Jennifer Crusie: Getting Rid of Bradley

MY REVIEW

Getting Rid of Bradley
Author: Jennifer Crusie
Release: November 30, 1994
List Price: $6.99

Read: October 7-8, 2009
My Rating:


Author Homepage | Book Page | Excerpt | Amazon.com

SUMMARY (from inside flaps)
High school physics teacher Lucy Savage is finally getting rid of Bradley - and his hideous green recliner. In fact, her front lawn is littered with her cheating ex-husband's belongings. Because despite standing her up in divorce court, Bradley is out of her life for good. Or so she thinks.

When her sister takes her to lunch to celebrate Lucy's single status, all their talk of a no-good louse named Bradley catches the attention of a cop - who wants to arrest the very same Bradley fro embezzlement. And Officer Zach Warren figures the lovely Lucy can lead him straight to his target.

When someone shoots at Lucy and then blows up her car, Zach insists she needs twenty-four-hour protection. What does he think her three dogs and attack cat are for? Still, he insists on moving right in to Lucy's house.

Now there's danger lurking outside and in her own kitchen, bathroom - and bedroom. Or maybe Zach, who looks like a bad boy with that shaggy dark hair and black leather jacket, is really one of the good guys, and just what Lucy needs.

MY OPINION
Getting Rid of Bradley was a wonderful, light, breezy, and humorous book that I would definitely recommend. Reads very quickly and in a way it almost feels like a short story.

The two main characters, Lucy and Zach, are absolutely great and the type that you would have love to have as friends. Lucy is hysterical, I loved her dogs and self-reflections, and the whole blinking gag throughout the book was funny. Zach is extremely intense and energetic and is himself also hysterical; he's perfect for Lucy and they counterbalance one another very well. Their interactions were charming and Zach is so sweet to Lucy and says/thinks/does wonderful things that just made me sigh and wish for my own Detective Zach Warren.

The supporting characters were extremely well done, especially Anthony (Zach's partner) and Tina (Lucy's sister). They both made the story that much better, that much more entertaining, and that much funnier.

OTHER CRUSIE READS
Jennifer Crusie has written some great other books, including Bet Me (5 stars - FANTASTIC!; read my review here), Manhunting (3.5 to 4 stars), and Anyone But You (3.5 stars; read this review).

Nora Roberts: Finding the Dream

MY REVIEW

Finding the Dream
Series: Dream Trilogy, Book 3
Author: Nora Roberts
Release: July 31, 1997
List Price: $7.99

Read: September 28-29, 2009
My Rating:


Author Homepage | Amazon.com

SUMMARY (from online)
Nora Roberts presents the final novel in a dramatic trilogy. Margo, Kate, and Laura were brought up like sisters amidst the peerless grandeur of Templeton House. But it was Laura who seemed to have it all - until she lost almost everything and had to begin again ...

Laura Templeton found out the hard way that nothing in life is guaranteed. The daughter of a wealthy hotelier, she had always known comfort, privilege, and security. But by the age of thirty, her storybook marriage had been destroyed by her husband's infidelity. Laura's divorce left her both emotionally and financially devastated - but determined to rebuild her life without the help of the Templeton fortune.

Laura had always defined herself as a wife, a daughter, or a mother. Now, she must finally discover Laura the woman ...

SERIES: The Dream Trilogy
I didn't read Book 1 of the Dream Trilogy, Daring to Dream, because the heroine just didn't really do anything for me - lol, don't mean it like that, just that Margo is beautiful and an ex-fashion model and just not really my type of heroine. She seems very nice and I like her as a supporting character in the two other books, but did not have an interest in reading her book. The second book in the series, Holding the Dream, was just as fantastic as Book 3 and I also gave it 4.5 stars.

MY OPINION
Roberts' book summaries are very odd because I feel like they leave out so much - mainly the romance! You know it's there - that's why we read these books - but so many times the hero is hardly mentioned, if at all. This book has the wonderful hero of Michael Fury, Josh's bad-boy friend from childhood (Josh is Laura's brother). He's basically been a nomad/wanderer for most of his life, doing a variety of things - and doing them all well - and he has now recently finally settled on raising / breeding horses.

This book was absolutely *fantastic*!! I love bad-boy heroes and Michael was a great counterpart for Laura; she's so prim and proper, always doing what was right and what she felt she should do, so it was wonderful to have a guy who wanted to focus on her (and her children - the scenes between Michael and her daughters will make you go "awww" out loud), make her live on the wild side and show her passionate side, and really give her the all-consuming love she has always wanted and dreamed (haha, no pun intended) of.

