the hero is Kyle! Oh wait, plot:
No lawyers! ::Shock:: Hero is FBI undercover agent Nick McCall, masquerading as Nick Stanton, aka Tall, Dark and Smoldering date of heiress and wine store owner Jordan Rhodes. It's slightly complicated: Jordan's twin brother Kyle shut down Twitter with a DoS attack and is now in prison as a result; FBI needs to get into a classy party that Jordan is invited to, so they offer to reduce Kyle's sentence if she lets an FBI agent accompany her. And it's related to the plot of Book #1 with original bad guy Roberto Martino, now behind bars.
The H/H don't know each other before she is brought into the FBI, so they don't have a We Hate Each Other history, but they manage to annoy each other a little anyway. She's the daughter of a man who made it big in the computer industry - as in, Billionaire - while he's from a slightly lower class Brooklyn background, so there is the element of Not Exactly Made for Each Other.
And Ms. James is ramping up the heat in her books big time. Big. Time. Jordan and Nick start out with sexual innuendos early on, and the chemistry is thick and there is no pussy-footing around. She paints a really terrific character portrait - both characters are smart, sassy and well developed by her prose. It's funny to me that I can sorta see them and experience what they are feeling from their thoughts, but I don't actually have faces for them. But I like them both very much!
She's also ramping up the suspense/thriller plot - not that the reader doesn't know who the bad guys are, they do - but still, having the bad guys get badder does also ramp up the adrenaline while reading. I like it! No, I love it! 5 stars
Showing posts with label romantic comedy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label romantic comedy. Show all posts
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Something About You by Julie James *****
Something about Julie James' books... They're like mini-oreos, I just keep popping them in my mouth and enjoying! When I started this one, I thought maybe I should space them out. After all, how many lawyer-heroines could I read about in a row? A lot, apparently!
This one has a lawyer heroine (Assistant US Attorney) and an FBI hero - and once again, they are mortal enemies. Rightly so - since she put the kibosh on a case he had spent 2 years undercover on, and then he called her rude names on national tv. Now they're flung back together after she hears a murder in the hotel room next door.
This one had a more serious, thriller-ish spin to it since she is a witness to a crime. Even so, James' trademark humor (yeah, 3 books in) was there - keeping me pinned to the futon, turning pages to get it all in, laughing and on the edge of my seat, as much as one can be on a futon. Even with lawyer-heroines and we-hate-each-other similarities in the plotlines, the stories are all different - not even related by characters.
Can't wait til they come out in audio - and I really can't wait for the dreadful Balogh/Flosnik audiobook I'm trying to finish to be over. It's been almost 2 weeks of misery because I can't bring myself to spend large chunks of time listening to Flosnik's iceberg narration and Balogh's interminable introspective questions... waaaah.
This one has a lawyer heroine (Assistant US Attorney) and an FBI hero - and once again, they are mortal enemies. Rightly so - since she put the kibosh on a case he had spent 2 years undercover on, and then he called her rude names on national tv. Now they're flung back together after she hears a murder in the hotel room next door.
This one had a more serious, thriller-ish spin to it since she is a witness to a crime. Even so, James' trademark humor (yeah, 3 books in) was there - keeping me pinned to the futon, turning pages to get it all in, laughing and on the edge of my seat, as much as one can be on a futon. Even with lawyer-heroines and we-hate-each-other similarities in the plotlines, the stories are all different - not even related by characters.
Can't wait til they come out in audio - and I really can't wait for the dreadful Balogh/Flosnik audiobook I'm trying to finish to be over. It's been almost 2 weeks of misery because I can't bring myself to spend large chunks of time listening to Flosnik's iceberg narration and Balogh's interminable introspective questions... waaaah.
Practice Makes Perfect by Julie James *****
What a fun read this was! I decided not to wait to see if it came out in audio, like the first book "Just the Sexiest Man Alive", and got the next 3 books from Amazon. (long wait lists on PBS!)
This plot pits 2 lawyers, associates in their firm, against each other. Payton and J.D. joined the firm at the same time (I had no idea this was called a Class or Year, like school, in law firms - how odd). Now they are told that only 1 of them will be made partner because of cutbacks.
