TEST
Do most brides have nightmares of being left at the altar? I was in such a haze of love and in such a whirl of activity that I don’t remember that feeling at all. The closest I have come to knowing someone left at the altar is when friends called off the wedding two weeks before the date. They had to contact everyone personally since invitations had already gone out. That was pretty painful, especially for them but also for those of us who received the calls and found ourselves crying for love lost.
Librarian Faith West could certainly relate to the pain. She receives a text from her fiancé canceling the wedding after after it was supposed to start. Surprising herself and her family, she dusts herself off, grabs her bags and goes on her dream honeymoon to Italy alone. She expects to share her Mediterranean vacation with a good book and a camera but instead finds herself sharing spicy dishes with the man of her dreams.
Or should I say the man of her nightmares? Caine Hunter works for the sworn enemy of West Investigations, the firm Faith’s family owns and operates, and part of his assignment in Italy is to keep pretty, perky Faith far away from the clients Vince King has lined up in Europe. Can he help it if he is loving this particular part of his job just a little too much? But the honeymoon without the wedding comes to a crashing halt when Faith figures out just who Caine is.
Heading back to Chicago does neither any good. King and West Investigations are right across the street from each other and the two find themselves on the same sales calls way too often for comfort. Determined to get Caine out of her life once and for all Faith commits herself to solving the case that will finally get him out of the PI business forever. Caine and Faith may be able to dodge the bullets coming their way but will they be equally adept at evading Cupid’s determined arrows? Can a former gung-ho marine and a prim librarian find true love while researching true crime?
Faith was my favorite part of this book. I enjoy a heroine who can take lemons and make lemonade and Faith does just that. She uses her rejection by Alan the loser to make some changes (most notably going from blah to blonde at a salon in Italy) and adding some excitement to her normally staid style. She bounced back better and I couldn’t help but admire that.
Caine might be a stock character from romance novel central but that works here. After being dumped by everyman we are rooting for Faith to get her own romance novel type hero, and that is precisely what she gets.
There are some problems with the book though. For readers tired of the immature back and forth behavior of many romance couples, be warned this book has tons of it. There are inappropriate arguments in restaurants, on the job, involving innocent doormen – the list could go on and on. Most, of course, are followed by heated kisses or lust-think. This is definitely one of those “I hate him, I love him” books.
Linz’s writing style also raised some difficulties for me. One big problem was that she covered the bulk of the week Faith and Cain spent together in Italy in just four short paragraphs. Given that Faith’s preparations for a party took almost as long to describe, I felt decidedly cheated. She also has a tendency to repeat information. If you take a drink every time you read the word “marine” you will spend half the time in the loo. Faith’s being a former librarian isn’t mentioned quite as often but it comes a close second. Linz gives so much specific information (Type of phone Faith has? Blackberry. Music device? Ipod. Favorite band? Bon Jovi.) that it felt like a lot of name dropping was going on. I couldn’t decide if this was a good or bad thing – some authors err too much in the opposite direction but in this case I thought it was a tad overdone. Also overdone were the introductory paragraphs we got with each character telling us exactly how they were related to whom.
The negatives, while enough to keep it from an A or B grade, were not so annoying as to make the book totally un-enjoyable. If you enjoy light hearted mystery plots with some spunky, zany characters (and don’t mind a little name dropping) – you might give this one a try.
Grade: C+
Book Type: Contemporary Romance
Sensuality: Warm
Review Date: 10/04/10
Publication Date: 2010
I've been an avid reader since 2nd grade and discovered romance when my cousin lent me Lord of La Pampa by Kay Thorpe in 7th grade. I currently read approximately 150 books a year, comprised of a mix of Young Adult, romance, mystery, women's fiction, and science fiction/fantasy.
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Recent Comments …
Yep
This sounds delightful! I’m grabbing it, thanks
excellent book: interesting, funny dialogs, deep understanding of each character, interesting secondary characters, and also sexy.
I don’t think anyone expects you to post UK prices – it’s just a shame that such a great sale…
I’m sorry about that. We don’t have any way to post British prices as an American based site.
I have several of her books on my TBR and after reading this am moving them up the pile.