Novel Review: Fast Women by Jennifer Crusie

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: St. Martin's Press

Release Date: 2001

Spoilers?: No.

Buy it here: Amazon. Barnes and Noble. Book Depository. Powells.

Goodreads Synopsis:

  

When a down-on-her-luck divorcée meets a determined-to-dominate detective, they find out that falling in love can be murder...

Nell Dysart's in trouble. Weighed down by an inexplicable divorce and a loss of appetite for everything, Nell is sleepwalking through life until her best friend finagles a job for her with a shabby little detective agency that has lots of potential and a boss who looks easy to manage.

Gabe McKenna isn't doing too well, either. His detective agency is wasting time on a blackmail case, his partner has decided he hates watching cheating spouses for money, and his ex-wife has just dumped him...again. The only thing that's going his way is that his new secretary looks efficient, boring, and biddable.

But looks can be deceiving and soon Nell and Gabe are squaring off over embezzlement, business cards, vandalism, dog-napping, blackmail, Chinese food, unprofessional sex, and really ugly office furniture, all of which turn out to be the least of their problems. Because soon, somebody starts killing people. And shortly after that, they start falling in love...

The Cover:

I rather like both of the covers for this book. The one above is simple and cute, and very fitting. The one with the car is also very pretty and simple, kind of white and shiny, and the car has definite significance to the book. Overall, they both work well.

Review:

This was a longer Crusie novel, one of her newer ones (well, newer compared to the others I read), and so it had quite a bit more story. It was also just as fun as her other novels.

Nell is divorced and losing herself, and so she ends up taking a job at the local detective office, where she wants to change everything. Only Gabe owns the place and wants everything to stay the way his Dad made it. Then there’s the cases they get, Nell steals a supposedly abused dog, not to mention the attraction between their friends, and the secrets between the Dysart’s family.

I was a little confused by the Dysart family tree. There are so many of them, at different ages and relations, and it isn’t explained very well from the start. I got over that, though.

The banter is fun and fast here, the attraction is very nice, the dog is a lot of fun. I also liked that the characters grew. Nell ends up in the same position as before her divorce with Gabe, only she realizes it and decides to change, and Gaba works with her. I really appreciated that. The ending was very nice.

I really enjoyed this book; it was fun and fast and quirky. I had a lot of fun reading it and am excited to read more.