From the first day they met, they established a rivalry when something Payton said to J.D. was interpreted as an insult, and they've spent 8 years hating one another and playing tricks and otherwise trying to trip up the other. Payton was raised by a single hippie vegan mom, and Payton herself is vegetarian and liberal; J.D. comes from Old Money, Republican and traditional in every way. Of course, the chemistry between them is so electric it's funny that everyone but them is aware of it. Payton is set up with blind date Chase, the Perfect Man, so like her that she always feels comfortable with him - but not chemistry.
James puts them in the most hysterical spots - I found myself laughing out loud several times. And she builds the tension slowly, so slowly, that it takes almost to the end of the book before you even get a glimmer of hope they'll resolve their differences. I kept wondering how they would pull the relationship together in light of the threat that one of them would have to leave the firm, and I loved the resolution! OK, maybe those "realists" will say it would never happen that way in real life - let them eat cake and stop reading romantic comedy! 5 stars
This plot pits 2 lawyers, associates in their firm, against each other. Payton and J.D. joined the firm at the same time (I had no idea this was called a Class or Year, like school, in law firms - how odd). Now they are told that only 1 of them will be made partner because of cutbacks.
From the first day they met, they established a rivalry when something Payton said to J.D. was interpreted as an insult, and they've spent 8 years hating one another and playing tricks and otherwise trying to trip up the other. Payton was raised by a single hippie vegan mom, and Payton herself is vegetarian and liberal; J.D. comes from Old Money, Republican and traditional in every way. Of course, the chemistry between them is so electric it's funny that everyone but them is aware of it. Payton is set up with blind date Chase, the Perfect Man, so like her that she always feels comfortable with him - but not chemistry.
James puts them in the most hysterical spots - I found myself laughing out loud several times. And she builds the tension slowly, so slowly, that it takes almost to the end of the book before you even get a glimmer of hope they'll resolve their differences. I kept wondering how they would pull the relationship together in light of the threat that one of them would have to leave the firm, and I loved the resolution! OK, maybe those "realists" will say it would never happen that way in real life - let them eat cake and stop reading romantic comedy! 5 stars
Saturday, January 22, 2011
Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips*****
Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth PhillipsMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I loved it! I was very happy with the new narrator, Shannon Cochran, too - she almost rises to the level of Kate Fleming/Anna Fields, and although I haven't done a re-listen to the earlier books in a while, I felt like her voices were close enough to the originals.
This is Ted and Meg's book, although when you start, it's Lucy Jorik from First Lady as the bride. Lucy's best friend Meg seems to be the only one who can tell that Lucy and Ted aren't the love-match everyone thinks, and encourages Lucy to follow her heart. Lucy does exactly that - jilting Ted at the altar! Of course, Meg is such a blunt screw-up that she ends up taking the blame, which everyone in Wynette, including Ted, heaps on her. Meg, whose parents have cut off the money to force her to take responsibility, realizes she's stuck there with no money, forced to work at whatever she can find and live out of her car until she can repay the hotel. Over the next several weeks, Meg experiences what Ted's mother Francesca did in her own story (Fancy Pants) - the growth of self-esteem from doing a job well.
It really was such fun to revisit all the citizens of Wynette and the original stories - I was almost disappointed when Lady Emma was mentioned reading Beatrix Potter because I expected her to be reading Daphne The Bunny books! Of course, that was a completely different series, but then how did Glitter Baby, What I Did For Love and First Lady get into the golf series??
I did have the slightest quibble with Cochran's narration - I mean, really I liked it a LOT, and I felt like she followed in Anna Fields' footsteps well. I even thought she sounded a little bit like SEP herself, having heard her in online videos. There were some passages that seemed to drone on and on that she could have livened up somewhat, but overall her voice suited the story well. I'm not sure if I had read the other stories right before this that her other characters would have fared all that well - hearing them sound different might not have worked, but they did seem to match well enough what was in my head.
Saturday, January 8, 2011
Call Me Irresistible by Susan Elizabeth Phillips: EXCERPT
OK, I am SO looking forward to this! The narration of Chapter One is EXCELLENT - her tone is just right for SEP's voice, and the characters are wonderful! This is Ted Beaudine and Meg Koranda's story - with Lucy Jorik as a secondary character.
January 18...
January 18...
