Jen's Place--Contemporaries 1

"The Dixie Belle's Guide to Love" by Luanne Jones
Avon Books, March 2002
Reviewed on 11/21/02

When her two-timing husband leaves her with nothing but ownership of the local Pig Rib Palace, Rita Stark decides to get her life back into high gear and turn the rib joint into a cash cow. But her best girlfriends are sure the former Miss Dixie Belle Duchess needs help getting the eatery - and her recently broken heart - back into shape. So they've hired the sexiest man ever to hit Hellon, Tennessee, Will "Wild Billy" West, to lend a hand. Will's suddenly relighting a fire that Rita was sure went out long ago. What could a sexy prize like him possibly see in a small-town gal like her, especailly when he's planning to skip town at summer's end? So she decides to revive everything she ever learned about being a true "dixie belle." After all, there are surefire ways to win a man's heart - and food is only one of them!
back to the top

"Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding
Viking, 1998, HC
Reviewed on 3/26/01

"Bridget Jones's Diary" charts a devastatingly self-aware, hilarious year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton. Here is the compulsively readable, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of her permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement - a year in which she resolves to: reduce the citcumference of each thigh by 1 1/2 inches, visit the gym three times a week not merely to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a respansible adult, and not fall for any of the following: misogynists, megalomanics, people with girlfriends or wives, emotional fuckwits, alcoholics, workaholics, chauvinists, or perverts. And learn to program the VCR. Over the course of the year Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She reamins, however, optimistic. Caught between her Singleton friends (who are all convinced they will end up dying alone and found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian), the Smug Marrieds (whose dinner parties offer ever-new oppertunities for humiliation), and crazed parental attemps to marry her off to a rich divorcé in a diamond- patterned sweater, Bridget struggles to keep her life on an even keel - or at least afloat. Whenever her plans meet with disaster, as they invariably do, she manages to pick herself up, go out on the town, and tell herself it will be all right in the morning, when life will definitely be different this time and totally alcohol, calorie, and perverted-fuckwitted-misogynist free.
back to the top

"The Trouble with Mary" by Millie Criswell
Ivy Books, January 2001
Reviewed on 3/14/01

The trouble with Mary is... She's unemployed. Her huge Italian famliy is driving her crazy. Her love life is nonexistent. In fact, she needs a life! So Mary Russo decides to open a restaurant in Baltimore's Little Itlay. And despite her mother's assurances that she will fail, the place is a big success - until the local paper delivers a scathing review of her pizza, pasta, and chocolate cannolis. Food critic Dan Gallagher hates Italian food - and his column shows it. Now Mary would like nothing more than to serve Dan on a steaming platter. Problem is, Mary is the most delectable woman Dan ever met. And Dan is the most exasperating man Mary has ever encountered. And the trouble with chemistry is, neither one can resist it.
back to the top

"Midnight Kisses" by Kimberly Raye
Love Spell, February 2000
Reviewed on 8/28/00

Smooth, sensual, fantastic skin that begged to be tasted - Josephine Farrington had just re-invented it. The new plastic was great for making lifelike toys, but she had a better idea: making a man. Tired of the pushy jerks that courted her, Josie could now design the bronze-skinned, hard-muscled exterior of the robo-hunk that could fulfill all her deepest fantasies. And she knew just the man to build the body. Matthew Taylor had never had trouble erecting anything, and the handsome scientist knew that Josie's robot was something he could create. But the beautiful biochemist deserved better than the cold devotion of a machine; she needed the fiery embrace of a real man. In an instant, Matt knew his course: by day he vowed to build her model of masculine perfection - by night he swore to be it.
back to the top

"The Stranger" by Jean DeWitt
HarperPaperbacks, November 1998
Reviewed on 7/5/00

Julie Ryan heads for the secluded woods of Washington State looking for solitude. But it sn't peace she finds. Caught in a wicked storm, she discovers an injured man with little recollection of who he is, where he came from, or why he has a backpack stuffed with hundred dollar bills and a gun. When the stranger asks her to help him uncover his past, the normally cautious Julie abndons all common sense and agrees. Though he is powerfully sensual and magnetic, there is also something charminly familiar about this mysterious man that draws her into his arms - and into dangerous web of intrigue, passion... and love.
back to the top

HOME
Catherine Coulter ~ Jude Deveraux ~ Janet Evanovich ~ Christine Feehan ~ Diana Gabaldon
Julie Garwood ~ Heather Graham ~ Laurell K Hamilton ~ Iris Johansen ~ Dara Joy ~ Susan Krinard
Jayne Ann Krentz ~ Judith Krantz ~ Arnette Lamb ~ Stephanie Laurens ~ Johanna Lindsey ~ Elizabeth Lowell
Teresa Medeiros ~ Susan Elizabeth Phillips ~ Mary Jo Putney ~ Karen Robards ~ Nora Roberts ~ Bertrice Small
Anthologies ~ Catagories ~ Contemporaries ~ Mysteries ~ Fantasy ~ Futuristic
Paranormal ~ Time-Travel ~ British ~ Misc. Historicals ~ Scottish ~ Westerns
Romantic Sites ~ Romantic Rings ~ talk to me

My page is free thanks to Geocities.