HERO AND HEROINE LOOKALIKES
Laura, the heroine of this book, is very similar to Abby O'Hurley, from Roberts' short story The Last Honest Woman, which is the first story in Born O'Hurley and Book 1 of the O'Hurley Collection (I rated that story 4.5-5 stars). Both women had horrible marriages and husbands that were complete ____ who abused them either emotionally or physically and left them in financially dire straits.

Michael, the hero, reminded me of Murphy Muldoon, from Born in Shame (rated 4 stars), in the way that they're both very comfortable with themselves, who they are, and what they want from life. They are also similar in their livelihoods, and connection to natureand the heroine of the books they're in.

BEST AMAZON.COM REVIEW
The review is by Jill Clardy and is repasted below, but here is the permalink if you want to read it on the Amazon.com website.

"Two years after her loveless 10-year marriage to Peter Ridgeway has ended, Laura Templeton is immersed in working two part-time jobs, raising her two daughters, and running the Templeton estate in Monterey. Peter managed to wipe out most of Laura's considerable assets, but she still has the home and a job working in one of the Templeton hotels. Her life is hectic and overscheduled, but basically lonely.

Enter the dark, mysterious, brooding Michael Fury. Raised nearby but on the 'wrong side of the tracks', Michael had been a good friend of Laura's brother, Josh, but had left the area right after high school to live a life of danger and adventure. Michael is back in the area, raising and breeding horses, but his stables and home were destroyed in a mudslide and Josh convinces Laura to let Michael rent her unused stables until he can rebuild.

Having married Peter at 18, Laura has little experience with dating or flirtation, and has compartmentalized and organized her life, leaving no room for dating or passion. When Michael strikes her a spark in her, she is confused and in denial, but he pursues her relentlessly. He is charming, sexy, good with animals and wonderful with her two daughters.

The usual misunderstandings, protective family, meddling friends, and circumstances attempt to thwart their romance, but after all this is a romance novel, so you know the guy gets the girl in the end. I didn't realize that the book was part of a trilogy, but the characters and scene are so captivating that the book stands alone and is a quick, entertaining, satisfying read."

Jennifer Crusie: Anyone But You

MY REVIEW

Anyone But You
Author: Jennifer Crusie
Release: July 31, 1996
List Price: $13.22 (hardcover), $6.99 (mass market paperback)

Read: September 29-29, 2009
My Rating:


Author Homepage | Book Page | Excerpt | Amazon.com

SUMMARY (from inside flaps)

~ Part basset, part beagle, all Cupid ... can a matchmaking hound fetch a new love for his owner? ~

For Nina Askew, turning forty means freedom - from the ex-husband whose career always came first, from their stuffy suburban home. Freedom to have her own apartment in the city, freedom to focus on what she wants for a change. And what she wants is something her ex always vetoed - a puppy. A bouncy puppy to cheer her up. Instead she gets ... Fred.

Overweight, smelly and obviously suffering from some kind of doggy depression, Fred is light-years from perky. But for all his faults, he does manage to put Nina face-to-face with Alex Moore, her gorgeous, younger downstairs neighbor.

Alex looks great on paper - a sexy, seemingly sane, surprisingly single E.R. doctor who shares Fred's abiding love for Oreos - but a ten-year difference in age, despite his devastating smile, is too wide a gap for Nina to handle. Ignoring her insistent best friend, some interfering do-gooders and the ubiquitous Fred - not to mention her suddenly raging hormones - Nina thinks anyone but Alex would be better bet for a relationship. But with every silver-haired stiff she dates, the more she suspects it's the young dog-loving doctor she wants to sit and stay!

MY OPINION
Crusie wrote Anyone But You in 1995 and it was a great read and highly enjoyable, but it felt more like a short story than a full-length novel. Her book, Bet Me, that I just read recently and absolutely loved, was written about 9 years later and I think she has definitely come a long way between the two.

Anyone But You still has her trademark great characters (both main and secondary - loved Charity and especially Max, Alex's brother), wonderful humorous scenes, and great romance and chemistry. But like I said, it just feels like a short story when compared to Bet Me, there just isn't the same plot development, character development, detail (scenes are mentioned - Alex and Nina have dinner as a couple with each of their families, but whereas similar dinners are described in Bet Me, here they're just referenced), etc. Still a great read though and definitely worth checking out from the library - I'm just not going to be buying my own copy.