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Just The Sexiest Man Alive by Julie James *****
Just the Sexiest Man Alive by Julie JamesMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
THIS WAS A GREAT BOOK! I was tempted into it by The Group (the Speaking of Audiobooks group), and partway in I admit I was sorta shaking my head, thinking No, it's too much like that inner fantasy we all had as impressionable pre-teens that some celebrity would think we could be best friends if we could just meet them in person. But no, the author - and bless her, the narrator Karen White - had such a great voice for this story. The tone almost bordered on snarky, but never really crossed the line. Our heroine, Taylor, was a smart, sassy and sarcastic lawyer, and that smart, sassy and sarcastic tone drove the entire story. It wasn't about a fantasy celebrity realizing he could fall in love with a non-Hollywood woman - it was about a woman staying true to herself and still managing to find herself in incredible circumstances. The more caught up Taylor got in the Hollywood scene, the funnier the story became, until at the end I was laughing out loud non-stop! But it's not over-the-top, or farce - it's just funny situations and a heroine that always has a better come-back than anyone else. The last line left me laughing for several minutes!
The narrator really nailed the tone and tenor of the story - I'm going to have to find other books she's narrated, cuz she's good! (apparently I'm not her only fan; her bio indicates she's narrated over 40 books)
Taylor is a hot-shot young lawyer from Chicago, on loan to her firm's LA office for a big case in her specialty, employment law - specifically sexual harassment in the workplace. Coincidentally, hot-shot actor and Sexiest Man Alive Jason Andrews has asked her firm to let him spend time with a lawyer as research for an upcoming film, and Taylor has to juggle a womanizing, bad-boy actor with a $30M lawsuit in the few months she is assigned to LA. She immediately takes a dislike to the playboy and pretty much manages to one-up him at every turn. Next thing you know, she's The Mystery Woman, seen only from the back in photos with the Sexiest Man Alive.
Jason is at first annoyed, then amused and then challenged by Taylor. The more time he spends with her, the more interested he becomes. However, being a Man, he manages to make more than his fair share of relationship mistakes, especially considering their relationship is pretty much strictly business in Taylor's mind. Enter the runner-up for every title Jason holds, pretty boy Scott who is out to topple Jason from his throne - and things start to really get complicated.
Wednesday, November 3, 2010
Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie ****
Re-read as audio book in 2010 - originally read as paperback in Nov 2008- review follows:
I'm on a pretty serious Jennifer Crusie glom, mostly because I picked up a Lot of her books on eBay this month. She's got a definite style - witty, rapid-fire banter, women who fix things, Notable Pets - and this book has it all. It's a murder mystery too (and now that it's over, I'm still not clear on who killed which of the many bodies that showed up!)
The main heroine is Nell - a recent divorcée whose husband left her for a younger woman after 22 years of marriage. She's still in the walking-dead stage, something anyone who's been there might recognize - lost a lot of weight and still in denial about what happened. The opening scene (which is hysterical) has her sitting in the office of the main hero, Gabe, a PI looking to hire an office manager. While he talks on the phone, she manages to single-handedly and inadvertently wreck his office, complete with breaking a window and putting a hole in the carpet - I was laughing out loud the whole time.
Gabe's baggage is pretty heavy too - he's still sleeping with his ex-wife, they have a college-aged daughter, and their businesses are right next door to one another. His PI business has been around since before he was born, when his dad ran it. His father died some years back, but nothing has changed - the decor, the clientele - all leftover from the 1950s.
Nell starts to change all that the instant she gets the job, and meets resistance at every turn from Gabe and even from his cousin/partner Riley somewhat. But when Nell realizes the former secretary (that she replaced) swindled them out of $5k+, and then is found dead in a freezer, things start to, well, heat up - which is kinda funny since many of the deaths involve a freezer...
As usual for Ms Crusie's stories, there's a whole slew of characters including Nell's best friends Suze and Margie, who are also related to her by marriage, and whose families are also major clients of Gabe and Riley's agency. There's Gabe's side of the aisle as well - ex-wife Chloe, daughter Lu, clients Trevor (Margie's father), Jack (Suze's husband) and Budge (Margie's SO). Once again, a scorecard would come in handy to keep track of who's who. At one point, Nell points out she's slept with everyone at the table except her ex-husband's new wife in a crowd that includes the ex-husband, Gabe, Riley and Suze. Sorta boggles the mind and was another very funny scene to boot.
Oh, Notable Pet mention: Marlene (think Dietrich), formerly known as SugarPie, is the long-haired dachsund Nell stole from the ex-husband of a would-be client because the client thought the dog was being mistreated. It was Nell's first bad decision...