"The Dixie Belle's Guide to Love" by Luanne Jones Avon Books, March 2002 Reviewed on 11/21/02
		When her two-timing husband leaves her with nothing but ownership of the local Pig Rib Palace, Rita Stark decides to get her life back into high gear and turn the rib joint into a cash cow. But her best girlfriends are sure the former Miss Dixie Belle Duchess needs help getting the eatery - and her recently broken heart - back into shape. So they've hired the sexiest man ever to hit Hellon, Tennessee, Will "Wild Billy" West, to lend a hand. Will's suddenly relighting a fire that Rita was sure went out long ago. What could a sexy prize like him possibly see in a small-town gal like her, especailly when he's planning to skip town at summer's end? So she decides to revive everything she ever learned about being a true "dixie belle." After all, there are surefire ways to win a man's heart - and food is only one of them!
back to the top

"Bridget Jones's Diary" by Helen Fielding Viking, 1998, HC Reviewed on 3/26/01
		"Bridget Jones's Diary" charts a devastatingly self-aware, hilarious year in the life of a thirty-something Singleton. Here is the compulsively readable, laugh-out-loud daily chronicle of her permanent, doomed quest for self-improvement - a year in which she resolves to: reduce the citcumference of each thigh by 1 1/2 inches, visit the gym three times a week not merely to buy a sandwich, form a functional relationship with a respansible adult, and not fall for any of the following: misogynists, megalomanics, people with girlfriends or wives, emotional fuckwits, alcoholics, workaholics, chauvinists, or perverts. And learn to program the VCR. Over the course of the year Bridget loses a total of 72 pounds but gains a total of 74. She reamins, however, optimistic. Caught between her Singleton friends (who are all convinced they will end up dying alone and found three weeks later half-eaten by an Alsatian), the Smug Marrieds (whose dinner parties offer ever-new oppertunities for humiliation), and crazed parental attemps to marry her off to a rich divorcé in a diamond- patterned sweater, Bridget struggles to keep her life on an even keel - or at least afloat. Whenever her plans meet with disaster, as they invariably do, she manages to pick herself up, go out on the town, and tell herself it will be all right in the morning, when life will definitely be different this time and totally alcohol, calorie, and perverted-fuckwitted-misogynist free.
back to the top

"The Trouble with Mary" by Millie Criswell Ivy Books, January 2001 Reviewed on 3/14/01
		The trouble with Mary is... She's unemployed. Her huge Italian famliy is driving her crazy. Her love life is nonexistent. In fact, she needs a life! So Mary Russo decides to open a restaurant in Baltimore's Little Itlay. And despite her mother's assurances that she will fail, the place is a big success - until the local paper delivers a scathing review of her pizza, pasta, and chocolate cannolis. Food critic Dan Gallagher hates Italian food - and his column shows it. Now Mary would like nothing more than to serve Dan on a steaming platter. Problem is, Mary is the most delectable woman Dan ever met. And Dan is the most exasperating man Mary has ever encountered. And the trouble with chemistry is, neither one can resist it.
back to the top

"Midnight Kisses" by Kimberly Raye Love Spell, February 2000 Reviewed on 8/28/00
		Smooth, sensual, fantastic skin that begged to be tasted - Josephine Farrington had just re-invented it. The new plastic was great for making lifelike toys, but she had a better idea: making a man. Tired of the pushy jerks that courted her, Josie could now design the bronze-skinned, hard-muscled exterior of the robo-hunk that could fulfill all her deepest fantasies. And she knew just the man to build the body. Matthew Taylor had never had trouble erecting anything, and the handsome scientist knew that Josie's robot was something he could create. But the beautiful biochemist deserved better than the cold devotion of a machine; she needed the fiery embrace of a real man. In an instant, Matt knew his course: by day he vowed to build her model of masculine perfection - by night he swore to be it.
back to the top

"The Stranger" by Jean DeWitt HarperPaperbacks, November 1998 Reviewed on 7/5/00
		Julie Ryan heads for the secluded woods of Washington State looking for solitude. But it sn't peace she finds. Caught in a wicked storm, she discovers an injured man with little recollection of who he is, where he came from, or why he has a backpack stuffed with hundred dollar bills and a gun. When the stranger asks her to help him uncover his past, the normally cautious Julie abndons all common sense and agrees. Though he is powerfully sensual and magnetic, there is also something charminly familiar about this mysterious man that draws her into his arms - and into dangerous web of intrigue, passion... and love.
back to the top

Search:	Enter keywords...