Monday Book Review: Welcome to Temptation, by Jennifer Crusie

Welcome to Temptation, by Jennifer Crusie
First Published 2000, by St. Martin's Press

About the Book:

Sophie Dempsey wants to help her sister film a video and then get out of Temptation, Ohio. Mayor Phin Tucker wants to play pool with the police chief and keep things peaceful. But when Sophie and Phin meet, they both get more than they want. Gossip, blackmail, adultery, murder, vehicular abuse of a corpse, and slightly perverse but excellent sex: all hell breaks loose in Temptation as Sophie and Phin fall deeper and deeper in trouble... and in love.

My Take:

Okay, so I kind of stole this paperback from a friend's house we visited last weekend... I woke up too early and everyone was still asleep and there were books on the shelf over the bed... and I LOVE Jennifer Crusie! This was a book of hers I don't think I've read before and haven't been able to find... so yeah, I totally stole it. Sorry, Sarah.

Jennifer Crusie is a master of contemporary romantic comedy. Smart romance. Sassy, independent heroines who don't fit any sort of cookie cutter stereotypes. Realistic romance and plenty of hot sex without the purple prose. She is my inspiration for choosing to write in the genre and I can only hope to someday make my readers feel a little of what she inspires in me.

If you write romance, you should read a book or two from this masterful writer... If only to feel humbled by her awesome turn of phrase and her appreciation of the absurd. After reading a string of books by debut authors and mediocre writers that I'm not going to post reviews for, it was totally refreshing and wonderful to be reminded what smart romance writing can be. It's all about the emotions, the thoughts, the feelings, the word play, the human interaction. Yes, it's also about the sex, but it needs to be more than that.

There's a great line in this book - well, for me as an author anyway - that reveals some of Crusie's writing philosophy:

"The problem was trying to write a love scene and stay a lady at the same time. It wasn't possible. The minute you started thinking that writing sex was cheap and disgusting, your mind froze up and you wrote boring dreck. It was sort of like having sex. You either threw everything you had into it, or it wasn't worth the bother."

Anyway. If you've never read a Jennifer Crusie book GO GET ONE AND READ IT.

If you've read all her books, try Penny Reid's Knitting in the City series, also filled with smart, sassy, thoughtful characters (who also have hot sex and lots of emotional revelations...)

Find this book on AMAZON or at your local bookstore.

Sunday Reading...

MAYBE THIS TIME is Jennifer Crusie at her best. This 2010 release blends Crusie's light, witty humor with the paranormal touches we've seen in her last few works to create a satisfying romantic comedy. Her characters are well-drawn and likable, and her situations as twisted and amusing as ever.

Andromeda "Andie" Miller left her husband North Archer ten years ago, and is finally ready to move on with her life. She's engaged to marry someone new, and goes to see North for some closure. He asks one final favor of her - and it's a biggie - and she agrees, thinking if she does this for him then it will be over and settled between them. Except, being a Crusie novel, it's a little more complicated than that. Everything is more complicated.

Since Andie left, North has become guardian to two orphaned children living in the southern part of the state who've already driven away three nannies. North asks Andie, a teacher by trade, to go down and assess the children's situation and learning abilities, and see if they're ready to transition to Columbus and public school. Andie accepts, and gets a lot more than she bargained for, including a houseful of ghosts and a second chance to make right her relationship with North.

At 342 pages, it all goes too quickly. The ghosts are well-characterized and believable, if you believe in this sort of thing, which not all the characters in the story do, until it's almost too late. If you like light romantic comedy with a paranormal twist, I would definitely recommend this novel.

Okay, so what are you reading?