While the hunt is on to figure out what the former-now-deceased secretary was looking for and who killed her, there's an ongoing power struggle between Nell and Gabe that develops, albeit realistically slowly, into a relationship. Of sorts. It takes a while to form and grow and develop a life of its own.
So, it was a murder mystery that was also a romp (seems a little odd, no?) and I'm going with 4 stars.
------
audio book notes: the narrator is Sandra Burr and she's good in other books I've listened to - however, I finished this a couple of days ago and did not make any notes. Ooops, who can remember after a couple of days??
I'm on a pretty serious Jennifer Crusie glom, mostly because I picked up a Lot of her books on eBay this month. She's got a definite style - witty, rapid-fire banter, women who fix things, Notable Pets - and this book has it all. It's a murder mystery too (and now that it's over, I'm still not clear on who killed which of the many bodies that showed up!)
The main heroine is Nell - a recent divorcée whose husband left her for a younger woman after 22 years of marriage. She's still in the walking-dead stage, something anyone who's been there might recognize - lost a lot of weight and still in denial about what happened. The opening scene (which is hysterical) has her sitting in the office of the main hero, Gabe, a PI looking to hire an office manager. While he talks on the phone, she manages to single-handedly and inadvertently wreck his office, complete with breaking a window and putting a hole in the carpet - I was laughing out loud the whole time.
Gabe's baggage is pretty heavy too - he's still sleeping with his ex-wife, they have a college-aged daughter, and their businesses are right next door to one another. His PI business has been around since before he was born, when his dad ran it. His father died some years back, but nothing has changed - the decor, the clientele - all leftover from the 1950s.
Nell starts to change all that the instant she gets the job, and meets resistance at every turn from Gabe and even from his cousin/partner Riley somewhat. But when Nell realizes the former secretary (that she replaced) swindled them out of $5k+, and then is found dead in a freezer, things start to, well, heat up - which is kinda funny since many of the deaths involve a freezer...
As usual for Ms Crusie's stories, there's a whole slew of characters including Nell's best friends Suze and Margie, who are also related to her by marriage, and whose families are also major clients of Gabe and Riley's agency. There's Gabe's side of the aisle as well - ex-wife Chloe, daughter Lu, clients Trevor (Margie's father), Jack (Suze's husband) and Budge (Margie's SO). Once again, a scorecard would come in handy to keep track of who's who. At one point, Nell points out she's slept with everyone at the table except her ex-husband's new wife in a crowd that includes the ex-husband, Gabe, Riley and Suze. Sorta boggles the mind and was another very funny scene to boot.
Oh, Notable Pet mention: Marlene (think Dietrich), formerly known as SugarPie, is the long-haired dachsund Nell stole from the ex-husband of a would-be client because the client thought the dog was being mistreated. It was Nell's first bad decision...
While the hunt is on to figure out what the former-now-deceased secretary was looking for and who killed her, there's an ongoing power struggle between Nell and Gabe that develops, albeit realistically slowly, into a relationship. Of sorts. It takes a while to form and grow and develop a life of its own.
So, it was a murder mystery that was also a romp (seems a little odd, no?) and I'm going with 4 stars.
------
audio book notes: the narrator is Sandra Burr and she's good in other books I've listened to - however, I finished this a couple of days ago and did not make any notes. Ooops, who can remember after a couple of days??
Trust Me On This by Jennifer Crusie *****
Trust Me on This by Jennifer CrusieMy 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.
View all my reviews
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!
Monday, November 1, 2010
It Must Be Love by Rachel Gibson ***
This is one of the last books by Rachel Gibson I hadn't yet read - surely by now I'm almost completely caught up in glomming her backlist!
This one didn't have much new or fun to offer - the copyright date was 2000, and in internet years that's about 1 billion, but in romance novel years, it's maybe only 20 or so. Really, the internet and everything related to it - ipods/mp3 players, smart phones, etc - date contemporary books so quickly!
I'm not sure why I wandered off course - nothing about the plot was really too dated. It's the Dharma and Greg scenario - she's (slightly) into the New Age stuff, making her own relaxation and massage oils with essential oils, and slightly believing in karma and not really believing in Fate, and trying vegetarianism but lapsing. Gabrielle Breedlove runs her own small business with a partner, Kevin, and is suspected of participating in a burglary ring that is ripping off art and antiques and fencing them.
