Any Man Of Mine
Category: Rated
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Not Another Bad Date
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Tangled Up In You
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Sex, Lies and Online Dating
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I’m In No Mood For Love
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Nothing But Trouble
beagle?
Anyone But You
After getting a divorce and turning forty Nina is finally getting the dog she always wanted. Only instead of a cute puppy she guilts herself into taking smelly middle-aged Fred home from the shelter.
Alex is under pressure from his family to move into a lucrative medical specialization despite the fact that he’s happy working in the ER.
When Fred ends up in Alex’s apartment rather than Nina’s one flight up a connection is made despite the fact that he’s ten years younger than Nina.
Typically for a Crusie novel this has good dialogue, likeable characters and the usual flaws. What marks this effort down a little is the section towards the end of the book where folk act stupidly in out-of-character ways for no reason than to introduce conflict and extend the story. I feel it’s a lazy device overused by authors when there are more interesting ways to keep conflict between characters available.
catseye?
Welcome To Temptation
Sophie and Amy Dempsey head to the small Town of Temptation, Ohio to film an audition reel for an old friend hoping to break back into the movies after her career derailed.
Sophie is determined to lead an ordinary, normal life given their family legacy of con men and grifters.
One thing leads to another and gossip swirls around the new arrivals, the filming threatens to turn seedy and Sophie starts to fall for the town Mayor.
This is an excellent example of Crusie’s work. There’s cracking dialogue, a great heroine and an intriguing mystery holding things together.
I read the sequel to this – Faking It – in January and going back to this one makes more sense of some of the things in that book and gives the character of Davy Dempsey a bit more depth.
No one in their right mind is going to read as many of this writer’s work back to back as I have but if you want to try her stuff this is one of the good places to start.
marlene?
Fast Women
Nell is stumbling through life after her twenty-two marriage ends in divorce. Looking to start again she takes a job as a temporary secretary at a small Private Detective Agency.
As she drives her new boss crazy trying to modernize the office she starts to find a purpose in life. It doesn’t hurt that the Agency’s caught up in a juicy puzzle involving murder, embezzlement and adultery.
Maybe I’m just getting tired of reading this author’s books or this really is a pretty perfunctory entry in Crusie’s canon. There’s just so many scenes of women being morose over failed or failing marriages and there’s no fun to be had in that.
katie?
Crazy For You
Quinn just wanted to keep the stray dog but when her boyfriend takes the dog to the pound she suddenly realizes that she needs a whole new life. Unfortunately the asshole ex-boyfriend isn’t going to take no for answer.
The tone of this one was weird. The usual Crusie wit is on full display and then suddenly you get whole sections of the ex-boyfriend being creepy as hell and even, unforgivably, trying to get the dog put down.
Thankfully the plot ends with Quinn happily in a relationship with someone the complete opposite of the asshole.