Agnes and the Hitman, Jennifer Crusie and Bob Meyer
A brief heads-up before we get started tonight: I'm trying to knock out all my book reviews before the new year so I can start fresh. BRACE FOR INCOMING.
If you've been here a while, you know how much I like Jennifer Crusie novels, so it should come as less of a surprise that I also like novels she co-writes with other people. Usually. I wasn't fond of Wild Ride and Don't Look Down was kind of meh, but Agnes and the Hitman is a delight.
Our Heroine Agnes is a professional chef, on the verge of releasing her second cookbook, hosting a wedding at her new house in a week, cooking in her kitchen late at night when somebody breaks into her house, holds her at gunpoint, and tries to steal her dog. Her friend Joey summons aid in the form of his nephew, Shane, a government hitman, who climbs in through her bedroom window and scares the shit out of her. Shane's just trying to do his uncle a solid, but it turns out there's a missing body and five million dollars in the mix, plus the former owner of the house is trying to screw Agnes out of it and her downpayment, plus the bride at the impending wedding is a Mob princess, plus now a bunch of non-government hitmen are trying to kill Agnes, oh, and the dipshit best man just dropped off a couple of flamingos he stole from a zoo. And both Agnes and Shane find each other really really distractingly sexy.
Agnes's life is about to get interesting.
Agnes and the Hitman is just a delight to read. It's Jennifer Crusie's sexy romance and sparkling dialogue with a little bit of realism added in via Bob Meyer for Shane's sections. It's bright, fun, has a genuinely intriguing plot, manages to avoid any Things That Are Not Sexy moments, and is pretty compulsively readable. The side characters are fantastic as usual: I'm particularly fond of Carpenter and Lisa Livia, together or separately, but Doyle is a hit and Garth, oh Garth, he's adorable. Bonus points for containing a potential Big Misunderstanding that is completely averted by Agnes going "...well, but no, Shane wouldn't do that to me, obviously something else was happening," and then going about her day.
Now, to be honest, the plot swings into the silly pretty frequently, and occasionally veers into the absurd. There's a few mood whiplash moments, from bright humor to straight-up murder and dead bodies turning up) that seemed either unintentional or insufficiently smoothed out to work. The setting is a little wibbly (apart from Agnes's house; that is rock-solid) and it took me a couple of reads to figure out just what the fuck Wilson was even doing. Generally, though, those are nitpicks, and the dialogue and Agnes and Shane carry the day. Lots of fun, would recommend.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/360891.html. Please comment over there if possible.
If you've been here a while, you know how much I like Jennifer Crusie novels, so it should come as less of a surprise that I also like novels she co-writes with other people. Usually. I wasn't fond of Wild Ride and Don't Look Down was kind of meh, but Agnes and the Hitman is a delight.
Our Heroine Agnes is a professional chef, on the verge of releasing her second cookbook, hosting a wedding at her new house in a week, cooking in her kitchen late at night when somebody breaks into her house, holds her at gunpoint, and tries to steal her dog. Her friend Joey summons aid in the form of his nephew, Shane, a government hitman, who climbs in through her bedroom window and scares the shit out of her. Shane's just trying to do his uncle a solid, but it turns out there's a missing body and five million dollars in the mix, plus the former owner of the house is trying to screw Agnes out of it and her downpayment, plus the bride at the impending wedding is a Mob princess, plus now a bunch of non-government hitmen are trying to kill Agnes, oh, and the dipshit best man just dropped off a couple of flamingos he stole from a zoo. And both Agnes and Shane find each other really really distractingly sexy.
Agnes's life is about to get interesting.
Agnes and the Hitman is just a delight to read. It's Jennifer Crusie's sexy romance and sparkling dialogue with a little bit of realism added in via Bob Meyer for Shane's sections. It's bright, fun, has a genuinely intriguing plot, manages to avoid any Things That Are Not Sexy moments, and is pretty compulsively readable. The side characters are fantastic as usual: I'm particularly fond of Carpenter and Lisa Livia, together or separately, but Doyle is a hit and Garth, oh Garth, he's adorable. Bonus points for containing a potential Big Misunderstanding that is completely averted by Agnes going "...well, but no, Shane wouldn't do that to me, obviously something else was happening," and then going about her day.
Now, to be honest, the plot swings into the silly pretty frequently, and occasionally veers into the absurd. There's a few mood whiplash moments, from bright humor to straight-up murder and dead bodies turning up) that seemed either unintentional or insufficiently smoothed out to work. The setting is a little wibbly (apart from Agnes's house; that is rock-solid) and it took me a couple of reads to figure out just what the fuck Wilson was even doing. Generally, though, those are nitpicks, and the dialogue and Agnes and Shane carry the day. Lots of fun, would recommend.
This entry is crossposted at http://bookblather.dreamwidth.org/360891.html. Please comment over there if possible.