Joe's the detective assigned to follow her every cute little move to see if he can catch her fencing the goods. Unfortunately she's on to him - except she assumes he's a stalker, and drops him with a can of hairspray. Then she becomes his confidential informant, so he poses as her - oh, gee, how about BOYFRIEND? and hangs around her shop trying to catch Kevin.
Yeah, they're opposites-attract, and there's an okay plot, and of course I like Gibson's writing pretty good, so it's a 3-star, okay read. Not going in my favorites list or anything, but it's... okay.
This one didn't have much new or fun to offer - the copyright date was 2000, and in internet years that's about 1 billion, but in romance novel years, it's maybe only 20 or so. Really, the internet and everything related to it - ipods/mp3 players, smart phones, etc - date contemporary books so quickly!
I'm not sure why I wandered off course - nothing about the plot was really too dated. It's the Dharma and Greg scenario - she's (slightly) into the New Age stuff, making her own relaxation and massage oils with essential oils, and slightly believing in karma and not really believing in Fate, and trying vegetarianism but lapsing. Gabrielle Breedlove runs her own small business with a partner, Kevin, and is suspected of participating in a burglary ring that is ripping off art and antiques and fencing them.
Joe's the detective assigned to follow her every cute little move to see if he can catch her fencing the goods. Unfortunately she's on to him - except she assumes he's a stalker, and drops him with a can of hairspray. Then she becomes his confidential informant, so he poses as her - oh, gee, how about BOYFRIEND? and hangs around her shop trying to catch Kevin.
Yeah, they're opposites-attract, and there's an okay plot, and of course I like Gibson's writing pretty good, so it's a 3-star, okay read. Not going in my favorites list or anything, but it's... okay.
Sunday, October 24, 2010
Maybe This Time by Jennifer Crusie *****
What a fun story this was! It's a Romantic Comedy Ghost Story With Kids, as Crusie herself describes it in a very funny interview with Susan Elizabeth Phillips. And I listened to it and the narrator, Angela Dawe, was wonderful! She has a youthful narrator voice - not child-like, but not too mature, which is nice; however, she did all voices, all ages, wonderfully, consistently, so that you were never unsure who was talking.
There is one thing about Crusie's writing - she does write "he said" and "she said" a lot which doesn't bother me when reading, but when hearing it, it gets redundant. Ok that's my only criticism. I guess other authors leave out the "he said" "she said" when there's a long dialogue, or maybe they use different verbs, like "she sighed" or "he intoned". I like "he murmured" - that's my favorite. Hey, at least this narrator didn't "heh heh" every time that one annoying character did it - the narrator just read what Crusie wrote and didn't try to add sound effects!!
The heroine is Andie - she left her ex-husband North 10 years ago, after a passionate courtship, whirlwind wedding and 1 year of wedded... boredom. He got so involved in the family business he all but forgot about her. They divorced, and she spent the next 10 years wandering - looking for a place to light. She finally meets the man who adores her, and although she hasn't said YES to his question, figures it is time to flush North from her mind so she can wed this new guy in peace.
North has a couple of problems, and when Andie shows up to give back all the uncashed alimony checks he sent her, he decides to ask her help. She agrees to spend 1 month with his new wards, 8 and 12 years old, for $10,000 - all she has to do is get them ready to move from their ancient, moat-surrounded and haunted house, something 3 previous nannies have not been able to do. Oh, yeah, one of his problems IS Andie - he's never really gotten over her.
Crusie writes great characters - Andie's mother is a tarot-reading hippie, North's mother is a ball-busting-bitch, North's younger brother is a ne'er-do-well womanizing rogue who manages to involve a career-climbing tv journalist, a parapsychologist and a whole bunch of other characters in the shenanigans which involve ghosts, death, and moving on. Of course, there are also the children - they're both a little odd, having to deal with ghosts in their everyday lives, but normal otherwise, once Andie reaches out to them.
And in addition to a Happily Ever After for Andie and North, there's a sort of trailer at the end - another HEA? Or a cliff-hanger? It was so much fun, and I ended up sitting up half the night, playing Sudoku (or is it Soduko?) and listening because I couldn't put it down. (should have been knitting - xmas is coming!!)
