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2012 Book Review #71: Welcome to Temptation
Title: Welcome to Temptation
Author: Jennifer Crusie
Genre: Contemporary romance
Thingummies: 4.5
Synopsis: Sophie just wants to get into the small town she was hired to film a movie in, do her job, and get out. But with the town council out for blood, her star looking for old flings, a producer trying to turn her sweet love story into porn, a way-too-sexy mayor, and a murder complicating things, Sophie may never escape.
Thoughts: As I've come to expect, Crusie turns out another romance that may not be great literature, but is a near perfect example of the genre.
Sophie and Phin are a great pairing, with both chemistry and a lot of humor. The supporting cast is entertaining, even if some of the Crusie archetypes show up yet again. (The lead man does not have an older brother this time, but as always, his mother's an ice queen.) We've got another plot moppet in the form of Phin's daughter, but she's cute enough and not overused enough to be endearing rather than annoying. And while I was never particularly interested in the B couple, the unexpected C couple involving the porn magnate was surprisingly sweet.
The murder is very much one of those "anyone could have done it" kinds of things, and plays out with suitable chaos. One of the things that I really appreciate about Crusie, though, is that she doesn't drag things out by having people be stupid. When problems could easily be solved by two people having a thirty second conversation, she doesn't come up with stupid reasons why they don't have it. Instead, they sit down, have the conversation, and then she builds interesting plot twists out of the ramifications.
So when, say, A tells B that C doesn't want to ever speak to B again, instead of having B and C pine for each other for half a book, they pine for half a chapter. Then C asks B why he isn't talking to her, B explains, and C gets pissed at A. Which is actually way more interesting than the standard "oh woe why won't he talk to me he must hate me therefore I should respect his wishes and needlessly avoid him in increasingly convoluted ways" thing that gets really old. Her characters are smart, they share information when appropriate, and so you do a lot less yelling at the book, saying "Just talk to each other for 30 seconds! God!"
So: sensible characters, entertaining courtship, liberally sprinkled humor, reasonably hot sex scenes, satisfying comeuppance, believable happily-ever-after. Pretty much everything you could want in a romance.
Author: Jennifer Crusie
Genre: Contemporary romance
Thingummies: 4.5
Synopsis: Sophie just wants to get into the small town she was hired to film a movie in, do her job, and get out. But with the town council out for blood, her star looking for old flings, a producer trying to turn her sweet love story into porn, a way-too-sexy mayor, and a murder complicating things, Sophie may never escape.
Thoughts: As I've come to expect, Crusie turns out another romance that may not be great literature, but is a near perfect example of the genre.
Sophie and Phin are a great pairing, with both chemistry and a lot of humor. The supporting cast is entertaining, even if some of the Crusie archetypes show up yet again. (The lead man does not have an older brother this time, but as always, his mother's an ice queen.) We've got another plot moppet in the form of Phin's daughter, but she's cute enough and not overused enough to be endearing rather than annoying. And while I was never particularly interested in the B couple, the unexpected C couple involving the porn magnate was surprisingly sweet.
The murder is very much one of those "anyone could have done it" kinds of things, and plays out with suitable chaos. One of the things that I really appreciate about Crusie, though, is that she doesn't drag things out by having people be stupid. When problems could easily be solved by two people having a thirty second conversation, she doesn't come up with stupid reasons why they don't have it. Instead, they sit down, have the conversation, and then she builds interesting plot twists out of the ramifications.
So when, say, A tells B that C doesn't want to ever speak to B again, instead of having B and C pine for each other for half a book, they pine for half a chapter. Then C asks B why he isn't talking to her, B explains, and C gets pissed at A. Which is actually way more interesting than the standard "oh woe why won't he talk to me he must hate me therefore I should respect his wishes and needlessly avoid him in increasingly convoluted ways" thing that gets really old. Her characters are smart, they share information when appropriate, and so you do a lot less yelling at the book, saying "Just talk to each other for 30 seconds! God!"
So: sensible characters, entertaining courtship, liberally sprinkled humor, reasonably hot sex scenes, satisfying comeuppance, believable happily-ever-after. Pretty much everything you could want in a romance.