Sunday Reading

It's the first day of April vacation week. Time to stay in pjs as long as possible, drink coffee, and catch up on some reading. So many books of all stripes sitting there in the TBR pile...

I'd like to say I read something deep and intellectual, but c'mon. It's vacation.

Let me start with a disclaimer. I love Jennifer Crusie. I love everything she's ever written. I started with the novels that my library has, and took them out more than once. (Bet Me and Welcome to Temptation are my favorites of the six hardcovers my library owns.) Then I realized there were a bunch more not available in the library, and now being reissued in new paperbacks. Lucky me! Charlie All Night was the first one I found, which I ended up buying twice because I lent the first copy and never got it back. Now I make a point of looking whenever I'm in the bookstore.

The Cinderella Deal is a new reissue of a 1996 book, just released by Bantam Books in 2010. At 278 pages, it's a fast and highly enjoyable read. Fast as in I started it at 9 a.m. and finished it by noon, including time out to make pancakes for the kids (and a pot of coffee for myself.)

The back blurb reads: "Daisy Flattery is a free spirit with a soft spot for strays and a weakness for a good story. Why else would she agree to the outrageous charade offered by her buttoned-down workaholic neighbor, Linc Blaise? The history professor needs to have a fiance in order to capture his dream job, and Daisy is game to play the role. But something funny happens on their way to the altar that changes everything. Now, with the proverbial midnight hour approaching, will Daisy lose her prince, or will opposites not only attract but live happily ever after?

It's an old-fashioned romance, full of sexual tension but no actual sex until toward the end of the book. And it's still a lot sexier than many other nuts-n-bolts romances. Okay, I would have picked different names for some of the characters, but once you get past that, it's a fun book. While Crusie relies on stereotypes for her secondary characters and some situations, her main characters are well-drawn and fully developed emotionally. Fun, fanciful, flirty, fast.Two thumbs up and a grin on my face.

What are you reading?