It seems I've heard Angela Dawe before - she narrated the 2nd in Nora Robert's Bride Quartet, which I've read, and the 3rd, which is in my TBR list. I give her a 4.9-star because, frankly, she's got to stand in line behind my absolute favorites: Anna Fields/Kate Fleming, Davina Porter, Barbara Rosenblat - and it may be a few years of experience for her to reach their 5 star status! The book is 5 stars - I loved it!
There is one thing about Crusie's writing - she does write "he said" and "she said" a lot which doesn't bother me when reading, but when hearing it, it gets redundant. Ok that's my only criticism. I guess other authors leave out the "he said" "she said" when there's a long dialogue, or maybe they use different verbs, like "she sighed" or "he intoned". I like "he murmured" - that's my favorite. Hey, at least this narrator didn't "heh heh" every time that one annoying character did it - the narrator just read what Crusie wrote and didn't try to add sound effects!!
The heroine is Andie - she left her ex-husband North 10 years ago, after a passionate courtship, whirlwind wedding and 1 year of wedded... boredom. He got so involved in the family business he all but forgot about her. They divorced, and she spent the next 10 years wandering - looking for a place to light. She finally meets the man who adores her, and although she hasn't said YES to his question, figures it is time to flush North from her mind so she can wed this new guy in peace.
North has a couple of problems, and when Andie shows up to give back all the uncashed alimony checks he sent her, he decides to ask her help. She agrees to spend 1 month with his new wards, 8 and 12 years old, for $10,000 - all she has to do is get them ready to move from their ancient, moat-surrounded and haunted house, something 3 previous nannies have not been able to do. Oh, yeah, one of his problems IS Andie - he's never really gotten over her.
Crusie writes great characters - Andie's mother is a tarot-reading hippie, North's mother is a ball-busting-bitch, North's younger brother is a ne'er-do-well womanizing rogue who manages to involve a career-climbing tv journalist, a parapsychologist and a whole bunch of other characters in the shenanigans which involve ghosts, death, and moving on. Of course, there are also the children - they're both a little odd, having to deal with ghosts in their everyday lives, but normal otherwise, once Andie reaches out to them.
And in addition to a Happily Ever After for Andie and North, there's a sort of trailer at the end - another HEA? Or a cliff-hanger? It was so much fun, and I ended up sitting up half the night, playing Sudoku (or is it Soduko?) and listening because I couldn't put it down. (should have been knitting - xmas is coming!!)
It seems I've heard Angela Dawe before - she narrated the 2nd in Nora Robert's Bride Quartet, which I've read, and the 3rd, which is in my TBR list. I give her a 4.9-star because, frankly, she's got to stand in line behind my absolute favorites: Anna Fields/Kate Fleming, Davina Porter, Barbara Rosenblat - and it may be a few years of experience for her to reach their 5 star status! The book is 5 stars - I loved it!
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Princess Charming by Jane Heller ****
This was the other Jane Heller I read this week - also that romance/chick lit style, first person POV, mostly about the heroine and her best friends and with a side dish of romance.
The friends - 3 women who met when going through their mid-life divorces - were on a Caribbean cruise, apparently spending the exes' money as often as possible, based on the list of vacations they had taken together. During a storm on the ocean, the phone lines get crossed, and our heroine Elaine hears a conversation between an apparent hit-man and his employer in which he tells the hit-man he better kill his ex-wife. Elaine already has a reputation for blowing things out of proportion and panicking over nothing, so she says nothing to her friends about it, but tries to convince the ship captain and local authorities at every stop that someone is in danger.
The hero is Sam, an insurance salesman on the cruise who becomes romantically involved with Elaine. He and some other characters - I mean that both in the "book" way and in the "he's a character" way - are the women's table mates for the duration of the cruise.
The zany mishaps of the 3 divorcees and table conversations of Table 186 make up most of the humor of the book, and I did laugh out loud several times. Heller's love scenes fade to black once the kissing starts, but she does create real tension for her protagonists even if she doesn't let us share it. And if you like older protagonists - at 45, she might have been the oldest heroine I'd read about in a while (ok, Family Blessings by LaVyrle Spencer was the other).
4 stars for the laughs
The friends - 3 women who met when going through their mid-life divorces - were on a Caribbean cruise, apparently spending the exes' money as often as possible, based on the list of vacations they had taken together. During a storm on the ocean, the phone lines get crossed, and our heroine Elaine hears a conversation between an apparent hit-man and his employer in which he tells the hit-man he better kill his ex-wife. Elaine already has a reputation for blowing things out of proportion and panicking over nothing, so she says nothing to her friends about it, but tries to convince the ship captain and local authorities at every stop that someone is in danger.
