I was first turned on to Janet Evanovich and the Stephanie Plum series a few years ago by the wife of DH’s boss at the time. I went through them like candy. The only problem is now that I’m caught up, waiting for the paperbacks to come out a year after the hardbacks are released really sucks. If you haven’t discovered the Stephanie Plum Novels
Wife for Hire is another of her re-releases from the time before Plum. These books seem to have been practice for the Plum books. You’ll run into some characters which feel very familiar after you’ve read the Plum books, but these short contemporary romance novels also pack in some great stories along the way. This is one of them.
Aspiring author Maggie Toone, desperate to escape her hometown of Riverside, NJ where everyone knows your business, never hesitates to judge you for it and remembers everything you ever did, especially if it’s bad, meets with Hank Mallone to discuss a business deal to spend six months with him in Vermont so she can work on turning her aunt’s diary into a novel while posing as his wife. Maggie and Hank struggle with their growing attraction to one another as well as the notoriety and sudden crime spree surrounding her aunt’s diary while attempting to present a stable, settled front for his father, the president of the bank who can’t believe his ne’er do well son has changed his ways and can responsibly run the family orchards and refuses to approve his loan application. Will Maggie learn the lessons she discovers while fictionalizing her aunt’s diary or will she return home to Riverside at the end of their deal, leaving behind the man she loves, his expanding orchard operations and everything else she has come to love about life in this small, rural New England town?
Maybe it’s because I grew up in a small, rural community and I’m also attempting to write a novel that so much of this is familiar ground. However, this story, like many of the others from this stage in Ms. Evanovich’s career, is sweet with just the right amount of sexual tension and release to satisfy everyone. If you’re looking for a few hours’ escape, this book fits the bill.
🙂 Kaige! I’ve heard so great things about the Stephanie Plum series, but for reasons as of yet unknown to me, I hadn’t picked it up yet.
But something-pre Stephanie Plum? About a small rural community? With mayhem and malice (I think?)? 🙂 I’m so over that thing like peanut butter over jelly.
Strawberry jelly.
Fi,
There’s more info and details on Janet Evanvich’s site, but here’s the quick run down I promised you:
The Rocky Road to Romance
Set in DC suburbs — the “Dog Lady” gets pulled in to do the traffic report and becomes the darling of the airwaves much to the station manager’s dismay. Bob the dog has a cameo in this story. The heroine also ends up hiring a body guard in the form of an elderly lady named Elsie who packs a .45 in her purse. This woman is definitely the template for Grandma Mazur.
Love Overboard
Set in Maine — The heroine winds up working as the cook on his cruise ship, only problem is, she can’t cook. She’s only doing it in trade for some house repairs promised by her cousin (the usual cook). Hi-jinx on the high seas.
Back to the Bedroom
Set in NE DC — a concert cellist has a helicopter drop a piece of metal through her roof in the middle of a rainy night. She’s rescued by her handsome next door neighbor. The elderly Elsie, packing a .45 in her purse, comes to live with her. Sweet and nice.
Manhunt
Set in Alaska — Wall Street woman heads for the wilds to escape the rat-race and find a husband, only the guy that captures her attention isn’t looking to give up his bachelor status any time soon.
Smitten
Set in Philadelphia suburbs — Single mom takes a job as a construction worker for a handsome housing speculator who takes pity on her. She ends up being more of a secretary/bookkeeper in exchange for him doing oddjobs around her shambling Victorian home. Elsie appears once again as her aunt.
Thanksgiving
Set in Colonial Williamsburg, VA — The heroine is a tour guide who falls for a local doctor who has had a baby dropped in his lap. She ends up helping him with the baby and they end up celebrating Thanksgiving with both their families.
It seems there’s a rule that Elsie has to be featured in every other release. =)
🙂 Kaige, thank you! *__* I must get myself to the foreign bookstore to get me some of those books. “Back to the Bedroom” sounds my sort of book.
Thank you!
Joe Morelli *sigh*