Novel Review: Mad, Bad and Blonde (West Investigations, #1) by Cathie Linz

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance (very light smut, with very little description)

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5

Publisher: Penguin (Berkley Sensation)

Spoilers?: No.

Goodreads Synopsis:

 After being jilted at the altar, librarian Faith West goes on her Italian honeymoon solo, but doesn't stay that way too long. And though her sexy rebound man has ulterior motives, feelings surface that neither of them are prepared for.

When a man's too good to be true...

Jilted on her wedding day for being the queen of dullsville, librarian Faith West goes on her Italian honeymoon solo, hoping to leave her pain behind. That could take a miracle, but she's about to discover miracles do happen. His name is Caine Hunter. Smart, spontaneous, hot, and sexy, he has her feeling like a real woman for the first time ever--until the truth surfaces...

A former Force Recon Marine turned PI, Caine was doing what he does best: spying. And his new target was Faith. But falling for the enemy's daughter was never part of his plan. Caine is a man used to winning, but this time his mission is much more personal--and now that he and Faith are both back in Chicago, the rewards could be, too...

Available on Amazon.

Something Specific:
That I liked:

•  "Yes, but I'm a former librarian, and you know one of our mottos: If we don't know the answer, we know where to find it. So don't worry. I'll find the answer." (Paperback, pg. 152) This was something that was repeated several times, and I'd never heard it before. I thought it was interesting. 

Review:

There were a couple of things that seemed to happen too quickly, that were a bit rushed, at the beginning, but that seemed to smooth out later on in the book, and overall this one was just pretty good.

Faith West, the daughter of the owner of West Investigations, gets left at the altar on her wedding day, and decides to go on her planned honeymoon to Italy alone. Where she meets Caine, who works for her father’s rival, and who also has a personal vendetta against her father. Her father worked on a case involving Caine’s father, and Caine doesn’t think the case was handled very well at all, which he is trying to prove. At the same time, he and Faith are trying to ignore the attraction between them, which isn’t working as well as they’d like.

I liked Faith enough, and I liked Caine enough. I liked them together, and enjoyed reading their scenes during the investigation. I liked the scenes with Faith and her family; all of their interactions were entertaining.

I did really like that Faith knew Caine's intentions pretty early on, that it wasn't kept a secret for over half the book, and instead that she took part of it. I also enjoyed reading about Faith's journey to finding herself. I liked that she was a librarian (if only because that's a career I've thought about pursuing and because I love books), but enjoyed her involvement with West Investigations, and liked how she started taking charge of her life.

I don’t really have much to say. This was a very light, nice read, and I enjoyed it. It doesn’t leave as big an impression as I’d like, but it was fun while I was reading it.

I’m looking forward to reading more by Linz, when I can get my hands on another of her books. I want to read the next in this series, about Megan, Faith's best friend and cousin, and there's also some books in a different series that I want to read.

Novel Review: Smart Girls Think Twice (Girls Do Or Don't, #4) by Cathie Linz

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Rating (Out of 5): ~3.5 (can, maybe, up it to four)

Publisher: Penguin (Berkley Sensation)

Spoilers?: Somewhat Minor (gave away the, um, ending, which wasn't a surprise)

Goodreads Synopsis:

 Sociologist Emma Riley?s new research project depends on a sexy bartender who wants nothing to do with her project?and certainly nothing to do with Emma. Too bad she?s way too smart to ever take no for an answer.

Available on Amazon.

Review:

This is probably going to be a pretty short review, because I don’t have too much to say about this book. It was a really cute, sweet story, and I enjoyed it.

Getting into the book was easy; I liked the romance between Emma and Jake, and how it progressed. The ending for them was very sweet, if a bit cliché and predictable, but I can get over that. The epilogue was… I mean, it was sweet, but it kind of bothers me that for a lot of these types of stories, it’s not a happy ending unless the two characters get married. In this story, there was actually some time for the characters to get to know each other, time actually went by, but still not enough for me to be happy about them getting married so quickly. It’s just… I don’t think that there has to be marriage in order for there to be a happily ever after.

But whatever, I still liked the story.

As I said, I enjoyed the scenes between Emma and Jake, and there was even some nice sex, but not very much and that’s fine. I also liked the scenes between Emma and her family; I found those to be really entertaining, which was nice. My least favorite storyline was probably the one involving Jake, and that was only at the beginning, since it got better. Emma was sweet and, at times, fierce, and Jake was funny as well as sweet. Her family was fun and a bit pushy, and their small town was eccentric; I liked meeting all the different characters.

The story flowed rather well; it wasn’t a super-fast read, but it didn’t take very long, and overall I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was sweet and fun, a very light read.

When I got this book, I didn’t know that it was part of a series, but that doesn’t seem to matter too much, given that each book stars a different character. I do plan on reading more books by Linz, though.

Also, sidenote: I don't think the title, or the cover, portrays the novel very well. I mean, it made me think that the main character would have two different guys to choose from, but that wasn't the case. There was only ever one guy, really. I can't even think of another contender existing, so if there was, they were obviously very minor. I'm thinking the title maybe has to do with how the two fight and then she has to rethink if she wants to be with him, but I still don't think it fits very well. They could have thought of something better, even have gone with something even more cliche like 'Take a Chance On Me' (since this phrase was actually used in the make-up scene) or something.

Teaser Tuesday[12]: Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz (also, in which it's my blogoversary!)

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly meme hosted by MizB over at Should Be Reading! All you have to do to participate is:

Grab your current read

Open to a random page

Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page

BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)

Share the title & author, too, so that other TeaserTuesday participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

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I have been getting some actual reading done lately, which is very nice. I posted something every day last week, but now it’s back to the normal schedule. My first class is tomorrow, and then I go to a full schedule of classes next week, which I am… not particularly excited for. Nervous, mostly; nervous is my main feeling toward that. I can only hope that it’s not terrible; fantastic, or even great, I think, would be much too far a thing to wish for.

In other news, today is my blogoversary. It’s been one year since I started this, which is… exciting and weird and makes me happy and feel like I should do something exciting. I don’t know what that would be, so we’ll (I’ll) see what happens.

Now, here’s what I’m reading at the moment:

Smart Girls Think Twice by Cathie Linz

Genre: Adult Contemporary Romance

Publisher: Penguin (Berkley Sensation)

                            

“’So if a guy is attracted to a girl, he thinks she’s complicated?’

‘Only if she really is complicated. And worthwhile.’” (Paperback, pg. 188)

“So how exactly has he ended up here with a dorky Mutt and a dorky Oliver? Neither had anything to do with his reason for being in Rock Creek in the first place […]. He was getting closer to that goal, but he kept getting distracted. Mostly by Emma.” (Paperback, pg. 189) [Tiny part taken out to avoid spoilers.]

So, what are you reading right now?