The hero is Sam, an insurance salesman on the cruise who becomes romantically involved with Elaine. He and some other characters - I mean that both in the "book" way and in the "he's a character" way - are the women's table mates for the duration of the cruise.
The zany mishaps of the 3 divorcees and table conversations of Table 186 make up most of the humor of the book, and I did laugh out loud several times. Heller's love scenes fade to black once the kissing starts, but she does create real tension for her protagonists even if she doesn't let us share it. And if you like older protagonists - at 45, she might have been the oldest heroine I'd read about in a while (ok, Family Blessings by LaVyrle Spencer was the other).
4 stars for the laughs
Name Dropping by Jane Heller ****
I had picked up two Jane Hellers in hardback from the local Goodwill over a year ago, and decided to read them just this past week. The 3 Heller books I've read have been good - a little more on the chick lit side of romance than my usual fare, with first person POV and a love story mixed in with a story of personal growth and some best friends.
In Name Dropping, kindergarten teacher Nancy Stern just found out that a semi-famous journalist, also named Nancy Stern, had moved into her apartment building in Manhattan. She discovered this when she started receiving invitations by mail to some very chic parties and even to the White House. She also got phone calls for Ms Stern, all of which she reported to the "right" Nancy Stern - except for one.
When Bill called for a blind date at the insistence of a mutual friend (of the "right" Nancy), the Wrong Nancy was so intrigued with his voice that she lied and pretended to be the other one. They went on a date, she lied and lied and felt the magic sparks of true love so much that she forgot to ever own up to her identity. After about 3 dates, she decided that just breaking up with him was going to be easier than revealing that she had been lying all this time. Then, however, the Real, semi-famous Nancy was murdered in her apartment, and everything changed.
Bill worked for a jewelry store - well, he told her he was the manager of the store. And when she went there, to show him a brooch given to her by one of her rich young charges, he was there and told her it was probably paste but he would test it. Was it paste?
OK, there I get into spoiler territory. Was he the manager? Not gonna say. It was a fun romp, lots of Heller's style of humor and her best-friend sidekicks, with this murder-mystery going on in the background. I enjoyed it, going into it knowing it was not what I usually like but still...
4 stars
In Name Dropping, kindergarten teacher Nancy Stern just found out that a semi-famous journalist, also named Nancy Stern, had moved into her apartment building in Manhattan. She discovered this when she started receiving invitations by mail to some very chic parties and even to the White House. She also got phone calls for Ms Stern, all of which she reported to the "right" Nancy Stern - except for one.
When Bill called for a blind date at the insistence of a mutual friend (of the "right" Nancy), the Wrong Nancy was so intrigued with his voice that she lied and pretended to be the other one. They went on a date, she lied and lied and felt the magic sparks of true love so much that she forgot to ever own up to her identity. After about 3 dates, she decided that just breaking up with him was going to be easier than revealing that she had been lying all this time. Then, however, the Real, semi-famous Nancy was murdered in her apartment, and everything changed.
Bill worked for a jewelry store - well, he told her he was the manager of the store. And when she went there, to show him a brooch given to her by one of her rich young charges, he was there and told her it was probably paste but he would test it. Was it paste?
OK, there I get into spoiler territory. Was he the manager? Not gonna say. It was a fun romp, lots of Heller's style of humor and her best-friend sidekicks, with this murder-mystery going on in the background. I enjoyed it, going into it knowing it was not what I usually like but still...
4 stars
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Movie: 27 Dresses ****
This movie wasn't really on my To See list until I read a thread on the upcoming movie of the books by Janet Evanovich which feature the character Stephanie Plum. I've never read them, but there's the usual brou-ha-ha over Katherine Heigl as the lead (no one ever likes the choices for characters they've already read about and come to imagine in their minds!)
So I pushed it to the top of my long-neglected Netflix queue, and watched it tonight. I really liked it! That's 4 stars, not 5 - mainly because, while I really did like it, it didn't grab me and make me want to revisit it several times.
In it, Heigl's character is Jane - always a bridesmaid, never a bride. It seems Jane's mother died when she was young, and she grew up feeling like she needed to take care of younger sister Tess and eventually her boss George and 27 of her friends in whose wedding she was a bridesmaid. Always saying "yes" to anyone who she thought needed her help. Plus, she did have a love affair with the wedding itself!
Her one secret obsession is with journalist Malcolm Doyle, who writes the Commitments section of the paper. She finds his romantic stories of engagements and weddings so beautiful, she clips and keeps them all.
Her boss (George) is her perfect ideal of a man. He's everything she's ever wanted in a man, with one exception: he only sees her as his assistant. Oh, he loves her as his assistant. He loves what she does. But he doesn't see her as a woman at all. In fact, when younger sister Tess comes to stay, suddenly he thinks he has found his perfect ideal of a woman - in Tess! Dang.
Jane runs into Kevin (James Marsden - he truly has a great romantic hero look) at a wedding she keeps slipping out of to attend another wedding. She even hires a cab for the night to ferry her back and forth between the 2 so that no one misses her. Kevin is intrigued - what is up with this woman dashing into and out of the wedding - so he follows her to the cab and gets an eyeful as she changes bridesmaid outfits in the back of the cab. Now he is even more intrigued and spends a lot of time annoying her by calling and following her around.
Well, it was a cute little romantic comedy in which we learn that Kevin - Kevin DOYLE that is - has a pen name, Malcolm. It takes Jane a long time to see Kevin as anyone other than an adversary trying to ruin her life by making her learn the value of saying NO to her friends once in a while. And the ending epilogue with the 27 brides was perfect!
Yeah, I laughed and smiled and felt for poor Jane - her friend Casey was the only one who seemed to realize what she was going through! and so in the end, I felt I needed to add my review to my blog in case I forget what the plot was and try to rent it again!! I thought Heigl was good, and since I haven't read the Stephanie Plum books, I'm all for her getting the role!! (maybe I'll break down and read them, although they are really chick lit - she never settles for a particular guy.) and James Marsden is so cute - no, he's handsome in a romance-novel way - so he was fun as the hero.
So I pushed it to the top of my long-neglected Netflix queue, and watched it tonight. I really liked it! That's 4 stars, not 5 - mainly because, while I really did like it, it didn't grab me and make me want to revisit it several times.
In it, Heigl's character is Jane - always a bridesmaid, never a bride. It seems Jane's mother died when she was young, and she grew up feeling like she needed to take care of younger sister Tess and eventually her boss George and 27 of her friends in whose wedding she was a bridesmaid. Always saying "yes" to anyone who she thought needed her help. Plus, she did have a love affair with the wedding itself!
Her one secret obsession is with journalist Malcolm Doyle, who writes the Commitments section of the paper. She finds his romantic stories of engagements and weddings so beautiful, she clips and keeps them all.
Her boss (George) is her perfect ideal of a man. He's everything she's ever wanted in a man, with one exception: he only sees her as his assistant. Oh, he loves her as his assistant. He loves what she does. But he doesn't see her as a woman at all. In fact, when younger sister Tess comes to stay, suddenly he thinks he has found his perfect ideal of a woman - in Tess! Dang.
Jane runs into Kevin (James Marsden - he truly has a great romantic hero look) at a wedding she keeps slipping out of to attend another wedding. She even hires a cab for the night to ferry her back and forth between the 2 so that no one misses her. Kevin is intrigued - what is up with this woman dashing into and out of the wedding - so he follows her to the cab and gets an eyeful as she changes bridesmaid outfits in the back of the cab. Now he is even more intrigued and spends a lot of time annoying her by calling and following her around.
Well, it was a cute little romantic comedy in which we learn that Kevin - Kevin DOYLE that is - has a pen name, Malcolm. It takes Jane a long time to see Kevin as anyone other than an adversary trying to ruin her life by making her learn the value of saying NO to her friends once in a while. And the ending epilogue with the 27 brides was perfect!
Yeah, I laughed and smiled and felt for poor Jane - her friend Casey was the only one who seemed to realize what she was going through! and so in the end, I felt I needed to add my review to my blog in case I forget what the plot was and try to rent it again!! I thought Heigl was good, and since I haven't read the Stephanie Plum books, I'm all for her getting the role!! (maybe I'll break down and read them, although they are really chick lit - she never settles for a particular guy.) and James Marsden is so cute - no, he's handsome in a romance-novel way - so he was fun as the hero.
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